Hey, there! How’s things by you?
Also, do you remember how time works? I do not.
I know the adage, “The days are long, but the years are short.” Right now, I think the days are getting shorter, the months are on warp speed, and I stopped being able to tell what year it is in 2019.
My calendar (I just looked at it twice) tells me that it’s October 28, but fall is certainly here. The sun is angling across the sky much lower than it did at the start of the month, and it is Much Less Humid Thank God. We’re getting into the time where it’s crispy-cold in the morning, and then crispy-warm in the afternoon and I love it.
That’s definitely one of my favorite parts of fall: warm enough during the day to be outside comfortably, but cold enough at night that I’m not getting chewed on by every biting insect in the area. I like the crunchy noise of the leaves, and I really like SOUP so this is my season.
I’m looking forward to making yet another quilt to carry around the house with me, drinking a metric ton of orange spice tea, and reading as much as possible while dinner bubbles in my magic cauldron, aka the slow cooker.
Among my favorites:
- Slow Cooker Beef Barley (ATK)
- Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup (365 Days of Slow Cooking)
What about you?
So it’s fall here in the Northern Hemisphere, and spring in the Southern – so what season are you entering, and what’s your favorite part of this time of year?
Your description of time right now is spot on… I’ve checked a few times too and still don’t believe that October 2021 is nearly over.
I love all the sweaters and soup, though I don’t let silly things like seasons stop me from either of them all year… Though they are even more enjoyable in the cooler weather.
If you’re a split pea soup fan, I recommend Ina Garten’s recipe – https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/parkers-split-pea-soup-recipe-1916855
I love the addition of potatoes and think it really has a lovely flavor and consistency.
Down here on the Gulf of Mexico, our air conditioners are still running 24/7. The coldest night we’ve had so far dipped into the mid-50s, I believe. Once we do get a cold front coming through, I do like to break out the cold weather recipes. I love a good beef stew or a roasted vegetable soup served with thick slices of warm crusty bread slathered with butter. Yum!
Olive Garden pumpkin cheesecake. It is the only pumpkin-seasonal food item I enjoy other than pumpkin pie, which I’m happy to eat year around.
Memories of Baskin Robbins’ fudge brownie ice cream – chocolate with brownies and walnuts. As I recall, it was only available around Thanksgiving season.
I enjoy pulling my sweaters out in the fall and seeing them again, but holy cannoli, am I tired of wearing them by the time summer arrives. The older I get, the less fun it is to wear layers of clothes.
I love Halloween! I always joke that it’s the perfect holiday because you don’t have to cook, you don’t have to buy presents, you don’t go to church, and the night is devoted to eating candy.
But I also love the smell of this time of year. Leaves, maybe a hint of fireplace smoke, the coolness of the breeze, etc.
I love hot weather,but I admit I enjoy the break from the 90 degrees F temps here in central NC. I have an outdoor volunteer job (leading horses for lessons at a riding therapy center) and this time of year is delightful for being outside for hours. I don’t really have seasonal meals. I make beef stew year round. It’s a family favorite. Any hot meal is…well,hot,so I’e never understood why stews and soups were mainly cold weather meals, but casseroles, grilled meats or hot vegetables were good year ’round. One nice thing is our winters are generally mild so we grill out pretty much all year.
Fall in South Texas is lovely but nothing like the New England autumns I grew up with. Favorite activities include: going outside without dripping with sweat, eating on patios without dripping with sweat, and enjoying seasonal kolaches. Also noting the seasonal marker of neighbors who suit up in parkas and scarves to walk the dog in 50-degree weather.
It’s chilly and rainy here in the Midwest. If I didn’t have to work, I’d be stitching/sewing with a mug of something warm at my side. Summer days aren’t meant for holing up inside, and especially not with a quilt piled on your lap while you quilt it. My creative juices bubble up as the temperature drops.
That would be after I stayed snuggled up in bed for an extra hour reading – my other autumn pleasure. I had just achieved the perfect balance of blankets, quilts and throws for sleeping with the window cracked open, when the temps started dipping into the 30s. At that point I had to give in and close it, but hopefully we’ll get a warm front that will allow me to enjoy the cool air/warm bed that gives me a better night’s sleep than I’ll get until spring.
Everything everyone else has already mentioned, but also really fuzzy socks, my heated mattress pad, and planning out my Christmas cookie bags (it is a serious endeavor, although I may go into ‘ retirement’downscale considerably once both kids are in middle school).
Time is meaningless, or at least moving in arbitrary ways. My pill box, with its empty sections, is the mostly-reliable indicator of what day it is. Beyond that, nuh-uh.
Fall in northern Nevada is cool, cool air with bright, hot sun. Invest in that face sunscreen, people, stay hydrated; and don’t be shy about turning on your car’s AC, because it may be snowing outside, but you are cooking inside. Hello, sun at altitude.
