I mind that it was 83°F yesterday. The Halloween Snickers bars got a little gooey, but at least the trick-or- treating children didn’t have to wear snow jackets over their Halloween costumes. They were full of giggles and energy, and they sported vivid green hair dye jobs and homemade costumes as they tripped merrily along the sidewalks of our neighborhood, stockpiling their goodies. Halloween came and went, as per the calendar. Which means that today, November 1, should be cool and autumnal: sweater and soup season.

Yes, indeed.

So I am going to stop my belly-aching and make some soup. We have a drawerful of vegetables, and a chicken carcass and an agenda. We will eat dinner tonight, and the leftovers will make a fine weekend lunch. Waste not, want not. My favorite chicken soup will fill the air in the house with the aroma of home. It can cure almost anything, including Election Day jitters.

Words to the wise: you are going to need chicken soup sooner or later this winter. And, no, it will never taste as good as your mother’s, or your abuelita’s, or anything from some mythical Lower East Side Jewish deli, with containers of chicken schmaltz on all the tables. And that’s OK. You are making new memories, (and dinner) and it is your homemade creation. It will ward off the flu, and you will feel talented and virtuous for boiling up a huge stockpot of your own soup! Maurice Sendak will hover behind you, proudly, as you measure out the rice. And soon you will be sipping your own chicken soup with rice.

Homemade Chicken Stock
1 deboned chicken carcass, including skin OR 1 whole chicken (you could even cheat and buy a rotisserie chicken!)
6 quarts water
6 garlic cloves, smashed
2 carrots, roughly chopped
3 celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
4 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Salt (optional!)
1.Use a large stock pot, and add butter and chicken over medium heat. Brown them a little bit.
2.Add all the rest of the ingredients, and bring to a boil.
3.Boil for 3 minutes, then turn heat down to low.
4.Cover, and simmer for about 3-4 hours, stirring every once in a while.
5.Once it’s a golden color, strain and let cool. Put in the refrigerator overnight, then skim the fat off the top.

Or, if you are pressed for time, Chicken Soup (not completely homemade – but you feel a cold coming on)
Olive oil
Half an onion, minced
2 carrots, finely diced
Bay leaf
A sprig of fresh thyme, or a few shakes of dried
2 quarts chicken stock (or canned broth – this is for the few of us who tossed out the chicken carcass early, never thinking of the soup possibilities. Shamefully, I have done this many times.)
1 cup uncooked, long grain rice (or, if you are a noodle family, have your wicked way with them)
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken

1.Heat the olive oil in the bottom of a large, heavy-bottomed skillet.
2.Add onion and carrot, and sauté till soft, 5-7 minutes.
3.Add bay leaf, thyme, and chicken broth, and bring to a boil.
4.Reduce to a simmer and add rice and chicken.
5.Let soup bubble, stirring occasionally, till rice is cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.

This will be much better than Lipton’s Chicken Noodle dried-powder and freeze-dried chicken bits. And certainly better than Campbell’s. Have you ever seen those pinkish chicken nubbins in the bottom of a Campbell’s can? Ick!

Soup is the most versatile of foods. It reminds us of the security of our childhoods, it stretches to feed unexpected company, it is easy to make and is always well received. It smells of holidays past. Make a batch of turkey soup after Thanksgiving, and in a single sniff you can relive the whole meal – without having to iron the tablecloth or to watch a single moment of football.

Don’t take my word for it: Food52 has hot and cold soup recipes. You can be ready with soup, whatever the weather: Food52 Soups

Remember to vote on Tuesday!

“There is nothing like soup. It is by nature eccentric: no two are ever alike, unless of course you get your soup in a can.”
—Laurie Colwin

The Spy Test Kitchens have been enjoying a breath of fresh fall air. We have flown the coop for a few days, so this is a column from our own Way Back Machine.

The days have been beautiful with bright azure skies, brisk zephyrs, and a touch of frost on the windshield in the morning. It is a good time for walks with Luke the wonder dog, who was heartily tired of the hot summer. The brown, fallen leaves make poking his nose in every bush an even more intriguing activity from his point of view, while more annoying to my end of the leash. I do enjoy trailing a curious, buoyant dog, happily trotting ahead of me, than the pokey puppy I was hauling around the neighborhood all summer long.

