With the sudden arrival of colder weather, cold-weather-comfort-style cooking is now back in vogue in our house. The proliferation of mealtime summer salads for hot days is now once again behind us. Avoidance of putting on the stove oven, lest the house become too warm as well, in favour of using the small, counter-top convection oven, although it will continue to be used for small things to be baked.

Such as the cheesecake I baked in the morning for the evening's meal dessert. For which I take advantage of the pouches of berries I have tucked away in the freezer, to top the cheesecake off with. So our raspberry-topped cheesecake was very welcome to close off our Friday-night meal of chicken soup and rice, baked chicken breasts with mushrooms, steamed cauliflower, and potato pudding.

Colder days heralding the eventual onset of winter, the need to turn on the house furnace for warmth, and threats of night-time garden frosts demand the comfort of foods geared to warm us up.