It's October!

I love October! I think I always have.
After the decidedly cool summer, I was excited for fall. I'm slightly concerned that the weather will decide to skip fall and jump right into late-November/wintry weather. Please let me be wrong!
With the coming of fall, all I want to eat is soup and bread. Unfortunately, my husband isn't terribly fond of either. Still, I'm the cook, so I slip them in. It's just a necessity. Last week I made chili, potato soup, and white beans with rosemary and garlic. When Friday rolled around I hadn't been to the grocery for awhile and I just wanted to cook from my pantry, thus the beans (J likes beans, but not really bean soup, but I keep trying!). We both thought the bean soup was surprisingly delicious.

This is the recipe which I took from Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food:
Soak 2 c. navy beans in 4 c. water overnight
Drain and cook covered in water until tender (1 1/2 hr or so)
Add salt to taste
Heat 1/4 c. olive oil in skillet
Add roughly chopped garlic and rosemary (I added crushed red pepper flakes as well) and cook briefly until tender
Add to beans and heat through allowing flavors to marry.

The regular cornbread I made last week to accompany the chili was a hit so, I have plans to try an amalgam recipe for pumpkin cornbread this week.

In the vein of food, and also of reading because I must mention something about that, last week I finished Confections of a Closet Master Baker, which was just okay in my books. The amazon reviews were very positive, so I'm not sure what my problem was. Maybe the layout of the chapters which were intended to follow her daily routine, but seemed to jump around a lot? I don't know. The author, Gesine Bullock-Prado, (the sister of Sandra Bullock) tells her story of leaving Hollywood life for her own bakery in Vermont. However, each chapter ended with a recipe--deliciously sweet recipes to be exact--and I've kept the book around to copy down a couple Jeremy-friendly recipes before I return it to the library.

I hope you all are enjoying the early days of October!