I have to say, this is my favorite time of year. The days are still warm enough to have the nostalgia of summer but the nights sufficiently cool down enough to make me think it’s time to make soup.

These are the days I find my center again, the time when I make my way back to myself. I am grounded when I am in my kitchen. The outside world becomes a distant memory and I can embrace the feeling that I have truly found my way back to me.

My love of cooking was absorbed through osmosis. Both of my parents spent many hours in our family kitchen. Whether it was following a recipe (my mother) or throwing ingredients into a pot and hoping for the best (my father), my favorite childhood memories revolve around time spent in that family kitchen.

I have always said my writing is cathartic but cooking is a true salvation. There are no rules to cooking, no grammar and no punctuation. And while writing continues to free my mind and my imagination, cooking frees my soul.

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The Beef Barley Soup is simmering in the crockpot as I write this post and the ingredients for New England Clam Chowder await their chance to be blended into a concoction of creamy goodness. My mother most often called us to dinner by yelling “soup’s on” and that memory always makes me smile. The soup is on…..and the simple smell of those ingredients has removed every bit of stress that had accumulated over the last few months.

This is my time, my time to cook, and I am going to embrace every second of it. Soup’s on!