I baked a batch of my grandmother’s fruit cookies the other day, redolent with sorghum, molasses and all the Fall spices on my shelf. Just working near the rack where they’re “curing” is nostalgia through my nose. Starting in September with my sister’s birthday, we celebrate all the cool birthdays and slide right into Thanksgiving. Warm clothes. Hot cider. My cup runneth over.
It’s my birthday that’s my favorite lol.
I’m deeply relieved the heat seems to have finally broken. I hate summer, and while I wish we got more actual fall here in NoVA, as opposed to two days and then sorta-kinda winter (I also wish we got actual winter, but you know, wishes and horses, the only season we actually get is the one I hate with the burning, fiery passion of a thousand suns), I will take ANYTHING but effing summer. Also, I do really love soup. Roomie and I made a delish potato one from Green Chef this week, which, no lie, Green Chef is one of the life hacks that has helped enormously in the past couple of years. So, shout out to them.
You know how 2020 was a non-stop nightmare for most of the world, and this year was more of a rollercoaster? Yeah, 2020 wasn’t awesome for me, or anything, but like…it sucked in ways that register on “oh geez, call the wahmbulance,” mostly. Like, I turned 40, and uh. Everything I had planned, including a trip I’d been looking forward to for years got canceled. But I didn’t lose anyone, and my job was safe, and the big things were fine?
And then 2021 was just…a disaster. Like, I can’t talk about because I will start sobbing and not stop, but honestly, the only reason I survived this year and am still putting one foot in front of the other is because I’m forty-one years old, have a full-time job as an attorney, have lived by myself for most of my adult life and my parents are still essentially making it possible for me to survive from half a country away. Which is not something I’m all that proud of, or proud of at all, really. Anyway, my point is, I’m trying to stabilize from everything that happened this year, and some weeks I’m a little more stable than others. I went to Baltimore Comic Con last weekend, and Brian Stelfreeze, who’s a legit icon of a human being, did something enormously kind just ‘cuz that he’s never going to know was one of the nicest things to happen to me all year and meant a TON, and I’m holding on to that with both hands and most of my body weight and just trying to breath.
@Leslee – hey DMV neighbor! I hear you on the summer heat. WOOO humidity. I’m sorry your year has been so tough! I’m sending thoughts of much more kindness and lots of good soup your way.
Coming in to agree with the DMV* summer heat/hate – it’s so nice to be able to walk outdoors and not start dripping sweat within a few minutes. I’m in the middle of some serious dental work and so consigned to soup and soft foods for the time being, which I couldn’t stand during the summer. Love wearing my snuggly nightgowns and curling up under the covers.
* For those who don’t know, in this case, “DMV” means District – Maryland – Virginia – the area, not the Department of Motor Vehicles.
And it is a RIGHT SHAME that it’s the “MVA” in Maryland – Motor Vehicle Administration – instead of Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV in the DMV seems like the only right option!
Soooooup.
We had such a hot summer that seemed to last forever. I’m appreciating the cooler weather.
October is my birthday month and I love pumpkin-based foods and apple cider. Autumn is my favorite season.
@LML:
You clearly haven’t tried pumpkin cookies with chocolate icing on them. 😉
Everyone who questions the addition of chocolate icing stops once they try them. My family began this with a homemade recipe which we serve around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
@StefanieMagura. Chocolate and pumpkin, huh? I’ve made pumpkin cookies and considered them “meh”. Perhaps choc frosting is exactly what they need to perk them up. Does your pumpkin cookie recipe make soft blobs of cookie or crispy cookies?
It was 19 degrees F at my house this morning, and we’ve got snow on the ground. I’m wearing sweaters, bought some new fuzzy socks, and I’ve been roasting multi-colored carrots and sweet potatoes because I guess my body is craving Vitamin A right now. Soups are undoubtedly next, but I’m also a relatively new empty-nester, and relearning how to cook for one instead of feeding a houseful. Halloween isn’t my fave holiday–I like the candy and scary movies–but I’m already looking forward to and planning for Thanksgiving. Gotta love a food-centered holiday!
Fall is my favorite season! I love the cooler weather, watching the leaves change (and for the first time ours here in GA changed before my sister’s in CT), hitting up all the apple houses up north and pumpkin spice all the things. And this weekend the anime convention my late husband was one of the founders of is back in business live and in person! It feels so good to be back!
@Leslee, I have had much the same sequence of events. I sailed through 2020 with all the insouciance of an introvert delighted to not have to go anywhere except to a steady job in a service industry and doing a good business online. Then 2021 hit me like Mjolnir on steroids. Everything that could go wrong did. It has been an awful, depressing, infuriating,exasperating, EXPENSIVE year and I will be so glad to see the back of it in just 63 days.
