This awesome autumn season, which inspired the well-known “September Song,” is rolling around again, arriving so soon this year it seems.
First day of fall season 2015 falls on September 23. That’s just a little more than a couple weeks away.
Last year’s fall season departure as winter neared was followed by an incredibly quick calendar journey speeding us through this Year 2015’s fast-passing-earlier spring and summer and, already, now here comes this new autumn’s scheduled arrival on September 23!
September’s sweet return is, as always, being greeted and celebrated by us as a very-much-
welcomed-home-again arrival of an old friend.
That is partly because every new September’s homecoming signals the annual rolling around of our much anticipated and enjoyed autumn and winter holidays and seasonal celebrations once more.
We do so greatly anticipate every September’s arrival as it means cooler weather is not that far away. It is such a joy just to greet another year’s awesome all-new autumn season.
Enjoy as well your friends’ and neighbors’ favorite recipes here this week, all from our Apopka-area’s community cookbooks.
CHARLOTTE STEINER’S
FRESH TOMATO SOUP
Recipe from Favorite Recipes of Sweetwater Oaks
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped green onion
5 large fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and crushed in processor
1-1/2 cups chicken broth
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried
Salt and pepper, amounts to your taste
Saute the green onion in butter until it is soft. Add remaining ingredients and simmer, covered, for 30-45 minutes.
Serve as is if you wish, or process in a processor if you want it to be a smooth soup.
PATRICIA MICHAUD’S
CHILI SOUP
Recipe from
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church’s A Taste of Heaven
1 pound hamburger
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 can kidney beans
1 can (11-1/2 ounces) tomato juice
Chili powder (amount to your taste)
Brown the hamburger and onion. Drain grease. Add the two tablespoons flour and the one-fourth cup of brown sugar. Stir.
Add the kidney beans and the tomato juice. (*V-8 juice may
be substituted instead of tomato juice.)
Add the chili powder (amount to your taste). Simmer for 15 minutes. Serve over rice or noodles. Also good on Texas toast or hamburger buns for a lunch treat, this Chili Soup recipe contributor noted. Recipe serves four to six.
PAT HAMRICK’S
GREEN BEAN SALAD
Recipe from
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church’s A Taste of Heaven
4 cans French style green beans, drained
2 cans of Campbell cream of mushroom soup
1 can whole milk (usually condensed)
1 large can of Durkee onions
In a shallow pan, mix the drained green beans and the canned onions. Mix together the two cans of mushroom soup and the can of milk and add to green beans in pan. Mix everything together well. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until onions are brown.
TRUDY SHEPPARD’S
CINNAMON SWEETENED
CARROT CASSEROLE
Recipe from
Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit’s Let’s See What’s Cookin’
6 cups cooked carrots, mashed
1-1/2 cups butter, melted
Pinch of salt
3 cups sugar
9 tablespoons flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
Dash of cinnamon
9 eggs, beaten well
Mix the cooked and mashed carrots with the butter, salt, sugar, flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Add the well beaten eggs. Place mixture in a 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Cook for 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Then reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook for an additional 30 minutes. With knife, test for doneness.
BARBI EBERLE’S
SLOPPY-JOE-TOPPED
POTATOES
Recipe from
First United Methodist Church’s Feeding The Flock
4 medium hot baked potatoes, split
1 pound ground beef
1 (10 and 3/4 ounces) can Healthy Request Condensed Tomato Soup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion salt
1 teaspoon garlic pepper
1/2 teaspoon Spike
Scrub and prick potatoes. Microwave the potatoes on high for 20 minutes. Cook meat in large skillet until browned. Drain.
Add soup, one fourth cup water and Worcestershire and spices. Bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat for five minutes, stirring often.
Serve over potatoes. Top with garnishes of your choice. (Garnish suggestions: shredded cheese, Old El Paso Queso, chopped tomatoes with seeds discarded.)
KIMBERLY HEARD’S
STRAWBERRY DELIGHT
Recipe from
Calvary Church of the
Nazarene’s A Harvest of Recipes
Crust:
2 cups of thin pretzel sticks, crushed
3/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon sugar
Mix the crushed pretzel sticks, butter and sugar together and press into a 13- by 9-inch pan to form a crust.
Bake at 400 degrees for eight minutes. Let cool.
Cheese Layer:
1 (eight-ounce) package cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 (eight-ounce) carton Cool Whip
Blend cream cheese and sugar until creamy. Stir in Cool Whip until well mixed. Spoon this mixture onto the crust.
Jello Layer:
1 (six-ounce) box strawberry Jell-o
2 cups boiling water
2 packages frozen strawberries
Make the Jell-o according to package directions.
Add strawberries. Pour on top of cream cheese layer. Refrigerate overnight.