When the warm summer nights turn crisp and clear, I find myself in an apple pie mood. And it can’t be just any apple pie; it has to be my favorite apple pie--a great mound of a pie crusted with cinnamon and sugar. Under that buttery crust will be sweet-tart apples infused with the richness of sour cream and quality cinnamon.

The apples have to be good apples, fresh and crisp and sweet. I like them on the tart side, maybe some Pippins or Jonathans. I love cranberries and so I’ll throw in a generous handful to become rubies in my sea of apples. At Thanksgiving time, I’ll use fresh cranberries. Now, dried ones will do.

I’ll serve that pie hot to family and friends and of course, save a too-large slice for myself. I’ll crown each slice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled with a little caramel. That’s the way fall is supposed to be. The autumn baking season has arrived.

Check out the recipe for Simple Caramel Sauce.

And in case you missed it last year, here’s our Apple Chart to help you select the perfect apples for your favorite apple pie.

To make apple pies easier, check out this apple peeler, corer, and slicer.

Yep, you agreed with us—these are “must have” kitchen tools. We sold so many of them that we decided to hold this deal over for another week.

Don’t miss the chance to get this measuring set. After all, you can get a 2/3-cup, a 3/4-cup measure, and a 1/2-tablespoon measure—which are pretty hard to find. Now when you need 2/3-cup of brown sugar, you’ll measure once instead of measuring 1/3- cup twice. You’ll find yourself more accurate and twice as fast. You’ll wonder how you ever lived without these measures.

You’ll get twelve measures: 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/2 cup, 2/3 cup, 3/4 cup, and one cup sizes plus 1/8 teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, 1 teaspoon, 1/2 tablespoon, and 1 tablespoon. Each has a large grip-ease handle for sure control.

In downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, the office complexes are connected with skyways so that folks could wander from building to building without braving the cold. Buried in that labyrinth of walkways was a farmer’s market, a hidden gem tucked away that most people didn’t know about.

Maybe you have some hidden gem tucked away in your neighborhood. Or maybe you would like to visit a farmers market on the way home from a weekend trip. The USDA will help. They are cataloging the farmer’ markets across the US. You can find that hidden gem by going to the USDA’s Farmer’s Markets site.

We think you can make much better dressings than those you buy in the store. You have more choices, your ingredients are fresh and without preservatives, and you can add just the spices that you like. This salad dressing genie makes it easy. Follow the recipes on the glass or adapt your own. Just pick a dressing, fill to the lines with the ingredients, and shake. Free with a $25 order.

Remember those fried apple pies a few weeks ago? We had some of the apple filling left over. It was really good stuff—on ice cream, even on toast. Why not on pancakes? So we took some good Fuji apples and made up another batch with these fresh apples, not dried (though we could have used the dried apples). Then we toasted walnuts in maple syrup and scooped both the apples and nuts over hot pancakes and drizzled the whole stack with maple syrup. It was very good.

You can make these with any pancakes you choose but why not try our Buttermilk Pancakes or Country Wheat Pancakes?

We’ll give you your choice of gourmet jam when you buy two packages of selected bread mixes. Choose from Heritage Wheat, Old-Fashioned White, Honey Wheat, or Buttermilk White—both traditional mixes and mixes for your bread machine. Then choose from ten gourmet jams to go along with your choice of two packages of bread mixes.

We were surprised how popular these are. We shouldn’t have been—they certainly make quick work of a bunch of apples. It’ll peel apples. It’ll core apples. It’ll even slice them if you want. And think of all the hours you’ve stood over a sink peeling and slicing apples.

Before we decided to buy these apple widgets, we checked prices. Most sites were selling peeler/slicers like this for $30 to $40 (One site was selling a comparable peeler for $25 but when we added shipping, it was over $32.) Could we beat that? We put a price tag on our Apple Master of $29.50 But you can buy it now for $25.95 With free shipping over $50, we figured that was a pretty good deal.

This is a not a toy. It is built on a heavy-duty tool grade frame for years of use. (The manufacturer guarantees this for two years against defects.) It won’t rust. The blade is stainless and “stay-sharp”. The vacuum base will hold firm on any smooth counter or table so you can set it up where you need it.

This machine will pare, core, and slice, pare only, or pare and core only. It will even work on other produce like pears and potatoes.

Save a whole bunch of time this fall and get this Apple Master for the fall harvest and the holidays.

We had just hiked seven miles through rough country—a little much for us middle-agers. Debbie, our married daughter and webmaster, and her family were camping with us. She had fixed dinner while we were gone—fried chicken, mashed potatoes in their skins, and corn on the cob. It was the best corn on the cob.

"Debbie, how did you do this?"

Two pats of butter, a splash of salt and pepper, all wrapped in aluminum foil and then ten minutes on dying embers in the campfire. Come to find out, she does most of her corn in the summer this way—only on her back yard grill.

At its most basic, baking is about mixing flour, a sweetener, and fat together with a touch of salt and some flavorings. At least that defines most recipes. But baking is a creative art, adding flavors and substituting ingredients. We’ve had a lot of fun substituting honey crystals for brown sugar and molasses crystals for granulated sugar. And we like the decorative crunch of turbinado or size AA crystals on cookies or muffins. Now we’ve put all four of these sweeteners together in one collection at a special price—honey crystals (yes, they are made with dry honey), molasses crystals, turbinado sugar and size AA decorative crystals. After all, you should be able to have fun too.

We read cookbooks the way some people read novels—which probably makes us a little boring at parties. Anyway, I came across a salad dressing that used equal parts sour cream, buttermilk, and mayonnaise. “I’ll bet we can make a great potato salad out of that.” (Of course, converting any recipe to a potato recipe is a pastime in Idaho, where we live.) We used new, waxy, red potatoes (at least in Idaho, they are available year around), and frozen green peas. It was dynamite.

We love to give gifts to our subscribers. Each week, we have been giving something away—a bottle of gourmet jam, an ingredient, or a kitchen tool. They are free with a $25 purchase. Again, please put these freebies in your cart so that we know to include them with your order.

If you are taking our baking lessons and have a student discount code, you can get a second freebie with your $25 order. If you haven’t already, you can still get your free baking lessons and immediately get a student discount code. Just click and tell us where you would like your free baking lessons and discount code sent. You will immediately receive your discount code and a link to your first lesson. Again, please put all freebies in your cart.

We have more free products. We’ve learned that we can give other complementary products with certain purchases like this week’s “Big Red” with pancakes and gourmet jam with bread. When you select these complementary products, they will automatically be included in your order.

You won’t want to miss any of these free offers. Be sure and check back each week to see what is available. We hope that you order often to take advantage of all these free gifts.

Is homemade bread healthier? Is Splenda safe?

We regularly field questions like these from readers. If these questions are of general interest, we share the answers with you.