Orange

Orange is a peculiar color.  It can be so bright and cheerful that it scares people away.  Too much emotion.  Too much.  Orange can be deep and somber, mellow, nostalgic so that people stare off into the distance and long for another time, another place...

I have trouble choosing just one favorite color, but orange is always hovering in my Top Three.  These days, it is Number One.  It is Orange Season.  I look around and it shocks me out of my complacency:  orange leaves, orange scarves, orange pumpkins beckoning me...Even my table gets woken up.  Orange is so In right now.  So hot, so cool.  I dare you to put it on!

Peppers are in season!  You can julienne some red, orange, and yellow to brighten up that pork loin.  Puree two of these bright colors into a magnificent sauce--a coulis, if you will--for a savory strata, a simple pasta, that pan-fried chicken.  Dice them large and add them to your roasted root vegetables.  Sprinkle them in those black beans to make your chili/taco/quesadilla a true fiesta. 

Orange just keeps popping up everywhere.  Grab a yam--I know, it's not Thanksgiving!--grab one anyway and wrap it up like a Russet.  You can smush some butter in that baked yam, a little cilantro, or oh!  chipotle....Stuff that sweet potato with those leftover black beans.  Sprinkle some toasted pepitas over the top. Yum! 

Cut that mellow butternut squash in half, scrape out the seeds, and add a dollop of butter and brown sugar.  Slide that into your oven.  Roast it.  Steam it.  It's all good.  You've got a happy  hour before dinner's ready.  You have time to toss a salad.  Even crumble some bacon into that happy lettuce.  Roast that squash in giant cubes and toss it with some tortellini, sauteed mushrooms, a little sage.  Stuff that cavity with wild rice.  Maybe some brussels sprouts.  Parsnips,  just to make it interesting.

Orange is good for you.  It's that Beta-Carotene.  Orange is the right thing to do, and there they are:  those ubiquitous pumpkins.  No, not the jack variety.  Those won't do.  Grab a Baby Pam, a Sugar Pumpkin, or a Peek-a-Boo.  Don't feel like butchering a pumpkin?   Grab a can.  You don't lose much in the translation.  With very little effort, you can transform that can into a myriad of quickbreads.  You just need a secret ingredient:  chocolate chips, pumpkin seeds, shredded carrot, crystallized ginger, or--my personal favorite--uh, no, sorry, not going to tell you....

Canned pumpkin makes great pie. Yes, we know.   Try something different.  Transform that can into a great smoothie.  Hand it to a teenager and watch their face become five years younger.  (So worth it!)Turn that big can into muffins. Add cream cheese frosting. Drizzle caramel. Top them with buttercream, a pinch of Five Spice, a whisper of molasses....Orange pancakes! Pumpkin waffles!   Turn that mush into a pureed soup so fast your kids won't have time to set the table first!  Add it to your polenta;  pumpkin and corn go together like siblings (well, not mine, but you know what I mean...)  Turn this stuff into a souffle--sweet or savory.  This is the beauty of pumpkin:  there's nowhere it doesn't work. 

"Oh!" People will say.  Orange on the plate creates a palette of comfort combined with the promise of  surprise.  It is beauty:  the suggestion of a magnificent sunset.  It is whimsy:  the murmur of mischief on the horizon.  Put it on!  It looks great on you!