autumn in the air

Temperatures still climb up to near 85F/30C degrees during the day. Cicadas are still loud when the sun is out. But you can feel the breeze slightly cooler and less humid, and the carpets of green rice plants are slowly taking on a shade of gold. September seems to bring along autumn in the air, a little by little, as apples and pears are gradually replacing plums and watermelons at the market.


You might think I should be over with all those summer fruits after doing quite a lot with them. But really, I never seem to be able to have enough of them, quite literally, as they disappear from the shelves faster than the summer heat fades away.

So I am going to wait for a little longer before I eventually give in and pick up those fruits of autumn and winter; for now, I will savor season's last peaches and perhaps figs and prune plums that make a short appearance as summer slowly turns into autumn.


Meanwhile, I thought I'd share a few things with you:

- Do you cook while on vacation? I do, whenever I can - and even if you don't, reading these will inspire you to do so on your next trip: Cooking on Vacation, where several bloggers (myself among others) talk about what they like to cook, etc., on vacation by answering a few questions, set by Clotilde.

- What inspires you? For me, these would be the thing, at least for now; as I worked on the questions set by Charlie of sweet little French inspiration-oriented website les petites robes noires, I was amused to realize that, even though any of the topics I was given was not specifically related to food, I still talked (mostly) about food anyway - I must love food, right?

- Days may now be growing shorter as we head to autumn, I still dream about my short visits in Helsinki during my latest trip to Europe, in late June and early July where the days were the longest of the year; here is a set of photos I took from there - not too many food shots, but I've been trying some Finnish recipes since I got home in Japan, and I'm hoping to blog about them sometime soon.

And now, this is what I made with my fruits the other day: roasted fruit salad with salted butter. Like many other recipes created by Trish Deseine, it is simple and beautiful, and has been one of my real favorite ways to enjoy fruits of late summer and early autumn ever since I first made it several summers ago. It makes perfect breakfast on those chilly mornings that we are having now here in the mountains. September does bring along autumn in the air.


Hope you are all enjoying mild September weather! -cx