Luke is also fond of taking car rides. He likes going along on short excursions to the farm stand for various seasonal purchases. In the past few weeks we’ve taken trips to buy chrysanthemum plants for the front porch, pumpkins that we will never carve, and the most recent visit was to acquire more than enough apple cider to make a batch of apple cider doughnuts. There is nothing more tempting than a clutch of home-made doughnuts over a weekend. We have no steely resolve in this house as we prepare for our annual doughnut nosh.

At least we aren’t frying the doughnuts, so we can enjoy the first tastes of fall without worrying about fats and all of the cardiac dangers associated with fried foods. I love the silicone doughnut molds we have, which are bright Lego colors. These molds are doughnut-shaped so we don’t have the added temptation of orphan doughnut holes, sitting sadly on the kitchen counter, singing their alluring siren songs. I love the genius of reducing the cider on top of the stove to concentrate its flavor. This is why we like to read recipes, to wallow in the vast and varied experiences of the home cooks who have cooked before! These doughnuts taste like a visit to the farm stand, without all the car windows wide open to give Luke the cheap breezy thrills of a car ride to the country: Baked Apple Cider Donuts

If you do want the experience of frying doughnuts, à la Homer Price , please take a look at Mark Bittman’s recipe for fried apple cider doughnuts. I haven’t tried this recipe, but I bet it is deelish: Apple Cider Doughnuts

Apple cider doughnuts only require about a cup and a half of cider. Whatever should we do with the rest of the half gallon? We are concerned about food waste, and apple cider is so delicious! Naturally our thoughts first turn to cocktails: Apple Cider Smash

Spiked Hot Apple Cider Punch

And you can kill many trendy birds with this stone: Apple Cider Spritz

But life is not a big cocktail party, sadly. We do need to eat dinner and be civilized for the greater part of the day. This is an ingenious way to use up some cider, and do something different with sausage: Sausage and Apple pie

And here is a handy dandy list of recipes, for when you are tired of apple cider, but don’t want to waste a drop: Extra Cider Recipes

It is a good time for change. It’s nice to wear sweaters again. Socks! What a novelty! I even had to pull on gloves for this morning’s trot through the neighborhood. I know in January that a 46°F morning will seem balmy, but today I watched mist rising from the grass where the sun was burning off the dew, and it felt good to bundle up a little bit. It will be divine to sink our teeth into warm, sweet apple cider doughnuts, too. Welcome, fall!

“Two sounds of autumn are unmistakable…the hurrying rustle of crisp leaves blown along the street…by a gusty wind, and the gabble of a flock of migrating geese.”
― Hal Borland

Food Friday: Art by Jean Sanders

Go open your back door this morning and feel the cool air. It’s not quite sweater weather, although I did wear long sleeves walking Luke the wonder dog earlier. The breeze holds the promise of fall. As the sun rose today, wisps of fog wafted through the neighbor’s trees, and the mockingbirds were scolding louder than the blue jays. The wrens complained. The squirrelly boys lept fearlessly from the roof to the pliant arborvitae branches below. Our transition to fall has arrived.

Having cooler temperatures makes more things possible. It doesn’t seem onerous to have the oven chugging away baking potatoes at 450°F when it is cooler outside. It’s not like during the summer, when the oven seems to heat up the whole house. Although it would be more practical to have a compact, shoebox-sized toaster oven for potato baking – we just don’t have any space left for a toaster oven. Instead, our countertop is littered with a curated collection of olive oils, salt boxes, a pepper grinder, a bowl of fruit, Luke’s pills (he’s developed arthritis!), paper towels, dishwashing liquid, a vital Kleenex box (allergies abound in October) and the all-important coffee grinder and electric kettle. There is just no space for a toaster oven. Welcome to our cozy kitchen; warm and toasty from October to March.

