Remember Wayne and Garth, from Wayne’s World on Saturday Night Live? When the lovable rock hards, played by Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey,  would meet their rock heroes they would bow down and wail “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!” This was their way of paying homage to people like Alice Cooper and Bruce Springsteen or whomever the musical guests were on SNL. Silly and fun, they still make me laugh.

Worthiness is the topic this week on the blog Ordinary Courage, by the brilliant Brenè Brown. I have mentioned here before, that Brenè is a researcher at the University of Houston who studies shame and authenticity. She has a new DVD of a lecture she gave on the subject of worthiness and as a way to celebrate the release of it, she is hosting a Week of Worthiness. She has asked bloggers to write about worthiness and post to her blog so that readers can join the conversation. She is also giving away several of the DVDs to a few readers, so drop by her site and sign up!

But, back to Wayne and Garth. What makes their unworthiness so humorous is that they say aloud what we are afraid to admit. I’ve yet to meet a person who has never felt “less than” at some point in his or her life. Sometimes, we allow others to make us feel this way and sometimes we don’t need the help, we can make ourselves feel unworthy all by ourselves, thank you very much.

I know several women whose primary job it is to care for small children. As most of us know, this is an all-consuming but virtually invisible job. As long as you keep the children alive and fairly well cared for, no one notices what you have done. Many will see what you haven’t done, like the laundry or cooking, but the thousand little things that make up a day of caretaking go largely unnoticed. These women are relieved when their husbands are traveling because they do not feel they have to justify their existence. Now, not one of these people is married to a Ward Cleaver type, so this may be entirely self-imposed. But there it is, nonetheless.

Last night, America’s Sweetheart, Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for her portrayal of a real-life mother in the movie, The Blind Side. In her acceptance speech she said, with head bowed, “Did I really earn this, or did I just wear y’all down?” It seems even beautiful, rich, funny women don’t feel worthy all the time either. Interesting.

As some of you know, I am a yoga teacher, which is not to say it is my day job, but more accurately, it is the way I try to live my life. On the yoga mat and off of it. This is not easy, but it is more authentic to me than any other way I have tried to live. Yoga is not a religion, but you can use it as a spiritual path, if you choose and I do. One of the main tenets of yoga is to peel away the layers of the ego until you reach your essence, the Self. Easy, huh? Some days, yes. On others, I think to myself, “That’s it, today is the day I will be found out for the fraud that I am!” Luckily, yoga teaches patience and I just try to keep my mouth shut until this feeling goes away. On good days, I realize that feelings of unworthiness are part of the ego I am trying to molt from my Higher Self. Breathing great, deep yoga breaths helps.

Considering the state of the world right now, some people are finding it difficult to feel worthy. When you have a safe, warm home, your health and some means, do you have a right to worthiness when there is suffering on a global scale? I do not have the answers, but I do know that making oneself feel less than does not help anyone: not yourself, not your family, not the people in Haiti, Chile or Turkey. Fully realized, healthy, worthy, whole-hearted people can change the world. One breath at a time.

In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.
- Edith Wharton, pictured above

The above quote is my second favorite quote ever. If I had to choose a personal motto it would be the famous quote from Ghandi about being the change you wish to see in the world and this one.

Really, I think about this a lot. My life, as most, is full of irritations that I could let grow from minor to excruciating and to be honest, on some days I do.  But, as a student of yoga, I have learned to be a little more aware of everything and that means the good stuff as well as the squeaky parts. It is extremely easy for me to focus on the squeaky, because there is a genetic disposition for this in my lineage. I’m trying to stop the cycle, but that’s another post.

I really believe that what you think about informs your behavior and your attitude. Amy says that what you do every day becomes your life. So. Today I thought about how I am happy in small ways, and I have shared a few with you below. Let me know what your small happinesses are, if you want to share!

1. The Olympics
I have been a fan of the Olympics since I watched Mark Spitz win his 7 gold medals in 1972, when I was in second grade. I have not missed watching a summer or winter games since. They are a complete source of joy for me. I wrote an exuberant post in tribute to my love for the Olympic Games and I was ready to publish it on the day of the opening ceremonies. But, I just could not post it when I heard about the death of Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili. I hope that his family know that there are many around the world who are heartbroken about his death.

In spite of the tragedy, I have caught myself standing and cheering, grinning ear to ear when the winners cross the finish line, crying with their parents who are jumping up and down in the bleachers and sobbing when the national anthem is played for each athlete. Two weeks of joy and hope, that’s what it is.

