Fall is Here

The maples are a bright red.  This weekend the aspens started to turn bright yellow.  It hasn’t been long.  It snowed in June, so we had a foreshortened “mud season” that others in this nation call “spring” and summer.

I need the right light to get the camera out and get a few shots for you.  The nights are downright cold and I love having the upstairs windows open a bit, and my husband looks like a mummy with sheet, blanket and heavy comforter while I dangle my feet out and toss off the comforter.

There are already folks with short-ski roller blades and poles going down the path, and a new path underneath the State Road that will lead to XC ski-only trails.  There is a lot to be done here that has been put off due to the long and snowy winter, and only a few weeks to do it.  Luckily I kept my snow tires on, because I only drive a few miles a day, but others will need theirs soon.

In my “surprise” box I try to get every week from the farms that deliver our milk, eggs, and other items, I got one small butternut squash.  I made a very good and spicy curried butternut squash soup with it.  It made us two mugs of soup with one extra, that’s in the frig for lunch.

First, I halved and seeded the squash, basted it with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper and baked it, cut side down, for an hour in a 325 oven.  Let it cool enough to handle while you saute 1 medium onion.  I also toasted store-bought curry powder in a dry skillet until fragrant.  When you can get the flesh off the squash, put it and the softened onions in a food processor and process completely, adding chicken broth as needed.

I then placed it on the stove, added the curry and more chicken broth and let simmer.  I added more black pepper and cayenne.  Don’t thin it too much because you want to add about 1/2 c heavy cream at the end for richness.  We’d had lunch, carne asada, at one of our favorite restaurants so had soup and a turkey sandwich (a good one, made by me) for dinner.

Yesterday was the last Park Silly market, for the year.  Soon the Farmers’ Markets will shut down, without even making it to their peak this year though I had a couple of ripe peaches.  Then the snow will fall and look pretty through January.  After that the 14′ piles become grey, then black and melt through May and June.  Another year in paradise.  Dee