Dining In: Game night – The fall harvest and hunting season inspire this month’s menu

It’s hunting season in south Louisiana, and if you’re like a lot of people we know, you may be enjoying some of the many seasonal dishes made with fresh game.

But if you don’t have a hunter in the family, you can still prepare delicious fall favorites that are often overlooked—like Crispy Roast Duck, for instance. Roasting a domestic duck is a really simple yet very impressive dish for a dinner party or even a holiday feast.

You can find domestic duck in the freezer section of most local grocery stores or fresh ones at Whole Foods. They take a bit longer to roast than a whole chicken, but the steps are not difficult, and the result is a succulent, mild-flavored meat with an incredibly crispy outside. It is the perfect thing to serve on a cool autumn evening.

To accompany the duck, Tracey has paired it with Roasted Fall Vegetables—a medley of butternut squash and parsnips that have been tossed in a little of the rendered duck fat. Roasting the veggies helps bring out their natural sweet and earthy flavors, and the rendered duck fat helps tie together the dishes.

To go along with this delightfully easy dinner, we suggest a Mixed Green Salad with Apples, Toasted Chickpeas and Pepitas. It has tangy, crisp apples and sweet dried cranberries. To bump this salad up a bit we have added toasted walnuts, pepitas and toasted chickpeas. Adding nuts and seeds to salads is a great way to get in nutrients. Walnuts, for instance, are full of Vitamin E and Omega-3 fatty acids. Pepitas are rich in vitamins B, C, D, E and K, along with protein and iron. The toasted chickpeas also add fiber and protein to this delicious fall salad.

To finish off the meal Tracey has tweaked our grandmother’s pecan pie recipe. Her revised Butter Rum Pecan Pie is chock full of pecans that have been toasted in brown sugar, butter and rum. It’s sure to become your family’s new favorite pecan pie.