Turnips and gingersnaps
Along with the season of Thanksgiving, there is something about the light, or the smell in the air at this time of year that makes me want to cook and eat turnips. They can be a great addition to a nice turkey barley stew, or they can be boiled and prepared as a simple mash, either with butter, salt and pepper, or boiled with green apples and garnished with a touch of maple syrup. What could be more redolent of traditional Canadian fall fare?
Autumnal weather also urges me to bake. It's a bit early in the season for gingersnaps, which tend to appear closer to Christmas, or at least closer to Halloween, but when I saw my daughter's moose, bear and hedgehog cookie cutters, I was a goner. This year, my usual gingerbread dogs with sugar bead collars get a rest. We stopped making gingerbread men years ago -- eating them felt too cannibalistic.