Autumn

Recipe:Category:Why is this man smiling? He’s holding one of Brittany’s chocolate pecan mini tarts. Brittany puts a twist on one of our favorite pies and tells a great story about tomato soup, cupcakes, and birthday food. Read on to see her story and more photos of her adorable little tarts.Where is this recipe from? Modified from this recipe on Epicurious, originally from SELF, December 2006.Why is this the BEST pie recipe you’ve got?

Recipe:DoughmessticCategory:The apple pies keep racking up in our Best Pie Bakeoff, and they are all looking so good! The latest is this caramel-drizzled pie from Susan, and we can hardly wait to try it ourselves. Get the recipe, story, and more delicious photos below.Where is this recipe from? From MiMi Hodge, winner of Good Morning America’s “Pie of Emeril’s Eye” Contest, 2000. • Get the recipe here Why is this the BEST pie recipe you’ve got?

Try it once to see how you like it!

With the temperatures finally starting to drop after a steamy summer, our attention quickly turns to homey dishes that warm us from the inside out. You all definitely agree, as our most popular fall recipes are just that. Some require an afternoon spent curled up with a book while it cooks away in the oven, while others come together quickly after a day outside in the brisk air. All, however, are perfectly suited for the season.

Once a slight chill settles into the September air, it always feels like there’s a quick shift in the foods we crave. With summer in the rearview mirror, we’re quick to pull on cozy sweaters, gear up for fall baking, and swap out those light and fresh dinners for recipes that are hearty and comforting. And nowhere was that more obvious than in the recipes you all were saving this September.

October is hands-down my favorite month of the year and it has almost nothing to do with it being my birthday month. Nope, I love October for its gorgeous, cool weather, apple picking, and pumpkin carving. But I also underestimate how busy October can be. We happen to be moving from our apartment to our new house this week, which means our fall-inspired dinners need to be fast and easy. Here’s what I’m cooking this week to quickly feed my family and also celebrate the season.

Do you feel that little bit of crisp coolness in the air yet? Temperatures near us have finally dropped, making me crave hearty soups and comforting sheet pan meals. Even though it isn’t officially fall yet, I’m still planning this week’s dinners around some of my family’s fall favorites. Consider this week’s meal plan the official welcome wagon. I believe meal planning is the secret to stress-free weeknight dinners.

This week’s meal plan ditches meat in favor of plenty of fall vegetables. It’s a boon for both my pantry and my grocery budget — because I’m overstocked with canned pumpkin, hearty grains, and squashes. Here are the five fall-inspired vegetarian recipes that I’m cooking for my family for the week ahead. I believe meal planning is the secret to stress-free weeknight dinners.

I’m super curious: How do you save recipes you want to cook and eat? I recently started a file in my saved Instagram photos called “I want to eat” because honestly, even I get writer’s block when it comes to meal planning. And I’d rather not start from scratch looking for recipes every week.

And it's entirely mess-free.

Lemon vinaigrette on hot grilled zucchini equals magic.

Ready those Popsicle sticks!

A case for peach crisp for breakfast.

They have yogurt and oats in them!

This is the perfect after-dinner grilled dessert.

This is how to tackle pasta night all summer long.

Skip the frying, lose the fuss, and you've got a winning weeknight meal.

Take your summer tomatoes beyond salad.

Hands-down, the ultimate way to indulge in caprese.

Plus a honey-garlic sauce everyone will love.

Embrace the last bits of eggplant, zucchini, and peppers while you still can.

It's all tied together with garlicky lemon butter.

Cheesy, creamy corn-filled dip.

It doesn't get any more crowd-pleasing than this.

Sweet potatoes are chopped into thick sticks – don’t even peel them! Then they are tossed with oil and rosemary and roasted into tender little sticks of sweet potato. They don’t get crispy, like fried fries, but instead they’re tender in the middle with some crunchy edges. Rosemary is just one seasoning idea – try tossing them with thyme, chili powder, or paprika.

Right now we’re all about fall foods, like crisp apples and orange pumpkins with warm spices. And this butternut squash purée fits right in. Combined with sage and goat cheese, it has a sweet, earthy flavor and a silky-smooth texture. Put the squash in to roast while you’re making a salad and baking some chicken. It takes just a moment to scoop out and purée.