Our dinner last night would never work for a typical family – meaning one with adults and school-age children. We had twice-baked potatoes and a salad; adding a protein seemed Herculean and unimaginable. We were glued to the iPad, watching the news about Hurricane Milton and the latest presidential campaign mic drop. Who had time to broil chops, or to roast a chicken? It was all we could do was to eat nice hot, steaming potatoes garnished with sour cream, grated cheddar cheese, bacon, left-over chili, dusted with Penzeys herbs, and green onions. Mr. Sanders added some healthy greeny broccolini and a handful of chopped tomatoes, because he is such a show off. He also made a side salad of cool Romaine and arugula, which was our nod to healthy eating. Plus we had a bowlful of baby carrots in lieu of fatty crunchy cocktail snacks as an appetizer. We ate our veggies, honest. Because there were fresh, home-baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Grown ups, yes, maintaining our priorities, thank you.

Poke around the fridge to be sure you have enough in the way of decorative and tasty garnishes for your potatoes. I had to excavate the freezer, digging through layers of frozen corn and ice cream sandwiches before I finally unearthed the chili from a couple of weeks ago.

Some folks like to rub potato skins with butter or olive oil before roasting. It is important to prick your potatoes to let the steam escape while they are cooking. I use a long cooking fork, and really spear the potatoes. Then I cheat a little, by popping the potatoes into the microwave for about 3 minutes on high for each potato. I also cook them singly, because I find the microwave math daunting. Then I pop them right in the preheated oven, on the oven rack, at 450°F for half an hour. Maybe I don’t need that toaster oven after all. I use Russet potatoes, because that’s what we had growing up, and I am sure Martha says so, too.

J. Kenji López-Alt, who does extensive and exhaustive recipe testing, recommends baking potatoes, preferably Russets, at 375°F for about an hour (the more moderate oven temperature produces a creamy, fluffy interior). Early on I had an art director who scoffed at such niceities. She believed in cooking things FAST. 450°F was her preferred temperature for a lot of foods. Never argue with your art director. And last night she was right, again. Thanks, Pat!

Baked potatoes with cheddar and bacon

Baked potato toppings

Nothing is as good as this, the perfect baked potato: with a knob of Irish butter, crunchy Maldon salt, and a pinch of freshly ground black pepper for a good, quick, hot and homey dinner on a cool night. Everything else you can add as a topping is just deelish window dressing.

“Wherever you come near the human race there’s layers and layers of nonsense. Look at that moon. Potato weather for sure.”
—Thornton Wilder

Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.

Like Milo, the little boy in The Phantom Tollbooth, I am often looking ahead, which diminishes the piquancy of the current moment. Milo wanted to know what would happen next, and what was around the corner. “Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you’re going.”
― Norton Juster

I am looking forward to fall, because it is October, after all. I want to wear comfy sweaters, shuffle through leaf piles, and fling the windows open. I am looking forward to wearing socks, planting bulbs and buying pumpkins for Halloween. I was not ready when the November issue of Cook’s Illustrated magazine thumped into our mailbox. It’s only October – who needs to read about Top Turkey FAQs? Or The Best Cranberry Sauce is Relish? But the final straw was the Vive le Croquembouche! piece. Tempus fugit and all that – I cannot go from the lazy summer dinners of grilled burgers and barbequed chicken to full on Thanksgiving holiday prep. Should we brine, or salt the turkey? Cast iron cornbread dressing? How to reheat the leftovers…

October is all about resetting our internal clocks and adjusting expectations. Let’s take things step by step. Pass me that full-sized Snickers bar, I need to start practicing Halloween, and then we’ll start thinking about nice fall-ish, October meals. We’ll start by moving inside, and re-acquainting ourselves with the stove.

I’m pretty sure all my mother ever did with pork chops was lightly brown them in a Revereware frying pan then toss them into a Pyrex baking dish and let the oven take over. (She did not believe in exotic convenience foods like Shake N’Bake.) She included a side dish of homemade coleslaw and a bowl of cinnamon-y apple sauce. And now you see my stodgy New England side: no fuss, no muss, and a lot of colorless food. Surely we have advanced a little here in this very modern twenty-first century?

Food52 has a spicy, colorful paprika inspired pork chop recipe.

