Good Fall Eats

Things get lost in translation between the UK, Canada and the US. The US takes things a step further and pretty soon nobody's sure what anyone's referring to. Heavy Cream, for instance. In the states, you have light cream and heavy cream and 1/2 & 1/2. Sometimes heavy cream is called Whipping Cream, but it's all different elsewhere; in other places, there are percentages that divide cream into several categories.

All this confusion happens with recipes and even titles of recipes. What some call Toad in the Hole over here is an egg cooked in the middle of a slice of bread. That's a one-eyed bandit to NYers. Toad in the Hole, to us, is what it is in England; sausages in Yorkshire pudding. And that's our first recipe today.

Toad in the Hole
1 1/2 cups  all- purpose flour
1 tsp Kosher salt
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb. (about 4-5 links) bangers or good pork or beef sausage links
water

In a bowl, stir together the flour, salt, eggs, milk and melted butter. In a fry pan, heat the oil and brown the sausages. Add a little bit of water to the pan and remove from heat. Swish water in pan to take up the fond and place the sausages and pan drippings into an appropriate sized deep baking pan. Heat oven to 400'. Pour the flour mix over the sausages and bake for 20 minutes to a half-hour, until the pudding has risen and turned golden. Eat while hot.

Same rules apply to Shepherd's Pie. Where I come from, it's mashed potatoes over ground lamb or beef with peas and onions in brown gravy. But I've heard corn and white gravy (no onions, no peas), mashed sweet potato over onions and peas (no meat) and even pork and beans under potatoes.

Another thing that's seemed to drift away from origin is a scone. How can you mess with a scone? You'd be amazed. The scones I grew up eating from the Irish shop were dense and fatty, like eating a baked sweetened lump of pastry. But in the greater Brattleboro area, it's a muffin-like substance that I don't recognize. Here is the scone recipe I use:
Basic 10 minute Prep Time Scones
In a plastic bag put
2 1/2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tblsp sugar (or more if you want them sweet)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
then
1 stick cold butter in slices
and add
1 xl egg, beaten with
3/4 cup of milk
add
up to 3/4 cup dry or fresh fruit or other stir-in, if desired

Stir drys together in bag. Make as pastry, pressing the butter into the flour mix; beat the egg & milk together & add all at once. Add fruit or whatever, now. Stir lightly til dough sticks together into a ball. On floured surface, flatten ball to disk. Cut in 6 or 8. Bake on an ungreased pan at 375' about 20 min. Ice if desired. Serve with jams, etc. or lemon curd. Anyone have recipes to add that differ from place to place? Tag, you're it!