Cranberry-Apple Crisp with Nut Crumble

Autumn’s most popular fruits make this a festive dessert

Apples and cranberries are both autumn icons. So why not set them up for a date?

They get along beautifully in this dish: Cranberry ting enlivens apple mellowness. And baking concentrates their flavors, bringing out the best in both.

With Thanksgiving coming up soon, you’ll want to add this dish to the menu. Your guests will gobble it up.

Rum-Frosted Pecan Shortbread Cookies

Double rum makes these flavorful cookies doubly irresistible 

Shortbread with pecans and rum. How did that happen?

Well, Mrs. Kitchen Riffs set out to make some plain shortbread cookies. But she was feeling nut-crazed—and happened to have some nice pecans on hand. So she couldn’t resist grinding them up and adding them to the dough. The result was delish, but it cried out for holiday flavoring. And what could be more festive than rum? In went a couple teaspoons.

The cookies that emerged from the oven were wonderful, with a subtle rum note. Then Mrs K R said, “Oh, hey, it’s holiday time. Let’s get down and decadent!”

So she doubled the fun by adding a rum-flavored frosting. Which made these cookies epic, IMHO.  I bet you’ll agree.