Grab Bag

October is one of my favorite months here.

The highs aren't so gruesome when interspersed with two inch rains and cool fronts dropping overnight lows into the 50s and 60s.  I think of this as "Hawaii" weather time.

Even though I can't  don't keep close enough track of the forecast to coordinate dinner dishes with the weather, it is soup and stew time at long last.

Tonight we'll try out a corn chowder recipe from America's Test Kitchen.

When we watched the episode and it came time to sample the results of their recipe tweaks, both Test Kitchen regulars involuntarily closed their eyes and murmured their approval.  You can't fake that kind of spontaneous appreciation of goodness (or if you can I don't want to think about why you would).

The only tricky part of the dish was getting kernels of corn off of eight cobs without gluing every part of one corner of my kitchen to every other part.  The spattering of the corn juice was monumentally messy.  At one point I had to take my glasses off because I couldn't see past the starchy stuff sluicing off my lenses.  Now, that's cooking!

Meanwhile, everything outside is expressing appreciation of a kinder gentler version of Texas weather in its own way.

Life is good.