Adding hearty pumpkin to the starchy potatoes makes this fish chowder a little richer and the perfect way to use fall’s farm-fresh, seasonal squash. It’s the perfect dish to warm you from the inside on a crisp fall day.

Buttery Bartlett-style pears blend beautifully with Piccata - a sauce of butter, capers and lemon - served over crisp, pan fried chicken paillards.. This is the time to reach for those super-tender pears that have a couple of bruises on them. They'll make the smoothest sauce.

I love cooking with pumpkin, but leave those orange lanterns out on the front porch in favor of a more flavorful heirloom or modern variety. Here are some of my favorites and the recipes I like to make with them.

The spiced notes of Asian pear with the balanced warm, bright flavors of cinnamon, star anise and cloves make this applesauce an exotic, yet still comforting, treat.

Silky Peanut pumpkin purée delivers a delicately textured soup made hearty with pork sausage, balanced with a garnish of lightly earthy Shitake mushrooms. Simmering the pumpkin seed mass in your stock builds layers of additional flavor and satisfyingly lets you use almost the entire Galeux d’Eysines squash but time can be saved by starting with already-made purée.

How to make a rich, hearty-textured, fully-flavored beef and pumpkin stew in under an hour? Wrap quicker cooking sirloin for tough stew beef, use sweet carrot to highlight the flavor of the pumpkin and build a complex flavor base with miso paste and Brandy. Trust me, you won’t miss the other two hours of cooking time!