Something In The Tastebuds

We woke up to the first frost on the ground two mornings ago, and today it was overcast, calm, and smelling clean, so naturally I got up thinking about apple and cinnamon muffins.

Autumn is starting to gently ring its dulcet doorbell through hearth-based memories of fireplaces, root vegetables and warm spices. I begin thinking about how, over candlelight dinners, we’ll sustain ourselves through the long, cold, and quiet winter nights ahead with the telling and retelling of cherished stories set in the heat and sun and merriment of high summer. And we’ll plan with unblemished optimism for the days to come.

I think I’m finally getting the value of this “seasons” thing.

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I made the Apple Cinnamon Muffins found in [easyazon-link asin=”1551522349″ locale=”us”]Get It Ripe[/easyazon-link] by the great and magical Torontonian cookbook author, [easyazon-link asin=”1551522543″ locale=”us”]Jae Steele[/easyazon-link].

[easyazon-image align=”none” asin=”1551522349″ locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yfOWuWFdL._SL160_.jpg” width=”132″]

Jae can’t help being a Canadian vegan who cooks AMAZING things that even omnivores love to eat. That’s just how she rolls. (And by the way, that’s a very teeny demographic, as yet.)

I only had two apples, and by the time I had made a quarter recipe of the jiffy-quick homemade applesauce (also in Jae’s book) with the only two apples we had in residence, I realized I was one apple short of a load for the muffin recipe. So I used a peach we had canned last year instead.

Autumn Tastebuds-2

So… technically this is a Peach Cinnamon Muffin with Apple Sauce.

Autumn can be unpredictable. You just need to go all French cuisine with it and roll with what’s available.

That’s why the French enjoy their food so much. No one year is the same as the next, and the combination of what’s available today for tonight’s dinner and what’s available next week, next month, or next year will never be the same. You just need to fully appreciate what’s in front of you, now, knowing this meal and this moment will never pass this way again.

Savor whatever muffin emerges warm with cheddar cheese so old it schisms into techtonic plates of creamy, pungent flakes.

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With virtually no salt, less than a teaspoon of olive oil and sugar (in the form of maple syrup) per muffin, and loaded with whole-grain spelt flour, apples, peaches, walnuts, raisins, apple cider vinegar, and a touch of cinnamon, there are worse ways to welcome in your own personal autumn.

 

 

One thought on “Something In The Tastebuds

  1. Kathy P.

    So yummy! Looks delicious and sounds inspiring. Very happily, we welcome fall! Montana peaks are cloaked again in gorgeous white, and my first (spelt!) bread of the season warmed our kitchen yesterday. We also await the quiet winter evenings — savory suppers, cozy blankets for reading, a wood fire burning low at bedtime. . .

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