After a bout of unusually warm weather, it seems like fall is finally here. The days are increasingly short, the leaves are turning and the pumpkins are out in full force.
Pumpkins might be my favorite part of the season: jack-o-lanterns, pumpkin pie and the ever-increasing pumpkin-flavored products (pumpkin beer is a particular favorite of mine). This year, I tried something new with my pumpkin. I roasted the seeds.
My girlfriend and I found tons of tasty-sounding recipes on the Internet. We decided to try two of them: one with cinnamon, sugar, chili powder and one with just olive oil and salt. While we were cooking, we dug through my vinyl for the perfect fall music. We listened to Fleet Foxes and Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon before stumbling onto Simon & Garfunkel’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme.
Parsley is the most underrated Simon & Garfunkel album. It far outweighs their debut, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., but lacks the famous singles found on Sounds of Silence, Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water. Sure, it has classics like “Scarborough Fair” and “Homeward Bound,” but it’s a bit of a slow-burner.
That’s part of what makes Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme a perfect fall album. Musically, it’s like autumn trees: almost bare-bones arrangements lifted beautifully by rich, colorful harmonies. It’s full of serene, pastoral songs like “Cloudy” and “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her.” Even “59th Street Bridge Song” isn’t quite as groovy as it claims. It’s more like a calm walk along New York City streets in the crisp fall air.
The album’s 29-minute span is brief. We started it late in the cooking process, so by the end of “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night,” our pumpkin seeds were about ready.
The cinnamon and sugar overpowered the chili powder in the first batch, which might have been for the best. Every now and then, we’d get a kick of chili and it really didn’t go with the rest of the flavors. Just olive oil and salt is definitely the way to go. The simple recipe and music were the perfect fall treat.
Kind of Bleu 
Your best post yet!