Mark Bittman, never one to fuss, has a sautéed pork chop recipe

Of course, Martha has a complicated variation on my mother’s applesauce pork chops by Martha https://www.marthastewart.com/341389/pork-chops-with-apple-raisin-relish

Bon Appétit has the answer for everyone – BA’s pork chop variations

The New York Times had this deelish variation that we cooked so I could paint a decent illustration (as well as eating a nice Sunday dinner): Skillet Pork Chops and Apples

I also made a batch of my mother’s cole slaw, so we were respecting tradition, as well as feeling hip and modern by tossing a little miso into the pork chop skillet. The apples were our seasonal gesture toward fall – even though it is sunny and 78° this morning as I type. Still, it is not in the 80s, and Luke the wonder dog is happily napping, resting up from his morning walk, while anticipating his afternoon stroll. Maybe we need to re-name him Milo.

Fall is coming. Don’t look ahead on the calendar. Don’t think about Thanksgiving just yet. Buy some apples and cider at the farm stand, and then a couple of pumpkins. The mums are radiating beams of color and light. The birds are coming back. And grab me another Snickers, please.

“When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he’d even bothered.”
― Norton Juster

It has been the longest, hottest summer on record! And it’s almost October. Although we are keeping an eye on the latest hurricane threat: stay safe, Florida!

As we try to walk our 10,000 steps every day, lingering under the shady trees as much as possible, Luke the wonder dog and I long to be home, in the coolth. Luke can at least lie on the floor, on top of the air conditioning vent. He also doesn’t have to worry about what to do with the sudden abundance of zucchini. Like Homer Price’s doughnuts, ripening zucchini is everywhere. Luckily, there are just about as many recipes for zucchini as there are the ubiquitous and magically regenerating vegetables themselves.
It’s that time of year. Again. Neighbors furtively slipping their excess zucchini harvest onto your front porch, before dashing back home. These are the times that try cooks’ souls: what to do with all the excess zucchini baggage.

Luckily it’s been a great tomato season, and they provide excellent camouflage for zucchini: Zucchini Tomato Gratin

What are we to do with all the zucchini? It doesn’t look very nice on the windowsill – the end-of-summer tomatoes in varying stages of turning from green to red are much more attractive. An elegant galette is a good way to start your purge. The crust is easy and forgiving, and it is soothing to lay out all the zucchini rings in ever widening circles. You will look very competent and trustworthy. And then you can start to spring these other surprises on the unsuspecting. If you have a garden, you have been harvesting tomatoes with a greedy heart, thinking about the jars of spaghetti sauce you will enjoy this winter. But what about that ever-rising green mountain of zucchini? You need to put on your thinking cap, and find some creative culinary solutions. Zucchini Ricotta Galette

Zucchini boat recipes are popular. I like the idea of filling hollowed out vessels of zucchini with a variety of fixings, vegetarian or not, and using up all the lingering leftovers. Zucchini Boats

Luckily, zucchini is oh, so versatile. You can find it in soups, salad, chips, galettes, casseroles, hidden in breads and cookies. You can roast it, slice it, twirl it. This is a link to a virtual compendium of Zucchini Recipes.

Do not be sneaky with zucchini. You don’t want to be the formerly favorite aunt who brings zucchini ginger cupcakes to the birthday party. Kids have a different perspective on summer. They never forget so-called “gourmet” baking experiments, or deliberate kid deceptions. Zucchini Ginger Muffins Yummy icing is always welcomed.

Nobody is fooled by zucchini bread. Least of all the small children into whom you are trying to stuff healthy vegetables. They are wise to your ways. Discuss the benefits of adding vegetables to your daily diet before feeding them this delicious Lemon Zucchini Bread. We are very excited about this Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

“The trouble is, you cannot grow just one zucchini. Minutes after you plant a single seed, hundreds of zucchini will barge out of the ground and sprawl around the garden, menacing the other vegetables. At night, you will be able to hear the ground quake as more and more zucchinis erupt.”*
-Dave Barry

*This is my favorite zucchini quotation of all time, and I haul it out almost every year.

