Fall's Fruity Desserts

This is one of the best times of the year for baking .The weather is  blissfully cooler and perfect for making  all sorts of desserts.It's also the time for a variety of fruits such as apples and pears. Combine the two and you have a yummy array of delicious treats. There are enough recipes where you can create a different sweets every day.

Apples are the most popular fall fruit and they 're also the most used in desserts. The most commonly baked apple dish is pie of course, Everyone loves a home baked one but you can also vary it by making a pomme tartin, a French version of the American recipe.This is a layer of  sliced apples on a decadent buttery crust. You can also make it with pears or with another fall fruit, the fig as well. Baked apples are a tasty and quick treat. These can go adult with a sauce of red wine and butter or kid  with the apples being stuffed with caramel and nuts.This is also the season for an old fashioned apple cake.It can be baked as a regular old fashioned scratch cake or a crumb topped coffee cake.

Pears, figs, cranberries and grapes are other fall fruits that are great in desserts. Like the apple,the pear is the most versatile. It can be poached in wine for an elegant dessert or baked in a tartin for a more rustic one,You can also make pear strudel or have it oozing out of turnovers. Figs are another nice variation. These can be poached in honey or made into a cake with ground almonds. Grapes surprisingly can be made into a cake as well. Another fall standard, the cranberry  can be just as versatile. It can grace cheesecakes as well adding zing to oatmeal cookies You can also make a fluffy yet tangy mousse with cranberries too.

This is th eseason to get out the pots and pans and start using the fruits of the season. There are all sorts of delicious recipes to make with apples and pears figs and cranberries along with grapes. Try  a new on eof a family recipe to create a sweet treat for these crisp autumn days.

Hearty Fall Breakfasts

There's a nip in the mornings now.Gone is that balmy tropical air and he high temps.It's time to put away the summery breakfasts of just fruit or maybe a roll.It's time to bring back the heartier breakfasts.There 's nothing like a good ribsticking meal to start off a chilly autumn day. One of the best breakfasts is a traditional one.You can have bacon and eggs which is decadent and tasty.You can vary it by making a breakfast sandwich.Just add either scrambled egg or even a cheese omelet on an English muffin. finish it off with a couple of slices of pork roll or breakfast ham.If you're worried about the high levels of cholesterol, then swap the whole eggs for Egg Beaters and switch thereat to either turkey bacon or soy sausage.Even. The English muffin can be switched to a whole wheat kind.Another breakfast to warm you up is eggs with hash.The last you can make your own or buy the canned variety.For a fancier weekend brunch make the always elegant Eggs Benedict ,complete with a rich Hollandaise sauce. of course nothing beats a stack of pancakes for a hearty first meal.You can either go decadent or healthy.For decadent , think about adding chocolate chips and serve with whipped cream.For healthy go with any fruit, whether it be apples or bananas.IYou can also add flax seeds as well or almonds.Pancakes and waffles can be made with whole wheat flour too to make it healthier.You can also nix the maple syrup and try a dark honey.French toasts always Makes any breakfast special.Again you can make it heart healthy by topping ith with fruit.You can also "stuff" it with cream cheese or marscapone cheese along with adding any flavor jam or jelly. Now that it's fall ,start thinking of starting the day with hearty breakfasts.It's a great way to meet a chilly day .It's also a good way to start the work or school day too.

A New Season , A New Diet

What better time of year to change your diet than autumn. You can  rid yourself of the excesses of summer and gear up for the gorging of the holiday season. right now you can take advantage of what the farms  have to offer. There are many heart healthy foods out there  that are going to be fresh picked.It's also a good time to tweak your diet  and lower your cholesterol and blood pressure.

Fall means bounty and luckily there are a number of veggies out there that are ripe for the picking .  Kale and squash are reappearing in big numbers right  now. The first is one of the most versatile greens ever.It can be made into everything from a snack to soup to  salad. One of the most popular is kale chips - a simple recipe that just requires baking leaves until they are crisp and crunchy. Kale can also go into soups as well. Try it instead of spinach in an Italian wedding soup. Supermarkets are almost overstocked with squash. You can enjoy an acorn one, brimming with olive oil and garlic or a butternut one, cut into cubes or mashed.

Pears and grapes , other heart healthy and also cholesterol lowering fruits, are also gracing markets. You can just eat a pear plain but also try it baked. Add some low fat Greek yogurt sweetened with dark honey as a side. Black grapes are big right now as well. These can be added to sauces to give them sweetness as well as to salads. Black grapes or deep purple ones are perfect for making fresh grape juice as well as homemade jams (without all those preservatives.) Of course we all know that seasonal standard , the apple is big. There are so many varieties  to chose from, from Gala to Granny Smith.. These can easily be added to a salad to give it zing or baked with some cinnamon and wine for a simple but elegant dessert.

Fall gives us the perfect opportunity to eat healthy and change our diets. The bounty out there is rich and varied, ripe for trying out good for you recipes. Give any of these fall standards a chance and you'll not only eat well but be well too.

Fall Barbecues

Although this weekend heralds in Autumn 2013 , you can still eat like it's summer. There will still be warm and even moderately warm days when you can still barbecue. You can  cook outside even when there's a  chill in the air .In fact it's better  thanks to the cooling temps. Fall also  lets you experiment too with the produce of the season as well.

Thanks to Indian summer days you can still have your faves. There's nothing like hot dogs or hamburgers after a good football game. They'd be even good for an football get together. Now that most of the broiling days are over with you can also experiment  with slow cooking meats such as lamb or whole roasted birds. It;s also the time to try out different techniques too. You can try pulled pork or beef too. This is also the time to try barbecuing a whole turkey.It can be done and once perfected a nice spin for when Thanksgiving comes along.

