I burned the first batch of this cake in October, standing in my kitchen in socks with a hole in the toe, cursing at my oven because it runs hot and I never remember that until it’s too late. My mother-in-law was due in twenty minutes. I had exactly one apple left, half a bottle…
Every October, my family drives forty-five minutes north to this tiny apple orchard that only sells cider donuts on weekends. We wait in line, we always overbuy, and by the time we get home, half the bag is already gone. A few years back, I had exactly three donuts left and a bunch of soft…
The first time I made apple cider cake, I wasn’t even trying to make apple cider cake. I had half a jug of cider going warm in the fridge, a bag of apples nobody in my house was eating fast enough, and a Sunday afternoon with absolutely nothing on the calendar. I figured I’d boil…
I still remember the exact moment this loaf cake earned a permanent spot in my baking rotation. It was late October, the kind of gray Saturday where the leaves had gone soggy on the driveway, and nobody wanted to leave the house. My mother-in-law had dropped off a half gallon of apple cider from a…
I brought a bottle of wine to my first real dinner party in my late twenties, completely convinced that was enough of a contribution. My friend hosting it had other plans and put me on dessert duty instead, with about two hours’ notice and a kitchen I barely knew how to navigate. I found a…
I burned my first batch of brown butter so badly it smelled like the inside of a campfire, and I still poured it into the cake batter anyway because I was too stubborn to start over. That cake went straight into the trash, and I stood in my kitchen feeling personally betrayed by a stick…
My sister went paleo two Thanksgivings ago, and I panicked a little. She’s the one who always shows up early to help me cook, taste-testing everything along the way, and suddenly half of what I make was off-limits for her. I watched her politely pass on the pecan pie that year, and something about that…
I used to be terrified of making pecan pie. Every Thanksgiving, I’d watch my aunt fuss over her pie crust like it owed her money — chilling the dough, worrying about soggy bottoms, timing the filling so it set just right but didn’t scorch. I loved eating it. I dreaded making it. Then one November,…
The first time I made pecan pie cheesecake, it was an accident born out of pure indecision. My mother-in-law wanted pecan pie for Thanksgiving. My husband wanted cheesecake. I stood in my kitchen at 9 p.m. the night before, staring at a half-thawed pie crust in one hand and a block of cream cheese in…
My grandmother kept a coffee can full of pecan halves in her pantry at all times, like other people keep flour or sugar. She lived in Georgia most of her life, and pecans showed up in nearly everything she baked, but this poke cake was the one she pulled out for real celebrations — birthdays,…
I used to time my errands around whether I’d be driving past a coffee shop in November, because that meant a cranberry bliss bar was basically guaranteed. It became this weird little ritual — grab a coffee, grab a bar, eat it in the parking lot before I even got back in the car. My…
There’s a walnut tree in my parents’ backyard that drops nuts all over the lawn every October, and my dad still refuses to cut it down even though it’s basically a hazard to the lawnmower. Every fall, my mom would send us kids out with a bucket to collect the good ones before the squirrels…