Friday, October 5, 2012

Friday, October 05, 2012 - 2 comments

Edible Autumn



It’s sort of a joke among my friends that every year I set out to “entice autumn” by wearing jeans and long sleeves and drinking Oregon Chai long before the weather warrants it in hopes of enticing my favourite season out of hiding.  I am so done with summer come October, but the Mediterranean sun doesn’t seem to have much sympathy for my cool weather cravings and the days are more suited to AC and ice cream than to sweaters and apple cider.  

I’ll admit, I get a little jealous when I read friends’ Facebook posts about heading to the pumpkin patch, baking pear crisps and drinking pumpkin spice lattes.  It makes me miss the days of autumn in Tennessee, with the trees in the back field turning into a cacophony of colour and the smoke from the tobacco barns filling the air with the sweet smell of hickory.  Allrecipes.com and all the food blogs have turned their focus to cinnamon and nutmeg, butternut squash and cranberries, pumpkin pie and apple crisps, and it’s got me wishing I didn’t live somewhere where “fall foliage” doesn’t appear til December.  

I imagine this is what a North American transplanted to Australia must feel like when Christmas rolls around and everything online is snowscapes and gingerbread houses, but everyone around them is headed to the beach.  

Despite the fact that the temperature is currently 30 C, we HAVE had a couple of phenomenal thunderstorms over the past few days that have given me hope that fall is on its way.  In an attempt to encourage Mother Nature to get her buns in gear, yesterday I pulled out my “autumn mug,” sprinkled a little cinnamon on my morning coffee, and had a downright autumnal breakfast of yogurt and homemade pumpkin spice granola (complete with the last of last year’s frozen pumpkin) with apples and cranberries on top.  YUM!

Thanks to the recent opening of a Bath and Body Works in my city (woohoo!!!) I’ve got my Creamy Pumpkin and Pumpkin Caramel Latte candles going, and I’m having fun planning for my stock-the-freezer cooking weekend.  It’ll still be awhile before pumpkin makes an appearance at the pazar, but I’ve already got a stack of recipes ready for when it does.  Here are some of the ones tempting my culinary imagination - hopefully most of them will make an appearance in my kitchen in the coming months.


(Happy salivating!)

2 comments:

So, not to rub it in, I picked up a pumpkin at the farmer's market the other day (also sweet potatoes and apples, which are awfully autumnal). The pumpkin is sitting on my coffee table while I dream of ways to use it. Thanks for the inspiration - I'll think fondly of you while I gut it. :)

Mmmm.....I will choose to live vicariously through you instead of being jealous. :) Are you gonna have a Harvest Fest this year? I've been dreaming up ways to squeeze a fall party into this increasingly full season....