s4 e8 Fall Head First Into Fall

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Good evening, and welcome to the Comfort in Voice podcast. I'm your host, Shasta Ray, and I am coming to you live pre-recorded from the bird room. That means I am joined by Zoltan, Moose, Cricket, Bug, Murray, Baxter, Emmy the Minnie Macaw, and the giant dog has just joined us just a minute ago, right before I turned on the microphone. And you guessed it, yep, I am experimenting with yet another location and different microphone. So we'll see how this goes. I'm only gonna be with you here for just a short bit and then we're gonna get on with our fall season reruns of fun. Yep, that's it. And I don't think we're gonna have to do this too many weeks, but I do have a wonderful lineup, and we will be continuing the Friday night bedtime stories, so you can look forward to that. Now for tonight's presentation, I have chosen an episode that you guys have loved. It originally aired last fall on October 21st, 2025, season 2, episode 12, titled Fall Asleep to the Comforts of Fall. And I chose it for tonight simply because the weather where I'm at has finally turned, and the evenings are such a nice, cool, wonderful temperature. It was starting to get cool a couple weeks back in the evenings, but now it is absolutely wonderful. You need a light jacket sometimes, and this is what we've all been waiting for is the beginning of that fall season. So without further ado, I present to you Fall Asleep to the Comforts of Fall. Well, good evening, and welcome to the Comforting Voice podcast. I'm your host, Shasta Ray, and oh my gosh, you guys have been quiet out there the past few days. I think there's been a lot of stuff going on in the news. Oh my goodness. I hope the dust is settling a little bit. Looks like things are still kinda heated and amped up on places like Facebook. So you know what? Come on and hang out with me for a while. Let's let's just take it down a notch. All those problems are gonna be there for you when you're ready to jump back in. I don't think they're gonna go anywhere, and it might be crazy for a while out there. So yeah, take your shoes off, get your favorite beverage, get a glass of water or some hot tea or something. Let's hang out. I got some good stuff for you tonight. Alright, so yeah, like I said, this is where you're gonna settle in and get comfortable, and I'm gonna talk about a lot of nothing super important for a minute or two, and then we'll get started on the episode. So do you have your bottle of water? Do you have your teddy bear? Do you have your blankets? Okay. Get your listening device set at whatever volume you need it set at. This time frame is good for that too. Oh my gosh. Last night I listened to a different podcast to fall asleep to, and I couldn't get the volume quite right. It was either way too low or a little bit too loud, and then I had to start it over again because I missed everything. I was interested in it by then. I fell asleep pretty quick, so I'm gonna have to listen to it again anyway, but anyway, but you know that's just one example of why I do this. I sit here and talk about a little bit of nothing important while you get comfortable and get everything where you need it to get. Okie dokie, let's start off with your tea tag and your fortune cookie slip and your lucky numbers. I think there was a big lottery just recently too, a couple days ago. Your tea tag. Joy is the essence of success. Nice. And for your fortune cookie slip. Every person is the creation of themselves, the image of their own thinking and believing. Oh my goodness, that is deep. I hope you are paying attention. Let's repeat that one again. Every person is the creation of themselves, the image of their own thinking and believing. Wow, yeah, believe in yourself. Yes, definitely. Okay, your lucky numbers are you ready? Thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-six, five, fifty-five, and ten. Those are your lucky numbers. And a fun fact for you, it has been proven that the lucky numbers off the back of fortune cookie slips tend to win more in lotteries than if you use the quick pick type thing. And it may not mean that you win the jackpot, although jackpots tend to hit more often using the fortune cookie slips, apparently, but you will get the small wins a little bit more. So it's worth trying. It's worth trying, but that's been a proven fact. Okay, moving right along. We are not gonna do a whole lot of game stuff tonight, but I do have the Rebel Deck Oracle with Attitude Clean Edition to get your thought for the evening at the very least. Maybe or maybe not snarky. We don't know. I already pre-shuffled and I cut the deck, and all I have to do is draw the one on the top. Are you ready? Here we go. Don't rush it. The choices you make today could impact your future. Take things slowly. Good advice. Very good advice. I like that one. That's worth some thought. Okay, so we are well into autumn, fall. Oh my gosh, my favorite time of year. It's still warm, but it's cooling off, it's not quite as hot out, it's not really cold yet. And everyone loves Halloween. Everyone loves this time of year. So we are ramping up for our Halloween episode. You don't want to miss it. Make sure that you hit that subscribe button on whatever app you're listening on so that you get notifications and you don't miss anything. Lon has been in high gear, recording all kinds of stuff for you guys, sending in his clips. Oh my gosh, he has been a busy B. Yes, he has. He is way ahead of the game too. His Halloween clip is already done. And then as a special treat, we will have our very first ever guest on the show. Yes, we will for the Halloween episode. So you can look forward to that here again. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite app so you get notifications. And then speaking of lawn, here's Lawn with Got a Minute?

