Bountiful

With autumn comes a whole new set of seasonal veggies. I anticipate this change in the fruit and vegetable racks in my local grocer like how some other do clothing lines, a new sneaker, or tickets for whatever millennial-deep (puddle) marketing exec-made “musician” who doesn’t play or write music who’s having success. It’s quality and authenticity that counts, in all areas, but especially food. Like these Starry Night swirls of roasted Romanesco cauliflower.

With first frost coming, I am on a soup kick, enacting my mini-Crockpot at my job, which heats my lunch throughout the morning so I may meet it thoroughly piping hot at it noon, sans microwave. This week, I threw in come butternut squash, which, when prepped, resembles a feminist statement of sorts. Hmmm.

I had a bit of a fail last week when I made a potato and apple soup with no protein component. This week, I was all the more wiser, using the mighty chickpea to help empower my day.

We eat a lot of bananas in our household. We buy 3 bunches for the two of us. My bunch sits patiently all week until the weekend. Speckled and super ripe, I use it partially for my weekly batch of chia oatmeal. And partially for baking. This week, with a belated birthday celebration at my folks’, I made the well-loved marble banana bread recipe from Isa Does It. They love this bread. It was a delight to hear my parents and sister discussing how wonderful a banana bread it is as I played Scattergories in the other room. Boom!