Busy September to Red October

Happy Friday! I know your week may have been a little off by not seeing A Pinch Of to start the week, and, if so, my apologies. It is getting into a bit of the spooky season after all. But to make up for it, we’re jumping deep into a quick one as we head into the weekend. I hope the weather by you is as great as it is in Philly this weekend. What a perfect time to kick off a hot Red October for the Fightins. Here we go. 🍂⚾🥧

Hit the Market

After a few weeks traveling, one of the biggest things I look forward to get back into my routine is the farmer’s market on a Saturday morning. The start of October brings some seasonal changes to the produce, and I cant wait for apple/pumpkin/squash/soup/baking season. (Anything else, anyone wants to add?)

Every month I check the Seasonal Food Guide’s curated list of produce in my areas. Typically I’m choosing PA, but you can choose your state to find what you should be looking for. This at least gives me a starting point to look at recipes I have saved or to see what may stick out to me when searching for a recipe.

Obviously this may all change depending on what’s actually available at the market, or if I go rogue once I get there, which I’ve been known to do a time or two…

Here are a few recipes I have on my list heading into the first fall weekend home:

Fall Squash Galette from Carolina Gelen

“Another galette?” Yes, another one! All the cool kids are doing it. Okay enough cheesy-ness. But actually, I haven’t done a fall-flavored one before, and Carolina seems to combine the perfect mix of it all with this one. Also shoutout on her cookbook release, which seems to be loved by anyone and everyone I follow. This has been added to the Christmas list, for sure.

Personal Pot of Beans and Greens from Carla Lalli Music

Hand up, I am not a big fan of leftovers. Which, yes, is a bit ironic considering I can’t seem to figure out how to get myself to scale down a full recipe. I have gotten better about choosing recipes I know I’ll like as leftovers or repurpose in new ways. Growth (and less waste).

Carla’s comfort cooking for one recipe is special because it’s a wide open, you-do-what-you-want-to-do-and-only-you recipe. Makes sense, right?

As she says, “comfort is cooking and cooking is comfort.”

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Focaccia from Country Roads Sourdough

If you want a cooking rabbit hole to fall into, here’s the one: focaccia. Every day a new focaccia recipe seems to fall into my feed, and every day I have a constant feeling like I need to just dive in with how creative others get with these.

This recipe uses sourdough, though I’m sure you could swap in a different focaccia recipe and it’d turn out just as great. Seeing this all come together had me salivating and wondering what time of day I’m supposed to be eating this. (Correct answer: morning, lunch, snacks, dinner, dessert).

That’s enough to dip (or dive head first) into the fall recipes. After all, most of my brain and time will be focused on the Phillies this weekend. Would be a real shame if I ended up at a game. It was a blast last year being down there. Here’s to hopefully seeing fireworks through the entirety of the playoff. Back to regularly scheduled programming next week.

Let’s go Phils. Let’s go fall. 🤘