SPEAKER_00 7:20

So here I am, out in nature. Don't know what sounds might come across. I am in the northern Chihuahuan Desert, the largest, longest desert in North America, by the way. I'm at the upper end of that. And I am standing out in what is a very rare occurrence here: a lightning, rain, and thunderstorm. We just plain don't have that very often. This is technically monsoon season here, but we have not had monsoon season here. It's been pretty dry, so whenever nights like this happen, I am reminded I am reminded of the power of nature, and that we are part of nature. That we must both follow the rules of nature, like in this case, I am not holding a golf club up into the sky, and we must also be the rules of nature, take care of each other, nurture each other, care for the animals, make sure that you are part of nature, not a raw energy going against it. We have to pay back. Mother Earth has given us some nice things. So make sure that you return to your roots, return to nature, return to the things that are simple in life, like a breeze, a dog barking, a thunderstorm, rain. Thrive.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Thank you, Lawn, for that fantastic, exciting, picturesque clip. Oh my gosh, that was amazing, and a good reminder. Love it, love it. Yes, he is down in that remote area. That's why it's so hard. And he records all of his clips and sends them in. They're all numbered, and then I'm playing them in the order that I receive them. And here again, I usually don't hear them until minutes before the episode, sometimes during the episode, but usually I hear them about the same time that I'm putting everything together. This one I I got edited right prior to starting recording. But thank you, Lawn. Love that. Looking forward to some of the upcoming stuff he has sent in. Oh my gosh, we have some wonderful, wonderful topics for you guys. And very real, very real. Like I said, this is kind of our attempt at Mr. Rogers for Adults. This is where you can take a step away from everything, and it's a really great way to help you process without all the static, you know, and that's essentially what he was doing for kids, helping kids process in a healthy way, away from all the static, and just let you be you. You do you. You do you. Okay. Thank you, Lawn. Oh my gosh. So, what do I have for you? This is our autumn themed episode. I'm not sure what I'm going to title this as I record it, but I'll think something up by the time I get it published here in just a little bit. But I have been changing up the diet and I've been trying to eat a little bit healthier lately, and I've pulled out some of my old cookbooks, and so I pulled this one out. This is an old, interesting one. I thought I'd purchased it at a thrift store. I get a lot of stuff like this at thrift stores, but there's no sticker on it, and there's no residue from a sticker on it. So it must have come from a garage sale or something like that. But you can still get copies of it on Amazon, I think, new. So I think it's still in print, probably. Um, you can get used copies from Goodreads, even used off of Amazon for maybe a buck and a half, buck seventy, somewhere in that range. It is called James McNair's Squash Cookbook. And here again, I picked this up on a whim somewhere. It had to have been a garage sale because there's no there's no sales stickers from a thrift store. Those don't come off. They they are permanent usually, or the little residue they leave is as well. So it's got a couple of sections in it, and I'm not gonna just sit and read it like a book. I just wanted to tell you guys about it. A lot of people don't really know how to cook squash or what to do with it, and sometimes we just use it for decorations or we buy it and we don't know what to do, or we just know one way to cook it. I picked this up on a whim, so it, you know, hey, maybe I could eat healthier and this and that. So it's got a whole section on summer squash, and then it's got a whole section on winter squash, and it kind of tells you a little bit about each, which ones are in each category. Natives, Asian squashes, summer squash right now, preparing summer squash for cooking, cooking summer squash uh gives you baking, steaming, deep frying, grilling, microwave, saute, steam, stir fry, puree, no cooking required, serving it raw, how to cook the blossoms. It's just kind of cool and it's got really great photos in it. Now I am gonna very quickly admit here that while I have flipped through this book a lot and been like, oh, I should try this, oh I should try that, I tend to go straight back to the winter squash area. And it gives you different ways to cook, prepare, and what different kinds of squash there are, and it is amazing. Okay, so we're gonna go through a couple names of these squash acorn squash, banana squash, buttercup, butternut, delicata, golden nugget, hubbard, pumpkin, spaghetti, sweet dumpling, and Turk's turban. There are also Chinese winter melon and Japanese pumpkin. It gives you different ways to prepare it for cooking, how to cook it, different ways to bake it, boil, microwave, saute, steam, puree. It looks like there's some other added ideas on there. And let's just name off some of these crazy, crazy recipes. They actually look amazing. Fried winter squash chips, and I wonder if you couldn't do these in an air fryer. Oh my gosh, they look just like potato chips. And it says you can use butternut squash for this, and then just get one with a smaller neck and slice it super thin, probably like on a mandolin or something, and it has all the instructions on how to do this. It looks very intriguing. Okay, moving right along, there is a recipe for squash soup that looks very amazing. This one looks weird. I don't know that I would prepare this, but it is a very strange, strange-looking picture with a strange-looking conglomeration of ingredients. I would try it. If I went into a restaurant, I would actually try this. Chinese winter melon pond soup. It's got winter melon, chicken stock, it's got chicken in it, uh some pork, ginger, tangerine, lotus seeds, never had them, lotus root, never