Last weekend Mr. Sanders and I stole some time away from Luke the wonder dog. We plied him with a red rubber Kong stuffed with a huge gobbet of peanut butter. We scampered out of the house to pile into the car which was packed to capacity. No, we weren’t sneaking out for an impromptu vacation or to a swanky club for the newest in artfully curated cocktails. No. It was a Saturday, and we were driving to the dump, with a load of broken pecan branches and fragrant grass cuttings. The dump is where we went on our significant 40th wedding anniversary, an occasion which we documented with a rare selfie.

Our drive to the dump is short. We leave the leafy neighborhood to travel past the packed Target parking lot, past the commuity college, onto a highway where we can gauge the seasons by the passing trees: bare, leafy, or blooming copses of crape myrtles, and rows of tall, blue-green pine trees that bend and wave in the wind. Off the highway, under some towering power lines, we see fields whose crops change seasonally: collards, tobacco, sunflowers, beans, and corn.

Then we see a couple of vine-covered, tumble-down brick buildings in what must have been a tiny town center – or more accurately, a crossroads, which, since we didn’t grow up here, has an air of mystery for us. Why were these buildings abandoned? Who lived there? Do moody introspective high school students come out here to take pictures for their yearbook portraits? I hope it isn’t Japanese knotweed cozying up to those buildings. Maybe it’s just Virginia creeper or kudzu. We never consider the more prosaic reasons of death, or taxes, as reasons why the buildings stand empty when we drive by. The abandoned hamlet is the stuff of Nancy Drew, or Stephen King, to our passing fancies.

The dump isn’t a vast cinematic wasteland, with piles of abandoned cars and hills of discarded soda cans guarded by snarling dogs. It is an about an acre plot with a paved fenced-in area, run by a staff of earnest, plump, boiler-suited men. There are about a dozen open shipping containers; all are battered and rusting, labeled CARDBOARD, YARD WASTE, METAL, MIXED PAPER with other corners in the yard designated for HAZARDOUS WASTE, HOUSEHOLD ITEMS, and ELECTRONICS. We deposit our branches, and grass, and the paper yard waste bags appropriately, and within minutes we are on our way again. This time we are extending our adventure, and testing Luke’s bonhomie, and are going to take a joyride ride to a popular farmstand.

White’s is a crowd-pleasing Instagram presence, which accounts for its packed parking lot whenever we visit. Besides their seasonal flowers and produce, in true entreprenurial fashion, they also sell ice cream and have a massive play area for children – it is quite the happening place. All they lack is a signature artisanal cocktail.

This sunny September weekend the display tables, and a large field, are crammed with potted chrysanthemum plants. White, yellow, pink, purple, red, and orange plants are packed onto all the long wooden tables, and dozens of people are loading up their little red wagons with mums, pumpkins and tomatoes. We are no different: we snatch up 3 HUGE yellow mums, 2 reasonably-sized slicer tomatoes for end-of-the-summer sandwiches, and one small festive pumpkin for the kitchen table.

I will not mention pumpkin spices again until Thanksgiving, which is the only decent time of year to invoke those words, à la Beetlejuice. We will not be preparing pumpkins for human consuption just yet. And when we do, we will be delighted to re-discover that pumpkins are not just for Halloween decorations and Thanksgiving pie. But not yet. It will be time soon enough to expand our repertoires and use some of our local produce with seasonal gusto. Right now we need to enjoy the transition from the tediously long and blazingly hot summer to the relative coolth of September, when we can catch our breaths and await the arrival of Halloween. And eat tomato sandwiches.

We buzzed home to Luke, who seemingly napped while we were out. He never missed us, and he did not appreciate our beautiful mums and pumpkin trophies. He did enjoy eating a juicy red tomato wedge. Luke likes some farmstand finds. And Luke believes in shopping local, and taking your dog to the farmers’ market. Good dog, Luke!

“Pleased to meet you, I’m sure,” he observed as he sniffed round our ankles. “Excuse the noise, won’t you, but I have my job to do. Got to be careful who we let in, you know. But it’s a dull life and I’m really quite pleased to see a visitor. Dogs of your own, I fancy?”
― Agatha Christie

Tailgating season has begun, and the Spy Test Kitchens have been busy testing and tasting, planning and plotting, shopping and schlepping. It is a wonderful time of year, with the changing seasons, exciting sporting events, and all sorts of socializing which still feels like a huge relief after the COVID years. (But be sure to get your boosters and your flu shot – you don’t want to get sick and miss the big game.)

