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Bye bye Gourmet magazine.

I know. So sad about Gourmet. I think I'll miss the amazing photography the most. And when the BF's parents cook from it. We rarely did, but they often chose recipes for Sunday night dinners from Gourmet or Bon Appetit.

Just read about Gourmet -- very sad. Always my preference over Bon App. Hopefully Saveur will step to the plate (so to speak) and help fill in the void.

In the color theme, I just made Mark Bittman's Roasted Sweet Potato Salad and it was a beautiful dish! Orange sweet potatoes, purple onions, yellow bell peppers, and flecks of black beans and green cilantro! The chili dressing is really spicy but completely delicious. There's a picture of it on my blog - http://dinnerblogging.blogspot.com.

My wife has been roasting pumpkin at home lately. Peeled, large chunks of pumpkin mixed chunks of parsnip, whole cloves of garlic in their skin and thyme sprigs. The roasted pumpkin loses most of its moisture and becomes chewy and candy like. Nice color and very comforting.

Art, that sounds delicious. I will definitely give it a try.

I made Rigatoni with Roasted Pumpkin and Goat Cheese from Everyday Food last weekend. It was so good. Details are here: http://jennyknopinski.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/recipe-roasted-pumpkin-rigatoni/

To me fall is all about squash and apples. I love how beautiful the produce is this time of year!

I just got my last issue of Gourmet in the mail today, it was rather bittersweet...especially since it's Thanksgiving and I'll be hosting my first Thanksgiving this year. So many things to choose from, I'm happy to have Gourmet at my side!

I have also been into all the different squashes that are in season right now, roasting them has proven to be the best case scenario so far but I'd love some other ideas for using squash! So far butternut and acorn are the favorites in the house as well as spaghetti.

I was cooking a not particularly colorful fall meal of vegetarian chili (but good!) and some of it burned on the bottom of my enamal dutch oven. Any good ways to get that stuff off? I've "soaked", I've scrubbed and I've simmered with baking soda...!

Hi Alec, boil it with water and some household vinegar and then remove from heat (keeping the vinegar water in the pan) add baking soda and leave to soak overnight. The vinegar will break any of the solids in the pan and the soda will soak loose all the smaller particles.

PS: If you can't get everything off, just call it 'patina' like the chefs do... :o)

I'm lucky enough to get a vegetable patch next year and right now I'm really getting into trawling the net to get seeds to start with next year. I'm looking for unusual coloured veg: yellow zucchinis (can't seem to get them here in Holland) and purple carrots, yellow and balck (read burgundy) tomatoes. Beans are great: from black to yellow and all kinds of lovely variated ones: my favourite is a pink spotted one. Will defnitely give those a try! Although I do need to watch out, my patch is only 900 sq feet.. :o)

Thank you, EvaInNL! I ended up scraping with a knife, but will try the vinegar option next time (because we all know there will be a next time).

I am trying to replicate a tomato and chickpea relish that one of our local Indian food restaurants serves with its naan. The tomato aspect of it has such a bright, vibrant flavor, and I am having a hard time replicating it. Any ideas about how to get that "brightness" into a tomato dish?

@J - I'm guessing there's an acid involved: citrus/vinegar or the like. That sounds tasty, though. Have you thought of asking them? Most chefs would be thrilled you want to replicate it at home (if, of course, you still keep going there!).

@keltrue: I still haven't quite got it down yet, but I did figure out that I wasn't adding enough citrus. I upped the lemon juice substantially, and that helped a lot!

@J - So, we want that recipe once you get it down... it sounds great! :-)