Some people think that Fall has begun when the leaves start to turn or when the air finally starts to cool down at night. For others it is the start of school or the fact that darkness comes before 8 pm. Here in Philadelphia, it isn't Fall until the Taskykake Pumpkin Pies hit the shelves of our local grocery and convenience stores. What are the food products that mark the the change of the season for you?

Are you a seasonal hot beverage drinker like I am?

I ask this because here we are past the halfway mark of April and I'm still drinking hot tea. This is late for me. I usually stop drinking hot tea around the start of April and start drinking diet soda and iced tea (I don't drink coffee). The weather has been cold and rainy/snowy this month, so my tea drinking has stayed at the same level it was in January. Which I like, of course, but it also worries me because I'd rather switch to drinks like diet soda that won't give me as much daily sugar intake (yeah, I know, I could drink my tea with less sugar or Splenda, but where's the fun in that?). As for hot chocolate, well, that's a fall/winter thing and I stopped that weeks ago.

So readers, are you seasonal hot and cold beverage drinkers too? I remember my mom used to drink hot coffee in the hot summer months too because she read somewhere it was good for you or cooled you down in some way I don't quite understand, but science was never my best subject in school.

The original pound cake got its name from the fact that it contained a pound of each of its basic ingredients: butter, sugar, flour and eggs. The average pound cake these days tends to be a bit more refined, using some sort of leavening agent in addition to eggs and often incorporating additional ingredients, such as vanilla, sour cream, heavy cream or even chocolate.

Pound cake, needless to say, is not a low fat food. It is dense, tender, buttery and something that is best eaten in small portions if you are watching what you eat. Of course, pound cake tastes so good that it can be hard to stop with just one slice. This recipe produces a lightened pound cake that is almost entirely fat free, so you don't have to stop with a mere sliver.

I was looking for something to spice up my pancakes this morning and I couldn't stop thinking about the Cranberry, Orange & Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies I made earlier this week. Chocolate chips are for "special occasion" pancakes and I'm not a fan of dried fruit in them, but I thought that orange would be a very welcome flavor in my breakfast. I ended up adding in the zest of one orange and a splash of cinnamon. The resulting pancakes, when topped with maple syrup as well, virtually screamed fall. The tender pancakes were addictive and there was just enough flavor from the orange and cinnamon to make them interesting, without becoming overwhelming. What a great way to start of a Sunday!

Perhaps this cookbook should have gone up before Thanksgiving, but the menu for that dinner and Christmas dinner is roughly the same and the holiday season is about more than two meals, so there is plenty of time to make good use of Allrecipes Tried & True Thanksgiving & Christmas: Top 200 Recipes. There are menu planners and variations on traditional foods, as well as the traditional recipes themselves. Since the scope of the book is limited to the end-of-the-year holidays, most everything is fall oriented and suitable for big dinners or serving at other types of gatherings. For example, the recipes cover all meals, including breakfast and desserts, in addition to mains, sides and starters. There is even a section on things that make great holiday gifts. The instructions are clear and easy to follow for every recipe and the ingredients tend to be mainstream ones. Some highlights include: Apple Cranberry Crisp, Christmas Breakfast Sausage Casserole, Easy Herb Roasted Turkey, Tangy Honey-Glazed Ham, Orange Pumpkin Loaf and Eggnog Cheesecake.

The reason to appreciate Allrecipes' cookbooks is the same reason to appreciate their site: user feedback. You may not see all the comments in the book the way you will online (although you can look them up there if you want to, as well), but you can feel pretty confident knowing that they were popular with tens of thousands of users and home cooks.

Peels is a brand of alcoholic mixed drinks that, unlike most others in their category, are made with real fruit juice. Like so many mixed drinks, they are aimed a women, but their flavors - Blueberry Pomegranate, Cranberry Peach and Strawberry Passion Fruit - should appeal to anyone who likes fruity flavors. For this holiday season, the company has released a new flavor, Spiced Apple. The drink is made with 100% natural ingredients and tastes similar to a classic spiced cider, with the crisp taste of apples and the warming scent of cinnamon. It can even be heated up, although the rest of the Peels drinks are generally meant to be served cold. It contains 5% alcohol by volume and the company says that it is "perfect for a girls' night-in, a seasonal party or just enjoying in front of the fire."