Some folks go to great lengths to have an Instagram-worthy tailgate event. Think Martha. Think color coordination. Think branding. I’d rather focus on some delicious food to share with friends. You’ll have to decide if you will prepare your foods in advance, or if you will be cooking on site. It’s tricky to pack all that grilling equipment, but experienced season ticket holders have personal systems for packing the car with all their food, grill, ice, cups, corn hole board and dog bowls. I admire their organizational skills.

The week before a tailgate I have Post Its sticking up everywhere, reminding me what I need to bring: cups, table cloth, paper towels, Wet Wipes, Off, plastic ware, plates, nibbles, buns, beer, fizzy water, Cokes, cupcakes, a pop-up tent, chairs, blankets, picnic basket, raincoats… It is an endless, ever-changing list.

Here is a more definitive check list of tailgate necessities:
Ice – in a cooler (which doubles as extra seating)
Folding table & camping chairs
Tablecloth (if you have a long table, consider using a fitted sheet)
Grill and lighter fluid (check the rules – be sure you can have an open flame)
Matches
Grilling utensils
Paper plates
Plastic utensils and cups
Napkins
Wipes and paper towels
Bottle opener and koozies
Trash bags
Beverages and mixers
Condiments
Water

Our Luke the wonder dog is always up for an outdoor adventure. He tried to figure out how to chase after a frisbee at a University of Florida tailgate, but he is more adept at, and much prefers, chasing his favorite ball, so I have to be remember to pack his Chuckit ball and launcher. And his bed – Luke is 14, and likes his canine comfort.

I try to keep the food simple, and make sandwiches ahead of time. Luke still dreams about the giant 8 ounce bacon burger he had at his Florida game. But we were all younger then, and foolish, and thought nothing about calories and heart health. Now is the time (for us humans, at any rate) to modify our behavior. One of my faves is a French ham and butter sandwich on a fresh baguette: baguette, ham, and lotsa good butter. What more could you need?

Perhaps a Pan Bagnat. I substitute chicken in mine, not being a huge tuna fan.
Pan Bagnat

We have even been known to stop by the grocery store deli counter to pick up a few ready made sandwiches before a game. So easy, so deelish. Food prepared by other people always seems to taste better. More tailgating sandwich ideas: Tailgate Sandwiches

Martha always has wonderful presentation, but Martha also has a staff of ambitious and talented Martha Wannabees. I do not have the stamina for a fully thematic tailgate. I might bake some football-themed cupcakes, but that is where my cleverness end. My energy wanes, and truly, my ideas for tailgate foods are the sorts of things we prepared for little boy birthday parties, not this sort of grand bon vivant gesture: Martha’s Game Day Recipes

I will pack up a warm platter of pigs-in-blankets and stuff it into a thermal bag, so they are still warm-ish as we socialize. Fresh, warm, soft pretzels are always gobbled up. Apples, veggie platters, charcuterie boards, barbecued chicken, cookies and Doritos go with us to the game, but very few ever come home again. The playful outdoor atmosphere leads to healthy appetites at a tailgate: Rule of Thumb – always bring more than you think you will need. And don’t forget your tickets to the game!

Garden & Gun’s Tailgating How Tos

Southern Living’s Tailgating Ideas

“I think baking cookies is equal to Queen Victoria running an empire. There’s no difference in how seriously you take the job, how seriously you approach your whole life.”
—Martha Stewart

I had to stop and gawp at this multi-color arrangement of carrots at our Food Lion the other day. It was not the usual pyramid of plastic bags of orange carrots – it was masterful – a veritable real life example of color theory. Someone had thoughtfully arranged fresh-from-the-field jewel-colored orange, tan, tangerine, ochre, marigold, pumpkin, copper, plum, mulberry, aubergine, wine and violet carrots under a mister in the produce department. Who needs Pantone color chips when the grocery store is just around the corner?