had it, bamboo shoot, I've had that. Uh some mushrooms and onion, ham, ginkgo nuts, and soy sauce. The presentation is crazy. That's all I can say. But yeah, I would try that. It looks interesting. I don't think I would go to the effort of buying the ingredients to try it, but if it was in a restaurant, I'd probably try it. I'm gonna skip ahead a little bit. There's spaghetti squash with cheese, that looks amazing as a side dish, or as a pasta replacement. Winter squash risotto, that looks amazing as well. Cheese stuffed whole winter squash. Okay, so it says it's traditionally made with a pumpkin, but this classic dish adapts to buttercup, golden delicious, Japanese pumpkin, and other globular varieties. So if they look round, it also suggests the Turks Turban, acorn, sweet dumpling, or miniature pumpkins. So you cut the top off, and essentially the body of the squash or the pumpkin becomes like a bowl, and you just you put a cheese mixture in it and you bake it, and then you just eat the whole thing as a dinner or side or something. I'm not gonna just sit here and read it, but it looks delicious. It looks amazing. I might have to try that. Now, my very, very favorite one. This one is oh my gosh, it's delicious. I've always traditionally made it with either an acorn squash or a butternut squash, and it is the cranberry stuffed winter squash. It is delicious. Oh my gosh, buy this book, if nothing else, just for this one recipe. It won't disappoint you. It's got chicken in it, it's got some cheese in it, you use apple, you use oh, and if if you can get fresh cranberry, wow! This is a fall side dish or even a full meal within itself that you can't even imagine. Another thing I've actually put in the stuffing for this is um like a wild rice mixture. Just mix that in with the whole thing, beefs it up just a little bit more that way. Wow. So here again, that was the cranberry stuffed winter squash recipe. Delicious, delicious. This is another one I want to try. It's the golden yeast rolls, little buns, little rolls, but you're gonna use some uh squash or pumpkin in them. Amazing. Looks delicious. Squash pancakes and maple syrup. Nut topped squash bread. If you've ever had pumpkin bread, this is probably very similar. Yep. Now it's getting into some desserts, and there's a butternut pie. Pumpkin turnovers, those look delicious. Winter squash ice cream. I'm sure that kind of sounds weird, probably coming through your headphones or you know, just vocally without seeing the picture, but it looks amazing. So if you've ever had like a pumpkin ice cream or something like that, it would probably be very, very similar. I do not see that they use any traditional spices in it, so I would not equate it to a pumpkin spice um flavor, but it's probably very similar. But using a squash, it wouldn't have the strong flavor as pumpkin has a very distinct flavor. This is probably very mild. I might have to try this. I might have to try this. Alright, what's next? Spiced squash cake with caramel icing. Now that looks amazing, and it's made in a bunt cake ring. Another one that you put into a bunt cake ring. Looks like steamed winter pudding with orange custard sauce. Looks delicious. Yeah, you could do some serious entertaining for the holidays with this sort of thing. Or football parties, you know, birthday parties, anniversaries, winter dinner with your honey bunch, your family. Sometimes it's fun to try new things. You never know what you're gonna like, and then if you try something you've never tried before, and the recipe is just a bomb, you can laugh about it, right? You can't take it personally. You tried something you've never tried before, and it just so happens it didn't come out the way you were hoping. But it's always an adventure, so try new things. Okay, so that's what I wanted to present to you tonight to fall asleep to. That's gotta be boring. Titles of recipes that all have squash in them. No, but seriously, if you're looking for something different, you're looking for new ways to incorporate vegetables. And honestly, the beautiful thing about squash, it's got a good fiber content and very low calories, very good for you, and a lot of good nutrition in it. So it's worth exploring. And here again, the name of it, James McNair's Squash Cookbook. The one that I have is it's a little hardback, it's very thin. And I thought this was copyright a lot older than it is. It looks like it was copyright 1989. So it's uh from the late 80s, and I think this same chef or cook has some other uh cookbooks. I believe I have a salad variant of this or did it one time. I'm not sure if I still have it or not. But uh, yeah, check that out. I'll try to put a link down in the show notes. Alright, that's all we got time for tonight. I am gonna cut this short here. I'm gonna get this edited and in your eardrums, and I hope that you have fun exploring new things. Try some new recipes. If it's not these, you know, find a cookbook that maybe you've had laying around the house and pick something out and try it. Or find something online, you know. Tons and tons of recipes out there online, you don't even have to pay for a book or anything. And then last but not least, everyone is pinching pennies these days. Same holds true for me. And one thing I've been doing is picking out a nice big huge butternut squash. I cook it up, and then I make it up with uh rice, different veggies, some chicken, all sorts of stuff. And you know what? Those things last for several days. I can get a number of meals out of those things, they are amazing. So it's worth considering, and especially if you're on a budget, they stretch your pennies, they really do. So something to consider. Definitely the season for it. It heats up your house nicely, and then it smells wonderful when you bake it. So I guess that's your little slice of warmth and fall comfort for today. I hope you had a great time with me, and we'll catch you on Friday with some more exciting adventures out of our adventure book. And then here again, Halloween is a special presentation, guys. Alright? So until then, sleep tight, good night, and bye bye.