Fall Fruit Salad Recipe

I love the Thanksgiving meal as much as anyone else if not more, but I admit, it’s heavy. It needs something light, bright and frankly refreshing. I know fruit salad isn’t traditional but my mother often decorates the holiday table with seasonal fruit that makes the table pop with color, and I was inspired by her tablescape to make a salad using Fall fruits. The main fruit in the salad is Fuyu persimmons. Fuyu persimmons are the rounder ones with bright orange skin and a very firm crunchy texture. They are incredibly sweet and have a very unique flavor. Hachiya persimmons are delicious as well, but too soft to use in this recipe.  While Summer fruits are probably my favorites, Fall fruits are pretty compelling too. In addition to persimmons, I used grapes and pomegranate which each provide a pop of sweetness along with acidic and sweet tangerines. Apples and pears are in season too, but they have a tendency to brown. Kiwi fruit is another fruit that is in season starting in Oct......

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Persimmon Dream Terrine Recipe

When fall comes around I am always looking for new things make with persimmons. I have great recipes for persimmon bread, persimmon cookies, and I even like to just scoop persimmon over vanilla ice cream. Looking for a new way to use persimmon was the inspiration for this terrine, my entry in Is My Blog Burning? Terrine edition. Terrine is one of those words that has become associated with what is made in it. A terrine is just a kind of loaf pan, but usually when you hear "terrine" it refers to pate. Not always but often. Another example is "casserole". I can't think of any others but I'm sure there are plenty. I have to admit, this was not an entirely successful project. Because my household consists of two people creating a regular sized terrine seemed like way too much food. Some recipes for ice cream terrines I saw used unconscionable amounts of ice cream! Five pints supposedly makes a terrine serving ten people. So I used a mini loaf pan. This ......

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Persimmon Bread Recipe

I've never really gotten into making bread. I do it occasionally, but it's not my passion. When I want to bake something I usually don't have much patience so quick breads are more my style. There are lots of great quick breads. Two of my favorites are banana bread and persimmon bread. They each use very ripe or over ripe versions of the fresh fruit. For persimmon bread you want to use the Hachiya variety. The Fuyu is rounder shaped than the Hachiya and is a bit crunchy, good for using in salads, it has a pale orange color. Fresh Hachiya persimmons are really extreme. Their color is almost shockingly bright orange and the texture is downright slimy. Though they are sweet there is sometimes a very bitter after taste to the raw fruit. They sound just awful, but actually they are quite delicious. And if you can't fathom eating them raw, you should really try them in bread because they are no longer bright orange, slimy or bitter. This recipe comes from a neighbor of m......

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