Football season marks the beginning of a whole new type of cuisine in our house. Long gone are the care-free summer days when supper might be freshly picked blueberries from Pop’s Blueberry Patch spun into a nutritious smoothie that the kids think is a milkshake. When supper might be an afterthought squeezed into the brackets of time between riding bicycles around the block drinking in the soundtrack of chirping crickets then piling into bed to watch a new animated movie without regard to school night bedtimes. Fall becomes the routine of after school homework, bath time and bedtime. Fall also strikes chords in the hearts of comfort food-seeking parents that have lain fallow since the tiniest green buds on trees began to appear.

This Louisiana girl thinks of Red Beans and Rice for a quick and easy football season meal that warms the soul as much as the tummy. Nothing says LSU tailgating like Red Beans and Rice, either. Some of the best by Billy LeBlanc. I met Mr. Billy while on a work-study scholarship at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Mrs. Marlene, Mr. Billy’s wife, was my supervisor at The Graduate School. Mrs. Marlene took her student workers under her wing like a mother hen. For a north Louisiana student, a Yankee of sorts, Mrs. Marlene became my second mom. I enjoyed visiting with her son, Greg, when he stopped by to visit between classes. I had the pleasure of hearing stories about Mr. Billy and frequently spotted him around campus, as he was a university employee as well. When Donnie came to Baton Rouge for a football game, Mrs. Marlene invited us to their tailgating shindig. I had never been to a more lively tailgating function before! And the food…yum. The biggest pot of Red Beans and Rice I had ever seen!

This is not Mr. Billy’s recipe. In fact Mom clipped this recipe from Southern Living and made a few brilliant substitutions for an easy version of a classic Louisiana tradition.

1 lb. dried red beans

5 c water

1 onion, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1 1/2 T ground cumin

1 T chili powder

1/2 t Tabasco sauce

1 1/2 t salt

1 t pepper

1 (1 lb.) link andouille sausage

Wash and sort beans. Cover with water and soak overnight. Drain and place beans in Dutch oven. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour or until beans are tender. Serve over rice.

Donnie and I love to go–just about anywhere. Jack has inherited that trait, but Brett hates to ride. Jack will ask, “You wanna go ‘wide’ for a ‘wittle’ bit?” (I will be so sad when his r’s and l’s sound like r’s and l’s instead of w’s!) Brett just screams the entire time. And I mean that hungry cry scream. His tongue vibrates in his mouth and you can see the back of his throat. You know the cry if you have a child. We don’t go as much as we used to for obvious reasons.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas is one of our favorite weekend getaways. We used to make the jaunt a few times a year. It’s about a 9-hour drive from here. Depending on our work schedules we would sometimes leave on Saturday morning or split the drive between Friday evening and Saturday morning.

One particular November weekend we decided to drive to Little Rock on Friday and spend the night. One of my favorite parts of traveling (besides eating) is planning the trip. I know…most people are appalled when I reveal this strange affinity. Our trip to Boston gave me the ultimate planning rush–navigating the subway system and ensuring we visited all the historic landmarks on the Freedom Trail. Europe was a blast, too, although a little more stressful due to the language barrier. On a required planning scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most labor-intensive, Eureka Springs is a stretch at 2. There’s just not a lot to do there–which is the point for a relaxing weekend. I did go online to find a good deal for our Friday night stay. Doubletree Hotel happened to be the winner at just over $50 a night. (Don’t you love getting a steal?)

Knowing what  I know now, though, I would have paid big bucks to stay at a Doubletree Hotel just to get my hands on these warm and gooey crispy-edged cookies. It’s a marketing ploy, and we actually prefer staying in B&B’s. Oh, but these walnut-studded chewy AND crispy discs of heaven…

This recipe is a result of many trials and errors, combinations of recipes and many late chocolate chunk-laden nights.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Walnuts

1/2 c butter

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 t vanilla extract

1 c flour

1 1/4 c oatmeal, whirled in food processor until finely ground

1/4 t salt

1/4 t baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chunks

1 c chopped walnuts

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add to butter mixture in half-cup increments, incorporating into wet mixture before each addition. Stir in chocolate chunks and walnuts. Roll into small balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

