Perhaps it is good that I don't go to the farmers market regularly, because whenever I do go, I want to buy the whole thing. And here I am in the hazy chill of the first Saturday that properly feels like fall, wandering from stall to stall at Madison's Capitol Square farmers market. September is coming to a close, and autumn's firstfruits now join the late summer harvest.
I feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder writing Farmer Boy––there are too many good things to eat, and I have to try describing at least some of them. Rainbows of both carrots and cherry tomatoes. Sprays of basil so fragrant that the scent finds my nose even without my pausing to smell it. Fat bunches of kale with curly leaves. Frilly mushrooms, sold by the pound. Bouquets of saucer-sized dahlias in every color from pale pink to deep purple. Eggplants and squashes and bitter melons that look like a cucumber cross-bred with a sea urchin. Sacks of apples picked just yesterday (here, I cave and buy half a peck: honeycrisp, for a crumble dessert later in the week).
These tables stand testament to the luxury of variety that is ours in this world. There did not technically need to be so many kinds of apples, so many colors of tomatoes, so many strains of squash. But there are. We get all of them to enjoy––raw, roasted, canned, diced in a soup or chopped in a salad, covered in cheese or sugar or some other delicious thing––and they fill us in ways more than physical as we accept these rich gifts as ours to enjoy.
Here's what I read, cooked, and created in the month of September.
What I Read
Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry (★★★★★)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling (★★★★★)––reread
Wish You Were Eyre, Heather Vogel Frederick (★★★★)
Created for Connection: The Hold-Me-Tight Guide for Christian Couples, Sue Johnson (★★★★)
If you want to hear the rationale behind my rating, head to my Goodreads for full reviews.
What I Cooked
I have depressingly few occasions in my life for which it is appropriate to make nice breakfasts, but I do love a good breakfast-for-dinner moment, so that's what I chose to do for a family get-together over Labor Day weekend. These made an appearance alongside my favorite frittata recipe.
If you can make cinnamon rolls, you are certainly capable of making these. The method is identical. In all honesty, you would probably be better off making cinnamon rolls. These are good, but not as good in my opinion. On the off chance that I do make them again, I will bake only 6 to a pan so they have a little bit more space to spring and bake all the way through.
I adapted this recipe for a pound of gnocchi, and it turned out well enough that I would be interested in trying the pasta. I added some random spinach and basil I had as well as an onion. Great life choices all around.
What I Created
Unpublished original poem "Meditation on I Corinthians 13"
The rest of a short story I started writing literally last fall
May your days be filled with beauty, and may your heart be filled with the willingness to see and give thanks for it.