hello rutabaga!

There's no doubt now that fall is here. We dropped about 30 degrees in two days, and now it's supposed to rain next week. There's snow in the mountains and the down blanket is on the bed. Hurray for fall! Hurray for the fall food!

B and I have been on a kick for the past couple years of trying to cook seasonally. It seems logical, and really when you think about it, of course you would cook with what's in season, but it's harder than you think. Growing up, meals really didn't change with the seasons - sure, there was less barbecuing in the winter, and maybe a few more soups, but why wouldn't you want to use peaches in January? And really, I totally understand - our parents went from growing up with only seasonally available foods to having a giant bounty of freshness, pretty much whenever they wanted. Of course you would want to take advantage of that. But now we're swinging that pendulum back the other direction and attempting to eat "locally," which also means seasonally. Most of the time it's pretty easy, and we're having fun trying new recipes and ingredients (hello rutabaga!). Now that fall is here we're embracing it completely. Last week we busted out our essential fall salad: mixed greens, thinly sliced onions, pears, goat cheese, and a fresh balsamic vinaigrette. I think tonight we may switch out the pears for pomegranate. Yummmm...

Oddly enough though, we had a really tough time with summer. Maybe it was because we were really busy (newborns will do that to you), or maybe it was because our backyard garden didn't come through as well as we'd hoped, or maybe it's because cooking in the summer when its 90-100 degrees just doesn't sound appetizing. Other than our standby tomato bruschetta (and of course pesto), we didn't do much distinctly summer cooking. Anyone have any great summer dishes to share?