2. Magazines
I have posted about my love of magazines before and that has not dimmed, even as the choices of shiny publications continues to diminish. I got to read a few this weekend.

3. Chocolate
Again, you already know about my love for dark chocolate. I have been cutting back on it lately, so I have been making a few chocolate-covered strawberries a few nights a week to get my fix. I don’t use very much chocolate (in the form of 60% cacao chocolate chips) and I melt them in the microwave. Dip strawberries (washed and dried) into the chocolate, put them on some wax paper and place in the fridge. You get fiber, vitamin C, anti-oxidants and a chocolate fix all in one.

4. Lotion
I am out of my favorite lotion and now I cannot find it anymore.  Any one know anything about TeaSpots Lotion? My favorite was the Chai. I kept the bottle for a while, just to smell it occasionally, but that seemed pathetic.

5. Sensory
Can you name something that makes you happy in each of your senses?. Visually, there are certain colors I just want to live in. Literally, I want to move into the color or painting and take my belongings with me.

Singer songwriters with a way with words and a rasp in their voice make my ears and my brain happy: Bruce Springsteen (you knew that, didn’t you?) Kasey Chambers, Bob Schneider, Jon Dee Graham, plus a few others. The happy sounds of my children drifting from another room, the nightly hooting of the owl that lives on our street, cicadas in the summertime, the sound of my husband’s voice when he is teaching one of the girls something; all good sounds to my ears.

The smell of soup simmering on the stove makes my nose happy. So does the chai lotion mentioned above. The scent of my children when they are clean. The scent of my children when they are dirty. Old roses and fresh herbs. The smell of salsa, pretty much any kind. The peculiar scent of lipstick. The scent of welding flux always reminds me of my dad. The overpowering smell of garlic reminds me of my grandmother, who took garlic pills everyday before you could buy the unscented kind.

I have a lot of tastes that make me happy, but I will narrow it down to one for today. A few days ago, I went to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant and I ordered a Soda Chanh. This is a limeade soda, made fresh to order that has lime, soda, sugar, salt and sometimes mint in it. It is sweet, sour, salty, bitter and bubbly at the same time. Yum.

When I am shopping for clothing, bedding or furniture I am attracted to an item first by its color. But before I buy it, I have to touch it. Nothing that is scratchy comes home with me. My husband has some twenty-year old t-shirts that I like to wear. They are just about right.

6. Writing
I love writing. Really.

7. Little Surprises
This morning, our twins woke us up with a puppet show. Their ten-year old sister got in bed with us and the three of us watched the two of them put on a show at the foot of the bed. Good stuff.

I have three daughters, each as different as the next, but all can be called bold and feisty. I recently thought about the ways I parent differently than I expected. Before I had children, when I knew more than I do now, I thought I could provide them with this wonderful, edited atmosphere in which to flourish. Something very much like what Maria Montessori called a “rich environment.”

Indeed, my three lovelies are products of years of Montessori education and my husband and I are very grateful that we could provide that for them. They all attend a very fine public school now and we are glad to be part of our community in this way.

With all of our wonderful intentions to provide a holistic, gender-neutral, organic (food and clothing), television-free environment, the reality is much farther from that than I like to admit. However, our girls are happy, healthy and curious.

I thought about all of my parenting rules that I have broken and I thought about how I would condense my parenting philosophy and it is this: I try my very best to encourage their creativity. I believe that if you give your children enough room to have a creative life then this will positively impact everything: intellect, academics, social skills, and their emotional and mental well-being.

So, here is a list of things I thought I would never do/say/have/allow and a thought or two about each.

1. Pink
As a baby, we dressed my eldest daughter in every color of the rainbow except pink. When she got old enough to have an opinion, around 22months, she started insisting on pinks and purples to wear every day. When I asked her why she liked those colors, she said “Because they are fun and strong colors!” Now her favorite color is black (”It goes with everything, Mom!”) and one twin’s favorite color is orange, the other twin we call “Pinkalicious” because of her affinity for what we refer to as her signature color.

2. Barbies
I really liked Barbie when I was a child. I loved her house that folded up, I loved my Truly Scrumptious limited edition Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Barbie. I loved her clothes and I wished I had some just like them. As a grown up, before I had children, I thought Barbies were evil destroyers of healthy body image. Then various relatives gave my eldest daughter Barbies for her second birthday. Yes, second. And she loved them and I never got around to removing them while she wasn’t looking. So, I bought her some Barbies of different ethnicities, along with the doctor garb and the veterinarian set. My three girls now play super hero with Barbie and her multicultural friends and have them do some girl-on-girl kissing. I think that if I don’t make a big deal about what’s wrong with Barbie, then they will accept girl power and alternative life styles as non-issues.