Everyone needs at least one quick and easy soba salad in their lunch lineup. Soba is nutty and nutritious, and in a quick salad, it can be a worthy companion to the best vegetables of the season. This particular salad is an old favorite. It’s a refreshing, addictively crunchy meal that just happens to be vegan. Quick soba noodles are tossed with sesame oil, shaved carrots, scallions, and a little soy sauce. Simple and cool.

A surfeit of apples and a bag of pears. I needed an easy, straightforward dessert and these are what I had on hand, so a rustic galette was the most obvious option to us. A galette is like a fruit pizza — thin and crispy crust and an even layer of lightly spiced fruit. It’s less demanding than a pie — no crimped crust to fuss over. It also tastes best at room temperature, so if you have the rest of a meal to cook, this is a relief to do ahead and put to the side.

Whenever I’m sick, I soothe myself with this simple tonic. Whether I actually feel like I’m coming down with something or whether my voice is just hoarse, this tonic does the trick. I recall having a bout of the flu a few years ago that lasted eleven days, and this drink was the only thing I consumed. I’m not here to give medical advice, but I can say this cocktail kept me alive when it seemed the flu was trying to kill me.

It’s about this time of year that I start getting antsy, culinarily speaking. It’s getting colder and my body craves those hearty dishes of squash and legumes. But I’m also not ready to completely let go of the bright, fresh flavors of warmer days. This couscous salad with its roasted squash and citrusy vinaigrette bridges the gap. This is one of those recipes that I find myself making again and again.

This is, hands down, my favorite way to eat yellow summer squash. And I realize this might be due to a nostalgic predilection for Southern-style vegetables (i.e., cooked until they “surrender”), but trust me: As far as savory-sweet combinations go, this is one of the best. Sautéeing squash and onions in some butter and brown sugar brings out the natural sweetness of both vegetables. There are times for keeping squash bright and slightly crisp, but this is not one of them.

Ratatouille is the quintessential late-summer dish. Not only does it make short work of extra produce, but it fills your kitchen with such a comforting and homey aroma that you might never want to leave!This isn’t exactly a quick weeknight recipe, but you can make a lot at once by doubling or tripling the recipe. Then you can eat leftovers the rest of the week or freeze ’em for later.

This started out as a way to use up some squash that had been sitting around for a while, and it turned into one of the best dishes I’ve made in a long time — easy, full of flavor, and great warmed up the next day. When I thought of making this a hearty main dish, pancetta seemed like a natural partner for roasted squash. There’s a salty-sweet thing going on, and the textures (chewy pancetta; soft, tender squash; perfectly al dente pasta) were well-balanced.

I love stuffing chicken breasts. I’ve given you my recipe for roasted chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and fresh garlic, one of my favorites, and I consider this one a fall-inspired version. The technique is easy, with a big wow payoff, and I love the combination of a simple, buttery skin with a complex filling. The sweet, salty, nutty mess that spreads out over your plate as you eat is pure perfection.

Yesterday we showed you the local artisan goat feta that we’re spotlighting this week. Local cheese like this (and the Consider Bardwell Dorset cheese that Nora showed us this morning) can be expensive. We feel that wise splurges like these are completely worth it, however, because they can add enormous flavor and value to your food – even when used in tiny amounts.Here’s the first recipe we’re featuring with this cheese – a very late watermelon salad.

We have a little formula in our kitchen for quick dinners. That would be pasta, greens, meat, and cheese. All the food groups in one! This quick and easy pasta started with the cheese as inspiration — a rich and salty feta that we paired with leftover broccoli that was lingering in the crisper door. Throw in some sausage and you’ve got dinner. Smoked sausage is an easy way to add just a little meat and flavor without too much work.

Really, this could easily be a side dish as well as a dip. It’s a simple preparation of twice-baked butternut squash — roasted until it’s buttery soft and scoopable, then blended with milk and plenty of nutty Parmesan and baked with a cheesy crust on top. In fact, we’ve served it both ways. The first time we made it, we ate it as a dip with pita chips and friends. Later that night we warmed up the leftovers, alongside some roasted vegetables, for a late-working husband.

