Pot of Gold

Recipe books rest on every flat surface, a sure sign that our days are getting cooler and autumn is on its way. There are local vegetables everywhere, and they cry out to come home in my basket, for mindful attention and a session of imaginative culinary alchemy. No Mackintosh apples for another few weeks, but I am counting the days until they are available. Ritual undertakings? Oh yes, kitchen magics are underway here...

There is nothing better than a good bowl of soup on a cool night, and hallelujah, it is finally cool enough in the house for cooking. Yesterday’s undertaking was a large pot of curried squash soup which is about to go into the freezer. No matter how much of the stuff I make, there seldom seems to be any for the cook, but dinner last night was a small bowl of liquid gold decorated with a frill of rosemary. Accompanied by a homemade bun it was gorgeous. I could have been dining in a cordon bleu restaurant, it was that good.

On the weekend, a big cauliflower came home from a local market, and that will be the next veggie to go into the big chowder pot, after that a slow cooker of sweet potato and black bean soup and a veritable cauldron of bone broth. Later, there will be minestrone.

The cookie jar is empty again, and that means a large batch of gingerbread cookies is in the cards today, ditto a batch of bread. There never seem to be any cookies around here, and there are never any crusty buns around either.

Happy September, everyone!