Families no longer have dinner at a family dinner table due to schedules gone wild. Instead of quality family time at home, family time has now become racing from one activity to the other in the family car, and dining on McDonald's while in route. Our house is no different. In fact, this has been a crazy fall, with coaching, volleyball, soccer practice, or some school activity literally every night of the week since August. Although I am quite exhausted by the weekend, and we are still running around to activities, I am attempting to bring back dinner table time on Sundays. There is something very meaningful about sitting as a family at the dinner table on a Sunday.
This past Sunday, I decided to take advantage of the huge pork loin in my refrigerator, and the tons of sweet potatoes and squash in my pantry. I surfed the web for recipes that looked worthwhile trying and was quite pleased with my findings. On the Epicurious site I found a wonderful recipe for Bacon-Wrapped Maple Pork Loin, which was a fabulous meat dish, and all the flavors of fall. Next for a side dish, I found a scrumptious recipe for Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Gratin with Manchego Cheese. One thing I would maybe add to this dish is some Yukon Gold potatoes to cut some of the sweetness from the squash and sweet potatoes, but even as is, the dish was yummy.
What is a Sunday dinner without dessert? Fall brings a harvest of great apples, therefore, I could not resist trying an apple crisp which I found on my favorite foodie site - Food TV Network. I chose an apple crisp recipe created by the Neeleys. The recipe was easy and quite flavorful, however, I did not care for the green apples in the original recipe and would definitely use McIntosh apples the next time I make this recipe. With a dollop of caramel dipping sauce, some whipped cream and a side of hot apple cider to sip on.....our Sunday family dinner was complete.
