Autumn Backyard Dinner

Earlier this month, we had a string of unseasonably warm days, and I took advantage of the weather to plan one, last backyard meal this autumn. The sun was getting low in the sky and everything was awash in a golden glow. To make the table cozy, I used the Tartan Wool Picnic Blanket as a tablecloth. And I carried out as many brass candlesticks and small pumpkins that I could hold in one armload to decorate the table. I used my favorite antler-handled cutlery and our new Emma Bridgewater cups.

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Sweet Apple Chicken Sausages with Stone Ground Mustard

Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes with Au Jus

Steamed Carrots

Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

I knew that setting up dinner outside would take a little more time and effort, so I wanted the meal itself to be simple to make. Sometimes, you hope you’ve planned it that way, and it turns out to be much more complicated than expected. But I can truly say that this meal is a simple one to make. It probably took me less than two hours to make everything. Here’s the time table:

I started by making the dessert. I used the Pumpkin Crème Brûlée recipe found here, and I thought it was superb! It was a simple, yet elegant dessert. And it was packed with autumn flavor, which was just what I was craving. I let it cool while cooking everything else. This gave it just enough time to cool that it was still ever so slightly warm beneath it’s crunchy, sugar topping, which is just how I like crème brûlée.

I steamed the carrots over the pot of boiling potatoes, which meant that two things were cooking at once and saved time. For years and years, our family’s favorite mashed potato recipe has been Susan Branch’s Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes found here. They are the BEST! If you serve them for Thanksgiving dinner, you will have your family ooh-ing and ahh-ing.

Then I cooked the sausages in a skillet and made a quick au jus (from a packet) while I was finishing off the potatoes.

We sat there for a long time savoring the food, the last few rays of sunshine, the warm breeze, and the novelty of eating outside in November in New England. I will definitely be repeating this meal…maybe for friends sometime. It would also make a great, small-scale, outdoor Thanksgiving dinner with a few alterations…I would make the dessert the day ahead and refrigerate it. And I’d cook a turkey breast instead of the sausages.

Do leave a comment if you’ve tried it!