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Butternut Squash Soup with Apple and Ginger

Mixed Sausage Pan Roast with Fennel and Red Wine Gravy
Tart Tatin of Caramelized Endive and Winter Veggies
Potato and Green Veggie Smash

Oversized Chocolate Swirl Meringues with Dark Chocolate Sauce with Whipped Cream

Once again, Christopher (Spitzmiller) to the rescue. I was procrastinating over a super-autumnal November menu when Chris introduced me to Mimi Thorisson and her blog, Manger. Not in person of course as she lives in France. But that didn't matter as her recipes speak for her, and I now feel that I know her.

Darting between the restaurants of Hong Kong, where she grew up, and the bistros of Paris and the South of France, where she spent holidays with her French grandmother, she developed a passion for food early on. She now writes cookbooks and an award-winning blog and teaches classes from her farmhouse in Medoc. Hers are my latest go-to French recipes, simple-yet-exquisite regional dishes.

This menu includes my personal take on three of them. The piece de resistance is a beautifully caramelized golden ENDIVE tart Tatin. Divine. The Tatin would be as great vegetarian main course but this meal is not vegetarian so alongside we'll serve Mimi's rustic mixed sausage dish creatively enhanced with fresh fennel and red wine gravy.

The ethereal dessert is also hers. And the easiest thing on the planet. Chris came for dinner last week and we made it together. These billowy, chewy meringues consist of meltingly soft insides within an eggshell-thin crisp crust. And the cocoa powder marbling renders them extra gorgeous. Topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce, delicious. What else could you ask for? Well, there IS one more thing. In contrast to normal meringues that require an overnight dry-out in the oven, these fab confections cook in just 30 or 40 minutes.

Rounded out with one of my favorite fall soups and a potato-veggie smash to sop up the red wine gravy, this cozy cuisine de grandmere meal is ideal for fall and for winter as well.