Mainely Martha

As if the chill in the air, the hurriedness of back to school, the afternoons at the soccer field and the diminishing hours of sunlight were not enough to validate that fall has arrived, the first cup of pumpkin spice coffee has made it official. And while realistically it is still iced coffee season, seeing pumpkin spice listed on the coffee board has made me succumb to order the hot coffee. And once that door is opened, the abundance of fall flavors will follow…and I am not referring to Halloween candy!

Following the bliss of the first pumpkin spice coffee, the next beverage of fall becomes a bit more complex; have you seen the number of fall beers? Decisions, decisions. And in this case, I can easily steer clear of pumpkin, but the brown ales with cinnamon and nutmeg are not easily overlooked. Furthermore, these flavorful beers can be so good to cook with in stews, cooking ribs or a loin of pork, beer bread…the list goes on and on with recipes to inspire here on the site.

And once your beverages are covered…the baking and subsequent eating begins. Fall flavors of pumpkin, apple, and maple are the staples of baking as this month kicks off. One of the first items to come from the oven are pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The pumpkin adds such a great moistness to the cookies and is a great way to introduce the pumpkin flavor to kids. In fact, my one son who is far from a foodie and pretty much not a fan of much outside of candy, loves pumpkin. Once he tasted the pumpkin chocolate cookies, he was hooked and loves all things pumpkin.  This weekend the fall baking will commence and new recipes from cookies and bars to muffins will be added to the site, so check them out and happy baking…and eating!