we've crossed over. night comes on with a thud, the kitchen smells often of earl grey, orange leaves on the lawn are bright and damp with early rain. when the sun finds us, it feels like a refrain--lipstick still stuck to a wine glass. we are suspended in the slight nip and the light. somewhere they are shaking the olives from olive trees.
this all means soup. rice noodle with shiitakes, bok choy and a sesame-laced broth. chicken tortilla with a liberal squeeze of lime and fistfuls of cilantro. beef stew with cognac and red wine. mostly this: butternut squash with apples, coconut milk, and sweet curry powder. these are the days of yellow-stained wooden spoons and fingertips cracked and orange from peeling squash into the sink.
we get surrounded by orange--a handsome compensation for the dip in temperature. there are yams, persimmons with their taught, gleaming skin, first crop tangerines. inspired and hungry, i spent a morning making pumpkin spice muffins studded with dried cherries and chunks of bittersweet chocolate. lined up on a white tray, scented of cinammon, ginger and nutmeg, they were quickly devoured by a classroom of 1st graders.
even living far from fields, orchards, vineyards, and groves, i can feel the harvesting. there is more to do, there is more to give.
there are rituals waiting to be remembered, unpacked. rainy library days. the return of hot chocolate. making stock on a saturday. gratitude around the dinner table but with new names and moments on the list.
it's a good place to be--to long for what you already have.
notes
* my favorite butternut squash soup recipe comes from ina garten, but with a few modifications. i use less onion, add a bit of garlic, 3 cups of chicken stock (in place of water) and 1 cup of apple cider. i also add 14 ounces of coconut milk near the end. let me also just say it is worth the trouble of ordering sweet curry powder from penzey's for this soup and oh so many other reasons.
* the recipe for the pumpkin spice muffins can be found here. i make mine with whole milk greek yogurt, a little less sugar than the recipe calls for, a tiny hit of nutmeg in addition to the other spices and plenty of dried cherries and bittersweet chocolate added at the end.