Raking the Leaves and Hot Autumn Meals

When does autumn start? If you have children, fall starts when they go back to school at the end of August.  If you don’t have children, the season really starts when the first cool afternoon drifts in, and the leaves start turning to golden yellows and oranges. 

Growing up in the Midwest, autumn was always a sad time of the year, because I knew that winter was just around the corner.  At the same time, it was also a nice time, because of the food.  A lot of people think that spring and summer has the best fruits and vegetables, but they often forget that autumn has all of those squashes, melons and gourds.

My mom had a special recipe for pumpkin soup, which combined fresh pumpkin and peanut butter.  It sounds strange, but you shouldn’t knock it until you try it.  She would make this up at least once a week, using fresh pumpkin from our neighbor’s garden.  I always knew that fall had arrived when she pulled out the Lenox china autumn pattern.  Unlike in summer, where you’re always using paper plates for dinner because you’re eating outside so much, autumn is the time for eating indoors. 

Cooking soup on a cool day will help to warm you up.  Another good thing about making soup is that you can put it in the crock-pot or slow cooker.  You can actually be cooking your dinner while you’re outside raking the leaves and getting your lawn ready for winter.  When you come in, tired and hungry, you’ll have soup waiting for you.  Anybody can make this a hearty meal by adding salad and bread with it.  If there are big meat eaters in your family, don’t worry about it, you can either add chunks of meat to your soup, or you can pair it with a meaty sandwich.

Get back into the kitchen during autumn, and use some of the many vegetables that are only available for a couple of weeks to whip up a hearty meal.