Comforting Autumn Traditions

Since last autumn we’ve all seen so many changes and losses, I for one find comfort in traditions I can continue. Life lately feels as though I’ve been spinning and dangling midair in a Ferris wheel capsule while carnival tents below change from red, blue, and yellow to gray and darker gray, and games of skill become games of chance. (Don’t get me started on the clowns’ transformations.) Now I just want off this ride to go find the tent serving funnel cakes and soft pretzels like the ones I remember.

My autumn food traditions are healthier but just as comforting: pumpkin-squash soup, ratatouille, and applesauce. They all begin with a trip to the farmers market to buy the freshest veggies and fruit and get my big knife sharpened. Even my sharp knife couldn’t puncture, let alone slice, the little pie pumpkins. The farmer must have sold me orange rocks! With that snafu, this year’s soup is butternut squash soup sans pumpkin. Oh my goodness, it’s wonderful! When stewing the ratatouille this year, I added Penzey’s Herbes de Provence and Shepherd Mediterranean Spice Mix. Fennel and lavender in those blends gave my ratatouille a subtle loveliness this year. And this year’s applesauce combo was Jonathan and Macintosh varieties, a little too tart for my tastes so I tried two cinnamon sticks. It’s still not very sweet, but it’s tradition to have applesauce fragrantly bubbling in a big enameled cast iron pot on the stove.

 

Healthy autumn comfort-food traditions accomplished, I will now put my two pumpkin-rocks out on the porch and hope the squirrels don’t break their teeth on them.