Crisp Morning Air

Good Morning!
Have you noticed the colder mornings? I have. I leave the house by 6:40am and it's still dark outside. It's cold and sleepy. As I get to work the sun is starting to come up and the crisp blue sky starts to lighten. We have had cold clear mornings that warm up later on. This is the weather I used to hate. I was always cold and it always seemed gloomy and sad that summer had gone with it's light dresses and sun-kissed skin.  Fall and winter always meant stress and loneliness. It's was always filled with that bone deep chill that you could never get rid of no mater how many layers you put on. It was all about layering till you could hardly move, which always annoyed me no end.  I always felt that I could either move and be freezing or be warm and walk and move like a penguin. Nothing against that beautiful bird but I'm not one of them.

Now my feelings on this season has changed. I don't mind the cold and the clear cold air doesn't bug me. I can see the beauty in the season and comfort in a warm blanket. I think a lot of this has to do with my change in life style. Before summer or winter my diet didn't change at all. I ate the same things all year. Now though summer means cold foods and crisp salads. Fall and winter means soups and baked cookies and roasted chicken. These deal with that bone deep chill I was talking about. A big cup of spiced apple cider goes a long way towards warming from the inside out. Spice has also entered my diet whereas before I couldn't handle much heat at all. I have been starting slowly with a little bit of spicy tuna in my sushi and not leaving out all the chili or pepper in whatever I'm making. Not only does this aproch to food make the seasons more bearable, it also makes me feel healthier. It all makes so much more sense to do it this way. To reach for hot apple cider rather then lemonade. So I've been looking for more season friendly recipes. I checked out a number of cook books from the library and have been going through them all. One is about canning and making jam and I think I am going to try it. I'm a little late, I know, to start now as most of the good things to make jam out of are going or have gone out of season. But better late then never. There are loads of things I want to make and I hope to have enough time this weekend to do at least some of them.

hugs+kisses

mce