Autumn Recipe Fantasies

There aren’t enough hours in the day. There aren’t enough hours in the day nor enough calories I can tolerate. That makes much of my fall cooking plans almost pure fantasy. But I am ever the dreamer when it comes to recipes and I tend to get a burst of ambition in the fall, partially driven by the cooler weather, partially by memories of the excitement I would feel at the beginning of a new school year. (What can I say? I liked school.)

Just as the school year isn’t really new, however, neither is the fall cooking and baking season. Sadly, even though an abundance of beautiful apples has been around for a few weeks, I haven’t tried any new apple recipes. I haven’t even made any of my favorite old apple recipes (although I’ve eaten many fresh apples.) And don’t get me started on pumpkins and squash. I have just begun to think of those.

Yes, it’s apples and pumpkins that seem to be forming the core of my autumn recipe fantasies. I have great hopes for trying out all kinds of delicious things containing these two fruits of the harvest. Most of them are sweet treats (observe my regrets in the form of the reference to tolerable calories in the first paragraph of this post), and many of them will take a bit more of those precious hours of the day than I really have available, but I’ve collected so many hundreds of tantalizing recipes and a girl must dream.

There’s Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake, Apple Pie Ice Cream, Apple Cinnamon Scones and Caramel Apple Crumble Bars, plus countless variations on apple crisp and cobbler, and many, many apple cakes and pies. I have one of those mini-pie making contraptions that I haven’t even taken out of the box, and I thought perhaps I could adapt this apple turnover recipe into mini pies.

When it comes to pumpkin, I’m dreaming of Pumpkin Cheesecake (I’ve somehow acquired many recipes), Pumpkin Spice Scones, Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Bars, Pumpkin Biscotti and Pumpkin Pound Cake. While Grandmama’s Pumpkin Pie reigns supreme, I wouldn’t turn my nose up at the countless variations on pumpkin pie I seem to have accumulated, nor am I too proud for cupcakes or another version of pumpkin muffins besides this one, or other pumpkin cookies besides these. 

Even hoping and dreaming about these recipes should keep me busy until it’s time to think of Christmas cookies and candies, and for all this talk about fantasies, I really do plan to get to at least a couple of these recipes in the next few weeks.

But then there will also be pears and cranberries and winter vegetables of all kinds….

 

One year ago: Savory Cherry Tomato Clafoutis