Soup Season

Today is a good day. Not for any particular reason. But there are a few things making me happy today.

• Shaun made a delicious dinner last night for us and we ate together in front of the television so we could catch up on Castle & Jersey Shore (yep, Jersey Shore). Love those kinds of nights.

• The Jackson Browne station on Pandora + the fact that he wrote Somebody’s Baby

• The fact that my workout at the gym today was better than yesterday

• It’s cool and sunny here in Manhattan and it feels oh-so-fallish

• I have a grand plan to bake some delicious muffins tonight so that I can use the remainder of my uber yummy tart cherry jam

Oh and stay tuned for the wrap up of Shaun whipping up some whole wheat spaghetti and turkey meatballs. And now onto yet another reason why I love the Fall. Not only is it totally appropriate to OD on apple and pumpkin things, but it is also the opening of soup season! There's nothing I love more than a delicious, warm, comforting bowl of soup on a chilly day. And friends, when I say I love soup...I mean, I love soup. As in I can effectively eat it every single day for lunch from now until the end of March (not that I plan to, but you get the point). And yesterday was the seasonal kickoff, if you will.

The soup of choice? Butternut squash! Though my favorite butternut squash soup to date was devoured at Lincoln Center's Winter's Eve in 2007 and was served up by Cafe des Artiste. Those were the days before the blog, but can you tell that I was meant to be a food blogger? The fact that I'm still dreaming about soup from 3 years ago that I had at a street fair frightens me in that it makes my life seem kind of...sad. But I'll say it's just passionate.

This butternut squash soup, however, was warming, creamy and delcious, if not quite Cafe des Artiste quality. I picked it up at a local TriBeCa spot, Beach Street Eatery.

Once the cool weather strikes, I'm a frequent patron of Beach Street Eatery since it's a short walk from the office and they offer up new soup flavors everyday with free samples to boot. This is not, however, to discount 'wichcraft, which is located just across the street from Beach. 'wichcraft has my second favorite soup of all time, Tomato Parmesean. But that's a story for another time.

So how about you? Do you have any go-to cool weather foods? A bowl of soup? A hot cup of tea? A tray of hearty pasta? Dish 'em!