Screw the Rules: Cozy Autumn Soup & Shakin’ (Equinox Style)

The Autumn Equinox came and went yesterday, but I've felt it creeping up. The light has been shifting, the leaves are flirting with color, plus the mornings and evenings have that maybe grab-a-sweater vibe.

Wisconsin afternoons, of course, haven’t gotten the memo yet.

Still, my body knew what was up — and it let me know with some serious soup cravings.

For me, soup isn’t fancy. It’s chopping vegetables, forgetting I’m supposed to measure, and somehow ending up with a pot big enough to feed me for the week. It’s grounding, messy, and exactly the kind of rhythm I need when the seasons change.

I found this recipe for Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup from Ali at Gimme Some Oven a while back, and it’s still one of my go-tos. But — just like with furniture layouts — I don’t really do rules. Recipes, design books, “shoulds”… I treat them as suggestions at best.

Here’s what the original recipe called for:

• 6 cups vegetable or chicken stock

• 1 cup uncooked wild rice

• 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 medium carrots, diced

• 2 ribs celery, diced

• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced

• 1 small white onion, peeled and diced

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 ½ tablespoons Old Bay seasoning

• 1 (14 oz) can unsweetened coconut milk

• 2 handfuls kale, stems removed

It’s hearty, nourishing, and well-rounded. But I rarely follow it exactly.

A dutch oven on the stove top with carrots, celery and mushrooms

A mound of kale in a dutch oven on the stovetop

My Cozy Autumn Soup version:

• 1 roasted butternut squash (Well, most of it at least - since I ate plenty straight off the pan).

• 4 big carrots, 5 or so celery stalks (leaves and all), 1 onion, mounds of garlic and a full pound of mushrooms.

• A 32 oz container of chicken broth.

• A 1 pt container of Thai Kitchen unsweetened coconut milk (I like that it’s just water + coconut, no extras).

• A few generous handfuls of kale tossed in at the end.

• Around 1 ½ tablespoons Old Bay seasoning — enough flavor, not so much heat that the big babies complain.

• Salted to taste, because that’s how I roll.

• Bay leaf? Totally forgot it. Didn’t matter one bit.

• No wild rice this time. I’m skipping grains until I get my gut health back on track.

Somewhere between scooping squash straight into my mouth, stirring the pot, and throwing in handfuls of kale, I got in some somatic shakin' too. Cooking and regulating my nervous system all in one. Win-win.

What Soup Has to Do With Home Layouts

As I stood there with my steaming bowl, it hit me: this is exactly how I feel about home design too.

Recipes, like design rules, are fine as frameworks. They give you a starting place. But the magic happens when you make it your own.

Your living room doesn’t need to follow “the rules” to be right. You don’t have to buy matching furniture sets or paint the walls before you start living in a space. You don’t even have to keep the sofa pushed against a wall if conversation feels easier when it’s pulled into the space.

Just like soup, your home should be seasoned to taste.

A Seasonal Reminder

If you need a little nudge this season, here it is:

• Listen to your body. If rice feels heavy right now, skip it. If you’re craving extra root veggies, pile them in. Your body knows what it needs.

• Follow function, not rules. Move the chair, swap the lamp, or angle the sofa if it makes your space flow better — no permission required.

• Let “good enough” be enough. Forgetting the bay leaf didn’t ruin the soup, and skipping a “design step” won’t ruin your home either.

• Shake it out. Sometimes regulation looks like soup simmering on the stove while you do a few somatic shakes between stirring. Your body and home both need space to release.

• Make space for leftovers. In food and in life, having a little extra saved for tomorrow makes things easier (and cozier).

Your home — and your life — doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to support you.

The equinox always reminds me of balance. The light shifts, the air changes (well, at least in the mornings and evenings), and we start craving rhythms that feel grounding. For me, that looks like a pot of soup on the stove and a home that bends the rules just enough to feel like mine.

And since this pot made a lot of soup, I’ll leave you with this: leftovers really are a girl’s best friend. 😉

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