3. Food
My kids love candy. They also love kale, artichokes, pears, any kind of Mexican food, mangoes and roast chicken. Seems okay to me.

4. Television
I admit that we have struggled with this. All parents of small children will find themselves wishing for an electronic babysitter on bad days. During any given week, my kids might watch Electric Company, Project Runway, The Wonder Pets, or most embarrassingly: The Biggest Loser. A stay at my sister’s got them hooked on this show and now they exercise during the commercials and cheer on their favorites. But. On any given day, they are also likely to: play Super Powers with the boys next door, ride their scooters, bake cookies, draw with chalk pastels or play Chinese Mutant Pirates with aforementioned boys. I figure it evens out.

5. Sleeping
I have one child who still gets in bed with us every night. When I tuck her in her bed each night,she tells me she knows that I miss her and that she will come and cuddle me in the night. I am too exhausted to return her to her bed after she falls asleep next to me. I tell myself that this will not last very long and I will miss it when she doesn’t like me when she is thirteen.

6. Clothing
We do not buy organic cotton clothing. We buy most of our clothes at Target, which are probably made by twelve year olds in some third world country, making pennies per day. I am sorry about that, but I am not sure how to address it. I don’t buy them anything with “Princess” on it, but their grandparents do. However, we make sure that the girls wear age-appropriate clothing. No high heels or skimpy clothes, no smart-alecky t-shirts.  If they cannot run and play in it, then it doesn’t come home with us. And with the rare exception of formal occasions, all of them are allowed to choose what they wear, as long as it is weather-appropriate. This has entertained me and my husband to no end for a decade now.  I highly recommend it. My theory is that if I let them choose what they want to wear now, then when they are fourteen, they will not embarrass me. I’ll keep you posted.

7. Bedrooms
I fantasize about my girls having beautiful Pottery Barn-inspired-little-girl rooms, but my children enjoy living like squirrels, padding their nests with their stuff. I can’t stand it. I was a child who enjoyed order, and while I have let go of a lot of that, the state of their rooms scrambles my brain. I keep trying to organize them and meanwhile, they will congregate in another sister’s bedroom and mess it up. I am trying to come to grips with their lack of interest in order and remember that their rooms belong to them.

I mentioned last week that I was planning to do the “one little word” exercise that Brenè Brown and Ali Edwards wrote about on their respective blogs. Well, I worked on this for an hour or so the other day and I came up with a long list of words that I love. Words that have meaning and resonance for me. Words that seemed to define or illustrate my plans for the year.

I usually make a few resolutions each January, but felt overwhelmed by the idea this year. This exercise was just what I needed to put some direction and meaning into my new year.

Those of you who know me will not be surprised that I could not narrow it down to one word, but instead, have three little words that are my theme(s) for the year. Ali made a wonderful list of all the words that people sent in to her. Let me know if you try this, I would love to hear from you!

The above quote is from the fabulous brains over at Quotable Cards. I buy a half dozen of these at a time. Some I give to friends, and others I glue into my journals or put on my fridge. Instant wisdom and inspiration for the day!

Here are my seven favorite words from my original list of twenty-six. I have italicized my three words for the year.

1. Abundance

2. Aware

3. Blossoming

4. Becoming

5. Cherish

6. Prosperity

7. Content
I love that this word can mean “satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting any more or any less” and “significance or profundity, …volume or substance contained” in a piece of work. Or a life. That’s what I’m hoping.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines the word tidbit as:
1) a choice morsel of food and 
2) a choice or pleasing bit (of information)

Well, here at 7OF, we are all about the tidbits, tasty or informative. So, get a taste of these!

1. Stay-At-Home: Not just for moms!
One of my favorite friends has started a blog about staying home and being the primary caretaker of a baby daughter. You’ve read all about that, you say? Well, not from the dad’s perspective, I’ll bet. Take a look at DadSolo and see if you can relate! What makes this blog especially interesting is that my friend is a first-time father at the age of 45, so he brings a wonderful, witty, poignant perspective to the process.

2. New Addiction
I have another new favorite blog about personal style. I have mentioned here, my love of  the wonderfully serious fashion blog The Sartorialist, but paper artist Elsa Mora, brings some vintage quirkiness to the subject in The Hidden Seed. She is currently on hiatus for a few months, but read her back entries for some stylish fun.

