This week we lit the season’s first fire. It was the cat’s idea. The day had been damp and sniveling and darkness fell early. As we scraped the last of dinner from our plates, Ella Jane ventured onto the raised hearth of the woodstove and parked herself by its door, looking not ahead, into the cold steel of the stove, but back toward us with steely reserve. It wasn’t a trick she’s pulled before, but nonetheless her message was clear: Make me a fire.
Philosophers say such behavior in animals displays “propositional attitude,” suggesting a capacity to formulate internal states and ideas, a sign of consciousness and cognition. Well, duh. Anyone who’s lived with a domesticated mammal knows that not only can their companions develop thoughts about the future, they’re doing so all the time. And no one would call it propositional. They’d just call it thinking.
Anyway, as my husband heeded the call and began to lay the fire, Ella decamped to her fleecy bed next to the hearth and started making biscuits. Communication is message received.
The season has me thinking about autumnal foods
Stews, braises, savory pies, roasted squashes, root vegetables, everything dressed with butter and sage and cheese. Fall cuisine in northern New England is earthy, rich, spiced, hearty, filling, and warm. The flavors tend toward the dark end of the spectrum in contrast to summer’s brights.
Autumnal foods are, significantly, cooked foods—or cured or pickled, smoked or dried—but in any case transformed into something different and more complex than their original state. We invented such preservation techniques to fill our family’s larder in the fall so we could eat well all winter. Today, even if few people remain who process a year’s worth of produce at harvest, the flavors and textures of these foods still season our notion of what Fall tastes like.
Of course, there must be wine
Yes, pairing is far from a science, and it’s also deeply personal, not to mention culturally constructed. But disclaimers aside, a good wine and food pairing makes a third thing happen within the soul that neither element could conjure alone.
Below are a few styles I recommend with autumnal meals. It’s not a definitive list, but enough to whet the appetite: