SPELLING BEE

BY BEA WESTERBERG

The seasons, they are a changing!

The geese must have gotten the memo that it’s fall time but I bet they must also know by instinct it’s time to get ready for a long trip and that Saturday the 25th was opening of goose season. Us humans got the fall reminder also by the cool days we have had even though it did get back up to summer temps some of the time. That could get us confused and maybe the geese, but I bet they know how the program works.

I have been running around trying to get all the fall-winter to do lists completed but have hardly made a dent in it. Daughter Nissa gave me some good advice on that subject. She quoted a saying, “Your imagination is longer than your calendar list”. Nissa knows I have an imagination that often works overtime in a lot of directions. And I do know that the world keeps turning even if I don’t get the list completed. The fact is that the “list” never gets completed, it just keeps getting new additions. Getting older has not slowed down the imagination but it sure has slowed down the getting it done part. I tell myself that even with the whole world’s “to do list” never getting completed, the world has been faithful in turning for billions of years.

Since the calendar has officially said it’s “fall”, we do have to be thinking about comfort foods, harvesting, and planning for another winter season in the Northern Hemisphere. We are being advised that Christmas shopping may be a whole new experience along with getting supplies of any kind to our doorstep.

It is very easy for me to think fall comfort foods. The cool morning tell me its all okay to use the oven and/or heat up the kitchen a bit. My baking and cooking hormones have been on very low as the amount of take out containers sent to the trash has been way above average.

Husband Larry is not as great a soup fan as I am so I have been working on getting soup back up to speed. Pairing the fresh tomato soup with a grilled cheese tomato with fresh tomato slices added was a good way to start the program. I have been doing some serious grilled cheese sandwiches with tomatoes sliced a half inch thick and a good addition of fresh basil leaves. For sure this is a “get while you can” time and I know that the fresh homegrown program is on the down hill side.

The squash and pumpkin season is a major player in fall and winter soups. I can still remember the first time I was “forced” to try a squash soup. Oh my, what a pleasant surprise! Pumpkin pie used to be the only picture on that program for me but the world has seen many changes. I think we have gone over board on the Pumpkin spice flavor in just about everything including, I am told, toilet paper. The upside might be that there will be something everyone can try it in. Pumpkin and squash can be interchanged.

We can bring back the hearty beef and barley or the beef and wild rice soups. Cream can be added because that should help us stay warm and give us a nice feeling as we eat it. Not sure how much of that is true but it sure sounds good on a cold day.

Soups can be based on a single ingredient such as beet soup and onion soup. Beets can be both a spring and a fall crop so if you missed them earlier, they are appearing at the local farmers markets. I know that beet soup is not everyone’s dream of a great soup but those who do like it look forward to enjoying it. Now my neighbor Tony will strongly object to beets in any shape, form, or color. As a child, he thought his mother was serving spiced red apple rings but it turned out to be beets. She was a “clean plate mom”. Tony has an elephant’s memory of that experience and has remained true to his feelings to this day!