The Pumpkin Roll Cake is a back-of-the-box recipe, meaning that it is usually printed on the wrapper on cans of Libby's solid-pack canned pumpkin, so it is a recipe that just about everyone (in the US, anyway) seems to have come across at one time or another. Discounting the brands sold at natural foods stores, Libby's is the most common brand of pumpkin and the one you are most likely to see when at the grocery store, so it is not terribly surprising to find that when people are not making pie with their canned pumpkin, they are often making this cake, as did Nicole, from Pinch My Salt. The cake consists of a very thin pumpkin sponge caked that is rolled up and spread with a generous amount of cream cheese filling, giving it the ideal cake-to-frosting ratio for anyone who enjoys cream cheese frosting.

The recipe is after the jump.

After a whole day of preparation, baking, cooking and waiting, the meal of the year finally came together. There was a brief struggle as I snagged the turkey platter for photographs before the bird could be carved, but that aside, everything went smoothly. The soup was light and refreshing, the side dishes - which included roasted green beans with caramelized onions, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing (baked both in and outside of the bird) and cranberry sauce - were all extremely well liked, and the turkey and gravy were just right. Of course, I was a big fan of the dessert - but that almost goes without saying.

Click past the jump for pictures of the whole meal!

By now we have firmly established that the end-of-the year is pie season and, while pies are still delicious year round, they are rarely more appreciated. To capitalize on our love of pies in fall, Godiva has released a limited edition American Pie Collection. The 18-piece box features pie-flavored truffles, elegantly painted and shaped into little wedges of "pie." There are a total of eight flavors included:

• Apple Crumb Pie - made with real Granny Smith apples and cinnamon
• Strawberry Pie - features fresh strawberries, sugar and butter, like the summer pie filling
• Key Lime - condensed milk, vanilla and lime juice inside a white chocolate shell
• Lemon Meringue - white chocolate with a meringue-textured lemon filling
• Banana Cream Pie - a mix of banana and vanilla in a white chocolate ganache
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie - combines natural-style peanut butter and chocolate cream
• Chocolate Cream Pie - a 72% chocolate truffle center in dark chocolate
• Pecan Pie - pecans mixed into a molasses flavored milk caramel and mixed with milk and dark chocolate

Over the last week or so, we got some fantastic holiday dinner ideas from a lot of our food blogging friends. First, we were inspired by turkey and stuffing recipes, and then were moved on to some delicious side dishes. No big feast would be complete without dinner rolls or some kind of bread, and so we got some wonderful ideas for breads to serve, too. As we come down to the wire for Thanksgiving, we're finishing up our little series with a look at some outstanding desserts.

• The gold standard of Thanksgiving desserts is the pumpkin pie. There are several recipes to choose from for this category, including the Accidental Hedonist's fresh pumpkin pie, a back-of-the-can pumpkin pie, or a do-it yourself pie that sill uses canned pumpkin.
• Sweet potato pie is also a favorite, and the pie at Simply Recipes has a pecan topping which will add a nicely contrastive crunch.
• You can't go wrong with apple pie, and our detailed homemade apple pie recipe shows you what every step should look like.
• The Homesick Texan shares a pecan pie recipe from her grandmother - and grandmothers almost always make the best pies.
• Elizabeth Ryan's cranberry pie (pictured) at Kitchen Chick will add a huge boost of color to your meal.
• If pies aren't your favorite, you could always opt for Alpineberry's Creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake with Ginger-Pecan Crust.
• One Whole Clove gets some chocolate into her pumpkin dessert with a Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Chocolate Glaze and Pumpkin-Chocolate Truffle Center.
• And to really impress guests, bring out Pumpkin Seed Brittle and Burnt Sugar Ice Cream from Tartelette.

The first installment in this series of Thanksgiving ideas from around the blogosphere introduced us to some turkey and stuffing recipes. Now, we're moving on to side dishes, many of which are even more beloved than the turkey itself. There are way too many sides to list here, since there is no limit to what can be served with a turkey dinner, but these are fairly standard (or twists on a standard) recipes that everyone is sure to enjoy.

