While I think you could make argument that baking is an activity good for every time of the year, I find that this season we're heading into now - the chilly, cozy, pre-holiday days - makes for the best baking. There's something about the shorter days and thinner sunlight that cries out for pies (sweet potato or pumpkin), quick breads (carrot or apple) and lots of soul-warming, fragrant spices.

For those of you wanting to dig into fall-time baking, but also want to experiment with other sweeteners than just your standard granulated sugar, you must check out the new cookbook by Mani Niall, called Sweet! Niall understands the important of a good treat at any time of day, but also recognizes that lots of folks want to reduce the amount of sugar they consume while upping their whole grains. This book walks that line with ease and a great deal of delicious grace.

The book opens with a short history of sugar and then introduces the wide variety of sweeteners out there that you can turn to in place of the standard, white stuff. Then he moves into the recipes, offering up ways to do Breakfast Treats, Cakes, Pies/Tarts/Cobblers, Cookies, Spoon Desserts, Candy and Frozen Desserts. The final chapter is devoted to Main Courses that have both savory and sweet flavors. My only complaint with this book is that it doesn't offer much in the way of pictures. I understand that fewer pictures saves money, but the four pages of images are so lovely that I would have enjoyed seeing how more of recipes looked in the hands of the photographer/food stylist.

Pâte Sablée is another example of a tart dough used mainly for desserts, and it can also be used for cookies or as a component to French style cakes. Sablée translates as sand which is befitting its crumbly, cookie-like texture. Some recipes, though it's not traditional, include egg yolks, and a few recipes actually call for the yolks to be cooked which makes for a more tender crust.

Cooked yolks, 2oz (3-4)
softened butter 9.5 oz
salt 1/8 tsp
powdered sugar 5oz
uncooked egg yolks 2oz (3-4)
pastry ( or all purpose) flour 13 oz

Cream the butter, salt, and sugar well. Press the cooked yolks through a sieve and blend that into the mixture along with the uncooked yolks. Mix in the flour just until everything is gathered up into the dough. Refigerate for at least four hours.

It sounds to good to be true -- a berry that makes sour things taste sweet!

The berry is very real. It's called "miracle fruit -- that's actually what it's called -- though the scientific name is Synsepalum dulcificum for those of you who want to get technical. And more for the technical folks, a protein in the fruit binds to taste buds and alters the tongue's so-called sweet receptors to activate when sour foods are eaten. Sour things taste sweet for about an hour after the berry is eaten.

It may seem just a novelty or a fun foodie trick to do at parties, but there could be some health and medical uses for the berry once the science people figure it out. I can think of a few now: lose weight by tricking your taste buds into thinking that extremely low calorie foods are actually as sweet as dessert, and any other use in which people need a sugar substitute.

[via: Gimundo]

I once whined to my mother (aka: Knower of All Things Culinary, and Go-To Person for All of Life's Quanadries) that I couldn't make a decent crepe without a crepe pan, and she waved my complaint away with her hand, insisting that while a crepe pan is nice, it's definitely not necessary.

On NPR's Kitchen Window series, we're reminded of this glorious food. Really, how can one simple butter-flour-milk mixture hold so much potential? NPR provided two simple recipes - one for a sweet crepe, and one for savory. I decided to tackle the savory one, substituting Morningstar faux chicken strips for real chicken. (The greenish blob on the top is 365 Brand Pesto - I really have to work on presentation).

As I attempted the little devils, I came to some important conclusions:
1). Let the butter soften before mixing it in the food processor. Otherwise, you will wind up with weird lumps in your batter.
2). Make sure your pan is really, really hot and really, really well-oiled.
3). If you do not like gummy, rubbery crepes, add ONLY 1/4 cup of batter and cook until the thing is lightly dotted with brown spots.
4.) If at first you don't succeed...

As you can see by the myriad conclusions, it took one or two tries before I figured it out. Granted, they aren't as good at the ones at Philly's Beau Monde, but I was pretty darn proud of myself. But if anyone has any tips for next time (I still have some batter left), please - I'm all ears!

(Oh - and mom was totally right about the pan thing).

I have to say that I am a fan of my fellow blogger Marisa's writing. My good friend Risa (short for Marisa as well), absolutely gushes over some of the things Marisa writes as well, and feels that they must be kindred spirits. Anyway, Marisa just wrote about the joy of hot, buttered, corn on the cob. I love corn as well. A Lot. And so this sparked my interest and got me thinking about the delight of corn and how we eat it.

