A Gascon Year: Octobre continues Kate Hill’s series of twelve seasonal cookbooks featuring food and stories as warm and comforting as a hot supper cooked in an old French Farmhouse. Kate Hill, writer, cook and teacher, entices the reader into her life in Southwest France as she shares the regional and delicious recipes of Gascony. AGY: Octobre is a simple approach to the Autumn Gascon kitchen. Within this issue, you’ll find some of her favorite recipes and a few stories that paint the picture of October over the years. This is the month to look back over the year, and the years, as well as forward to the Winter to come. We make these favorite fruit-based desserts every year: Poires Bandello, Prune Jacot, Tarte au Poire et Chocolat; they feature the late season harvest of plums and pears and when combined with apples, quince, and walnuts celebrate October as a Harvest Tarte. These are dishes that you’ll revisit over and over as you make them each year. The classic recipes for a short crust or pate brisee are included to make it easy to find as well as my most favorite chocolate cake: Marie-Claude Gracia’s Gateau Chocolate à la Belle Gasconne. Pumpkins feature prominently in France, but not on the front porch. Rather they are brought to the table in soup tureens, gratin dishes, and steaming bowls of creamy puree. Spiced but not sweet, buttery and toasted, all the favored squash are on my October table. Paired with foraged and bought mushrooms in many forms, it’s easy to produce a deeply satisfying vegetable-centric menu before the charcuterie laden cassoulet begins. Each of these monthly cahiers de cuisine or kitchen notebooks is built on seasonal inspiration and instruction with personal essays, recipes, and photographs that are timeless. Easy to follow recipes for aperitifs and soups, main courses, and desserts fill these delectable volumes. A Gascon Year: Octobre introduces the reader to Kate Hill Cooks, the online teaching courses at Kitchen-at-Camont.com and all the good food she creates within its 18th century stone walls for her students around the globe. Included in October’s volume are over a dozen authentic recipes including: Pumpkin Soup with Pain D’epice Croûtons, Rôti de Porc aux Pruneaux et Échalotes, Purée de Châtaignes, Tourte aux Poireaux et Champignons, Les Petits Nids de Patates avec Champignons, Harvest Tarte, Sabayon au Floc de Gascogne, Poires Bandello, Crème Anglaise, Tarte aux Poires et Chocolat, Gateau Chocolat a la Belle Gasconnes, and Prunes Jacots .