happy october!

Ladies and gentlemen, it is finally here... my favorite month!  I woke up this morning all giddy and excited because after treading through the past nine months I had finally made it to October.  Honey asked me 'why is October your favorite month?  Is it because it's your birthday month?'  To which I staunchly replied 'absolutely not!' and then changed that to 'well, maybe a little, but for lots of other reasons, too.'  I suppose it doesn't hurt that my favorite month is practically kicked off with a celebration of me, and that my overly-celebratory family believes that a birthday is not nearly festive enough; I get at least a week or, more frequently, a month.  To start this festive time of year off on the right foot, I was finally allowed to open up this -

Yes, those are glittery purple balloons.  Lizzie B is just too awesome for words.  But really, October is certainly about way more than my birthday.  It's about color and flavor and change and growth.  It's the first full month of Autumn.  Let's face it, September is still half Summer here in the Northeast.  I sent most of my warm weather clothes into storage but still haven't felt the need to start bundling up quite yet.  Maybe a day here or an evening there has called for a sweater or a scarf, but nothing too bad.  October is another story altogether.  I walked out the door mid-afternoon today and was glad to have a light jacket on.  It's also the best time of year for sleeping.  I love to leave all the windows open until snow and frost starts coming through them (and even then the bedroom window stays open just a crack.)  In October this makes the room crisp and cool enough to warrant pulling out an extra blanket or two but not so cold that you need to bundle up with heavy comforters.  It's also a good excuse to snuggle up extra close to sleeping buddies!

October is about flavor and seasonal ingredients!  True, I try to use fresh, seasonal ingredients all year long but harvest time really is the best for that.  Last year, if you can recall, I made the world's best apple pie and put it in a jam jar!  This year, though the amount of free time I have has been drastically cut back, I plan on making at least a couple of variants on the original delicious treat.  Maybe I can even sneak out of work one day and go apple picking.  It's been far too long since I've done that and apple choosing at the Union Square market doesn't quite have the same feeling, though that warm cider is pretty darn delicious.  I love squash and the seasonal varieties that start showing up at the market this time of year are so good and lend themselves well to so many tasty dishes.  It's time to bust out the dutch ovens again and slow cook the heck out of some soups and stews and chilis, oh my!  October is the best on all calendars, especially the culinary calendar.

Besides my birthday, there are some other pretty awesome holidays this month - well there's Halloween and that's just the best darn holiday ever so it's all we really need.  And, since it happens to fall on my birthday weekend this year, I plan on celebrating the heck out of Columbus Day.  In fact, Honey and I are taking advantage of the long weekend and jetting off to the Big Easy for a Birthday Extravaganza!  So, I hope you can all understand why I love October so much and I hope yours starts off as happy as mine did.  And of all my birthday wishes this year, the one I'm really hoping comes true, is that I can find more time in my ever hectic schedule to spend with you, darling readers.  Maybe I'll unwrap some extra hours this Friday.