The flip side of October

Between the various fires, the winds whipping up dust, and the desperate dryness of the air, my sinuses have gone on strike. I haven't quite gotten to the point of dosing myself, since I'd rather be in pain than be sleepwalking all day. And yet, my brain has shifted over into Autumn mode. I find myself staring longingly at bags of lamb soup bones at the farmers' market, dreaming of steaming stockpots. There's something about simmering a pot of bones into soup that just makes me go all gooey inside.

I'm also in the middle of turning this year's quince crop into quince paste (for 12th night presents). For a bit of variety, I'm doing up batches of a dozen little cakes each with various additives. So far it's quince & almond, and quince & hazelnut. There's enough for at least two dozen more, maybe three, so I'll have to come up with more ideas. Hmm, come to think of it, if I want to continue on the nut additives, I've got lots of that pistachio flour still, and the chestnut flour could work, although it's a much finer texture than any of the other nuts I've used. Yes, that should fill out the set nicely, with the remainder being plain. (And no, even though I'm planning these for 12th night presents, I'm not aware of the nut-quince mixtures having a medieval basis, just the plain quince paste.) The results are a bit darker than commercial quince paste -- I'm guessing the commercial varieties may use some sort of anti-oxidizing additive. I think once I managed a quince jelly that was a pale rosy-orange like the commercial stuff. These, of course, have pulp in them, so they're much more opaque. I think I'll have to get some distinctively colored cellophane bags to package them in so I can tell the additives apart.