I’m usually all about letting go and accepting what is and finding appreciation in whatever the current circumstances are offering. Week after week, month after month, for years this is what I’ve been exploring here in the Weekend Meditation post. So it’s a little out of character for me to be so mopey about the end of summer. Maybe I didn’t get enough sunshine in while it was here? Spent too much time in front of the computer writing these crazy essays instead of getting out there and frolicking amongst the tomatoes and zucchini? Whatever happened, I am now looking at the last four garden tomatoes rolling around on my kitchen table and feeling honest to goodness sadness that this is pretty much it.

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Open Hot Posts

Happy fall weekend, everyone! Popular posts this week on The Kitchn include a look at why adding cold cream to your coffee keeps it hotter longer (true!), how to make a boring pot of rice taste amazing, and 10 ways to clean your kitchen less, and enjoy it more!

15. 12 Foods That Reinforce Your Trust Issues
14. Raw Recipe: Tahini Date Salted Caramels
13. A Side Dish Recipe for Roast Chicken: Pan-Seared Butternut Squash with Balsamic & Parmigiano Shards
12. My Cooking Routine: The Four Meals I Get From One Roast Chicken
11. Recipe: Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
10. Fall Breakfast Recipe: Streusel-Topped Apple Pie Muffins

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Looking for an excuse to get in the kitchen this weekend? We’ve got a few ideas for you! To start, I highly recommend a batch of these Streusel-Topped Apple Pie Muffins. For something even quicker, take a look at our favorite way to make French toast. Pick up a squash while you’re at the market, because we show you how to roast it, stuff it, and have it for dinner. Tahini-Date Salted Caramels are an easy treat with raw ingredients, and we have a cherry crumble if you’re feeling more indulgent. What are you waiting for — let’s get cooking!

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Read anything good about food lately? Here are ten reads that we found fascinating this past week:

• Industrial farms, seen from above. – Faith
• There are taste receptors in our small intestines? A physiological look at deliciousness. – Anjali
• It’s finally happening: An app that lets you smell food on your phone. – Ariel
• Who’s monitoring our food now that the gov’t is shutdown? No one. – Cambria
• Order your oysters like a boss. – Emma

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Happy weekend everyone! Is it as glorious there as it is here? I’m looking forward to a bike ride and the fall farmers market tomorrow morning, and plenty of cooking over the weekend. What about you? Do you have pie in your future? A pot of soup? What’s cooking in your kitchen this weekend? (And congratulations to all of our Kitchn Cure graduates! We’d love to hear all about your dinner party plans!)

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Day 10 Task: Plan a dinner party

My experience doing The Kitchn Cure can be summed up this way: it made me finally do the things I’ve been wanting to do in my kitchen. Sometimes you just need a good kick in the pants to get going, you know? — something that stops the excuses and procrastinating and helps you get your ideas or plans off the ground.

I’ve thrown a dinner party in a small apartment before, and I’ve even had friends over to my current place despite its we’re-still-moving-in disheveled-ness. But there’s one thing I’ve wanted to do, and it’s so small I don’t know why I haven’t done it yet: start a dinner party journal.

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More than anything else, I think parents need ideas for what to put in their kids’ lunches. Heck, it’s hard enough coming up with interesting things to eat ourselves — doing this for small humans with their very own and very loud opinions is an even greater challenge. Help is here! It comes in the form of Catherine McCord’s latest book of kid-approved foods, Weelicious Lunches. Lunchtime? Game on.

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Day 10 Task: Plan a dinner party

Here we are, at the end of The Kitchn Cure. So, let’s party! I love hosting dinner parties. Planning them? Not my strong point. My invitations usually arrive via text, often within an hour of when I expect you to be at my house ready to eat. And I’ll probably send out another text when you’re on your way asking you to pick up some essential ingredient I’ve forgotten, like a chicken. But we have fun! Also, we live near several excellent local pizza places, so if I don’t get it together, no one will starve. But I’m excited about having a real dinner party, more planned, but still me.

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Ah, yes. The age old question that plagues us all: How on earth do I keep my brown sugar from getting all hard and crumbly like some sort of fossilized molasses treat?

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Q: Several years ago, I happened upon a woman who was making lefse and primost cheese spread — do you know of anyone that still has the recipe or makes it? My mother made it with primost brown cheese that is no longer available in US. She would cut cheese into cubes and simmer it with cream, I believe. Thanks for any info you may have.

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