Hot, buttered, corn on the cob used to be one of my favorites, but something happened that changed me forever. There is a local farm stand here in mid-coast Maine called Beth's, and Beth sells some of the sweetest corn I have ever had. What is even better is that it is picked fresh every morning, is still cool from the night air, and often has juice dripping from the broken end of the cob. It's that fresh.

One summer morning years ago, I drove to the farm and waited anxiously for them to open at 8am, so I could load up on corn before they sold out for the day. I was in my car, about to head back to the lakeside cottage we rented for the summer, and decided to first take a look at the corn. I pulled back the firm leaves and silk and saw this super ripe and fresh corn and stuck my thumb into the firm, crisp kernels. They suddenly popped, splashing me with the juice. I stuck my thumb in my mouth to taste it, and it was sublime. As sweet as candy and full of corny good flavor.

Over on my personal blog, I played a game with my readers, and one of the questions that I asked them was about their breakfast preferences: Do you prefer savory or sweet?

A long time ago, I wouldn't have eaten anything other than pancakes, waffles, or French toast dripping with sugared fruits, maple syrup, and whipped cream. These days, however, I find those types of breakfasts more like dessert than a way to start the day. Is it my old age? Who knows? Regardless, I absolutely love a delicious breakfast of eggs in any format, whether it's huevos rancheros, eggs Benedict, an omelet stuffed with cheese and vegetables or simple scrambled eggs.

Which do you prefer for breakfast: savory or sweet?

My friend and fellow blogger Joe Distefano is always going on about Asian snacks and candy. We try to beat out the other in finding the best, strangest, and tastiest Asian snack to munch on and talk about. I remember when I dared him to buy a bag of small candied crabs a few years ago and put them in a candy bowl in his desk at work to see what the reaction would be.

Well, today I ran across a tasty little snack when i was out shopping. I have been suffering from the flu related blues for a few days and had to get out of the house. Most people go shopping for clothes or power tools when they need a pick me up. I go food shopping, especially at ethnic markets. This snack is Asian Best brand "Crispy Snack Sesame Anchovy Fish." They are headless anchovies that are fried, candied, and covered with a chili powder and sesame seed coating.

They look kinda strange, these 1-2 inch long golden, shiny fish all studded with sesame seeds with red hints of chili powder. The smell is slightly fishy but the taste barely makes you think of fish at all. They are crunchy sweet at first, with the sesame taste coming through like those sesame brittle candies. Then the chili burn comes along, followed by a hint of fried fish. They are super tasty little snacks and great beer or cocktail munchies. Surprisingly they are low in fat and calories, and have tons of calcium. I can't wait to put them out as snacks at my next cocktail party.

At Trader Joe's the other day, I picked up a container of Dark Chocolate Covered Dried Cherries on my way to the checkout. Unlike chocolate-covered raisins, each piece was huge and there was clearly a high chocolate-to-cherry ratio. Chocolate and cherries are a great combination as it is, but Trader Joe's tends to carry some high-quality brands (under their store name), so I didn't hesitate to put them in my cart. My immediate thought was that they would be good in a cookie, so I baked up a batch to share with some friends. I used one of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes, which turns out cookies that are just sweet and buttery enough to be dangerously addictive, with a slightly chewy center and crispy edges. The cherries added some extra chew to the basic recipe and the chocolate brought it all together.

Jam and honey are the new orange - orange marmalade, that is. The slightly sweet preserve is rapidly falling out of fashion in England. It first gained popularity in England in the 17th century, when citrus fruits became common and the preservation technique used for cooking quinces was applied to them. Since that time the spread has only grown in popularity and, for at least the past several decades, could be considered to be a breakfast staple in many homes. In the last year, however, 440,000 households in Britain stopped buying marmalade. Statistics indicate that the reason for the decline may be younger consumers, as most in the under 45 age group consider it to not be sweet enough. 81% of marmalade is eaten by those over 45.

With the decline of marmalade comes the rise of jam and honey, which grow more popular every year, despite reports last year that indicated that jam, too, was falling from favor. Honey is up almost 5%, while jam is up 1.5%.

Retailers and manufacturers alike are now trying to find ways to draw more children to marmalade

Homemade marshmallows are definitely one of my favorite candies. Unlike store-bought marshmallows, they are like little clouds of sweetness that are soft, tender and melt in your mouth. They are easy to eat, go perfectly with coffee, flavored coffee drinks and hot chocolate, and are ideal for making s'mores. They are also surprisingly easy to make, and very impressive when you bring them out to serve to friends or family. The only real drawback is that you really need a stand mixer to make them, as it allows you to keep your hands free while you're working and has a very large whisk (as opposed to the beaters of a hand-held mixer) that does the job quickly and efficiently.

I really recommend using vanilla bean paste or vanilla bean crush instead of plain vanilla extract because the tiny bean specks really look fantastic in the finished candy. Read on for the recipe, which I have made and enjoyed countless times:

Today is National Dessert Day. It doesn't seem like we really need a whole day to celebrate dessert, but any excuse is a good one, right? Even though it is considered to be a traditional part of a dinner, only 14% of families regularly sit down to it, as opposed to 24% only two decades ago. But this number may be a little misleading because studies show that younger people, under the age of 45, eat dessert foods more often, occasionally having them in place of regular meals instead of only in that window of the day traditionally reserved for dessert.

Another reason that people seem to be eating fewer desserts is that "75% of adults said they were trying to cut down or eliminate fat from their diet," so fewer people are going for the huge dessert servings that are offered at some restaurants. This has helped to fuel the trend for smaller desserts, including cupcakes, which may pack in the same calories, but seem much smaller and more manageable than a large piece of cake or creme brulee.

We're still getting prepped for Sandwich Day on September 21st and it's never too early to pick up some inspiring tips from fellow food bloggers. Ivonne, from Creampuffs in Venice, put together this gorgeous panini that reminds us that sandwiches don't have to be savory - they can be sweet, too. Her Nutella Supreme Panini have nutella, peanut butter, strawberries and sliced almonds on buttered and toasted baguettes. The bread is grilled in the panini maker before the filling is added (so you could simply toast bread to make this sandwich at home), so the soft fillings don't run out of the sandwich before you have a chance to get it into your mouth.

Almost everyone loves fruit, but because fruits are so good when they are fresh and ripe, they aren't always used to their full potential. Fruits can be as wonderful when they are part of a dish or a sauce as they are plain, and Fruit: Recipes for Lunch, Brunch, Desserts And More has many different recipes to inspire you and get more fruit into your diet. The book goes far beyond cobbler and smoothies, though it does have fairly traditional recipes for desserts, preserves and some classic breakfast favorites, like Blackberry Buttermilk Pancakes. Main dishes seem very do-able, even for less experienced cooks, and use fruits as accents for pork, duck, lamb and other meat dishes. There are recipes for soups, salads and appetizers, as well.

There are not many books that concentrate strictly on fruit and the book is worth a look for that reason alone, though you'll probably want another look (or three) after seeing some of the beautiful pictures and reading the recipe descriptions. A few of the recipes call for fruits that you may not find at your grocery store, but there are more than enough recipes to help you add a little more fruit into your diet.

Piloncillo is an unrefined sugar that is commonly used in Mexican cooking. The sugar has been around for at least 500 years, and was being made before the Spanish came to Mexico around 1500. It is made when sugar canes are crushed, the juice is collected and boiled then poured into molds, where it hardens into blocks. The fact that it comes in block form is one of the reasons why white and brown sugars are more commonly used, even in Mexican cooking, than piloncillo once was. To use it, it must be grated or chiseled off the main block - a process which is well worth the resulting flavor boost in food to some, but too time consuming for others to bother.

Unlike white sugar, which is flat and one-dimensional in its sweet flavor, piloncillo is smoky, caramely and earthy. It has far more flavor than brown sugar, which is generally just white sugar with a small amount of molasses added back to it. It can be uses in moles and other sauces, as well as to simple sweeten coffee or top off buttery toast. In most applications, it must be melted down to be incorporated into recipes. You can find piloncillo in many Mexican or Latin American grocery stores or order it online.

If you have an excess of summer fruit and cannot think of what to do with it, I have only one word for you: pie. With a crust and some fruit you can do wondrous things and with the help of the recipes in Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie, you should be able to get your technique down quicker than you might expect. The book is nearly exhaustive on making and shaping pie crusts, from materials to methods, and even an experienced pie maker could learn a thing or two just from reading the introduction. It is worth noting that crust instructions are given for working by hand and with the food processor or mixer, so those who don't have "pastry fingers" don't have to worry.

Though I mentioned fruit pies to begin with, don't think that those are all this book covers. It has nut pies, cream pies, custard pies and ice cream pies - in addition to just about every other type of pie you can think of. If you like pie, it's a must-have. And speaking of "having," here are a few of the recipes you'll find inside: Watermelon Chiffon Pie, Cherry Pie (9 kinds!), Blackberry Silk and Chocolate Brownie Pecan.