You know that I love the Fall season, even though it’s very late and short here in Texas. Perhaps it benefits from my love of seasonal change in general, but I think the romantic leanings that come in autumn, that sense of impending death softened by the comforts with which we pad ourselves and by the death-defying renewal of the beginning of school and art seasons, have their own peculiar attractions. And of course, there is the bounty of foods that are best appreciated as we slide from the fall equinox to the winter.
The World in Autumn
Thin branches caging up the sun
In willow-wavy lacelike hands,
All skeletons and ampersands,
Hold clouds together in the one
Unreadable yet literate
Equation of the interstices
Whose elated season this is,
Crisp and quite deliberate
In tracing every moment in it,
Hour, year, and state of mind
Among the bones of humankind,
As though these things were infinite.
One of the delights I most admire in this season is earthy flavors. An abundance of root vegetables and mushrooms signals time for soups, stews and sauces whose savory riches warm body and soul and recall me to the embrace of home and childhood in many ways. A simple creamy soup loaded with mushrooms is hard to beat for succor on a grey and blustery day. A bouquet of cauliflower roasted with nothing more than a quantity of butter and salt and pepper until just-right is heavenly; adding sage leaves to the butter and a handful of shredded Reggiano to the top of the cauliflower just when they’ll have time to crisp and brown lightly moves the easy dish to a higher floor in the heavenly skyscraper.
Roasted vegetables of any kind are especially welcome in the cooler seasons, and so easy to toss together with a little olive oil or butter in the oven while everything else is being prepared for the table that it’s almost a crime not to put them in the oven. Throw a chopped lemon in to roast with them and they are sauced in their own juices. Put the remains (if any) the next day into a bowl with a cup of hot homemade broth and a poached or soft-cooked egg or two, add cooked rice or noodles if you like, and, bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, (or bi-bim-bap!), you have a bowl full of nutritious, delicious, and not at all ambitious goodness right in your own little corner of this magical autumn season.
Art-Colored Glasses 
Still not a cauliflower fan but bring on the rest of the root veggies! And this is a bit scary…I call the bi bim bap the same thing – bibbidi etc. 🙂
Great minds, eh!!! 😉
That cauliflower face is so very aphrodisiac!
Love the autumn-hymn in your post 🙂
This is my favorite time of the year too.
I’m terribly fickle, falling in love with every season as it comes, but spring and autumn have a special kind of excitement to them, signaling the beginning and ending of such important things in life–in nature and in the seasons of our work and play–that I always feel more as though something important is about to happen, I guess. As for the cauliflower, any excuse will do! 🙂
Mmmm…I love roasted veggies, Kathryn, and I wish I had some for tonight! My mouth is watering! I’m not a fan of mushrooms, though, but hubby is. Unfortunately, if I don’t like them and I do the cooking, he doesn’t get them! 🙂 Love this fall post and a favorite time of the year for me, too. ♥
As you’ve seen on many a Tuesday here, Richard and I have rather different dining loves too! But I have the advantage of liking a lot more things he doesn’t like than the reverse, so I seldom cheat myself out of making my favorites even if I’m the only one who’ll eat them! 😀
xo
Once you go roasted, you’ll never go back.
Ain’t Fall grand, Kathryn? So many great flavors and aromas to rediscover.
You said it, John! Happy autumn to you!! Roast away! It’s no wonder I love roasted stuff, since the Maillard sweetness means I’ll almost always get something from my savory + sweet happy place.
You’ve got me on the roasted veggie trail; scrumptious delights…
Tonight, though, it’ll be stir fry. Or fried rice. Anyway, pan-seared veg it is, this time! 🙂