Soup, Rain, and Delicious Books

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It's hodgepodge Sunday here on the blog, and what better place to start than with the weather! We have had a long, and I have to admit, glorious, Indian summer here in north Texas. We had two inches of rain back in mid-September and since then we have been pretty much 90 to 70 degrees every single day. (With pollen, I might add.) The mornings and evenings are lovely, and with the days getting shorter, it's not even unpleasant to be out in the warmest part of the afternoon. 

BUT. I am a self-confessed pluviophile.

And, no, that's not something kinky. A pluviophile is defined as "someone who loves rain and feels happy, calm, and peaceful during rainy weather."  Too much rain in mid-winter can give me a bit of the blues, but most of the time a rainy day makes me feel happy and creative, and I've been very deprived. 

And on top of that, it's SOUP SEASON, and it really hard to get in the mood to make soup when it's ninety degrees! I love soup as much as I love rainy weather, and with the first little cold snap the possibilities beckon.

Finally, yesterday, we had a little front and a few light thunderstorms, just enough to cancel my granddaughter's soccer game and barely "piss off the grass," as we say in Texas. But enough to get out the stockpot and put on some lovely lentil soup.

This recipe was from Cookie and Kate, one of my fave vegetarian websites, but any kind of soup sounds good to me. I've been drooling over this chicken soup recipe by ronrofe on Instagram. He does the most absolutely gorgeous food and I want to eat everything he makes.

We are getting to the delicious books, by way of soup. I subscribe to the writer and cookbook author Ella Risbridger's substack as I adore everything she writes. This week her email was about soup (and she's also going to be reposting her huge soup blog from last year) but what caught my eye were two new books. She's edited a selection of poems by women and girls with amazing illustrations called AND EVERYHING WILL BE GLAD TO SEE YOU which I ordered for Wren's Christmas from Amazon before discovering it was available from Blackwell's in the UK for a lot less and with free shipping. 

As is Ella's upcoming IN LOVE WITH LOVE, described as her "love letter to romantic fiction," and which is getting rave reviews everywhere. Happy pre-Christmas to me!

So, dear REDs and readers, happy soup, happy Sunday, and what is floating your autumn boat?

P.S. I tried my first ever pumpkin spice latte from my favorite coffee stall at the farmer's market yesterday and DID NOT LIKE IT. Boo. I call that a way to ruin some good coffee...