3. Mulling
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have not made any resolutions for the new year, yet. For some reason, this year it seems to be a daunting task. I have not reached a state of perfection, so it is not for lack of personal material to mold and hone. I am captivated by the idea in Brenè Brown’s blog Ordinary Courage. She was inspired by Ali Edwards to choose one little word for the year, as a personal theme or inspiration for 2010. I’ll let you know what I come up with for mine!  How about all of you? What word would you choose?

4. Drinking
A friend gave us a bottle of homemade kahlua for Christmas and I have enjoyed this mixed with ice and Bailey’s Irish Cream a few nights this month. I have curtailed that for now, because it was obliterating the progress I have been making in the gym!

5. Books!
I just finished The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and I liked it very much. I didn’t expect to, but I found it to be more complex and serious than I anticipated. I am now reading Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked. Anyone read either of these books?

6. Hummus
I have been making a big container of hummus each week for my family to eat with veggies. Want a cooking demonstration and some history on this yummy dip? Listen to Dede!

7. Jicama
My favorite vegetable to eat raw! It is perfect with a healthy dip, like hummus! Now that is a tasty tidbit.

I am behind on my resolutions this year, so I thought I would just send out a list of wishes for myself, for you and for our beautiful blue planet.

1. Health
A few people I know are going through a some health issues, nothing major, but enough to give one pause. May we all have a healthy ‘10. I have recommitted to my gym routine and I am feeling happy about that. My plan is to download some interesting interviews every Sunday, enough for the entire week, and then head out every morning.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress and any good downloads!

2. Happiness
In 2010, may we all have what makes us happy and be happy with what we have. Can’t find anything to be happy about right now? Watch this and today will be a good day, guaranteed! I LOVE Wil.I.Am!

3. Be Present
I believe the ability to be present in the moment is key to achieving the above. If each of us could do that, the whole world would be a happier place, in my opinion.

4. Fun and Friendship
What do you think is fun? Well, go do it! Take a friend who is willing to make a fool of herself with you and you will significantly increase the fun potential. I think I will take a friend up on rolling skating and another one on an art day.

5. Giggles
Laughter will surely result from number four, but just to be sure check out this video. Or watch Jon Stewart every night-he’ll crack you up whether you agree with him or not.

6. Music
May you have wonderful, heart-stirring music to act as your personal soundtrack to your year. I have Kat Edmonson’s Lucky (available on iTunes or watch it on youtube) on repeat right now. Dreamy!

7. Peace
This very small word is filled with reverence for me. I say it almost everyday. I try to draw it into my life each day. I use it in my signature on my emails. A friend of mine used to say “Do you want to have peace, or do you want to be right?” Think about that. May we all have an abundance of peace this year. In yoga we say “Om, Shanti, Shanti.”

8. Prosperity
Many people in our country have struggled financially over the last few years. Tonight will be an extremely cold night in my area and the church down the street from my house has opened its doors to people who have nowhere to escape the frigid temperatures. It is a very humbling thought that while I am sitting here by a fire with something yummy cooking on the stove, four blocks away families are spreading out sleeping bags so that they and their children won’t freeze to death tonight. May we all have a very prosperous Twenty Ten.

I’ve got a lot on my mind lately and not enough cubbies in my brain to organize all of the flying thoughts. One reason Amy and I started this blog was to give ourselves a place to dump our brain lint. Sometimes I find shiny bits that are keepers, but for the most part it is just so my cerebral cortex will not catch fire.  Take a look…

1. The Boss Gets His Props
Tonight on CBS, Bruce Springsteen, my personal poet, will be honored by the Kennedy Center. You know where I will be.  With popcorn.

2. My Sister’s Birthday
My baby sister is beginning her last year of her thirties today, so I am thinking about her and what a great sister she is to me.

3. The Middle
If I live until the age of ninety, then I officially just became middle-aged. Naming and claiming this gives me pause. I’m going to choose well for my crisis. My husband got an old Porsche he had been wanting, but I don’t think it will be that simple for me.

4. Feng Shui
At this time last year, I spent a few days cleaning out my closets, corners and cupboards. According to the practice of Feng Shui, we should all clean out areas of our homes that have dirt or clutter build-up because they cause stagnation. If you want to have a good year, with lots of positive energy, then get to sweeping and throwing out! Check out this site for more tips.

