It's fall here in the Pacific Northwest. All of a sudden, after the hottest summer ever recorded here. The grey and the rain are a welcome blessing. And with that weather comes the desire for soups, puddings, and a move away from the cold, crisp foods of summer. Kheer is perfect for this time.

Kheer - serves 4
1/4 cup arborio or jasmine rice, soaked and rinsed
16 ounces of coconut milk
2-4 tablespoons of sugar (I used 2 1/2)
1+ cup water
a pinch salt
3/4 teaspoon cardamom seeds, ground
1/4 teaspoon turmeric (optional)
2 tablespoon roughly chopped almonds or pistachios (I omitted these this time)

Add the rice, coconut milk, water, and salt to a large-ish saucepan. Cook until rice is still chalky in the middle. Add the sugar and spices. Cover and turn down the heat to low. Check every 5-10 minutes, stirring. If it becomes thick enough for you and the rice isn't cooked through, add a half cup more water.

Serve topped with the chopped nuts, if using, and/or chopped peaches or berries.

This soup is far more delicious than it should be, given how quick and easy it is. It takes 30 minutes, start to finish and is filling and nutritious. It's also easy to make vegan, should you wish.

8-12 ounces of sausage, removed from casings and crumbled
medium onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon urfa biber or harissa
3/4 teaspoon turmeric

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Perhaps because I'm not eating anything with added sugar right now, I found myself thinking wistfully about a chocolate cake I made two weeks ago. It was a Valentine's Day cake for my family, and although I'd originally planned to make a heart-shaped one, when the moment came that seemed precious and twee. Instead, I made up a peanut butter ganache, a chocolate frosting, and three layers of moist chocolate cake. The moist (sorry to use that abhorred word twice!) part is worth mentioning because that tends to be the Achilles' heel of gluten free cakes, of which this was one. For the record, I don't believe in sifting. (CLICK THE TITLE FOR THE REST OF THE RECIPE)

I absolutely love coconut burfi. Sweet, toothy, and easy. The depth of flavor comes from the interplay between the coconut, pistachios and cardamom.

2 cups dessicated coconut
1 1/2 cups whole milk
10 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/3 cup pistachios, roughly chopped

 Soak the coconut in the milk for 1-12 hours, then add it to a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the condensed milk. Cook for 30 minutes at a low bubble, stirring, then add the cardamom. Cook until the mixture is reduced by about 1/3 and pulling away from the edges of the pan. Stir in the nuts and spread mixture in a buttered pan at least 9 inches across, or on a piece of parchment. Let cool enough to cut, and then cut into diamonds. 

If you don't consume the entirety within two days, please refrigerate.

No picture of the finished salad here. The pictures did a disservice to the delectable salad. So here's a picture of the pre-roasted delicata squash. It's one of the easiest squashes to prepare. It cuts easily and the seeds are easy to remove. In fact, that grapefruit spoon there is usually used to remove squash seeds, not to eat grapefruit. This is a quick easy salad to prepare. Eat it as a main course or an accompaniment. Serves 4-6 as a salad or 3 as a main course.

1 large delicata squash
2 tablespoons olive or avocado oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup

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I’ve made tons of squash soup lately, but I can’t resist buying squash this time of year. So I bought a gorgeous Cinderella squash, orange and squat and lovely. And I cut it in half, put it in a pan with an inch of water (cut side down) and roasted it til soft. Took it out, drained the water, turned the halves over and let them cool. Then I scooped out the seeds and cut off the skin and put the squash in a container in the fridge. What next? Pie, that’s what. No, really. You'll love it. And it's far better for you than most of the pumpkin pie recipes floating around out there. Also lighter.

Either make a crust or buy your favorite pre-made crust. Pre-bake it or you’ll end up with a soggy mess. Consider a nut crust, if you're making one; the nuts give a textural contrast to the filling.  

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Serves 6 with leftovers

This version follows my general attempt to add more vegetables to our diet and to use meat more as a bit player than as a main ingredient. To that end, I’ve added a variety of vegetables, as well as chicken thighs. We ate this with saffron rice and adored the whole meal.  The roasted eggplant adds a little extra time, but is well worth it.  It adds substance and a little extra body and texture. I’ve broken the recipe into three parts, but fear not, it’s still under an hour of prep. You can prepare the first part the night before.

Ingredients, part 1:
4 chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 tablespoons Tikka Masala
2 teaspoons salt
½ cup Greek yogurt

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This is a very vegan-friendly soup, so if you want to omit the dairy and sausage, go for it, the soup won't suffer. I used squash from the very delightful Whistling Train Farm and sausage from the wonderful Skagit River Ranch. The amounts below are loose. This is not a precise exercise in baking, where amounts must be just so or the whole thing is ruined. This soup is easy and gorgeous; the orange is bright, the bright green, olive oil slicked kale contrasts sharply, and the crumbled browned sausage brings it all together.  I'd love to post a higher resolution, larger shot of this soup, but Shopify doesn't allow that. 

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I live west of a neighborhood called White Center.  White Center is much maligned for various dangers, real and imagined. It's also home to a remarkably vital and varied immigrant population. Although the wonderful Proletariat Pizza is there, and the magnificent Full Tilt Ice Cream (Mexican Chocolate all the way!), my favorite store is the Phnom Khiev Market.  The folks who work there are, uniformly, friendly and helpful. And the produce? While there are plenty of items I recognize, many are new to me and unlabeled.  There are greens of all sort, some recognizable to me (bok choi, pak choi, gai lan) and others that I don't recognize.  Some time, when an abundance of time to experiment presents itself, I'm going to buy three or four sorts of greens and have myself a little tasting party.  Their prices are absurdly low. Absurdly. They make money on their dry goods, I think, not their produce. 

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