"fall foods" news and stories

The only experience I have with apple dumplings is the 1975 Don Knotts/Tim Conway Disney comedy The Apple Dumpling Gang. I haven't seen the movie in 30 years, but I believed it involved orphans and prospecting for gold? There was also a sequel, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, which I've never seen. But I digress...

It's National Apple Dumpling Day. This site has a recipe for what they call "the world's best apple dumplings." Here's another recipe from mealsmatter.org, and here's one from southernfood.about.com.

Sure, I love the fresh fruits and vegetables of summer, and there is nothing like a bright, crisp salad on a sunny day. But we have come into autumn, and the foods of fall sing out to us with steamy soups, hearty stews, and other rich, saucy dishes. While we certainly don't want to deprive ourselves, we still want to be mindful of all that work we did over summer to stay trim, fit and healthy. Forbes has listed some of fall's most fattening foods with their approximate calorie content, what we should watch out for, and about how long we have to sweat it out on the bike to burn off that second helping of stuffing.

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Despite what the thermometer might be reading outside (it's as warm as July here in LA!), fall officially arrived over the weekend. The Autumnal Equinox was on September 22 at 9 pm PST. Though we might still be clinging to those late "summer" tomatoes and trying to figure out what to do with all that zucchini, some folks are zoomin ahead in the kitchen with autumn-inspired dishes. Here are some of our favorites from around the blogosphere:

1. There's nothing like a stack of waffles smothered in a spicy pear sauce, topped with maple whipped cream, drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with sugar to warm up on a chilly fall morning.
2. If breakfast has to be on-the-go, Cinnamon Dots has Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins.
   
3. Keeping with the "quick" bread theme, La Tartine Gourmand bakes an Autumnal Squash Harvest Loaf inspired by Macrina Bakery.
4. Elise at Simply Recipes does a hearty soup - White Bean and Vegetable Soup
5. The Wednesday Chef does Amy Scattergood's Carrot and Pomegranate Soup , laced with pomegranate molasses she picked up at Zabar's
6. Eating Leeds roasts a partridge with bacon and serves it with PInot Noir.
7. Boston Dreams and Michelin Stars damns the Indian summer and goes full speed ahead with Coq au Vin
8. Apple pie might sound like a summer BBQ, but over in Holland, Stirway to Heaven's Dutch Apple Cake sure looks and sounds like fall.