Most of the time, I say I don’t like baking. But occasionally, you might hear me say that I love to bake. While it may seem like a discrepancy, what I really mean is: I used to love baking with my mom when I was a child. As an adult, I don’t like finding random ingredients in the back of the cupboard, washing all the extra dishes, and cleaning up the mess it creates.

I love our New England town so much, and while it is beautiful all through winter, spring, and summer, I think it truly belongs to autumn. There is just something about the way the leaves pop off all the crisp white houses, allowing the foliage to stand out like fireworks against a night sky…but when the fireworks fade, the night sky remains a stunning backdrop that is worth a longer look itself.

I hope you all are having a wonderful week! We are going to be doing some back and forth between fall and Christmas over the next week or two which I know is a little strange but that’s just kind of how blogging is -ha! Today, though, I thought we’d bridge the two with a recipe for a delicious stew that my friend Jess made.