I live in Florida, but close enough to Georgia that the weather does get cool, so mostly I’m excited to finally be able to turn off my air conditioning for a few months! And while I’ve never been a pumpkin spice fan, I’ve found that in autumn I always tend to go apple crazy–especially apple cider. I’ve already gone through 2 quarts and there will certainly be more. I made some apple cider donuts that didn’t turn out the way I hoped, but I’m already looking for more apple-y recipes to meet the craving.
I’m looking through the window and seeing leaves of red, green, and yellow; it’s quite stunning. I look forward to Halloween and little candy bars. I’m wondering how many trick or treaters we might have. Last year, we had one family come to the door; my husband and I definitely enjoyed those left over goodies!
@CarrieG-We live in Alaska and we grill all year round! We bought a Traeger years ago and I have some great pictures of my husband bundled up, tons of snow in the background, working the grill.
I love fall, more than January it seems like a fresh start. Maybe because I associate it with a new school year. Being cozy is my favorite thing, and this time of year highlights that.
@Leslee: Another DMV neighbor sending good wishes your way. I wish I had something more constructive to say than to just keep on putting one foot in front of the other, but that’s all I’ve got, frankly. It’s what I do.
On another note, I just treated myself to my first cup of hot chocolate of the season today. It was a gray, windy, rainy day so it seemed like the thing to do. 🙂
I look forward to the end of Daylight Saving Time.
Oh! The start of festivities! There’s Durga Puja/Dussera, Diwali, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, and so many other holidays that I can’t think of right now. It’s this feeling of the people the world over rejoicing from the start of October to December. It’s also the start of cozy season! The fall colors. The craving for hearty bakes and soups! (I love them too!) Getting together with friends and family (now vaccinated or outdoors) for yummy meals and laughter. Deep blue skies, and water that reflects that deep blueness. Oh! taking out this vibrant, colorful crotched rug my mum’s made for us! Yeah. I love this time of the year!
OH! MY FAVORITE THING! A MUG of hot hot chai. Or hot chocolate with maple marshmallows. Or just good herbal tea with a slice of warm cake! (I don’t desire or savor hot dishes in summer. I just can’t. THAT is the season for cool drinks, please!)
Oh oh. and I love how much more. . . ALIVE I feel with start of cold weather? The warm makes me feel sluggish, and. . . ugh, not really doing like anything. But crisp, cool breezes? Make me feel vibrant and alive!
@Leslee: sending you lots and lots and lots and LOTS of good juju! Hugs, friend!
*hot drinks. not hot dishes. hot dishes I crave for year-around :p
I’m in the UK. The clocks go back tonight and I’m very glad of it. Stave off the dark mornings for a few more weeks!
It was a surprisingly hot summer in NoDak this year, fortunately we finally invested in a room air conditioner, which we used to cool the whole house – an instance of a small house being a benefit! I always love fall and the leaves falling but try to delay closing the windows etc because winter is soooo long. My favorite is Nepalese red lentil soup from myrecipes, super good, very easy and fast and about about 6 ingredients.
I used to prefer summer, but perhaps due to global warming and aging, it feels increasingly oppressive. I love going for a run in the fall. It’s nice to actually feel good creating my own warmth. Kind of basic, but chicken noodle soup or tomato soup are my go-to autumn-specific foods. I enjoy the leaves falling (without the pressures of going back to school) and being able to feel like it’s time to go to bed at a normal hour, as the darkness closes in.
@Charlie – I love that recipe and use it regularly! I also have been using this red lentil soup as a base for tossing in random old or leftover vegetables/squash, which means it’s kind of different every time https://food52.com/recipes/7020-red-lentil-and-cauliflower-soup
Ikm only being slightly hyperbolic when I say I love nothing better than being bundles up and cozy with warm Dr is and food. This is the best time of year because in the PNW to me because I can get all cozy but it’s not yet insanely rainy. I love baking and have been doing so kind of nonstop for a few weeks now… I’m not gluten free but I have friends who are and have been experimenting with various different kinds of flours, my current favorites being chickpea flour and oats. I’m sort of feeling lately that wheat flour belongs in proofed bread, corn in tortillas, and everything else is negotiable…
We moved out of the city this year for financial reasons and now being in a more neighborhoods area I’m looking forward to trick or treaters tomorrow!
@LML:
Our recipe makes soft cookies, which are sort of the consistency of cake I guess. Sometimes the edges can be slightly crispy. Harris Teeter and Trader Joe’s each sell cookies which are a similar consistency. Harris Teeter’s have what tastes like ginger in the batter, and are about the size of the cookies we make, whileTrader Joe’s taste similar to what we make, but are smaller. Adding chocolate icing works similarly for these.
Thanks, @StefanieMagura. Sounds like the results of my recipe. I’ll try with your chocolate icing idea next weekend.
@LML:
One time I came to visit my grandmother, and she had made the cookies, but horror of horrors, she didn’t have chocolate icing. Lol. She did have Nutella though, and that works too. So that’s the only time I’ve had the cookies with something else on them. Homemade chocolate icing is the best, but store bought is good too.