Good on pretty much everything. Piled on toast, stacked on pancakes, baked into muffins, or lovingly slathered into a tart shell. When the world gives you apples, add sugar and fat and you can’t go wrong.

APPLE FILLING

6 c. apples (peeled, sliced)

3/4 c. sugar

1-2 t. lemon juice

1/4 t. cinnamon

1/8 t. cloves

1/2 c. water

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon. Simmer over lowish heat until the apples soften up and the liquid reduces. About 2 hours. You can use a potato masher to mash up any of the larger pieces of the apple. For tarts, it is nice to have the whole slices of apple intact.

Store in freezer or put in fridge and use. It won’t take too long to get through it. You will probably want to start brushing your teeth with it.

Here I confess my love for pumpkin.

These are from when I lived in Bend, Oregon years ago. When I was young, spry and had good eyes and knees, there was this place called A Cup of Magic. We went there pretty much every morning in the summer. I would fuel up here on a purist’s dream cinnamon role and black coffee. Then I cycled on up the road and spent my days as a summer camp counselor.

In the fall when I would go back to work at the bakery down the road from this coffee shop, I would sneak away on my break (from baking in a bakery to another bakery) to get some pumpkin cookies from Cup of Magic.

These are my best re-creation of these delightful pumpkin delicacies. Enjoy.

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1/4 c. unsalted or vegan butter

1/2 c. granulated sugar

Flax egg or chicken egg

1 1/4 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. pumpkin purée

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

pinch of salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. ground nutmeg

1/2 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a stand mixer, combine sugar and fat until light in color and fluffy. Add your egg and blend to incorporate. Add your dry ingredients and mix briefly. Add pumpkin puree and mix until almost blended (some evidence of flour should still exist). Pumpkin can be very tricky because it can go from incorporated to overmixed and gummy real quick. Add your chips and then just do a couple rotations of paddle to get them into the crowd

Scoop out in desired shape onto parchment lined baking sheet. You may choose to lightly smoosh (industry term) them into actual flattened cookie structure. Or keep them in their naturally scooped state for a more pumpkin dumpling (pumplings) product.

Bake for 15 minutes or so. Depends on how greedy you were with your scoops. Then you eat them.

Danish puffy ball pancakes with apples. Is there anything even better than that? Maybe Danish puffy ball pancakes with huckleberries.

It is true that aebelskivers take a special pan, but it is also true that this recipe also makes great normal old pancakes. If you want to go full skiver mode, you can get your own pan here.

AEBELSKIVERS

3/4 c. flour

2 t. baking powder

1 T. sugar

1/2 t. salt

1/2 c. non-dairy milk

1 t. apple cider vinegar

1/2 T. ground flax seed

1/4 c. water

1/8 c. canola oil

1/2 c. fruit

Combine milk and cider vinegar in a bowl and let sit for a few minutes. Add flax seeds and mix with a fork to add some air into the mix. This is the binder of the recipe, so it is important that it is incorporated and bubbly. Add your oil and water and mix again by hand. Add remaining ingredients (except for fruit) and gently mix until most of the bumps are gone in batter. Fold in the fruit.

Warm up the pan while the batter rests for 5-10 minutes. It should froth up a bit and appear to increase in volume. Thank you, chemistry.

Use butter or cooking spray to get pan ready. If you are using the aebelskiver pan, add your batter to fill about 3/4 of each cell. Once the batter appears to bubble, you can flip by using a non-marking utensil (like one of my really great smorknivs). You can continue to move each skiver around to cook evenly.

Serve by sprinkling powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar on the tasty little Danish dumplings. Syrup is also invited. Or jam. Or honey. They are pretty good with anything, really.

I have gone plum crazy. Apples and pumpkins are right around the corner, so you have ample warning. Here is an easy plum preserves proportional recipe. Can be bumped up or down depending on your plum load.

The number inclined pattern people will see that for every 1 pound of fruit, you add 1 cup of sugar. That is the ratio. You also can leave the skins on the plums. So that makes it real easy. Scale your liquid to match the rest of your proportions. You can can (ha) it, or treat it as simple freezer jam and use it up quickly.

PLUM PRESERVES

1.5 lbs. plums, halved and pitted

1.5 c. sugar

1/4 c. water

1/4 c. lemon juice

Add all ingredients to a pot and stir. Keep checking back in on the mixture. It takes some time to cook down and begin gelling. My batch was near an hour since I was keeping it on low heat. You can be real professional and use a thermometer and cook until it reaches the jam territory of 220 degrees F. But I just go by how it drips off a wooden spoon.

I first fell in love with this cake when I was in Italy a long time ago. They sold it in packaging and stores that made it seem like the Italian equivalent of Twinkies. But no matter. I was hooked.

PLUM CAKE

5 oz. unsalted butter (one stick is close enough)

5 oz. brown sugar

2 eggs

10 oz. flour (pastry is best here)

.25 oz. baking powder (about 3 t.)

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

9 oz. (in weight, not volume) milk, this works out to be roughly 1.5 cups.

1 lb. plums, halved and pitted

Cream butter and sugar in a mixer with paddle attachment. Scrape down and remix until it is light in color and is not forming a ball in the bowl. Add eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition. Add dry ingredients and briefly mix. Remove from mixer and fold in milk by hand. This is helpful because the sugar and butter tend to hold up on walls of bowl if you use the paddle to do this part. Make sure to fold until you have an even cakelike batter.

Pour into prepared cake round or square pan. Add your plum halves facing up. Bake at 400 for about 35 minutes. Until a cake tester comes out clean. Slice and enjoy.

