Viva Voltaire

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. ~Voltaire

“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.” - Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story

6 days before he was set to arrive I stepped out of my apartment this morning and was greeted by that annual friend Autumn. So early, he must be as eager to get here as I am for him to arrive. Cultures have been celebrating the beginning and the end of the harvest season for as long as we’ve been an agrarian people. By the end of winter I’m blue and depressed, but Autumn brings out the best in us. Our windows have been open all weekend and the steadily cooling air has been immensely refreshing.

Autumn brings two things to mind: new beginnings and food. Thanksgiving, Christmas, football, harvest…these things bring different associations to different people but better or worse they mostly make me think of food. Thanksgiving is turkey and stuffing; Christmas ham and mom’s egg bake; football wings and nachos, harvest corn, apples, and bread.

I tried very hard to think of something else, but all I could think about this morning was the eggplant I have in the refrigerator, the beans and ham that I’m cooking tomorrow, where I can find the best recipe for apple pie, the fact that I didn’t buy any sweet potatoes, when I can invite people over for a roast. Cranberries, walnuts, sour dough bread, loaves of whole wheat bread, potatoes, carrots, squash are all going through my mind like a stock ticker.

In the comments section, feel free to let me know what foods you associate with Autumn. I’ll leave you with a few quotes I dug up from a post last year, plus a few more.

“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.” – Jim Davis

Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables. They probably get jet-lagged, just like people. ~Elizabeth Berry

Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that’s bad for you! ~Tommy Smothers