Again just because it's fall doesn't  mean you have to give up your salads and slaws. For a transitional spin think about adding those  autumn standards, apples and pears to your salads. A tasty salad, is arugula, apples slices and walnuts with a sweet berry dressing.Another delicious one isa blend of pears , blue cheese and pecans with baby spinach. Kale is again starting to be seen again. A plain kale salad always a good side to beef or pork ribs. You can also try it  in a healthy slaw blended with cabbage.

Don't put away the grill and the picnic table because it;s fall. You still have two more months of great grilling and outdoor eating . Enjoy it with the cooler temps and still bright sunny days,

Romesco A Versatile Sauce

Not many sauces have versatility . Tomato sauce usually just goes well with pasta or rice. Bechamel can go with one dish , not another. Mushroom sauce can go with red meat but not dark. The classic Spanish  Romesco is not that It can liven up any piece of seafood  or vegetable.It's a great sauce for those who crave something different on their foods..

Melissa Clark wrote about it and experimented with it in her A Good Appetite Column in yesterday's New York Times Dining section.In a way this Catalan dish is not really a sauce  but more of a condiment  such as a chutney or ketchup. The ingredients are pure Spain, from the sweet Spanish peppers to the almonds. It usually graces fish dishes such as tuna  grilled shrimp or grilled lobster however it can also be used to enhance potatoes and even green beans.The true Spanish way is to  slather it on sliced  green onion slices called calcots. Ms. Clark uses it to highlight the flavor of raw broccoli.

Romesco is an easy side to make, much easier than ketchup or even a simple mayonnaise.The main part is broiling red bell peppers and garlic until they're charred. Add a charred tomato as well along with the paprika to color it. The binders are simple : honey and breadcrumbs. This gives the Romesco a nice thick consistency (think hummus) .You can vary it so that the texture isn't so thick and try variations/ Ms. Clark uses a pomegranate honey but a  regular dark or light one can do the trick as well.As for the breadcrumbs some Catalan chefs sub in sweet almond biscuits for extra sweetness.

Romesco sauce is a great way to livening  any vegetable or even piece of fish .Put it as a side for crudites or as a spread for late summer caught fish.It's a nice variation to the basic condiment,

Vegan For The Day

Is it possible to go meatless for a day? It most certainly is. Even the most carnivorous of foodies can and should embrace a day devoted to just fruits and veggies.Some of you may balk at this however it is easy, especially using the produce of the season. Anyone can create three tasty meals that are big on benefits and flavor.

Mark Bittman wrote about this in his The Flexitarian column in today's New York Times Dining section.This he the best time to experiment or even give vegan ism a little hug, simply because of the bounty that''s produced right now. Explore the farmer's markets and take stock of what they have to offer. Also have a well stocked pantry with good healthy grains, legumes, nuts and seeds as well as oils and vinegars. These help vary the dishes so you,re not stuck cooking the same thing over and over again on your vegan days.

Mr. Bittman's recipes are varied. There is one for each meal and even dessert. He even creates a carrot candy , slow baked carrot slices that have the chewiness of banana chips. (these may be a regular addition to you diet once they're tried.) Breakfast is a simple hoecakes with a melange of fruit. He adds pineapple to an apple and pear mix but you can just stick with the apples and add cinnamon. Lunch is a filling bow ties pasta supplemented with bulgar and heightened with olives and tomatoes along with arugula.Dinner is a hearty chickpea and fennel ratatouille This is the same as regular Provencale stew but with those additions. You can end any meal with his broiled melon in balsamic vinegar.

Going vegan even for one day is easy. Vary your menu and cook up tasty yet healthy meals along with snacks and desserts.It's not only a simple but a step in the right direction to eating better.

Building A Better Chicken

Is there a way to give chicken meat the same posh quality as Kobe beef? Yes! There is a movement amongst New York chefs to improve the life of poultry fated for the table.It means better treatment, resulting in more flavorful cuts and dishes. Soon chicken will be regarded as not common and every day  but richer in texture and taste.

Jeff Gordonier, usually a regular contributor to the New York Times Wednesday  Dining section , wrote a piece for the Times that made page one.It is  about a new movement  called from table to farm to table again and involves a certain breed of chicken.These are the heritage breed from Gascony in Southern France. The red feathered beauties are getting scraps from such high class restaurants as Per Se, Daniel, Gramercy Tavern, The Modern and David Burke Townhouse. These  are better than what some people eat. There are baguette scraps soaked in milk along with salad leftovers. It is a rich dinner resulting in better tasting birds.The scraps from the restaurants are designed for the birds fated for their tables.

Is the meat truly better? According to the many chefs involved in the project the answer is yes. The chicken tastes like what it should taste like, gamier, more flavorful and chewier than those raised in  slaughterhouses. The birds raised this way are exactly like what our great grandparents ate without any artificial additives and hormones.It's healthier as well.It's also more expensive A dish featuring homemade chicken sausage at Gramercy Tavern is 22 dollars . Another restaurant featuring chicken meat from an average butcher would cost less. The chefs are hoping this idea will influence other cooks across the country and bring back a more old fashioned, smaller farm raised meat industry.

If this is successful, then  expect better chickens gracing our restaurant tables. It's a good step away from the usual hormone and steroid injected poultry  most of us have been eating.The table to farm to table is the start of better eating in this country.Let's hope it catches on.