Fall Menu Planning

Cookbooks I’m pulling and seasonal meals

Oct 21, 2024

Cozy season is upon us and there are many months ahead of us where we can bask in the warm glow of candlelight, wrapped up in blankets, and enjoy each other’s company while eating comforting, nourishing food. When I think about the upcoming holiday season filled with obligations (hopefully few) and themed events, I dream of dinners with my husband and nights with friends around my dining table.

Our dining room is my favorite room in our home. It has a vaulted ceiling and huge windows on three sides so it feels like a three season porch when all the blinds are open. The long white table was a wedding gift from our friends, and our record collection gets rotated and put on display every month. We have a whole bookshelf full of board games and role playing games and colorful glass on display. My home is such a sacred, joy-filled space and I love hosting in it.

For the upcoming months, I’m using three cookbooks to plan meals and parties: Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden, Let’s Make Ramen! by Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan, and What Goes With What by Julia Turshen. Each offers something unique and/or has techniques I want to get better at during the fall and winter.

Six Seasons is an old favorite of mine, dividing the year of produce into six seasons rather than four. McFadden describes fall’s produce perfectly: “Vegetables that love the cold–like Brussels sprouts and braising greens–are coming into their prime, sweetened by the cold nights and occasional fall frosts that encourage sugar development.” The veggies really do get sweeter the later they are harvested in the season. I’ll be reaching for this cookbook as the beets, carrots, swiss chard, collards, and kale roll in with our fall and winter CSA (community supported agriculture) box.

Let’s Make Ramen is a comic book cookbook that is just as informational as it is beautiful. It goes through how to prep and store each part of a ramen bowl: broths and stocks, noodles, meat, and accompaniments. The authors take great care to discuss ramen etiquette, and the history of ramen, along with how to riff to build your own ramen bowl. I want to dabble in making ramen from scratch this winter, and stocking the freezer with broths and proteins to whip up a steaming bowl of noodles in the dead of November.

What Goes With What is Julia Turshen’s newest cookbook. I’m a huge Turshen fan, so I knew I was going to get her new cookbook at some point. I just didn’t know when. My husband and I were at an independent bookstore on the day it was released last week, so I just snapped it up! My hopes were high, and I wasn’t disappointed. The book has 100 recipes with charts galore to help you learn how to cook, and what ingredients help you riff on a cooking technique. The sections include soups, stews, and braises, vegetables, rice, more grains and pasta, vegetables, and baked goods. It’s not so long that it’s overwhelming to read or think about cooking through, and filled with a variety of recipes that are interesting to all palates.

Recipe Ideas

Take one or two of the options from each section to make a menu from these three cookbooks. If you don’t have one of them yet, order them through my small business’ Bookshop account (coming soon!), or get it from an independent bookstore in your area. I’m begging you to not get it from a big box store (i.e. Barnes & Noble or Target), or heaven forbid, Amazon.

For a night after work

Adobo Chicken Ramen (Six Seasons, p. 163)
Gingery Baby Bok Choy (What Goes With What, p. 80)
Kale Sauce with Any Noodle (Six Seasons, p. 312)
Kimchi-Braised Chicken Ramen (Let’s Make Ramen, p. 156)
Shaved Fennel + Apple Salad (What Goes With What p. 46)
Stewed Collards with Beans and a Parmigiano Rind (Six Seasons, p. 307)
Winter Chopped Salad (What Goes With What, p. 36)

For a special occasion

Chicken Scarpariello (What Goes With What, p. 156)
Classic Caesar with Big Crunchy Croutons (What Goes With What, p. 30)
The Kale Salad That Started It All (Six Seasons, p. 309)
Roasted Beet, Citrus, and Olive Salad with Horseradish (Six Seasons, p. 280)
Roasted Chicken Pot Pie (What Goes With What, p. 246)
Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Salsa Macha (What Goes With What, p. 90)

For a pals night at home

Curry Ramen (Let’s Make Ramen, p. 154)
Gratin of Brussels Sprouts, Gruyère, and Prosciutto (Six Seasons, p. 289)
Italian Sausage + Ricotta Meatballs (What Goes With What p. 218)
Roasted Squash Soup (What Goes With What, p. 130)
Swiss Chard, Leek, Herb, and Ricotta Crostata (Six Seasons, p. 302)
Twice Baked Cacio e Pepe Potatoes (What Goes With What, p. 98)

Here’s how I would combine a few of these recipes to make a meal:

Chicken Scarpariello & The Kale Salad That Started It All
Gratin of Brussels Sprouts, Gruyère, and Prosciutto & Roasted Squash Soup
Kale Sauce with Any Noodle & Winter Chopped Salad
Kimchi-Braised Chicken Ramen & Gingery Baby Bok Choy
Roasted Chicken Pot Pie & Classic Caesar with Big Crunchy Croutons

I hope you are all ready for the transition into hibernation season! I know I am.

I’m getting out the fall candles I didn’t get through last year, pulling my casserole dishes to the front, and mentally preparing for a longer amount of time in the kitchen cooking - my favorite.

Audrey’s Cookbooks Updates

The pop-up event at Bench Pressed was so fun! I feel very appreciative of everyone who came out to say hi, buy a cookbook, and support our buds at Bench Pressed. It really is one of the best gift stores of all time.

Next weekend is our first big market selling cookbooks at Cake Plus Size Resale’s Fat-O-Ween event on Sunday October 27th from 12pm to 4pm There will be close to 20 vendors, a costume contest at 2pm, and you can shop at Cake since the market is happening in the parking lot right next to the shop. See you there!

I’m working on getting an account up and running on Bookshop so you can order all your books (not just cookbooks) online through Audrey’s Cookbooks. The business gets a percentage of sales, so this is a way to continue to support the shop. Stay tuned to our Instagram (or the next newsletter) for when it goes live!

Things I Like

Two tone floral arrangements like this one below from Madrid Flower School and this one.
I made a roasted carrot ginger soup (a variation of this recipe) and it was magic how good it was!
This perfect plate with a hunk of bread, compound butter, and a quarter of a tomato - what an appetizer dream!
My husband plans our spooky season themed movies for October every year. This year is Missing People, and we’ve got three under our belts already: The Host, Lake Mungo, and I Saw the TV Glow. I’m not usually a horror gal so I’ve never seen any of these movies before he shows them to me, and I always appreciate them after watching! Don’t count out horror as a genre, folks! You can read a bunch of other suggestions for spooky triple features in his latest newsletter.
Small chicken pot pies made in muffin tins! I feel like this is one of those things that just feels so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it first. Genius. Will be trying this fall/winter!