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A Fall Dinner Plan With Make-Ahead Recipes

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This Fall Dinner Idea Is Comfort Food At Its Best!

The weather is starting to cool and fall is approaching. Now is the time to start planning a special fall dinner. Whether it is for your family, your friends or both, this menu plan features delicious recipes some of which can be made in advance. They are not the easiest recipes around but they are definitely some of the tastiest ones. If you are looking for an amazing fall family meal, this fall dinner might be just what you are looking for.

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On this page you will find links to my best-ever recipes for chicken pot pie, tossed salad and country seed bread. You will also find more links to some other menu ideas and a whole lot of fall-themed dinnerware and decor items. I hope you enjoy your visit and take a moment to say hello at the end.

Of course you can choose to try any of the parts of this meal plan on their own. Maybe you would just like to give the chicken pot pie a try or the low-fat salad. Maybe you will simply be intrigued by the country seed bread. I hope you find some ideas to take away and try and that if you try some of my recipes that they become favorites of yours, too!

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My Fall Dinner Menu Plan

The Best-Ever Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
The Best-Ever Garden Salad Recipe
The Best-Ever Country Seed Bread
The Best-Ever Desserts

Scatter a few of these
autumn colored leaves on your table.
A simple touch that says so much.

"Food is the most primitive form of comfort." ~~ Sheila Graham

The Best-Ever Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

One of my absolute favorite recipes!

This IS the best-ever chicken pot pie that you will ever eat. It has an unusual cheesy crust and is packed with vegetables. I know I'm blowing my own horn here and that you might think I need a piece of humble pie but I'm telling you this is one of my all-time favorite recipes and more than worth the effort when you want to impress your family and friends!

Check out my recipe for this down-home country pie by clicking right here!

My Favorite Pie Pan

My favorite pie pan is by Pyrex and has handles, just like this one.

This is Amazon's top rated glass pie plate. I know from experience that this style of pan is great because of the handles. Pyrex deliberately set out to make a pie plate that is easy to use and the handles on this plate from the Grip-Rite series certainly make it easier to put pies in and out of the oven!

Pyrex Grip-Rite 9 1/2 Inch Pie Plate, Clear

Amazon Price: $4.90 (as of 02/15/2012)
List Price: $9.99

Pie Makers Need Pie Birds

Pie birds are also called pie vents and pie chimneys.

If you have never seen them before, watch out. Once you do you may decide you have to have one and just one little old pie bird may lead to two and so on and so on and so on! Even people who do not bake are sometimes lured in to having a collection of pie vents that they wind up displaying on the kitchen windowsill!

Click here to order
this pie plate and
pie bird set
from Amazon.

Fall-Colored Fiesta Dinnerware

Fiesta china is made with a focus on customer safety, preservation of natural resources and a lower environmental impact.

Are you aware that Fiesta dinnerware is still being made in the United States? Homer Laughlin China Company reintroduced fiestaware in 1986, making a product that is suited to modern life. It is safe for your everyday use and can be put in the dishwasher, the oven and the microwave oven. It is made with a lead-free glaze that has been vitrified which yields a very strong, restaurant quality china. What I think is especially amazing is the wonderful range of colors that this china is available in, like these fall colors.

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Amazon's bestselling
Fiesta dinnerware set.

The Best-Ever Garden Salad Recipe

The salad I team with this chicken pot pie is one that wins rave reviews all the time. It is a recipe from the Looneyspoons: Low-fat Food Made Fun cookbook which I call The Best-Ever Garden Salad Recipe. The authors, also know affectionately as the ladies or Janet and Greta Podleski, call it the Beyond Belief Garden Salad and it really is beyond belief! You can find the recipe by clicking right here. What is extra special about this salad recipe is that it is delicious AND it is low-fat. What a winning combination!

The OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner

This salad spinner will make washing lettuce quick and easy!

The OXO Good Grips salad spinner really is an amazing salad spinner, I love mine! It makes washing lettuce less of a dreaded task and even my teenage sons are willing to wash the lettuce with this handy little kitchen tool. You can read all about it by clicking right here.

Or you can click here to buy the
Oxo Good Grips Green Salad Spinner
from Amazon.

BREAD

Thank you for...
Always "rising" to the occasion
Never letting things rub
against your "grain"
Being there when I "knead" you
No matter how you "slice" it,
you're a "cut" above the rest!

~~ Anonymous

The Best-Ever Country Seed Bread

Those words certainly express my feelings of gratitude for my bread recipe. It is delicious and it is reliable, turning out time after time and year after year. It is a bread machine recipe but you'd never know the difference between it and an old-fashioned loaf of bread, especially when the smell is wafting down the hall while it is baking. You will also be more than satisfied when you bite into a freshly cut piece with or without butter. This bread is perfect with this fall dinner, with a chicken dinner or with a pot of homemade soup.

The Best-Ever Country Seed Bread Recipe is definitely a winner, reach it now by clicking right here.

