Lord almighty, these cupcakes are superb. I’d been searching for an autumny cupcake recipe to crown my meal, and I was so excited when I found one on a blog that I have recently been reading obsessively, Pinch My Salt. Now, ordinarily, I would have had to modify a recipe like this one to cut fat, but here it was already done for me! In the spirit of Halloween, I topped some of them with these hilarious googly-eye gummy candies, and the rest with candy corn, as the recipe suggests.

Here are some wonderful things about this recipe:
1) The cake part is not too crumbly and dry; thanks to the canned pumpkin and yogurt, it is moist and soft and chewy
2) The pumpkin flavor: subtle, unexpected, pleasing
3) Best frosting ever
4) Easiest frosting ever
5) Chocolate

I’d say more, but I think we’d all rather look at the pretty pictures. Click here for the recipe!

First and foremost, I’d like to thank the Academy — I’ve been dreaming of this moment since I was a little girl. Wow. Where to start? Oh, let me just get out this list here that I’ve tucked into my dress. Okay, here we go: Thanks to Orangette, whose blog post inspired the proportions and ideas of my soup. Thanks to Peter for testing the recipe first and providing me with such constructive feedback. Thanks to Alex and everyone in production for their incredible blender work. Of course, thanks to my mom for suggesting such great flavors and for providing me with incredible moral support when I call you frantically from the grocery store. Thanks to my soup pot, you are my rock. And finally, thanks to everyone who tasted it and ate it and asked for seconds — I don’t know where I would be without you.

Ingredients:
6 pounds butternut squash, chopped into 2-inch pieces
12 gala apples, chopped into 2-inch pieces
2 granny smith apples, julienned, or cut into very thin strips (for garnish)
3 cups onion, finely chopped
3 quarts chicken stock
3 cups apple cider
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Instructions:
Heat about 3-4 tbsp olive oil in a large pot. Add the onions, and saute until soft and slightly browning. Add the butternut squash and gala apples, and cook, stirring frequently, for about 15 minutes. Next, add the apple cider and bring it to a boil for a few minutes. Afterwards, reduce the heat to medium and cook partially-covered under the squash is soft, about 30 minutes. Transfer batches of the soup to a blender, and blend until smooth. Return everything to the pot, and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with a few slices of the granny smith apples.

Full disclosure: Alex and I used to be editors at the Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn’s independent student newspaper. For 40 hours per week for one year we served as Senior Photo Editor (him) and City News Editor (me). Because we harbor such strong love for our former co-workers, who will surely post comments after reading this, we have a weekly gourmet club in which each of us takes turn cooking a meal for the others. Tonight was my turn, so this recipe and some of the ones that follow it were cooked for the lovely occasion, themed for Halloween.

This salad is of mostly of my own invention, with help from numerous recipes online. Because most of my meal involved serious flavors, I wanted to start especially light. The toasted pumpkin seeds were a must, but I kept second-guessing my decision to go citrus. Still, I wanted something unexpected and, in the end, it was perfect. It was tangy but grounded by the salt of the pumpkin seeds, and I was very pleased with the dressing. This works beautifully as an opener to a very fall meal.

Ingredients (serves 10 as an appetizer):
1 bag baby romaine
1 bag spring mix
3 avocado, slices
4 tangerines, peeled and sectioned
10 tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup lemon juice
2/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp tangerine zest
salt and pepper
pinch of sugar.

Instructions:
To toast the pumpkin seeds, I let them soak overnight in salt water and them roasted them at 400 for about 30 minutes, but there are millions of ways to do it. For the salad, combine the lettuces on plates. Top with slices of avocado, tangerine sections, and about a tbsp of the pumpkin seeds per serving. To make the dressing, wisk the olive oil, lemon juice and tangerine zest together, and season with salt and pepper, and a pinch of sugar.

We’ve heard some folks complaining about Halloween falling on a Wednesday this year. To these individuals, we would like point out that this “inconvenience” is actually awesome, because it allows for the maximization of celebratory days. Because Halloween doesn’t belong to a particular weekend, we can arguably celebrate it both weekends — which means 4 nights out PLUS an entire week in-between of Halloween festivities. Boo-yah.

Opening ceremonies began yesterday with pumpkin carving followed by pumpkin-seed roasting. While I’d always had them simply salted and toasted, we thought it would be fun to experiment by carmelizing them. They came out great, and made a perfect, crunchy snack.

