Hello,
September always feels less like the beginning of a new season and more like the year finding its rhythm again.
Summer hasn’t disappeared entirely, but things are beginning to tighten around the edges. Diaries fill up. Weeknight dinners need to become practical again. The evenings draw in just enough to notice, and suddenly I’m thinking less about lazy summer lunches and more about what can be on the table quickly after a busy day.
At the same time, September always makes me want to get ahead.
This is the month when I start thinking about homemade vanilla extract and paste — make them now and they’ll be ready for Christmas baking — and when the pumpkin spice comes back out of the cupboard. Mine is getting a little glow-up this month too, because apparently I am completely incapable of letting a perfectly good recipe sit quietly forever.
But I don’t want September to become all routines and to-do lists.
There are still weekends for getting out and exploring somewhere closer to home, whether that means wandering around a grand old house, pulling on your walking shoes for an estate trail, or simply going somewhere local you’ve somehow never quite got around to visiting.
And there’s plenty to linger over too. This month I’m taking you inside Cork’s English Market — not simply as somewhere to eat and shop, but as a place shaped by history, local food traditions, traders and the city around it. It’s one of those places that rewards slowing down and looking properly.
So September’s Culinary Travels is about getting back into a rhythm without rushing the season along: quick dinners when you need them, a little preparation for the months ahead, somewhere worth exploring, and something substantial to read as the evenings begin to close in.
For now, though, put the kettle on. We’ve got a lot to get stuck into.
Georgina
Back to weeknight rhythm
September has a way of putting dinner back on the clock.
After the looser days of summer, suddenly there are fuller diaries, darker evenings and nights when what you really need is something warm, fragrant and on the table without too much thought.
That is exactly where my Curry in a Hurry earns its keep. Inspired by Nigella Lawson’s original idea, this Thai-style curry comes together in around 20-25 minutes, with coconut milk, your choice of green or red curry paste and plenty of fresh herbs doing most of the heavy lifting.
Better still, it is wonderfully forgiving. Leftover Sunday roast chicken can go straight in, as can roast pork, vegetables or whatever is lingering in the fridge, turning yesterday’s dinner into something completely different rather than another round of leftovers.
Serve it with rice or noodles, add a squeeze of lime and a handful of coriander, and that is one busy September evening very happily dealt with.
Make my Curry in a Hurry
A little preparation for later
September always seems to wake up the part of me that wants to get ahead.
Not in a colour-coded, Christmas-in-September sort of way, but in small, useful jobs that future-me will be very grateful for. Homemade vanilla is exactly that kind of project.
Vanilla extract needs time to steep and deepen, so making a bottle now means it will be well on its way by the time Christmas baking begins. Vanilla paste is a quicker reward, but just as useful to have tucked in the cupboard for cakes, biscuits, custards and anything else that benefits from those little flecks of vanilla seed.
There is something particularly satisfying about making an ingredient like this from scratch: very little effort now, plenty of payoff later.
And while I’m in that mood, my homemade pumpkin spice blend is getting a little refresh this month too. September may not be full autumn just yet, but I’m happy to admit the spice jars have started calling.
Make homemade vanilla extract and paste
A market worth lingering over
Some places are worth visiting for what you can buy. Others tell you something about the city around them.
Cork’s English Market does both.
For my latest in-depth Culinary Travels feature, I’ve gone beyond the usual “what to eat” guide and spent time looking at the market’s history, its traders, the traditional foods that still connect it to Cork’s past, and the way its role in the city continues to change.
There are familiar names and much-loved stalls, of course, but there are also stories behind foods such as spiced beef, tripe and drisheen; generations of trading families; and that fascinating balance between serving local people and welcoming the visitors who now arrive specifically to experience the market.
I spoke to traders, historians and others who know the market well, and the result is part practical guide, part food history and part love letter to one of Cork’s most distinctive places.
If you’re planning a visit, give yourself time. Wander, ask questions, stop for something to eat — and look beyond the shopping list.
Explore my guide to Cork's English Market
Planning a trip? You can also browse places to stay in Cork with Booking.com.
A weekend made for wandering
September might be one of my favourite months for exploring closer to home.
There is still enough daylight to make a proper day of it, but the heat and crowds of high summer have begun to ease. It is the sort of weather that makes wandering around old houses, gardens and sprawling estates feel far more appealing than trying to cram everything into a scorching August afternoon.
You don’t necessarily need a weekend away, either. Sometimes the places we keep meaning to visit are sitting almost on our doorstep: National Trust properties such as Calke Abbey, grand estates like Chatsworth, local museums, gardens, walking trails or a town you have driven through countless times without ever stopping to explore properly.
Calke has an extra little curiosity, too — parts of the estate were used during filming for Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, which gives you another excuse to look a little more closely as you wander.
There is something rather lovely about treating your own area with the same curiosity you would bring to somewhere hundreds of miles away. Pick somewhere you have been meaning to visit, leave enough time for an unhurried lunch or coffee, and make a day of it.
No flights, no packing, no grand itinerary required.
A book to get stuck into
As the evenings begin drawing in, I’m always more inclined towards a book I can properly disappear into — and Good People by Patmeena Sabit absolutely did that for me.
It begins with a death: Zorah Sharaf, eldest daughter of an Afghan refugee family who have built an enviable life in Northern Virginia. From there, the story unfolds through a chorus of friends, neighbours, journalists and people with very definite opinions about a family they may barely know.
The short, sharp sections make it dangerously easy to keep reading “just one more” chapter, while the shifting voices constantly unsettle what you think you know about Zorah, her family and the truth behind their carefully constructed American Dream.
Sharp, provocative and hugely readable — exactly the sort of novel to get stuck into as September evenings close in.
Buy Good People via Bookshop.org
Read my full review on Instagram
However September is settling in where you are, I hope there’s something comforting on the table, somewhere interesting to wander at the weekend, and a good book waiting for the evening.
P.S. What are you looking forward to most about autumn — the food, the walks, the books, or simply getting back into a routine?