Looking for a new way to enjoy spaghetti squash? I often eat spaghetti squash with just a bit of butter or olive oil, salt, and pepper. This recipe hardly takes more time to prepare, but it turns the squash into a slightly fancier affair. Creamy and savory, it’s a good side dish or alternative to pasta. The recipe below is for a smallish spaghetti squash, about 2 pounds. You can easily adjust the quantities of ingredients depending on the size of your squash.

We’re not going to go on and on about how easy and forgiving crostatas are (we’ve done that plentycheeseWe owe some credit to Ina Garten for this, since we’ve made her apple crostata so many times that we said, “Not again.” We had to come up with our own version. Pears seemed like a natural, not too risky, departure, but then we thought of how good they taste with cheese.

This quick one-dish dinner came out of our own harvest opportunity. It has market-fresh arugula, a handful of orzo for texture, and tomatoes out of our own garden! My husband and I hit the farmers market a little late last week, but still just in time to catch the young guys from a local farm with their huge bags of arugula. It was fresh and spicy, and we snatched up a whole bag.

When you come right down to it, almost everyone loves a good apple pie. We’re going to see a lot of apple pies in this bakeoff; all the entries are in now and have we got some good pies for you! We can hardly wait to show you all the wonderful pies that your fellow readers baked up.Here’s a super apple pie from Annette. She uses a pâte brisée crust, which is a very useful and all-purpose crust rich with butter.

Many two year-olds won’t eat a plateful of sautéed greens even if they’re cooked in bacon, and my daughter — an excellent eater most of the time — was no exception. When she was a toddler, I could usually get by with mixing shredded greens into a few scrambled eggs, but much was my delight when I discovered the kid liked kale soup. This one is mildly sweet with a bit of apple, and it has that beloved bacon-y edge that goes so well with sautéed greens.

A roasted beet is a great base for a salad especially this time of year when, for most of us in the northern hemisphere, there are few choices other than cellared root vegetables. It’s a great skill to have under your belt.Just this weekend I made a beautiful beet salad with a horseradish cream and some frizzled onions. That recipe is tomorrow. Today, here’s how you roast and peel beets without much drama.

Yesterday we gave you a tip on keeping your Brussels sprouts bright green, and now here is a recipe that will show off that bright, fresh color — even in the dead of winter. We love this easy recipe for several reasons. First of all, it brings color to the winter table. Brussels sprouts stay delicious and fresh through the winter, and their vibrant color is welcome during the cold months when it seems that there are no green vegetables left.

Last week we recommended a recipe for Kale and Potato Puree, a gorgeous green dish of warm and healthy winter eating from Gourmet. Well, we put our own advice to use quickly, and made it last weekend. It was delicious! True to form, though, we changed a few things. Here’s what we did differently, and how we would recommend making this easy, 3-ingredient dish.This recipe is basically mashed potatoes with boiled kale whipped in. Sound dreary?

This colorful salad is an oldie but goodie, and a variation of another favorite of mine, my Roasted Beet and Barley Salad. I love the bright pops of golden beets and red onions mixed in with the barley and wilted chard stems. It’s all tied together with a quick lemony dressing and topped with a sprinkle of salty feta. Golden beets are sweeter and less earthy-tasting than the red beets with which most of us are familiar. They’re great for getting reluctant beet-eaters hooked!

Recipe: Italian Sweet and Savory Squash BowlsCategory: OmnivoreHow long does it take? 25-30 minutes Name: SaraWhy is it a favorite meal? Sweet, savory, and delicious, these squash bowls are nutritious and flavorful. Best of all, they use pantry and refrigerator items that are convenient to have on hand. With some quick chopping and sauteéing you have an filling and balanced meal!

Sometimes the simplest thing are the best. This is especially true at the very end of summer, when tomatoes, eggplant, and other late vegetables are finally in their prime. A quick weeknight meal can consist of very little other than fresh vegetables, smoky and hot from the grill. Here’s how we cooked up our own late garden bounty. This was a simple, yet utterly luxurious, weeknight meal.

