Sunday round-up

It seems people like to say "round-up" on Sundays, so here's a Sunday round-up.

First, some nature. Goldenrod...

... and Beautyberry. Great name.

Today's bread: oat bran. A lovely dough. Some just are.

While that was rising, I made a quick lunch of old favorites: asparagus, peas, feta, basil.

Later, the bread emerged... a beautiful loaf.

And for dinner, baked rigatoni and zucchini. 

And that's the round-up!

"Autumnal" is a good word

A teensy bit early, but... who cares.

First, warm kale and white bean salad on a quick fry bread (Jacques Pepin recipe). The bread could be better, and will be, next time.

So that was yesterday. Today: buttertop bread and pasta with butternut squash sauce. More things to make again and again.

A good evening

For dinner: mac & cheese: delicious, almost always. Especially in this case. Super good NY Times recipe. Low-fat? No. That would be ridiculous.

Served with sautéed kale (and dates).

And earlier: Chinese lantern: one of my most favorites, which I saw on a walk.

It's autumn for now

Cool, with some rain this weekend. I like it. Summer will be back tomorrow, which is also fine, but, for now: new autumn dishes, an autumn soup, bread, etc.

First the dishes. Very exciting.

Those are from Williams-Sonoma, as is the recipe for this farro-white bean soup.

My new favorite thing, which seems autumnal, is polenta. The already cooked kind that slices right off and can be grilled or sautéed or whatever. Just so comforting.

Finally, today I made another loaf of the cracked wheat bread. KAF recipe.

Figs!

Figs always deserve an exclamation point, I think. Here they are, grilled, with spinach, avocado, feta, tomatoes, slivered almonds.

A troublesome kitten

Miss Loy decided that a rising loaf of bread was the perfect place to nap; after all, the bread was in her chair in the sun. Everyone knows Miss Loy likes the sun.

Luckily, the loaf was only dented and, once rescued, continued to rise.

Cracked wheat. Very good.