Cozying Up to Fall

As the weather gets cooler, we find ourselves inexplicably drawn to daydreams of cooking up large batches of soups, stews, and chilis and baking warm loaves of bread (baguettes, cornbread, banana bread -- whatever, really). It's that time of year when nesting begins in earnest for many of us. This weekend, we made a dinner that we felt perfectly captured the transition from summer to fall: a butternut squash and sage risotto topped with seared scallops (loosely adapted from this Gourmet recipe), roasted tomatoes with a parmesan-herb crust, and roasted zucchini and onions.

In case you need a little more inspiration to get your fall cooking on, we've discovered two blogs lately that will do just that. First, Smitten Kitchen, chock full of recipes, musings on cooking, and gorgeous food porn. Next, Not Eating Out in New York. Why would anyone not eat out in New York, you may ask? Cathy responds, "It isn’t to say that the food here isn’t good enough for me, that I can cook better, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. But there’s something certain about this city in particular with the culture of eating out your every meal, and that, to me, grew stale. Sure, it takes precious time away from that which you would spend busy at work. But I’m with those who think it’s their best time spent." We're with you, sister. Not Eating Out's recipes feature both a health factor rating (measured in "brownie points") and a cost calculator, which is particularly enlightening.

Are you getting back into your kitchen this fall? And more importantly, what are you cooking?