8 Things Worth Making in October
Soups, snacks, dessert and one drink for the perfectly chilly season.
October is when I officially want to cook again.
I want something simmering on the stove. I want football food that technically counts as lunch. I want to roast an entire chicken on a Sunday for no reason other than it’s Sunday. And yes, eventually I will succumb to pumpkin.
So instead of opening 47 tabs every time I’m trying to figure out what to make, here are the eight things I actually want to cook this month.
I opened all the tabs so you don’t have to.
1. Chicken Tortilla Soup
I’ve been making this soup for years, although until this week the entire recipe existed as a list of ingredients with almost no quantities and absolutely no instructions.
It’s brothy, warmly spiced, and mostly an excuse to put an unreasonable amount of tortilla chips, Monterey Jack and avocado on top.
Serve it with cheese quesadillas for dipping and call it dinner.
2. Pasta Fagioli
This is exactly what I want on the first night it’s legitimately chilly outside: pasta, beans, vegetables and a tomato-y broth in one big pot.
Don’t skip the Aleppo pepper.
Add bread, obviously. Dinner is done.
3. Moroccan Butternut Squash + Goat Cheese Soup
We needed one soup that was a little more interesting.
Butternut squash, coconut milk, ginger, goat cheese and pistachios. Cozy, but not another bowl of beans and tomatoes.
Also, anything with enough toppings to require a second trip around the bowl is generally something I’m interested in.
I make this one for Thanksgiving, too. It’s good enough to earn a spot before the turkey, but easy enough that I’m still willing to make it on a random October night.
MOROCCAN BUTTERNUT SQUASH + GOAT CHEESE SOUP FROM HALF BAKED HARVEST →
4. Baked Jalapeño Poppers
There needs to be at least one thing on this list that you can put on a coffee table and slowly destroy over the course of a football game.
Jalapeño poppers are it.
These are baked instead of fried, which I assume means I can eat more of them. Please do not investigate that logic any further.
5. Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
All the buffalo chicken situation, none of the wings.
I put celery, carrot, shallot and Gorgonzola directly into the chicken meatballs, toss the whole thing in a doctored-up buffalo sauce and serve them with an aggressively easy ranch.
They’re excellent football food, party food or standing-at-the-counter-eating-one-more-with-a-toothpick food.
ALL THE WINGS, NONE OF THE MESS →
6. Perfect Roast Chicken
There are approximately 900 more interesting things I could put on an October cooking list, but it’s Ina’s roast chicken.
It’s perfect.
It’s right there in the name.
Make it on a Sunday.
7. Mulled Apple Cider
I’m making a giant batch of this for our Halloween party at the end of the month.
A gallon of apple cider, cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves, nutmeg and orange go into the slow cooker. That’s basically the entire operation.
I’m keeping the whole thing kid-friendly and putting bourbon and rum next to it for the adults, because I’m not making two beverages when everyone is perfectly capable of handling this themselves.
Set it. Forget it. Smell fall.
8. Classic Pumpkin Scones
It’s October. We’re allowed one aggressively pumpkin thing.
These have pumpkin, pumpkin spice and maple glaze, so I think we’ve sufficiently handled it.
Make them on the weekend, leave them on the counter and congratulate yourself every time you walk past and remember they exist.
That’s October.
Three soups. Two things to eat during football. A roast chicken because Ina said so. Hot cider. Pumpkin.
See you in November when I inevitably have 47 more tabs open.