The Best-Ever Desserts

These recipes contributed by other writers on Squidoo.

When it comes to adding a dessert to this menu, I am never sure quite what to do. I have a few ideas but my thinking is that because the main course is a fairly substantial chicken pot pie that dessert wants to be a light comfort food, like a special pudding or maybe even ice cream. What do you think would be the perfect finale for this meal? I've chosen to suggest three harvest-themed recipes that sound fantastic and that are recommended by other writers here at Squidoo.

More Fall Dinner & Menu Planning Ideas

Here's an interesting menu planner along with links to more great fall dinner menus!

Click here to order the 5-A-Day Menu Planner from Amazon. Includes more than half a million delicious recipe combinations to ensure that you and your family get all the fruit and vegetables that you need.

Recipe Chic: Dinner Parties: With all the daily struggles life throws at you, why would anyone want the extra stress of planning and cooking for a dinner party? Why? Well, three fun reasons! Good food, good friends and lots of laughter. That is how our monthly nights out, without husbands and children, turned out. Four friends and I started our small dinner party group last fall. Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed how wonderfully satisfying these nights would be.
Make-Ahead Fall Dinner Menu By Food & Wine: Entertaining is easy with these amazing, hearty fall recipes that can all be made in advance.
A Star Chef's Harvest Dinner by Food & Wine: When chef Peter Pastan helps California winemaker Sashi Moorman at harvest, he lugs fruit, hauls barrels and, best of all, cooks an exceptional meal with just-picked grapes and Moorman's wines.
Fall Dinner Menu Ideas From Martha Stewart: Favorite recipes and video cooking tips from Martha Stewart on marthastewart.com. Great recipes for chicken, cakes, pasta, cookies, easy meals, healthy dishes, family-friendly menus, holiday food, special occasions, and more.
How to Plan Dinner Menus for the Family From WikiHow: Having a regular dinner schedule invites a peaceful end to what may have been an otherwise hectic day, and whether you have the type of family that sits together for meals or everyone comes and goes as schedules allow these steps will work for you.
Deep-Dish Chicken Pot Pie Dinner: Deep-Dish Chicken Pot Pie is pure comfort food. You don't need to cook all day to make it anymore -- this recipe uses a rotisserie chicken from the deli and you can substitute a refrigerated piecrust for the pastry in the recipe. Start with a bowl of Tomato-Basil Soup; add Fresh Fruit Salad with Lem
Casseroles and Pot Pies From Pillsbury: Casseroles and Pot Pies Meal Plans, Super-Easy Chicken Pot Pie Dinner from the friendly folks at Pillsbury.com.
Chicken Pot Pie Menu: Dish from bonappetit.com: This hearty and comforting weeknight menu includes Marinated Baby Vegetables, Mini Chicken Pot Pies With Bacon and Marjoram, a Mixed Green Salad, and Cranberry and Tart-Cherry Compote.
Easy Chicken Pot Pie Recipe From Epicurious.com: This comforting dish is infused with the flavors of a traditional bouquet garni enhanced by celery leaves, and the filling of the pie is more brothy than that of most versions.
Plan My Dinner Party, Home Cooking From Chowhound: Please help me plan a delicious harvest dinner, using all the wonderful local foods that are available to me in New England.

My Best-Ever Recipe Collection

In the last year or so, I have shared many of my favorite recipes here on Squidoo, much to the chagrin of one of my sons. He takes great pleasure in them and I expect he feels like I am sharing our family traditions. However, I am thrilled to share them and you can find my complete collection at this link.

A Handsome Fall Leaf Apron By Ritz

Click here to order this
handsome, pleated Ritz apron
from Amazon.

Top Rated Comfort Food Cookbooks

Packed with more great ideas for your kitchen!

My Other Complete Dinner Menus

Quality Kitchen Tools

My Apron Collection

Are you planning a special fall feast or a wonderful family dinner?

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RobinDM Nov 30, 2011 @ 6:11 pm | delete

Your information is great, but on top of that you have used the most wonderful color palette to share your information. I love it!

Reply

JJNW Nov 23, 2011 @ 4:42 am | delete

Planning! Who knew?! Lol - awesome ideas. ***A SquidAngel Blessing Boost *** for you : )!

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diaperbagdiva Oct 20, 2011 @ 1:30 pm | delete

I totally love some of your ideas. I'll definitely be checking back here in the next month or so as I get ready to feed the fam for Thanksgiving!

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kiwisoutback Oct 9, 2011 @ 12:56 pm | delete

Tonight I'm having a ham dinner, which isn't fall, but the vegetable sides are. Butternut squash, corn on the cob, and apple pie for dessert. I'm going to check out your ham lens before we throw it in so I can get some tips. Thanks for the suggestions!

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thecrabbynook Oct 9, 2011 @ 8:15 am | delete

What a wonderful and well thought out lens! I love the fall too and love cooking fall meals. Thank you so much for putting this all together. Bravo!
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