Things I'm loving about October

Tweet I think October is my favorite month. I love the weather (except it's gotten colder more quickly than usual!), the fall sunshine, the colors, pumpkins, baking with pumpkin, the fact that there are so many races of all distances (yours truly will be running in a couple weeks), and that it's our wedding anniversary (Oct. 2).

Here's what dear husband sent to me at work on our anniversary! I was so surprised!

I also like when stores bring out their fall "seasonal" foods. Like these treasures at Trader Joe's:

 Pumpkin Pie Spice: my favorite spice ever! I use it in place of cinnamon in everything in the fall!

 Delicious tea in little fabric bags in a cute little tin!

I don't know if these are seasonal but they are new at my Trader Joe's. There are two packets inside, which I thought were one serving each, but according to the nutrition facts, there are six servings in the entire bag. They are small servings (in my opinion)!

Here are a few things I've made lately:

Tonight: Roasted buttercup squash and apple soup with homemade whole wheat bread. Thanks to my mother-in-law for the immersion blender and the breadmaker when she moved! I used sage from my friend Beth's garden to season the squash and apples as I roasted them.

All I did was peel and seed a buttercup squash and cut it into cubes, then cut up an apple in to the same size pieces, toss them with olive oil, fresh sage leaves and a pinch of kosher salt, then roast them at 375F for about 45 minutes. Then I put 4 cups of low-sodium vegetable broth in a big soup pot and added the roasted vegetables. Heat it up, then use the immersion blender to puree it all. Easy, delicious meal!

These are apple-spice pancakes I made after my long (11-mile) run yesterday. I grated a Jonathan apple into Happy Herbivore's Carrot Cake Pancake batter, except I used apples instead of carrots and used pumpkin-pie spice instead of cinnamon.  The pancake recipe is in her Everyday Happy Herbivore cookbook, so they are slightly different from this recipe on her Web site.

This week I went to see one of my favorite authors, Adriana Trigiani. She writes novels based on her family in Southern Virginia and New York City. She could be a stand-up comedian. She was hilarious. I have not laughed that hard in a long, long time. My stomach hurt at the end of the night! She filled the room with her larger-than-life personality as soon as she came in and had us eating out of the palm of her hand all evening! She was wonderful.

If you haven't read her books, and you enjoy good novels, please grab a few of hers! I started with her Big Stone Gap series, but her most recent bestseller is The Shoemaker's Wife. She told us how that story developed and all of the research she did to bring the book together. It was fascinating!

What do you like best about October?