• Fall is here and with it have come a wave of new cookbooks. The Baltimore Sun food section staff take a look at the new crop and narrow it down to the pick of the harvest.
• This week the Recipe Finder tracks down instructions on how to make Tomato Jelly.
• After some trial and error, Rob Kasper succeeds in baking up a batch of homemade pretzels for his own personal Oktoberfest celebration.
• Kate Shatzkin uses a recipe from the new cookbook Two Dudes, One Pan to prepare a weeknight dinner for under $12.
• Elizabeth Large highlights her top 10 local restaurants that just happen to be located in strip malls.

Cranberries are the perfect fall fruit, at least as far as baked goods go. It is true that pumpkin and apple pies are wonderful, but the vibrant color of cranberries makes them look incredibly festive, not to mention that they add a lot of flavor to desserts, as well. Camille, the French food blogger from Cakes in the City, baked these perfect-looking cranberry upside down cakes. Getting a shot like this is quite a feat because, as most food blogger/photographers will tell you, red foods are usually the most difficult to photograph. To get back to the cake, the reason that this is called an upside down cake is that the berries are placed at the bottom of the pan and topped with the cake batter. Once it has baked, the cake is turned upside down to showcase the gorgeous cranberry layer. Camille added some gingerbread spices to the berries, as well as sugar and butter. The cake base is a light and tender buttermilk cake, which adds a mellow flavor that highlights and tempers the tartness of the berries.

If you can't read her recipe in French, you can try a slightly different variation found here or here.

If you are fortunate enough to have access to an apple tree (or several), you probably have had the pleasure of having fresh, homemade apple cider. Cider, in this case, is not the alcoholic beverage, but a minimally processed apple juice made by pressing as much juice as possible from the whole fruit. Often, cider apples are used to make commercial ciders, but if you want to try making cider at home, you will probably have good results with most types of apples, using a mixture of whatever fresh ones are available. A farmer's market is the best place to get apples if you can't get access to an orchard.

Once you have the apples and they are scrubbed clean, they are pulverized and the juice is strained out. For big batches, a cider mill and press is the easiest tool to have, but if you are willing to put a bit more muscle into yours, the food processor and a jelly bag (a very fine cheesecloth bag) can be used. Apples should be quartered and pureed, then the juice can be extracted by carefully pressing it out through the bag with pressure from a rolling pin.

Fall is the time for football. And with football comes food like buffalo wings, sausages, pizza, and potato chips. And while most guys (and gals - yes, I know you're football fans too) go for cold beer with their football viewing, don't forget that you can also drink wine with these foods too.

The Boston Phoenix asked the owners and beverage managers of several Boston restaurants for their picks for the best wine to serve with football food. If you're serving spicy wings, Josh Childs at the Silvertone Bar & Grill suggests a California zinfandel from or a syrah from the Rhone region of France (or, for a contrast, a German riesling). For nachos, a sparkling white.

Bill Earle at Bouchee' says that if you're serving chili, he'd suggest a California zinfandel, for the rich fruit and the spice to go with the hotness in the chili. And for hearty sausages? Kate Smith at Butcher Shop suggests a pinot gris or a gewuztraminer or a riesling.

But wait: pizza is missing from this list! I'd say pizza is eaten more while watching football than sausages or wings. Suggestions, readers?

A cold morning and a ripe pear were the inspiration for this breakfast. In summer, I'm likely just to opt for the fruit on its own, since hot cereal doesn't hold that much appeal when it is muggy outside, but when the weather turns colder, I like to start my day off with hot food. Pear and Maple Oatmeal takes advantage of seasonal flavors, since maple syrup is often included in fall recipes, and is so delicious that it almost tastes like dessert. On top of that, it's incredibly easy to make in the microwave, which makes it an easy breakfast to whip up on a busy weekday morning.

The trick to this recipe, which is after the jump, is to add in half of the pear before cooking and half after. The pear that is cooked will become very tender and almost melt into the oatmeal. The rest of the pear will soften only slightly from the heat when it is added just before serving, adding a lovely texture to the cereal.

This caramel apple is a work of art, beautiful to the point where you would consider leaving it out as a centerpiece before even thinking about cutting into it. Cooked up by Tartelette, the caramel is a dairy-free combination of sugar and a touch of lemon juice. Light and clear, the cooked sugar allows the beauty of the apple underneath to come through clearly, which is something that cannot be said for all caramel or candied apples.

This treat is a classic choice for fall, when apples are plentiful and their natural sweetness is only enhanced by the addition of sugar, and is a simple alternative to cooked desserts like pies and tarts. Because it does not use cream or butter in the caramel, it is also much lighter than the average caramel apple, which means that you could have an extra piece or two of that Halloween candy along side it without feeling too guilty.

Sometimes it seems as though all seasonal cookbooks are based on spring and summer fruits and vegetables, forgetting about the squashes, root vegetables and other wonderful foods that play a central part in the hearty meals of fall. You can't blame cookbook authors entirely, however, since tender asparagus, sinfully sweet berries and heirloom tomatoes are endlessly tempting, but it's still useful to have some seasonal ideas for the rest of the year. The Taste of the Season: Inspired Recipes for Fall and Winter tries to fill in the gap with a collection of recipes that are made for the months of colder weather.

Once you've been tempted by the photos, you'll want to dig in. The recipes tend to be a bit richer and more complex than the average grilled summer meal, with slow-cooked stews, roasts and braises making up a fair bit of the content. There are also distinctly seasonal breakfasts, salads and desserts. Ingredients used include pomegranates, persimmons, pumpkin, frisee and endive, to name a few of the most seasonally associated, as well as various meats and vegetables that can be found year-round.

Starbucks' seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte, which returned to stores just a few weeks ago, is one of their most popular flavors. While it doesn't exactly taste like pumpkin, the flavors are undeniably reminiscent of fall and the upcoming holiday season. It's so popular, that other coffee chains are adding pumpkin drinks to their menus, too. The LA-based Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf has just introduced their Pumpkin Pie Latte and Pumpkin Pie Ice Blended drinks, which will be available only through November 1. Their drinks are flavored with a thick pumpkin spice sauce, which is sort of similar to the banana puree that they used to make their summery banana drinks - it's not like adding a scoop of pumpkin, so don't worry if you prefer your coffee without vegetables. Peet's Coffee and Tea, another west coast chain, is scheduled to release some pumpkin spiced drinks within the next couple of weeks, as well.

In the fall, cornfield mazes start to spring up in various locations around the country, designs getting more elaborate as farms try to out-do each other. Mike's Maze at Warner Farms in Sunderland Massachusetts is paying tribute to Julia Child this year, using a picture of her framed by what appears to be a magnetic knife rack with all sorts of cooking implements, as the template for their annual maze. They are also working to expand their seasonal cafe's menu with influences from Julia and several local restaurants.

If only crop circles could have been this interesting...