Football/Fall day...take 5;)

So despite the 80 degrees and mild creeps of humidity, our 5th annual "Football/Fall day" commenced without a hitch. (thanks, air conditioner!)  Complete with men lounging contently on the couch watching football, while the ladies played 1950's housewives for the day (THE. DAY..don't get crazy!) and were busy cooking & baking away.  Win, win...no? 

And we whipped up a pretty cozy and "man appropriate" meal, if I do say so myself J

First up was a Meatloaf pie and a "mini loaf" made with the last 1/2 pound of beef, pork and veal (which is what I hadJ) sided up with an obscene amount of my friend's homemade mashed potatoes....

I'm not even gonna MENTION how many potatoes she peeled vs. how much was leftover....

Nope.  Not gonna mention that it was 15 vs. NONE!

While she was peelin away, I worked on a side dish recipe that had caught my eye in Scott's new "Guy Fieri's Food" cookbook...

He calls it some strange name in the book, but in short it's Guy's version of the Louisiana dish Corn Maque Choux...

Into the pan went 3 strips of bacon.  Once they were crisped up, I added a diced red onion and let that cook up until it was soft (about 5 minutes).  After that I added to the pan a diced red & green pepper that I had "charred" on the broiler setting of my toaster oven, along with 3 "de-eared" cooked corns 'off' the cob & 3 diced stalks of celery...

I let that all cook together for about 4 minutes on medium heat, or until the celery began to soften...

Next, I made a well in the center of the skillet and added 3 heaping tablespoons of flour and stirred it around until it got slightly brown & toasted, about another 4 minutes...

And finally, I added some salt, pepper and a little more than a cup of chicken broth to dissolve the flour into the broth...

Let it cook up for another few minutes until the liquid thickens and absorbs into the veggies...

...and the best part:  top with the crisped bacon!

This dish was super flavorful and saucy from the chicken broth roux, which really brings out the sweetness of all of the veggies.  And aside from the scant drips of oil from the 3 strips of (lean) bacon, there was hardly any excess fat used.  All of the sauce was just from the flour & chicken broth.  Not too shabby in the grand scheme of 'decadent' sides.

Well...and besides, we had to "save up" for our dessert of the evening...

Oh yes, FALL had arrived in the kitchen by way of PUMPKIN DONUT MUFFINS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was TERRIBLY skeptical as we were whipping up the batter since it was quasi-remnant to ummm...cement!  But it magically baked up into some moist and not TOO dense muffins with that undeniable consistency of a cake donut.  YUM!!!!

"But, Donna, their BAKED donuts!  That's not so bad, right???" 

Yes, yes you are correct about that statement....until you follow through with the quintessential final step:  a brush of butter & a roll in cinnamon and sugar....

Ohhhh...YES. WE. DID!

Now that I think of it, maybe it was the baste of butter that help softened these babies up...but regardless, the cinnamon & sugar made MAGIC!

Aren't they oh-so-pretty?  And quite the hit too!  The phrase "we have to make these again!" was heard countless times between Saturday night dessert & Sunday morning breakfast.  I believe I shall oblige...they were mighty tasty and just ...sigghhhh...so FALL!J

Alright, well that's all I have for you today...and since I believe I shall be having the SAME baked potato/maple salad dinner this evening, I'll share my Sunday dinner creation with you tomorrowJ  Stay tuned & have a good Monday (as best as you can, that is!)