Fall Cookbooks for Cooking Fall Favorites From Scratch

We may have our first frost tonight, the leaves are gold and red, and the wind is nippy - there's no doubt that fall is here - and with it, my favorite season for cooking! With late-summer veggies still plentiful, and fall favorites available in the garden or at the farmer's market, there is plenty to choose from when making hearty fall recipes to keep you warm at night. Here are several autumn-inspired cookbooks to give you some great ideas for your fall cooking.

Homemade Harvest
~ Gooseberry Patch ~

This is a collection of some of the best seasonal recipes you'll find anywhere. You'll find delicious recipes perfect for tailgating and other Fall family fun as the summer season comes to a close. This book includes hearty home favorites to make the most of Autumn's harvest flavors. Cooking and decorating tips are a welcome plus to this book, with some great ideas for homemade crafts to go along with this warm, welcoming season.



Cooking from the Farmers' Market
~ Jodi Liano, Tasha De Serio, Jennifer Maiser ~

This book from Williams-Sonoma features 245 recipes to create foods using fresh produce and vegetables straight from the Farmer's Market. Shopping at these down-home businesses is a national obsession, and the fresh-picked goodness translates into great-tasting recipes you can share with family and friends all year.


Fall Harvests: Menus & Recipes That Celebrate Autumn's Bounty
~ Martha Phelps Stamps, Meryl Truett ~

This book takes you through the fall and winter months with lots of delicious recipes collected by a veteran Southern cooking author. Within the 176 pages of recipes you'll find treasures like Refried October Beans, Chicken and Apple Sausage with Ginger, Garlic, and Mint, and a delightful Roast Acorn Squash with Maple. This is a book written for the home cook who desires simple, delicious meals made with the freshest ingredients from farmer's markets and home gardens.

Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets
~ Deborah Madison ~

This book reflects the public's concern for organic produce grown locally. Our desire to avoid over-processed foods is reflected in this 400 page book dedicated to market-fresh ingredients. You'll learn how to make the most of everything from crucifers, roots, berries, dairy products, cabbages, and so much more. This is a richly illustrated collection of seasonal recipes that highlights the wonders of local produce grown from coast to coast.

You can find these books at your local library, or just click the links above to buy on Amazon.com.

Fall Is Soup Time - Warm Up With These Tasty & Unusual Chill Chasers

The start of the fall season is usually marked by that first hint of chill in the air.  That chill outside can often translate into a chill inside. This makes fall the perfect time to curl up with a steaming bowl of soup.  But, do you want to have yet another bowl of plain chicken noodle soup?  Why not warm up your body and soul at the same time with some unusual soups?  Here are a few soups that you can try this fall to warm up yourself and your family.

 (Photo credit: 46137)

Harvest Soup With a Basil Bump

If you want a great soup that you can throw together with one trip to the farmers market, this is the soup for you. Get your big pot going with fresh diced tomatoes, zucchini, onion, bell pepper, celery, and carrots. When all those wonderful ingredients have simmered together and gotten all softened, it's time for the surprise ingredient - basil pesto.  Make a classic basil pesto from fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, and olive oil, blended smooth in a food processor.  Stir the basil pesto into the finished soup, reheat and serve hot. This is great before the basil, but after the basil pesto is added, this soup goes from great to unbelievable!  No more chill.  No more dry scratchy throat after you've settled in with this spicy, satisfying soup.

Pozole Chases the Blues Away

Known as a special occasion dish in Mexico, this is a soup that is often served at large parties where the wine, beer, and other adult beverages flow freely.  As such, this soup is a well-known cure for hangovers and is often eaten in the wee hours of the morning.  Typically, this soup is a combination of pork, beans, and hominy grits in a hearty stock.  But, its curative properties come from an abundance of several other ingredients like garlic, cumin, onion, fresh oregano, and lots and lots of red chiles. Whether you want to sweat out a headache or ward off a chill, having a pozole recipe to turn to is a very good idea.

Wonton noodle soup (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Turkey Wonton Warms You Up

We love our leftover turkey, don't we.  We especially love it when we're looking around for some inspiration to make a warming soup.  This soup starts simply enough with some stock, turkey, noodles,  pork dumplings, and greens.  Use baby bok choy for authenticity, or choose a more bitter or peppery green if you want to impart more of a warming feel to your soup.  Most recipes for wonton soup will have added sesame oil which is tasty and also helps to soothe the throat.  For whatever reason, the more intense the flavor, the more warming a soup seems to be.  Of course, adding red pepper flakes bumps the warming factor up a notch or two, so be sure to spice this soup up to send the chills packing.

Apple Pumpkin Soup Strategies

If there are two ingredients to put in your soup that scream Autumn farmers market, they would be apples and pumpkins. There are quite a few variations on soup recipes using these two fall favorites.  You may be looking for a soup that closely resembles pumpkin pie.  Or, maybe, you want the tart apple flavor to come through first.  You can make a country style soup with big chunks of pumpkin and apple swimming in a sweet and sour broth to warm you inside and out.  You can make a smooth pureed soup with a surprising kick of curry to help clear a stuffy head and chase away the chills.  This is a combination of two powerhouse ingredients that can go from one end of the flavor wheel to the other with no problem at all.  Pick your favorite flavors and create a soup that fits your needs.

When it comes to chasing chills away, nothing beats a big steamy bowl of soup.  But, choose the right ingredients and you can do more than make a warming bowl of soup – you can create a big soup hug!

Be sure to check back later this week for some hot and tasty soup recipes.