5. Movies
I could spend an entire day at the movie theater just going from one to another. Robert Downey, Jr. is calling my name, I am certain.

6. CDs
Should I go ahead and import all of my music to iTunes and sell the discs? Anyone got an opinion on this?

7. What Next?
I am still mulling over what to fold into my life next. I feel the need to do something more, but am not sure how to fit it all in. I am working on a few projects and I hope I can focus enough for them to come to fruition. I’ll keep you posted.

In my defense, I did not want to go see it. I have been fickle with vampires.  After a preoccupation with Dark Shadows reruns during elementary school, I left them behind. I never bought into Interview with the Vampire book series or the movie that starred Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

When my sisters and I went to my aunt’s house after school on the random day when my mother had an appointment, we would hibernate in the den and watch illicit television shows. This was before cable so by illicit, I mean soap operas. Heady stuff to a third grader. If we were lucky, we would get there in time to watch the vampire soap Dark Shadows. My menopausal aunt kept her house cold enough to store a side of beef so we would cuddle together under her crocheted quilts and proceed to get the bejesus scared out of us by Barnabas Collins. The excitement and a supply of contraband junk food made it the most decadent of afternoons.

I had forgotten about those times until today after I saw The Twilight Saga: New Moon with a friend. I watched Twilight over the Thanksgiving holiday because I promised my 10 year old daughter that I would view it and give her an estimate of how old she would need to be before I would let her watch it. I agreed with some trepidation, but was prepared to waste 2 hours for my daughter. My husband and I work pretty hard to make sure that she does not grow up too fast and tween movies are an issue that we police pretty vigilantly.

I thought I would hate it. I didn’t. In fact, I liked it a lot. I’m not letting my daughter watch it until she is at least fourteen, but I really enjoyed the movie and the storyline. And, while I did not think the second was a good as the first movie, I guess I still have a little vampire crush. I’ll just have to keep watching the movies to see how it all turns out!  Here are some thoughts in case you are considering watching the movies.

And, it seems that Tim Burton is filming a Dark Shadows movie next fall starring Johnny Depp (ahhh, a sexy vampire who is my age!)  I’m all in.  Just sayin’.

1. Robert Pattinson
He will make you want to be 20 years old again, if just for a few hours. What can I say? Skinny and pasty work for me. If only he spoke in his natural British accent in this movie.

2. Taylor Lautner
This sixteen year old put on thirty pounds of muscle for the new movie and it might make you wish you were underage again. That doesn’t appeal to me, but it might to you.

3. Kristin Stewart
As Bella Swan, she seems perfectly normal and average, which is the point, I think. She could be any young girl and that appeals to the masses of tweens/teens flocking to her movie.

4. A Light Kit?
Except for the thirst for blood, the vampires could be mistaken for victims of Seasonal Affective Disorder.

5. Feminist Sensibilities
Bella Swan wants to give up her very soul for love. At forty-something, I can see this for what it is: naiveté, hormones, loneliness, fantasy, romance and mostly, fiction. At fourteen, I could not tell the difference. Spoiler alert: New Moon ends with Edward asking Bella to marry him. You hear her quick intake of breath and the screen goes black. I need to call Gloria Steinem and repent.

6. Vampires Are Pretty
In the sunlight, the Twilight vampires look as if they are made of diamond dust. These movies are like Harlequin Romance novels only with blood and more sexual tension.

7. I Dreamed A Dream
Stephanie Meyer has said that she dreamed this story that has resulted in millions of girls talking about BOOKS. Wow. I know I will paying much more attention to my dreams from here on out. I’ll keep you posted as to how that turns out for me!

My dog has a raw spot on his butt. We tried some home remedies, but we are going to have to take him to the vet. Of course, he will have to get moved to the top of the list above a host of other unexpected expenses we’ve had the last few months. Children who needed Tamiflu took precedent over a dog with a red heinie.

I started thinking about the word raw. The word even sounds raw and is not one of those words that feels good to say. Not a good mouthfeel, to use a food term. Raw. One meaning is “unnaturally, or painfully exposed,” according to Webster’s. Another is uncooked. Unaged or unprocessed. Crude. Inexperienced. Harsh or unfair. Nude. Uncultivated.

A lot of “un-ness” to the word. Seems like there has been a great amount of that going around of late. Raw.

1. Ft. Hood
I live in the Central Texas area and the impact of last week’s shootings will be felt around here for generations to come. Words fail. If you or anyone you know have been directly affected, please know that there are many people hoping that you soon can find comfort and peace.