Coffee. Ice cream. Need I say more? Probably not, but I will fill you in anyway. I am sure my recent coffee obsession stems from the sleep deprivation that comes along with a newborn. I think it is probably a subconscious choice that I am gravitating toward heavily caffeinated sweets. The Starbucks trips are, however, conscious decisions. I know what I am doing when I pull up to that window. In fact Donnie and I both had a Frappuccino today. I had a doctor’s appointment, and Donnie and Brett tagged along. We decided to drop by Fivebucks for a roadtrip treat. We like their Toffee Almond Bars, too, but they had none this morning. We pull up to the window and the barista tells us that the driver of the car in front of us, a Mini Cooper we had been analyzing for clues about this person’s agenda for the day, has paid for our treats! She asks if we would like to pay for the car behind us. “Sure!” we say, and she tells us that this Pay It Forward chain has been unbroken for half an hour. What a fabulous idea! I mean, the first person could have just done one good deed–for the car behind him or her. But someone had the forethought to ask that the good deed be continued. As Donnie and I were marveling at the do-gooder’s thoughtfulness, we realized we should have dropped a tenspot at Fivebucks to pay for the person behind the eventual party pooper to keep it alive even longer. I am sure someone that drove through Starbucks really needed a pick me up today. They were bolstered by a shot of caffeine and a good work!

Ok. Back to my good work. And it was a lot of work for a teeny little quart of ice cream. But, oh so worth the trouble! Especially last week when the temperature was in the 100s. And the Louisiana humidity is already at its summer best. The silky mouth feel of this homemade ice cream reminds me of gelato. And gelato will forever remind me of our backpacking trip to Europe. We walked miles and miles and miles across Europe for 14 days straight without managing to lose a pound. “How?” you ask? Gelato. Every night.

This slippery smooth summer treat feels exquisite rolling around on your tongue and sliding down your throat. Somehow it still manages to make you feel warm and toasty inside with its orange cinnamon flavor combination. Its creamy texture is to-die-for delicious. Takes me back to those carefree balmy nights in Rome admiring Bernini’s fabulous fountains.

Here is the recipe as it appeared in the April 2008 issue of O Magazine. Incidentally the author of this recipe also authored one of my favorite cookbooks, Dishing With Style.

Here is the ultimate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. The flavors of that classic treat are all wrapped up in a moist cupcake slathered with peanut butter icing. I absolutely adore Ina Garten and her Food Network television show, Barefoot Contessa. Her most recent series, Back to the Basics, is new to me. Until maternity leave, I did not have time to watch TV. Which is amazing really, because before maternity leave I only had one child. Why did I think I was so busy? Brett likes his 2am bottle, and I look forward to my 2am Barefoot Contessa fix. The only problem with that is the trip to the grocery store that usually ensues. Going back to work will be good for the waistline and the wallet.

Here’s the thing. I made these exactly like the recipe the first go ’round. We devoured a couple and banished the rest from the house. We sent them with Jack to school. What kid doesn’t like a cupcake? I fielded a request for a second batch but did not have the time or the energy to go through the long ingredient list the second time around. So, I used a cake mix to shorten the ingredient list just a tad and to shave a few minutes off the hands-on time requirement. I also added cream cheese to the icing for a tiny bit of tang and increased the sugar to 1 1/2 cups. We thought these were so tasty we kept them all to ourselves!

Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cupcakes with Fluffy Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Icing

adapted from Ina Garten’s Chocolate Cupcakes and Peanut Butter Icing

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
• 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, oil, eggs, water, sour cream, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Divide the batter among the cupcake pans (1 rounded standard ice cream scoop per cup is the right amount). Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frost each cupcake with Peanut Butter Icing and sprinkle with chopped peanuts, if desired.

Fluffy Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Icing:

nocoupons

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 tablespoons butter-flavored Crisco, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream, whipped until soft peaks form

Place the confectioners’ sugar, cream cheese, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Gently fold in whipped cream.