Looking for a good Halloween sweet to bake up before Beggar’s Night? Here’s the famous Thomas Keller Oreos (TKO) — crunchy chocolate cookies, with a white chocolate ganache sandwiched in between them. And, just for Halloween, these are in the shape of bats!This recipe comes courtesy of Bouchon Bakery and their Halloween lineup of treats right now.

We have had quite a few great recipes and good ideas for hot holiday drinks the past few weeks at The Kitchn. Here’s a look back at over a dozen hot drinks, from Nora’s hot apple-ginger toddy from this afternoon to hot chocolate on a stick to pumpkin spice latte (just like Starbucks!).It’s great to welcome guests at the door with a cup of something hot, or to close a meal with a steaming teacup of coffee or tea.

If you love Brussels sprouts and big bowls of pasta, this is the dish for you. This made-for-fall meal is simple enough to throw together any night of the week, yet fancy enough to totally impress friends when they come for dinner. Because we all know that these green-hued globes are better with bacon, we’re pairing wispy strands of Brussels sprouts with crispy cubes of pancetta.

I have cooked cabbage in many different ways. I’ve chopped, shredded, steamed, boiled, and stir-fried it, but until relatively recently, I had never roasted it. But once I tried I couldn’t believe I waited so long! Roasted cabbage wedges are one of the easiest, most delicious ways to eat a hunk of vegetables for dinner, and the bacon just helps it along.

Chewy cookie on the bottom, marshmallow-like meringue on top, and a rich layer of chocolate sandwiched in between — these “halfway” cookie bars have got to be one of the best inventions ever! The basic recipe has been around for decades; I often come across it in old church and community cookbooks. The only problem is that some of the instructions are unclear or have gotten scrambled over the years, and that makes it rather hard to follow along.

We started this website to help people cook more often and more joyfully, with the idea that the kitchen is the hearth of the home, the warm place. It is by spending time there that we connect and grow. But sometimes it gets so hot in the summer, you have to draw the line. A few straight days of humidity and 90°F weather, and I do not feel like being in the kitchen at all, let alone putting together a big meal.

There is approximately one serving of this left in my freezer. I almost ate it for lunch. But if my husband came home and found out I finished it without saving him one last bite, there’d be issues. Ice cream capable of causing marital discord: worth checking out, no? Many of you who have taken a spin with the famous One-Ingredient Ice Cream have mentioned how good it is with peanut butter mixed in. Peanut butter and bananas are just a classic combination.

Need a new lunch idea for school days (or still at work days)? You know the usual brown bag suspects — tuna, egg, chicken salad, pb and js — well this tempeh deli salad might be just the dish to shake up your mid-day meal.What is tempeh exactly? This fermented soybean cake originated in Indonesia and is still used in a variety of dishes within the country’s cuisine — think of it as a nutty, hearty, blank canvas that needs sassing up.

Whether you think of these cookies as cranberry-studded drop cookies or (as we prefer) honey drops of cranberry goodness, consider them your welcome letter from fall. They’re perfect for slipping into a back pack and nibbling later in the day with a steaming cup of coffee.Keep your eyes open at farmers markets for jars of local honey.

Even though the syrup is made in the spring, maple always feels like such a fall flavor to us. It goes so nicely with other other fall flavors like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. This popcorn has a little of each and has become our snack of choice as the leaves start to change and the weather gets cooler. This is a good recipe for showcasing that excellent maple syrup from the farm down the road. Mixed with the spices, it also makes a good syrup for pancakes and waffles!

With Harvest Colors being the theme for this month here at The Kitchn, my mind immediately leaped into a bowl of whipped sweet potatoes. Is there anything more fragrant, brightly colored, happy and inherently Fall than a baked treat with a base of the delightful tuber? I made some sweet potato muffins from Kim Boyce’s Good to the Grain, and while I deviated a little from the recipe I wound up with fantastic results.

As fall settles in for real, with winter around the corner, I am enjoying the pleasures of my spice cabinet. Ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves — they bring a warmth and a snap to autumn food. One spice, however, that I feel like I don’t reach for often enough is cardamom. This pungent, musky spice is often used in savory Indian foods, but not often enough in baking.