My Ode to Autumn...............A is for aroma

i don't do alot of cooking in the summer. we are rarely home and the times we do find ourselves here - i usually end up looking into an empty fridge and sighing.....unable to find something exciting to cook.

and its hot........and hot kitchens aren't fun for me - esp since we rarely use the air conditioner.

but once autumn hits - i start cooking again....and its usually tons of soup and chili.

last nite was my first official start to autumn cooking. i opened the pantry and found all the ingredients i needed for vegetarian chili. actually i don't really follow a recipe for chili since i make it so often. but i decided that i really wanted some cornbread with it. so i used a recipe from the blue heron ranch cookbook and whipped up some super easy - super quick cornbread....which i now can't stop eating.......

today is soup day - i love miso soup and tend to make that and eat it 3x a day (i like mine crammed full of tofu and seaweed and shitake mushrooms)... but i found a recipe for curried veggie soup that sounds good too.....

so i'm not sure which soup i'll end up making later - but i know i can't wait to jump right in.

oh - some of my other favorite autumn aromas:

• wood burning in our kitchen's fireplace
• warm apple cider the second before you take a sip
• crunchy leaves on the trails
• cinnamon and nutmeg
• chilly mornings
• my early morning or late evening tea