Fall

Steak and Mushrooms…Yum.

Like Batman and Robin, Lucy and Ethel, Mr. Roarke and Tattoo, they were perfect together….with meat being the star and the mushrooms happy to play sidekick.

But not anymore.

By having some fun with the fungi, trying different cooking methods and flavor combinations, you can now give mushrooms the starring role.

Serving your steak as a side may bruise its ego a bit, but the only loss you’ll experience will be in your weight!

Try to use a mix of mushrooms if you can– some wild, some domestic– the different tastes and textures really stand out in this simple preparation.

Move over apple turnovers. Here comes pumpkin.

Begin with a can of pure pumpkin puree, and it’s amazing how some sugar and spice can make everything nice. Pie crust helps out, too.

Grab-and-Go Sweet Pumpkin Turnovers are a little bit cookie and little bit pie. When refrigerated pie crust is sprinkled with chopped walnuts and cut into rounds, then mounded with a filling that will remind you of pumpkin pie, it’s hard to know what it should be called. Most certainly, it is a turnover.

The use of refrigerated pie crust speeds up the process of creating these turnovers. Pressing chopped walnuts into the dough adds crunchy texture and gives the pastry a homemade flair.

When the turnovers are eaten on the day they are baked, your teeth will crack through a crunchy topping of cinnamon and sugar. Once the turnovers have been stored in an airtight container, that crunchy shell will become melt-in-the-mouth soft. Either way, they are delicious.

This cake. It was my Dad's favorite. He had a Fall birthday and this is the dessert my Mom made him every year for his office celebration. It was also the batter my Mom could barely keep us kids away from....it was so good, even before it was baked. This was back in the day when no one cared about eating raw cake batter.

This is one of those delicious, moist cakes I crave and love eating every, single time. It has such great memories for me. I can still see my Dad getting down the special crystal tray my Mom used to send with the cake. It was on a high shelf above the stove she could not reach. The platter wasn't anything expensive, just the best one she had. A bowl of real whipped cream was also packed up and served with each slice, trust me you don't want to forget the whipped cream.

My Mom acquired this recipe from a woman she used to work with over fifty years ago in downtown Los Angeles. Beyond that we have no idea where it originated from. I just know I love it. Just like my Dad.

On cold days nothing gives me more comfort than hot soup. The flavor combination that I find most comforting in soups is sweet and savory. It's an ideal pairing in many foods that have come to represent autumn. Certain vegetables like sweet potatoes and squashes are all made more flavorful with a touch of sweet, be it from sugar or other sweeteners such as honey or molasses.

Carrots also benefit from being paired with sweetness and even spiciness. But I add no sweeteners to this carrot soup. Its sweetness is all made possible naturally from a specific blend of ingredients. The soup is made all the more potent and aromatic with the addition of fresh ginger and a distinctive blend of Middle-Eastern spices that carry warm and nutty profiles. It's the perfect combination to elevate the humble carrot to new flavor heights.