Happy October, happy fall, happy cozy season!

And a happy birthday to all of my fellow Libras out there

Hello hello! Lots of fun things today, including giveaways and book recommendations and two very cozy recipes.

First giveaway! My publisher is doing a GoodReads giveaway for an advance copy of Flirting Lessons! You have until October 22nd to enter, enter here!

Second giveaway! I’m doing a giveaway over on Instagram with a bunch of fellow authors for advance copies of all of our spring books. It’s me, Ali Hazelwood, Rosie Danan, Denise Williams, and B.K. Borison — jump over there and enter! And if you came here from that giveaway, welcome!

The deadline is coming up (October 22nd! that’s next week!) to join my romance writing class with The Writers Conservatory! And a bonus for all of you: my newsletter subscribers get a special promo code: use the code JASMINE to get 15% off the cost of the class! One of the main things that I hope students get out of this course is that there’s no one way to be a writer, there are so many different ways to do this, and your voice and perspective and stories are important. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I think the key elements are to crafting a romance that makes readers truly believe that your characters are falling in love, and I hope you all have a great time with me as we think and talk through all of this. I learned so much about writing and storytelling from doing this; pushing myself to think deeper about why I think certain moments work, or how to fully integrate a B plot into a book, or what a third act breakup adds to a book made me understand so much about how to tell a story about fully realized, flawed, interesting characters who I want to spend a whole book reading and writing about. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions, and I hope I see you in class!

If you like my recipe recommendations, you either probably already love Julia Turshen and her recipes, but just in case you don’t know enough about her, please let me tell you how fantastic she is! She has so many great cookbooks, a fantastic newsletter, great online cooking classes and a delightful Instagram presence, and now she has a brand new cookbook that I’m already in love with. It’s called What Goes With What, and it’s such a creative, accessible, fun idea for a cookbook, and I already have so many great ideas of things I want to make (I was craving meatballs this week and flipped to the meatball page of the book, I love the number of options and choices). It would be an awesome gift for anyone learning how to cook as well as for experienced cooks alike. (Also, fun fact: I emailed Julia out of the blue years ago when I was working on Party of Two because she’s posted on her Instagram about cooking for a community food kitchen and I was putting one in the book and wanted to see if I could ask her some questions. We had never talked before but she was SO nice and helpful and gave me so many great details for that part of the book. I’m not recommending her cookbook because of that, but her kindness and generosity shows through in the way she writes about food, and is one of the reasons why I love this cookbook!)

And speaking of recipes, my first recipe recommendation of the day is for a soup. What, me, recommend a soup, I thought you famously didn’t like soup, Jasmine? Yes, I know, it’s true, but this soup is so good it has a name, Roberto, and is full of so much goodness that it feels like a true meal. It has Italian sausage, beans, and kale, and there are so many recipes that are based around these three ingredients, but somehow this is the best one I’ve ever had. It was created by the very talented food writer Helen Rosner, and this is a recipe that I’m only going to link to, because you have to click through to see the joyful and creative way Helen writes this recipe (just the way she talks about adding the kale is *chef’s kiss*).

It’s excellent as written, but it’s also very easy to tinker with; you can use vegetarian sausage to make it vegetarian (or vegan, if you leave out the Parmesan), you can use different kinds of beans and greens, and make it as spicy or mild as you want. I always add about a half cup of uncooked farro to it right when I add the liquid to make it heartier, and if you don’t like/can’t eat beans, this is would be a great way to leave the beans out and still keep all of the good texture contrasts of this soup. I made Roberto this week and had it for three meals and am forcing myself to freeze the rest for a time when I need it. Something I did this time that I think made it extra delicious was that instead of using broth, I just used the crushed tomatoes and water, but I also added about a teaspoon of miso from Shared Cultures, a great Bay Area based small batch miso company (I used their sun-dried tomato miso, but I bet the shishito pepper one or any of the mushroom ones would be great. Next time I make it I think I’m going to see how it will work with Andouille sausage (I bet it will be delicious).

My second recipe recommendation of the day is for the below applesauce recipe. This is from an old episode of Good Food, a great public radio show from KCRW in LA that I listen to as a podcast; there are always really interesting interviews with cooks, food writers, farmers, restaurant owners, and other food adjacent people, and lots of great recipes. I know, I know, applesauce is easy, you don’t need a recipe for it, but this method is revolutionary: you don’t have to peel the apples! You just cut them in half, core them, put them cut side down in a baking pan, cover it and then put them in the oven. It’s so easy and hands off and is great for if you got all excited and bought far too many apples and now need to do something with them, or you just want your house to smell amazing and cozy. You can flavor the applesauce any way you like after you roast the apples, or not at all, if you want to use it for something like a cake. (I like to throw a few lemon wedges in with the apples as I roast them because I like that flavor, but do what you like!). Amounts and times are below, but you can use as many or as few apples as you want for this, as long as you have enough room in your baking pans and oven.

No peel applesauce!

3 pounds apples
Cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, lemon, etc. (all optional)
2-3 tablespoons water, lemon juice, cider, liqueur, or dessert wine

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut the apples in half (do not peel!) and core and stem them. Put the apples cut side down in a baking dish with sides (9x13 and 8x8 etc work here, depending on how many apples you have—you want some space in between them but not so much that the juices burn) and cover the dish with foil. Bake for about 30-40 minutes (depending on the size of the apples) until they sort of collapse as you push down on them. Let the apples cool a little, then scoop the insides out of the skins into the baking dish, and stir in your liquid and spices (if using) and mash until the texture is right. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend, all! Pick some apples or go to a pumpkin patch or get cozy and read a great book!

Jasmine