Inspired to recreate one more item from one of the bakeries I worked at, I bring you these pockets. Filled with anything you typically would eat with a fork at breakfast time. But wrapped in dough and totally portable.

BREAKFAST POCKETS

Filling (pre-cooked, scrambled, sautéed, fried, baked etc. Bacon, eggs, cheese, potatoes, sausage, ham, veggies)

Pizza dough (store bought is great and usually is enough for two)

Prepare your fillings. This can even be done the night before allowing for plenty of baking and eating time in the morning. Roll your dough into rectangles. Fill them up. Roll them up. Slather with some olive oil, salt and herbs. Bake at 400 until it looks like a pizza crust color you’d eat.

This recipe is written down in my little journal of test recipes as “Mom’s Coffee Cake” and was added as one of my first officially adult recipes when I moved out. So it is old. And it is good. It works veganized, but the original recipe was with dairy and egg. If you don’t have access to huckleberries, they taste great with other berries, apples or even just on their own. I say they because I tend to bake off the batter in muffin form since it takes way less time than a loaf or actual cake. And I am not very patient for my baked goods in the morning.

HUCKLEBERRY COFFEE CAKE

Batter:

1 1/2 C. flour

1/4 C. granulated sugar

2 1/2 t. baking powder

1/4 C. canola oil

1/3 C. milk (dairy or non-dairy)

1 T. ground flaxseed mixed with 3 T. water (or one egg)

1/3 C. huckleberries

Streusel:

1 T. canola oil

1/4 C. flour

1/4 C. brown sugar

1 t. cinnamon

Batter:

Add flour, sugar and baking powder to a mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Add your wet ingredients and mix with a fork or wooden spoon until almost blended. Add your fruit. Gently fold until incorporated.

Streusel:

Add dry ingredients to a smaller bowl and then drizzle oil on top. Mix with a fork until it starts to take on a crumbled appearance.

Add half of your batter to prepared muffin cups or baking pan. Layer with half of your streusel and then the rest of the batter. Top it off with the remaining streusel. And now you know the life-changing secret that streusel leads two lives.

Bake at 375 for about 15-20 (muffins) and 30ish minutes for proper cake.

Beans are high and tomatoes are laden. Time to tip and tail.

GREEN BEAN TOMATO SALAD

12 oz. freshly picked green beans, tipped and tailed

1 onion, sliced

4 t. apple cider vinegar

1 garlic clove

A couple tomatoes, cored and sliced

3 T. olive oil

Salt

Boil water. While water is heating, quick pickle the sliced onion by pouring some warm water over them in a colander and then placing into the vinegar. Let sit.

Once water is boiling, add beans. Cook only until they brighten in color. No one likes soggy cooked veg. Maybe 3-4 minutes. Drain. Put drained verdant strands into a big bowl.

Add the onions and all their vinegar. Next add the oil. Then the tomatoes and add salt to taste. Stir a little to let everyone get to know each other. Serve.

Because sometimes you need a cinnamon roll and because all of the times you don’t want to wait.

CINNAMON BISCUIT ROLLS

2 1/3 c. all purpose flour

2 t. baking powder

1/3 c. cold vegan butter (Miyoko’s and Melt make some good stuff)

2/3c. oat milk (put 1/2 t apple cider vinegar into a liquid measuring pitcher and then add the milk to it…this is how you make vegan buttermilk)

2 T. melted vegan butter

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/8 c. granulated sugar

1 t. cinnamon

Some raisins or apple slices

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Combine first three ingredients in a bowl and mix with a pastry blender or forks to get the butter cut into the flour. Slowly add milk and mix to get a workable dough. Do not overmix here because you will end up with tough rolls and no one wants that.

Melt down the 2 T. butter on the stove and prepare the sugars and cinnamon by mixing them together in a small bowl.

Roll out the dough into a thin rectangle on a well floured surface. Add the melted butter on top then the sugar and then the raisins or apple slices. Roll up lengthwise and cut into pieces. Put on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes.

Sure it creates some dishes, but think of all the time you will save not waiting around for dough to rise! Stupid yeast.

Adapted from Homemade by Yvette Van Boven

To my limited knowledge, herbs are separated into two categories: woody and tender. Woody herbs include rosemary, oregano, thyme as some of the big ones. In many climates, these herbs continue to thrive even in winter and develop a woody main stalk. For those of us who do not have the luxury of plucking fresh rosemary in December from our garden, we have to harvest when we can and keep it the best way we know how. Preserving woody herbs is pretty straightforward. Drying these herbs out increases flavor and can be happily used up when fresh greens are scarce.

Tender herbs will dry, but you really have to watch them to make certain they don’t mold. The best way I know of to preserve tender herbs like dill, chives, parsley and basil is to make a compound butter with them. Compound butter is not complex. It is simply tossing in either savory or sweet ingredients to softened butter and then whipping them. You can then use up right then and there on bread or for sauteeing vegetables.

A more rewarding option is to freeze the mix and rediscover in the depths of winter. Making a roux with an herb butter base with herbs picked at the height of their freshness and literally frozen in time…doesn’t get much better than that on a February eve.

HERB COMPOUND BUTTER

1/4 lb. butter (vegan or regular is just fine)

5 T. fresh tender herbs

1/4 t. lemon zest (optional)

Mix butter in a mixer with paddle attachment for a few seconds to just soften it. Add your prepared herbs and optional zest and whip to desired consistency. Place back in original butter wrapper, parchment paper or waxed paper. Put in the freezer and then try to remember it is there in the middle of winter when you need to bust out a batch of roux for that mid-winter mac and cheese. You know, to keep your winter weight on.