Scrump

Anyone who knows me knows my feelings about vegetables. I adore them. Adore isn't even a strong enough word-- I love them the way you love a person, or a kitten, or what have you. So I eat a lot of salad, and a lot of soup. Both go well with a hunk of baguette and some cheese.
Now, who wants salad when it's all blustery out? So, to make a long story short: soup is the best autumn meal, ever!
It is easy, and delicious, and a perfect excuse to eat heaps of tender vegetables with dollops of creme fraiche and crusty bread heels. My favorite right now is tomato fennel soup. It's dead simple, and for the sick at heart (such as Anna when tomatoes are out of season) an ideal lunch. Sweet San Marzano tomatoes, savory fennel, and some rich, cool creme fraiche to temper the acidity... I eat it for breakfast, even.
Seriously.

You know what's weird? I really love autumn, but for some reason it took me until this, my 23rd autumn, to try my very first piece of pumpkin pie. I really liked it, and now I feel like I have 22 autumn's worth of pies to eat, which is doable, I think.

Also, too, my (Italian) roommate Melanie, in a fit of frustration because I don't eat tomatoes and our other roommate doesn't eat red meat (thus canceling out spicy meat-a-ball-ahs), decided to make us "boring chicken" one night, but she got this recipe for a chicken that you throw in a pot with beer, apple cider, carrots, potatoes, a cinnamon stick, and cloves, and it turned out to be the most delicious autumnal feast known to man. We literally stopped all conversation and ate the entire chicken within ten minutes.

Lastly, I love toasted pumpkin seeds so much that my dad sent me a creepy unmarked package to my apartment that contained solely a zipped lock bag of pumpkin seeds inside, no note or explanation necessary.

Anna, I do know your love of vegetables, but wouldn't you say comparing them to kittens is going a bit far? Autumn vegetables, great. But...autumn kittens? Come on.

They can live in harmony.

I tried to make a link but I don't know if I can in the comments field? Anyway, "harmony" was supposed to lead to this: http://dogtime.com/system/gallery_pictures/285/large/cat-kitten-cute-picture-photo-sleep-vegetable-rack.jpg

My fantasy autumnal meal would be:

Cauliflower gratin
Pumpkin pie
A spork

I am also a fan of the tofurkey-cranberry-Hellman's-stuffing sammy (preferably on fresh oatmeal bread).

During the grimly slim sliver of Fall in Chicago, Tamalehawk wants to be surrounded by mounds of brown sugar. Though he savors the profound flavor all year long, the complex sweetness feels to him like a strikingly autumnal ingredient. His feathers are sprinkling it everywhere, from broiling a caramel crust on his oatmeal, turning breakfast into dessert with a shameless determination, to stuffing it in an apple with walnuts and raisins and baking it to death so that deliciousness may live. He often gets sad when he can't find a reasonable way to work it into a meal, and has contemplated eating it straight from the bag. He refuses to feel bad about that impulse.

Autumn is my favorite season, It thrills me to think about the honey autumn sun, the brilliance of dying leaves, the true blue of clear fall skies, and the way the air smells burnt and yet fresh, and is cool and crisp. It's just a lovely, lovely time of every year. And food is an important part of that, but of course.

Autumn is the beginnings of heartier fare: squash of all sorts, baked and souped and sautéed, pumpkin pie (!!!), potatoes in various forms of transformation, creamy lattes, German beer, warm bread. Not quite the desperate, barren oven-baked wasteland of winter food, but warm and filling nevertheless. Gimme some butternut squash soup, goat cheese tart, and pumpkin dessert concoction any day. Please.

The only two foods I intensely associate with fall are pumpkin (obviously) and green chile. You see, fall is when fresh green chile is roasted in New Mexico and the entire state is filled with a very specific and very wonderful smell. So, I'll go ahead and say that green chile chicken enchiladas (with freshly roasted chile) and pumpkin pie would be my ideal autumnal meal.

Okay, I thought of mine. There are two actually.
a) a bagel with cream cheese. The ultimate hearty soul-satisfying breakfast. A cup of coffee completes its coziness.
b) I used to agree with Anna about the salad thing. I used to think salads seemed untoward in fall and winter; in fact they seemed downright offensive. Then one day: It was quite chilly and I had the day off and I was so looking forward to a mid-morning (by which I mean 1pm) of journal-writing and drawing at Uncommon Ground. I knew exactly what I was going to order: an "autumn scramble" with root vegetables and goat cheese, accompanied by a side of potatoes and thick toast. It was exactly what I wanted: warm, hearty, filling, seasonal. THEN. A waitress carried a plate across the room: a gigantic salad spilling over with so many delights--crunchy romaine lettuce and avocados and chunks of chicken and this huge flatbread thing. And on a very uncharacteristic impulse, I ordered that salad. It was exactly what I wanted in the autumn scramble, but strangely more satisfying. Something about the crunch, and the differing textures, and the chicken, and tons of dressing, turned me into a Salad Believer. Though I must add that salads are particularly satisfying when followed by desserts.
So I guess I mean that, at least this fall, my fantasy autumnal meal is a big-ass salad.

Right off the bat I knew the answer; Brussels sprouts. But I don't know if that counts anymore because I eat them all year 'round. I try to eat food when it is in season and avoid food when it is VERY out of season (strawberries in January? No thanks). But I kind of have a problem with Brussels sprouts. Is it possible to be addicted to something that most people think is vile? Here is my recipe:

1 lb. Brussels sprouts - stems and outer leaves removed, halved or quartered depending on size
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil - the best you can afford
1 tbsp. butter - BUTTER!
1/4 cup water
salt and pepper

saute until caramelized, the outer leaves are a little brown.

Simple right? TRY IT!

I fell like I should get a check from the Brussels sprout advisory board. I eat them so much that I have convinced a lot of my friends to try them, against their will, and they now make them at home for their friends. What's not to love?

Oh. And clementines too.

Matthew P. Coupons! I can't believe you wrote about Brussels sprouts today. I was going to call you after work to ask for this very recipe, as I am making Brussels sprouts TONIGHT. What a miracle. "Billy call?"