Autumn Brunch Time

One of the things I hoped to do when I retired was to entertain more. Actually I've been so remiss in entertaining that I should subtract the word more and amend my wish to simply, entertain.  I've given lunches and dinners in the past over the Jewish New Year, but for the last few years I've been convalescing and not in shape for party-giving. I return to the orthopedist tomorrow for what, I hope, will be my last visit. But I've decided boot or no boot. I'm going to give a brunch. I'm going to start small and ask a few friends for an autumn brunch, and to make sure that it's not too much for me to handle I'm going to turn to my online grocery friends at Peapod for assistance.

I have two major concerns with entertaining. One is a universal concern, and that's cost. We all think about keeping costs under control no matter where we live. The second is getting groceries home from the store, which is more of a big city/no car concern. When I was growing up we had a car and a pantry, so shopping and storing things was easy. We also had a big freezer and by now my mother would have started to bake for Thanksgiving.

I've found good prices at Peapod. I'm going to make my butternut squash soup and I found a container of pre-cut butternut squash for $2.29, which is more than competitive for Manhattan. I love butternut squash, but I don't love cutting it up. Thanks, Peapod. I'm also going to make a broccoli salad with cranberries -- love everything with cranberries at this time of year. I was delighted to find a head of broccoli for seventy-nine cents.  I'm thinking of serving the soup with cornbread -- I am a cornbread fan -- and baked apples with vanilla ice cream for dessert. I found I could use my favorite autumn foods, keep the budget in check and know my friends at Peapod would deliver everything I need. Delivery makes all the difference to me. I can buy in some quantity and I don't have to worry about running out of essentials or buying more than I can comfortably carry.

I want to do something fun and seasonal for the table. I'm not a great crafter, but Pinterest gave me some inspiration and voila, the pumpkin vase. I really like it and next year I'm going to do this as soon as pumpkins are available.

      Nothing says autumn to me the way a pumpkin does!

It's been fun putting the menu together and creating my decoration for the table. I had just about forgotten how much I enjoyed having people over and liked the planning and recipe browsing. Thanks, Peapod, for helping to get me back on track. 

We were fortunate to have a lovely autumn day today and tomorrow is forecast to be in the 60s. I hope you have a great Wednesday. Thanks so much for visiting and take good care of yourself.