2. Economic Survival
By most reports, Texas is managing the economic downturn better than other states. However, many people have had a hard year. I personally know several families who have had to close their businesses, change careers or the stay-at-home spouse returned to work before the family had planned. It seems there is pervasive weariness. Everyone I have talked to is optimistic that things will improve, but feel that the trick is to hold onto what they’ve got until that happens.

3. Raw Minerals
It seems that some celebrities are surviving the sour economy by hawking raw mineral make-up.

4. Raw Food
I know someone who is following a raw food eating program. This is a way of eating in which nothing is consumed that has been heated above 116ºF in order to preserve the natural enzymes in the food.  I like  cruditè any time, but I really, really like hot soup. My friend just completed a marathon in Spain, so maybe I should reconsider!

5. Raw Milk
There is a movement among natural food enthusiasts to drink unpasteurized, or “raw” milk. I need to do more research on this, because in general, I like to have as few germs as possible in my food. Does anyone out there drink only raw milk?

6. Growing Pains
My sweet nine-year old daughter is about to be a 10 year old. I took her to get her ears pierced a few weeks ago so that they would be healed in time for her birthday in December. She has waited a long time for this and I am glad that I stuck to my guns on this one because the minute the little gold studs punctured her ears, she looked like a twenty year old. Ugh. Need I say whose growing pains to which I am referring?

7. Stretch Marks
After delivering twins who weighed a sum total of 13 pounds, I have reached dètente with the web of silver lines which cover a lot of my torso. Now that the girls are kindergardeners, I find I am developing some stretch marks on my psyche and intellect.

I am no longer the person I was before I had three girls and my life is opening back up after the semi-claustrophobia of mothering tiny children. They are no longer so small and neither is my life apart from them. Now, the work is to find what to expand, what to explore and what to leave behind as I move into this new phase.

On some days, the choices seem endless and exciting. Others, it seem scary and overwhelming. On yucky days, I swing from one to the other with frustration and anxiety. I know I will find my path and all will be revealed in time.  My job now is to listen, work, think  and be open. If only someone made cocoa butter to rub on the psyche.

There is finally a little crisp in the air here in Central Texas and I am excited to start doing some cooking. I survive the heat of the summer by only using our microwave, the gas grill or the toaster oven. Surprisingly, you can feed a family of five very well with just these appliances!

The relief from the heat inspires me to experiment in the kitchen.  Lately, I have been in full frugalista mode by trying to lower our food waste. I have made improvements, but there is still a ways to go.

Peruse some of my creations and ideas for future meals!

1. Tortilla Casserole
I used some leftover seasoned chicken from tacos, layered it in between corn tortillas with cheese and black beans. I mixed up a sauce with plain yogurt and salsa verde and added that to the layers. Baked it in the oven for 30 minutes or so and YUM-MY!

2. Chowder
I make the best corn chowder you have ever tasted and it is the only recipe that I do not share because I make it for our annual New Year’s Day Soup Party. I cannot fine one that is close to refer to you. Here is what my recipe does not have in it: flour, bacon or other vegetables besides corn and potatoes. I garnish it with cheese and roasted poblano peppers, then serve with cornbread and a salad.

3. Speaking of Salad
I could live on soup and salad for the rest of my life. My favorite combination for fall is pears and arugula. What are your favorite salad ingredients?

4. Eggplant Parmesan
I do not believe that eggplant is a fall vegetable, but I cannot bear to turn on the oven when it is in season. So, I save this dish for fall. I was going to make this version the other day, but my eggplant froze in the refrigerator. I made the sauce and put it over chicken roll-ups instead. The sauce caramelized in the oven and I was scraping the yummy bits off of the pan.

5. Candied Nuts
My new frugalista self has stopped buying candied nuts at the grocery store and I am making them at home. I like the nuts on the aforementioned pear and arugula salad, and they are surprisingly easy to make. We use Texas pecans because we are lucky enough to have pecan trees. Try this version.

6. Pumpkin
I like pumpkin as a savory ingredient, so I make pumpkin soup or a great pumpkin sauté with black beans. I am going to make this pumpkin and black bean tostada from the chefs at Dean & DeLuca.

7. Cranberries
The Cranberry Tart with the Nut Crust from Martha Stewart’s Entertaining book is out of this world. No, really. People who do not enjoy the cranberry like this tart. Pile on the whipped cream and it will disappear. I am thinking of adding a layer of chocolate to it this year. Too much? Nah!