Fall is well and truly here in northern Colorado.  The frost is on the pumpkin as one of America's poets once said.  We have long since pulled the tomato vines and put the green tomatoes in the basement for slow ripening.  I was hoping that some might make it until Thanksgiving, so that I might serve the last of the home growns as part of the repast, but no such luck.  I wound up using the last of them this weekend in a homemade marinara sauce.  Lots of onion, some garlic, some bell pepper and some sausage from my pig.  The pig is running out as well, but more is on order from John Long, my venerable pork grower out on the plains east of town.  I also ordered a share of an organic lamb from Grant's Farm up in Wellington and that will arrive Saturday next.

The last of the homemade marinara got me thinking about pre-made pasta sauces, something I don't use a lot, but do keep in the pantry for when I need a quick meal at home.  After much experimentation, I think the best value is actually the Hunt's brand in the can.  It can be hard to find at some stores.  Because of it's low price [it is about one-third the price of the 'gourmet' brands] most stores hide it along the bottom shelf, well below eye level.  I like the four cheese variety the best and with some judicious additions, it makes a quite passable gravy.  

A number of the new whole grain pastas are good.  I'm not quite sure which is the best nutritionally, but the multi-grain with flax seed from Barilla is tasty and has a nice texture when cooked.  The Kroger brand of whole wheat penne tastes good too.  

Last night I made a new recipe, the sausage and barley stuffed apples from this week's NYTimes.  I didn't have chorizo, so I used some John Long breakfast sausage in place of it.  The result was pretty tasty.  I love barley and am sad that it is such an underutilized product.  About the only thing you see it in commercially is beef and barley soup.  I think it makes a great side dish.  This recipe was kind of a barley pilaf with sausage that was placed on top of the halved granny smith apples, then baked for about an hour.