• If you thought brussel sprouts were boring, you havent tried the deliciously caramelized Garlic Roasted Brussel Sprouts from Bunnyfoot.
• The Bourbon Baked Sweet Potatoes at 101 Cookbooks are easy to make ahead and can be a side or a vegetarian main dish.
• The secret to making the perfect mashed potatoes from Simply Recipes is to use Yukon Gold potatoes.
• Roasted Butternut Squash with Rosemary and Balsamic vinegar from Kalyn's Kitchen is the great choice for squash fans, as well as for anyone who wants a lighter side.
• We've already seen a Veggie Venture's world's best green bean casserole, which updates a traditional recipe to the best it can be. Incidentally, most of Alanna's other veggie recipes will work well as sides, too.
• Chubby Hubby made a comforting, tasty creamless creamed corn that uses frozen, not fresh, corn.
• Berries? Booze? The Cranberry Bourbon Relish from Sorry Fugu sounds like a winner already.
• Cranberry Satsuma Relish, from Brownie Points, unlike the sauce mentioned above, is uncooked and made in seconds in the food processor. The Wednesday Chef has a cooked Cranberry Orange Sauce for a different combination of the flavors.

Since we were talking about the best apples to use in making pies last week, it put me in the mood to make one myself. I love making pies because, even though there is some prep work involved, the procedure is very straightforward. Also, I really enjoy making homemade pie crust. It's fun to get your fingers dirty and a flaky, homemade crust is better than one you can buy at the store - especially because you can taste the work that went into making it.

If you've never made a homemade pie before, winter is the perfect time to start and apple is the best kind to start with. Not only are the apples easy to work with, but the fact that the weather is colder makes it easier to handle the dough for the crust. In summer, you need to work faster to keep the butter from melting as you work it in to the flour. After the jump, you'll find a photo-heavy, step-by-step guide to making both the crust and the whole pie. I make my crusts with a combination of shortening (non-hydrogenated, for those who are concerned) and butter. The combination of butter, which adds flavor and some leavening, and shortening, which adds tenderness and flakiness will produce the best crusts. I use a 3-1 ratio, so not much shortening is needed.

If you're not going to be ordering in your Thanksgiving meal, it might be a good idea to have a reliable resource on hand to give you ideas and guide you through some classic recipes. The Thanksgiving Table is entirely dedicated to the one holiday meal, though if you like the recipes, there is no reason not to enjoy them during the rest of the year, as well. Besides, the book provides ample direction for preparing some of the menu items in advance, as well as including a number of "shortcuts," so there is really no excuse not to cook.

The chapters are divided up into soups, turkey, vegetarian entrees, stuffing and biscuits, side dishes and desserts. The recipes range from traditional dishes, like Classic Roast Turkey, to the less conventional, like Barbecued Turkey and Hickory-baked Stuffed Tofu. Non-turkey recipes include Italian Sausage, Mushroom and Sage Stuffing and Sautéed Green Beans with Shallot Crisps. Timetables and menu guides are provided to help keep you organized as you work. There is also a chapter dedicated to using leftovers in ways that are more creative than just turkey sandwiches, such as Turkey Pot Pie and Turkey Enchiladas.

Cranberries are an under-appreciated fruit, but not because people don't enjoy them. In fact, over 90% of all the cranberries harvested each year are used for juice and juice blends, most of which are enjoyed year-round. But fresh cranberries might only be tossed into sauces, quick breads and cakes around the fall holidays, as the very tart flavor and a general lack of familiarity with the fruit stops people from experimenting with them. Cranberry Cooking for All Seasons is a book that can help with this by providing 125 different recipes for the berry, from Pumpkin Cranberry Bread and Cranberry Applesauce to dishes like Couscous with Dried Cranberries, Pinenuts and Fresh Mint, Tangerine Yams with Cranberries and Sauteed Chicken in Cranberry Balsamic Vinegar Sauce.

In addition to the recipes, the book provides the reader with a comprehensive look at everything you could have wanted to know about cranberries, from their history and the culture associated with the, to information about the growers and where around the world the berries end up.

To be honest, I don't mind the kind of cranberry jelly that comes from a can. I'm not saying that it's the epitome of gourmet cuisine, but it tastes pretty good and, thanks to some relatives I mentioned before, it's generally going to be on the table at holiday meals regardless of what else is there. But I don't want to limit myself (or my family) to the cylindrical jelly, so one of the other things that is usually on the table as well, is homemade cranberry sauce. It is bright and can be flavored in any number of ways, not to mention that it is very easy to make. From start to finish, the sauce only takes a few minutes and it can be made well in advance and stored in the fridge. This particular recipe was adapted from Bon Appetit and uses fresh cranberries as well as cranberry juice and dried cherries, which plump up as they are heated. I used organic berries and cherries in mine, but the flavor really isn't very different if you use conventionally grown fruits.

The recipe is after the jump.