simple fall pleasures + a vulnerable look at why easing my way in to the cold half of the year is necessary
don’t overthink the beginning of cozy season, it’s a long slow crawl back to the sun, warmth, and blooms of spring
The autumnal season doesn’t start until after Halloween. That’s it and that’s all. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s the global warming — I am, after all, writing this on one unseasonably warm but pleasant 80-degree day in late October and then a quick flip over to the crisp side of November — but I can never find it in me to start feeling the fall spirit until after this holiday has passed and we all have turned into this guy. Now, spooky season? You’ve got me dancing like this guy as soon as the leaves start turning and the first brisk morning arrives on your doorstep.
The in-between time of the start of school and Halloween is this awkward time where everyone gets their panties in a twist over a PSL, and my inner voice goes hoarse because I just can’t with this marketing scheme (scam?) getting pushed back earlier and earlier each year. (I am firmly in this camp because, yes, I too have a right to my opinion — as do you, you PSL addicts, but bless your hearts.) Maybe it’s the fact that each year’s weather is vastly different. Some Halloweens are quite warm and some are absolutely frigid. Lots of ups and downs here in the Midwest… But pumpkin spice on August 1? That’s a bowl full of wrong.
My simple fall pleasures come when the bounties of summer start to fade away from the market scene and the apples, the broccoli, the various squash and gourds, and the sweet potatoes take over. They come when the air gets crisp and the leaves are turning all their wonderful shades of red, orange, yellow, and even purple. My heart swoons this time of year 😍🍂🍁😍
Keeping up with all the fall food things, I get overwhelmed just looking at all the delicious recipes and decadent party scenes. Sometimes I want to be this person — like on Halloween, we invite our friends and their kids over to our house for a smallish Halloween party because we are very close to one of the hottest trick-or-treating streets in the city, so I like to use this event to kick off what feels like the beginning of fall. A mix of crowd pleasers, our offerings this year included: chips and guacamole, a big pot of chili, and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, and a stunning cocktail crafted by my husband who is deep in his mixology phase. Nothing too complicated, which is often the most delicious.
But often, this time of year feels like you have to dive into the deep end and go all in on Fall (with a capital F). Put on your flannel and go apple picking, go to a pumpkin patch, drink your hot cider, go to a corn maze, do all the things that are fall according to the brainwashing that is social media. I said what I said.
On a more serious and deeply personal note, I prefer easing into this time of year. Mainly because I know that seasonal depression is a real thing. Not that we are very far north or anything, but it does take a while for things to bloom and come back to life after winters that feel like eternities.
Maybe I’m influenced by the fact that my son’s birthday lands in November, which is forever tainted by our trauma of how he came into the world. It’s a rough start to the holiday season for me and is something that I have to work through each year. As far as I can tell, it is getting marginally easier as time passes, but I also never know what each year will feel like. Different types of memories are constantly resurfacing themselves: times from when I was heavily pregnant and waiting waiting waiting for baby boy to ring the alarm, times from the long and gruesome labor we went through, times from the hospital bed without a baby in my arms. But the stretch of time that he was in the NICU is a period of time that is the worst. Each year since his birth, I have to take a step back for myself and reflect on how much we have now when it was possible then that we couldn’t have anything. And I have to just go about my day as these memories come and go. My heart is like one of those Japanese kintsugi bowls, shattered but then fixed with a golden lacquer to make it whole again — each year that I get with my son makes the lacquer that much stronger but I am also looking at the cracks that it fixed with sorrow and longing that they weren’t made in the first place. It feels strange having been brave enough to write about this for all of you, but it feels like an honest way to explain why this season requires simplicity for me. And for all of the birth trauma survivors: I see you.
So today, at the beginning of November, I thought I’d share with you all some of the simplest ways that I know how to enjoy the fall harvest season. We don’t need to overextend ourselves, especially with the winter holiday season upon us. We should be gentle with ourselves and others as we start wading into the depths of what winter takes away from us. Bring the simple joys with you as your tools for warmth. Some of these are my own creations, and others come from other sources that I’ve had great success with in my kitchen.
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MY SIMPLE FALL PLEASURES 🍁
SARAH’S ORIGINAL RIFFS
ROASTED DELICATA WITH SUMAC + FETA
1 delicata, half moon slices
drizzle EVOO
salt + pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp turmeric (heaping)
1/2 tsp cured sumac
crumbled feta
quick pickled sumac onions (thinly sliced red onions, white vinegar, cured sumac)
preheat oven to 400F; mix squash, cumin, turmeric, salt + pepper in a large bowl, drizzle with EVOO, toss to coat evenly; place in single layer on baking sheet lined with parchment paper / silicone baking mat; roast 18 minutes, until fork-tender
serve, then sprinkle with sumac and crumbled feta, top with sumac onions
quick pickled sumac onions: in a shallow dish, add sliced red onion, pour vinegar over but not to cover, then sprinkle sumac; let sit 5 minutes, toss, let sit another 5 minutes
SMOKY SWEET POTATOES
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into ¼” half moons
drizzle EVOO
1 tsp smoked paprika (a new favorite, introduced to me by my MIL)
½ tsp garlic powder
salt + pepper, to taste
preheat oven to 400F; toss all ingredients in bowl until coated evenly; place in single layer on baking sheet lined with parchment paper / silicone baking mat; roast 18-20 minutes, until fork-tender
EVERYTHING BAGEL BEETS
1+ pound red beets, peeled and cut into ¼” rounds
drizzle EVOO
salt + pepper
everything bagel seasoning
preheat oven to 400F; toss beets, salt, and pepper in bowl until coated evenly; place in single layer on baking sheet lined with parchment paper / silicone baking mat; roast 18-20 minutes, until fork-tender; serve then sprinkle with everything bagel seasoning to taste
SARAH’S SOLID RECIPE FINDS
Please for the love of god click on the link above. This recipe blew my mind. Insanely clever — I bow down to
for creating it and for bringing it to my attention through her Substack . I’m still struggling to get my son to eat very much of it, but you have to reintroduce foods to kids constantly anyway and they’ll eventually buy into it 😘A brilliant version of a Soup Season classic, with no cream! I made this a long time ago, pre-pandemic to be exact. I found this one in the America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook (2001-2013) that I picked up at Half Price Books — the recipe is appropriately paywalled online, so the link above will lead you to purchase the exact book that I have even though there is probably an updated version in the 2001-2024 edition. (If you’ve read this far and are absolutely desperate for the exact recipe, you are able to Google it and find it on a different site that I’m not sure if they have permission from ATK or not…) I have been chasing this result ever since I started cooking without a recipe. I guess I should stop chasing that dream and just cook from this recipe from now on.
PUMPKIN TURKEY WHITE BEAN CHILI
This was the chili of choice for this year’s Halloween party and it was raved about all night. I’ve done the crockpot version (great), but I decided to do it on the stovetop this year (greatest).
My stovetop instructions: Brown the meat first, remove and set aside on a plate. Cook your aromatics (onions, garlic), then add spices and pumpkin purée. Add broth, chiles, browned meat. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Let thicken slightly, then add beans and cook another 30 minutes. Garnish with whatever your chili heart desires.
If you’ve made it all the way down here, thank you for reading this longer form issue, where I ranted about the societal and commercialized pressures to fully participate the autumn season and shared some vulnerable ruminations. I guess the question is: if you’re not on the PSL train the second they show up in the ungodly heat of August, do you even count? Heaven help me if this shit starts showing up in July. I will leave the grid and not look back.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here.
❤️ Sarah
One of the best reads yet. LOVE!!!!