Imagine – carrots that come in colors other than Pantone Orange 021 U orange! I performed a very unscientific survey of what was available to me at the grocery store: I observed orange carrots that came in a clear plastic bag, with orange stripes printed on the outside to enhance the carrots’s color within. I found lopped-off-tops carrots not in plastic bags, that were about the same color orange as the bagged carrots. I discovered deeper orange carrots, but without the unnecessary, difficult-to-dispose-of plastic bag, that had not lost their green heads. And finally some organic carrots, without plastic, with tops, that were almost the color of radishes. Maybe an earthier red – almost a raspberry Jujube candy color. Guess which was sweeter? Yes, indeed, the Pantone 186 C.

You can slice, dice or cube carrots, juice them, shred them, boil them, grill, roast or braise them. Put them in soup, make carrot soup, shred and use in a cake, or in meatballs, or in meatloaf. The number of ways to use carrots is exhausting, as is the number of varieties: Carrots

The orange-colored carrot originated in the Netherlands. On my only trip to Amsterdam I was served a bowl of carrot soup – which was a mind-blowing experience to someone so unworldly, who was used to only eating carrots raw. When my first friend to be married chose a carrot cake for her wedding, we were astounded by her originality. Today we are just such blasé sophisticates that we are open to innovation and the dozens of ways to use carrots. Carrots aren’t just a root vegetable that we store and use as winter fuel. Add some color to your diets. Here is a free recipe from Dorie Greenspan via the New York Times for her insanely divine carrot cake: Carrot Cake

Bon Appétit has dozens of carrot-worthy ideas: BA Carrot Recipes

And so does delish: delish Carrot Recipes

As ever, Food52 knows exactly what to do with your fridge-ful of carrots: Food52 Carrot Recipes

I love eating raw vegetables. I cannot see much sense in stewing them to pulp – unless you are tossing them into soup. (And then they are easy to push to the side and ignore.) Always try to be the cook – then you can get your fill and the pick of the bounty. Luke the wonder dog has an affinity for carrots, too. Some nights we take turns: one carrot chunk for me, one for him, and one for the salad.

One of my favorite ways to prepare vegetables is roasting. Roasting at a high heat converts a plain vegetable into a delicious caramelized treat. You can roast any type of vegetable you want with this basic recipe. Adjust the amount of oil you use accordingly. We’ve roasted asparagus, garlic, squash, broccoli, potatoes, cauliflower, bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, corn, carrots, zucchini, you name it.
Roasted Veggie Mélange
1.Preheat oven to 450° F.
2.Toss all the vegetables together in a large bowl with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
3.Divide the vegetables among two cookie sheets – mine have sides, for less spillage. Put fast cooking vegetables together, and group the slow cookers likewise. Fewer headaches!
4.Roast vegetables for 35-40 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so.

The vegetables cook quickly — some vegetables may take only 15 to 20 minutes — but they still have a chance to brown nicely on the outside by the time they become tender inside. So keep an eye on them. Carmelized onions are one thing, blackened and incinerated are another.

It’s very important that you cut the vegetables in pieces of about the same size. Unevenly sized pieces won’t roast and brown in the same amount of time, and you’ll end up with both over roasted and under roasted vegetables. And if you have any fussy eaters, you won’t be able to persuade them to enjoy the rich roasted flavors of fall, so be sure to have a back up reserve of deelish raw veggies.

“I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.”
― Mae West

Art by Jean Sanders

This is the Spy Test Kitchen’s favorite time of the year – when we pull out our annual sandwich ingredients list. Have an excellent school year!

I always loved that first day of school: new shoes, new notebooks, new pencils, and a pristine box of still-pointy, aromatic crayons. Though I always forgot about about my crippling anxiety about my locker combination. I never recalled the social implications of lunchroom seating during those leisurely summer hours, either. When I was a responsible parental-unit, I loved shopping for school supplies, and shoes, and new lunch boxes. It was only after the sun set on the night before school started that I confronted the horror: the woeful lack of organization in our lives.

