Whether in the late fall, when the first snow of the season may have started to fall or here, in mid-winter when the nights are still long and it seems like spring is still weeks and weeks away, the fragrance of something apple baking in the oven is a wonderful warming thing. Generally kind on…

Here is a hearty soup for a cold winter evening, perfect for vegans if you use vegetable broth, but still hearty enough for the most carnivorous family members. This warms up well too, so pack leftovers into single meal sized containers tot take to work or school for a quick warm up in the microwave….

I was looking for a dessert recipe that would use more than a cup of applesauce and would be something a little different than what I have recently tried. I remembered someone once talking about a “fabulous” applesauce pie they had had, so I started researching, not expecting to find many options. Wrong. A search…

Since today is only day 9 of this year’s Twelve Days of Christmas, it’s not too late to think about making some “figgy pudding” for those late cookie trays or mid-winter snacking. Yes, I know; figgy pudding should be steamed, but the original takes a lot of time and equipment to pull off. This adaptation…

So you don’t like beets but you’ve heard of all the wonderful antioxidants and other nutrients they provide? Well, here is a salad that even non-beet eaters have been known to praise, and even have seconds and third servings. This is best made with beets you have roasted, but you can improvise with canned beets–just…

Sometimes in this season of rich desserts, we may still crave something a little sweet to top off a meal. One very seasonal approach is to make your favorite pumpkin pie filling but then just put it in a heavy glass casserole dish and bake it without a crust. While there is still a significant…

The colors of fall are deep and rich, golds and bronzes and deep russet reds. And then there are the rich purple colors of Concord grapes. Throughout my childhood, baskets of these grapes were part of the fall harves, and the smell of my mother’s simmering grape juice often met us as we burst home…

  With an extended Indian Summer season this year, it is hard to believe that we are well into the last half of October. But the leaves–more brilliant than even the beautiful normal here in the upper Midwest this year–are quickly showering down, glowing in the sun, making colorful confetti against the clouds of the…

This has been a busy week, with two large batches of raspberry apple jam and one even larger batch of apple butter finished and ready for winter. While apple butter is wonderful on toast, French toast, and pancakes, I wanted to try using it in some baking as well. The following bread has a lot…

As the end of the raspberry season approaches, I wanted to use some of the last pickings to make some Apple Raspberry Jam. I have been making No Pectin Raspberry Apple Jam for several years, but this time I wanted to up the ratio of apple to raspberry, in part to see if I could…