favorite time of year

this is my favorite time of year, when the leaves start to fall, the weather starts to feel crisp. i've switched to the down comforter. last weekend i made beef stew in the dutch oven and a lovely apple coffee cake. i started planning my standby battery of fall recipes -- spicy butternut squash and sweet potato soup, pumpkin bread, polentas with sauteed mushrooms and roasted red peppers, mugs of hot apple cider. the staple sauvignon blancs from the summer are getting moved to the bottom shelf of the wine rack to make way for bottles of thick, hearty red wines we need to pick up this coming weekend. this is the season for knitting, reading, savoring foods and drinks and unwinding.

i just finished re-reading one of the most brilliant, delicious books of all time on the plane yesterday. it's all about enjoying a simple life in france. i read it for the first time back when i was a freshman in college for an english class on writing memoirs, and gauging from the notes i made in the margins, i clearly wasn't in a stage in my life to appreciate it. it was such a crack-up to read how naive and unaware i was. "what's foie gras?" i wrote on one page. "all they do is eat!" i wrote on another. reading the notes, it was the first time i felt glad i've grown up. i'm not wise or cultured or worldly, but hallelujia that i now appreciate the finer points in life, like stinky cheese.

cheers to you, especially all my friends who i hear are working hard, and soul searching about their futures and their life choices. may we all slow down long enough to enjoy the moments of fall.