Double Grape Compote, a study of the Hakurei

Y'all, I have been in my PJs since 2p, and it's been blissful. The kids have spent the afternoon with T's parents (heaven!), and I have taken a nap, read, putzed, made a batch of Double Grape Compote, got it in the freezer, am now roasting some gorgeous cauliflower right AND have just snapped some beautiful, if I say so myself, photographs of a fresh bunch of Hakurei turnips.

This small, snow white turnip is a member of the cabbage, more formerly brassica, family as are radishes, broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables. I grew up eating boiled purple top turnips, a larger variety that generally needs to be cooked or pickled to be most enjoyed. I love turnips to this day, rutabagas too! Smaller turnips such as the Hakurei are much sweeter and can be eaten like a radish or apple. They're lovely sauteed, glazed, mashed, pickled, stewed with their greens, made into soup, and one of my favorite applications is to sear them with radishes, drench them in a butter-anchovy-garlic sauce and serve them atop grilled bread. Oh, mon dieu. I could die just imagining it!

Urinecane Peetrina, Concords

Urinecane Peetrina roared across Ol's bed at 3:30 this morning, leaving him drenched and groggily up. He stumbled into my room like a ghostly stinkbomb, and after shedding his sopping PJs and donning new ones, we made our way to the basement when it became clear that he, T and I weren't going to fall back asleep if we stayed in bed together. This was a Category 5 situation folks; when I went to change his sheets this morning, four hours after the storm touched down, the bed was still overflowing. I will not miss bed-wetting peeps, not a bit. In any case, I do enjoy a good snuggle with my boys, and Ol still has enough toddler squish that loving on him is especially sweet. So we cuddled and snugged until we could fall back asleep and he told me "you're the best mommy in the world and also the best cook and I love you". I thought I'd die.

T left for NYC this morning, and I am grateful to have dropped the Guinness World Record Talkers at school for the day. Nutmeg is going apeshit on one of my chairs despite the fact that I just built him a 5 foot cat tree with four scratch posts, and Percy is on his hind legs, his two front paws on my leg looking both disappointed and hopeful. Good god, pets.

I'm now breakfasting on some pumpkin-plum muffins and hope to get some some cooking done today! A big highlight will be meeting a foodie friend -we met online via Food52 and email regularly and hilariously- today. She's in town visiting family, and I am so looking forward to an in-person meet. Also this means I get to go out for a lovely lunch which is a treat I don't often afford myself.

As you may know, Concord Grape season has arrived! I do not love Concords on their own; regular grape juice is the liquid equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. Egads!! Horrors! But Concords love to be tossed with savory elements which results in divinely autumnal, sweet-salty dishes. I am definitely going to make a 2x batch of my Double Grape-Rosemary compote because it freezes well and then makes a stunning addition to our Thanksgiving table as well as a schiacciata con l'uva, a delightful Tuscan focaccia studded with grapes, rosemary and salt.