While the young ’uns were setting out their new sneakers for the morning, and frantically paging through books that should have been read weeks before, I was peering into the fridge and taking stock of our jumble of foodstuffs. What nutritional and tempting combinations could I conjure that would actually be eaten? Once, when Mr. Sanders had been out of town for a very long business trip, we attempted to set a world’s record for eating pizza for every meal, for many days in a row. I understand that that sort of tomfoolery doesn’t set a good example nowadays with iPhones and social media.

Now all the cool kids have cute, eco-friendly, bento box lunch boxes, Mr. Sanders included. There are cunning little compartments for vegetables, for fruits, for proteins. Some people cut vegetables on Sunday afternoons, and put them in the fridge for easy access on school mornings. They roll up lettuce wraps, dice carrots, prepare tuna salad, bake muffins and stack little cups of applesauce. These people also involve their children in the lunch assembly process. Loathsome creatures… The despair I often felt in those dark, early mornings racing to get lunches made before the school bus arrived no longer exists, because now people are grown up and organized and thorough. And you can be, too.

While we are still leftover-dependent in this house, these folks know what to do about school lunch organization: Make Ahead Lunches

A handy guide to Sunday night preps: Make Ahead Prep And at Food52, the ever-clever Amanda always has some really fab lunch ideas. Amanda’s Clever Lunch Ideas

And now, with shameless drumroll, is the Spy Test Kitchen lunch list, which I haul out, shamelessly, every fall. Feel free to make your own spreadsheet, Google Doc or PowerPoint deck so you never have another moment of lunch ennui. The Test Kitchen came up with this flexible list of ingredients for packing school lunches a few years ago.
It is just as timely today:
Luncheon Variations

Column A
Let’s start with bread:
Ciabatta bread
Rye bread
Whole grain breads
Hard rolls
Portuguese rolls
French baguette
s
Italian bread
Brioche
 rolls
Flour tortillas
Croissants
Bagels
Challah bread
Crostini
Cornbread
Naan bread
Focaccia bread
Pita bread
If storing overnight, layer bread with lettuce first, then add the spreads, to keep sandwich from getting soggy.

Column B
Next, the spread:
Mayo
Sriracha
Ketchup
Dijon mustard
Honey mustard
Italian dressing
Russian dressing
Cranberry sauce
Pesto sauce
Hummus
Tapenade
Sour cream
Chutney
Butter
Hot sauce
Salsa
Salsa verde

Column C
Cheeses:
Swiss cheese
American cheese
Mozzarella
Blue cheese
Cream cheese
Havarti cheese
Ricotta cheese
Cheddar cheese
Provolone cheese
Brie cheese
Cottage cheese
Goat cheese

Column D
The main ingredient:
Meatloaf
Turkey
Chicken
Corned beef
Bacon
Crumbled hard-boiled eggs
Scrambled eggs
Corned beef
Salami
Italian sausage
Ham
Roast beef
Egg salad
Tuna salad
Ham salad
Crab salad
Shrimp salad
Chicken salad
Turkey salad
Lobster salad
Tofu

Column E
The decorative (and tasty) elements:
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Basil
Onion
Avocado
Cucumber
Cilantro
Shredded carrots
Jalapeños
Cole slaw
Sliced apples
Sliced red peppers
Arugula
Sprouts
Radicchio
Watercress
Sliced pears
Apricots
Pickles
Spinach
Artichoke hearts
Grapes
Strawberries
Figs

Column F
Finger foods:
Cherries
Carrots
Strawberries
Green Beans
Broccoli
Celery
Edamame
Granola
Rice cakes
Apples
Bananas
Oranges
Melon balls
Raisins
Broccoli
Radishes
Blueberries

And because we live in a time of modern miracles, there are even apps for your phone so you can plan lunches ahead of time. Ingenious! LaLa Lunchbox and Little Lunches are among many apps.

“ ‘We could take our lunch,’ said Katherine.‘What kind of sandwiches?’ said Mark. ‘Jam,’ said Martha thoughtfully, ‘and peanut-butter-and-banana, and cream-cheese-and-honey, and date-and-nut, and prune-and-marshmallow…’”
—Edward Eager