It's said that All Hallows' Eve is one of the nights when the veil between the worlds is thin - and whether you believe in such things or not, those roaming spirits probably believe in you, or at least acknowledge your existence, considering that it used to be their own. Even the air feels different on Halloween, autumn-crisp and bright.

Erin Morgenstern

I apologize dear mother, for I have not had time to keep up with my misplaced food ramblings. I apologize because, though my page lists 66 lost souls, I mean subscribers, I seriously doubt any are left beyond my dear mother due to the wide chasm of time that has separated this post from the last. In my defence, I have been hard at work crafting the pages of my forth coming cookbook 'Cuisine of the Sun'. The book is finally at the publishers actually being printed. Torrey Douglass, of Lemon Fresh Design, spent several weeks giving it a make-over, making me look like an absolute hero with her dream-like designs. I only hope I haven't sent her to the same fate I returned to. I know her husband Alan, so perhaps I should apologize to him as well. Writing has been the same brutal assault on my body and mind I thought I left behind when I walked out of my last professional kitchen. Oh how completely wrong and naive I was. I have adopted the Edward Abbey style of writing. I embrace loads of alcohol, nondescript pharmaceutical drugs and lengthy hours like a newly born babe takes to his mother's breast anticipating the first swallow. I find words flow more freely slightly imbibed, ok, three sheets to the wind. With the ink barely dry on the last page of my book,  I felt I better attempt to salvage my dwindling viewership with a very short and sweet seasonal ode to pumpkins in the guise of a recipe.

I was at work the other day when my lovely friend Liz suggested cooking a Pumpkin Soup served in a whole French pumpkin. It was funny because I was thinking the exact same thing at the exact same time.  Sometimes I think the two of us are connected by the same stomach or at least, the same lust for food. We share common dreams of foie gras sausages, pork belly banh mi and duck confit dancing in a near constant gastronomical Maypole dance.

This soup is something I very much would have served in any restaurant I worked. It is the culmination of what is available locally through my local farmer's market, my kick ass job at Foods in Season and my imagination. I beg you to try it. I promise it tastes good enough to bridge the chasm I created between posts.