Ingredients:
pumpkin seeds (we had about 3 cups, so modify accordingly)
3 tbsp melted smart balance, but you can use butter or whatever
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
spinkles of apple pie spice (optional)

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400. When the pumpkin seeds are washed and dried, coat them in the smart balance, add all of the additional ingredients, and mix well. Spread them on a baking sheet and roast them in the oven for about 30 minutes, until they are puffy and crunchy, but be careful not to let them burn.

In my family, there is such a thing as having “Malke’s.” The term is a reference to a story, Malke’s Secret Recipe, in which a man tries to duplicate a recipe for potato latkes that taste as light as clouds. When he recreates them, however, they taste like ordinary latkes. Thus, when someone remembers something (particularly a food) as being better than it is, we say that they have a case of Malke’s.

Enter crepes with lemon and powdered sugar. Once upon a time, many years ago, I ordered them at the Original House of Pancake, my hometown’s token breakfast establishment. Like the latkes of Malke fame, they were as light as clouds. I remember sinking into the soft, chewy crepe, and feeling the powdered sugar escape from the inside and melt over my tongue. For years, I’ve dreamed of making them myself, but I always feared that I was just having Malke’s, and that any attempt would dissapoint me.

Last night, I toughened up, and we made crepes — first savory, then with lemon and powdered sugar. And guess what? It wasn’t Malke’s! We didn’t have a crepe pan, we didn’t use real butter, and the ordeal lasted under 30 minutes, which leads me to conclude that either Mark Bittman is in cahoots with my pancake house, or crepes prepared that way are simply unbelievable, possibly even impossible to ruin! Oh the relief.

And she lived happily ever after. The end.

Ingredients:
(crepes)
1 1/4 cups milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp butter or butter substitute, melted
1 cup flour
pinch of salt

(savory filling)
2 chicken cutlets, sliced into strips
2 cups broccoli, cut into small pieces
2 cups mushrooms, cut into small pieces
4 cups spinach
1 cup onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 lemon
2 tbsp dijon mustard
sherry cooking wine
feta cheese (optional)

(sweet filling)
lemon
powdered sugar
butter or butter substitute

Instructions:
To make the crepes, simply wisk the batter ingredients together in a large bowl until smooth. Take a large, non-stick pan, or spray a large pan with non-stick spray, and turn the heat to medium high. Using a 1/2 cup dry measuring utensil, scoop up batter and pour it into the pan. Move the pan in a circular motion so that the crepe assumes a nice, circular shape. Once the top of the crepe is no longer liquid (about 30 seconds), turn the crepe over with a spatula and cook for about another 15 seconds, until it is light brown.

For the savory filling, we sauteed the garlic and onion together in a teeny bit of oil, then added the chicken until it began to brown, then added the other vegetables. Then we squeezed the juice of one lemon over the mixture, followed by the mustard and a splash of the cooking wine. We covered it for a few minutes to let the vegetables steam, and then turned off the heat. If you use the feta, add it in when you are filling the crepes.

For the sweet filling, simply squeeze fresh lemon juice over the crepe. Add a bit of smart balance or butter, then sprinkle powdered sugar. Roll up the crepe, and repeat on the outside. It sounds simple, but it tastes amazing.

Warm, fruity, nutty salads. So many varieties to love. Here’s what we composed this evening:

The warm: roasted beets
The fruity: chopped asian pears
The nutty: toasted walnuts
The savory: marinated onions
The salad: mixed greens

The most wonderful thing about this type of salad is that it really doesn’t matter what you put in it, as long as you get the basic elements down. For example, a version with warm chicken, grapes and pecans would have been just as lovely. But we found local beets and our farmer’s market this afternoon, and the rest fell into line. Some recipes online called for adding scallions, but marinated onions worked superbly as well. We loved it.

Ingredients (serves 4):
6 small beets
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2 cups walnuts
2 asian pears, chopped
mixed greens

2/3 cup olive oil
1/3 wine vinegar
1/3 balsamic vinegar
pinch of sugar
salt
pepper

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 425. Cut the beets in half, and place them in a roasting pan, dressed with about 2 tbsp of olive oil and dashes of salt and pepper. Roast them for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until soft. Meanwhile, make the dressing by mixing the olive oil and vinegars, sugar and some salt and pepper. Let the onions sit in the dressing. Toast the walnuts, and put them on the mixed greens with the pears and the cheese. When the beets are ready, wait until they are cool enough to handle, then peel them and slice them. Place them on the salad, add the onions, and dress it.