Autumn Love in an Oven-Proof Bowl

Earlier in the week, my neighbor called DH and asked him  if he would go to her bathroom to see if she had left her curling iron on.  She was travelling out of town.  DH did as she asked. All was well --  no curling iron left in the bathroom. 

Nonetheless, Mrs. Neighbor was so grateful that he went to check that she has been over twice since bearing gifts -- tomatoes from her garden. YUM!  We do love garden tomatoes.
I made a big pot of chili and I used some of her fresh tomatoes. First I put the tomatoes in boiling water for a couple of  minutes to remove the skin.

then I chopped them up

and added them to the chili right at the end of cooking (to keep them fresh tasting).  I cooked the chili early in the morning so I could go outside to work in the garden all day.

When it was time for dinner, I put two bowls of chili in the microwave until hot.   I added some croutons.

Then covered all of it with   Muenster cheese

Just like you would do with French Onion soup.
 I put both bowls under the broiler until melted and  browned.

I garnished it with chives from my garden and red onion.

OMG, to a cheese lover, this is beautiful!

Here is my first spoonful with one of the fresh tomatoes from my neighbor:

Autumn love in a bowl

It was a foodie love weekend at my house. In the cold early morning, I cooked until it was warm enough to go outside and work.

The rest of my Gala apples became this wonderful applesauce (I just tossed in 1/4 cup of butter and maybe a 3/4 cup of brown sugar & slowly cooked it down)

I need to get more of these Gala Red apples. This was so good with the pork roast I had for dinner last  night. I only got about two cups to freeze for later (kept some out for the leftover meal of pork this week).

Here is a colorful collage of my weekend cooking/baking.