Share

There’s something about fall that makes me want to spend more time in the kitchen.

Maybe it’s the cooler mornings. Maybe it’s seeing apples piled in baskets, pumpkins on the porch, and the last of the garden coming inside. Or maybe it’s knowing that before long, those dark Pacific Northwest evenings will arrive and I’ll be very happy to have a pantry and freezer filled with homemade food.

Whatever it is, fall makes me want to cook the old-fashioned way.

Not complicated. Not Pinterest-perfect. Just good food made from simple ingredients—bread rising on the counter, soup simmering on the stove, apples cooking down into sauce, herbs hanging to dry, and jars slowly filling the pantry shelves.

And you certainly don’t need to live on a farm to have an old-fashioned fall kitchen. A bag of apples from the grocery store, a Saturday afternoon, and a big soup pot will do just fine.

So before winter settles in, here are 25 delicious and useful things to make this fall.

1. Homemade Applesauce

If there is one smell that belongs in a fall kitchen, it’s apples cooking with cinnamon.

Homemade applesauce is incredibly simple, and it’s a great way to use apples that are bruised or starting to get soft. Make a big batch and freeze it, refrigerate it, or preserve it using a tested canning recipe.

And yes, warm homemade applesauce straight from the pot absolutely counts as a snack.

Helpful kitchen find: Shop apple peeler/corer → HERE

2. Apple Butter

Apple butter feels like applesauce’s richer, cozier cousin.

Cook apples slowly with warming spices until they’re thick, dark and concentrated. Spread it over toast, biscuits, pancakes or homemade bread.

A jar of apple butter also makes a wonderful homemade Christmas gift—so tuck that idea away for December.

3. A Loaf of Homemade Bread

If you’ve never learned to make bread, fall is the perfect time.

There’s something incredibly satisfying about turning flour, yeast, salt and water into a beautiful loaf of bread.

And your house smells amazing.

Serve it with soup for dinner, toast it for breakfast, or eat a warm slice with butter while standing at the kitchen counter.

Not that I have any experience with that last one. – I have a weakness for bread & baked goods, if you didn’t know!

4. Homemade Chicken Stock

This is one of those old-fashioned kitchen habits that saves food and money.

Instead of tossing chicken bones, onion ends, celery leaves and carrot scraps, save appropriate scraps in the freezer until you have enough to make stock.

Then simmer everything together and you’ve got the beginning of winter soups, gravy, casseroles and sauces.

5. A Big Pot of Soup

Every fall kitchen needs a pot of soup bubbling away.

Chicken noodle, potato, vegetable beef, lentil, creamy squash, cabbage, bean…

Make a double batch.

Eat one tonight and freeze the other for the night in November when everyone is hungry and you have absolutely no desire to cook.

Future you will be thrilled.

6. Homemade Pumpkin Purée

Those beautiful pumpkins aren’t only decorations!

Certain varieties are wonderful for cooking. Roast the pumpkin until tender, scoop out the flesh and purée it.

Freeze it in portions for muffins, bread, pancakes, soup and pies.

Just make sure you’re using a good culinary pumpkin rather than assuming every giant carving pumpkin will make delicious purée.

7. Pumpkin Bread

Once you have pumpkin purée, obviously you need pumpkin bread.

Add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and maybe chocolate chips if that’s your thing.

Make two loaves.

One to eat.

One to freeze.

This is a recurring theme in my fall kitchen.

8. Homemade Biscuits

Biscuits are one of those wonderfully simple skills worth learning.

Flour, butter, milk or buttermilk and a few pantry basics can turn an ordinary dinner into something special.

Serve them alongside soup, chili or stew—or split one open in the morning and cover it with homemade jam.

9. Garlic Honey

This one has become such a fun addition to my fall kitchen.

Garlic cloves and raw honey are combined and allowed to ferment, creating a sweet, savory mixture that people have traditionally used in the kitchen and as a home remedy.

It’s simple, inexpensive and exactly the kind of project that makes a kitchen feel delightfully old-fashioned.

Read next: How to Make Garlic Honey → HERE

10. Homemade Jam

If you’ve got fruit tucked away in the freezer or access to late-season fruit, make jam.

Blackberry, raspberry, plum, apple, pear…

There’s something very satisfying about seeing homemade jam lined up in the pantry.

For shelf-stable jam, always follow a tested canning recipe rather than improvising ingredient ratios or processing times.

11. Dried Herbs

Before frost finishes off the herb garden, bring some of it inside.

Dry rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, mint and other suitable herbs.

Store them in labeled jars and use them throughout winter.

Every time you open one in January, you get a tiny reminder of the summer garden.

12. Homemade Herb Salt

This is one of my favorite ways to make something ordinary feel special.

Combine herbs with salt using a reliable recipe, dry it thoroughly, and store it for seasoning roasted vegetables, meat, potatoes and soups.

Put it in a pretty little jar and suddenly you’ve also made a Christmas gift.

13. Roasted Garlic

If you’ve harvested garlic—or just found a great deal on it—roast some.

The cloves become soft, sweet and mellow.

Spread roasted garlic over bread, stir it into mashed potatoes, add it to soups or mix it into butter.

Your kitchen will smell incredible.

14. Homemade Granola

Granola is surprisingly easy to make and much cheaper than many of the fancy bags at the store.

Oats, nuts or seeds, cinnamon, maple syrup or honey…

Bake until everything gets golden and your entire kitchen smells like fall.

Store it in a big glass jar where everyone can see it.

It won’t last nearly as long as you think.

15. Pear Butter

Apples get all the attention in fall, but don’t forget pears!

Pear butter is lovely with cinnamon and warming spices and tastes wonderful on toast, biscuits and oatmeal.

It also makes another beautiful homemade gift.

16. Pickled Vegetables

Fall is a great time to deal with those random vegetables still hanging around.

Carrots, onions, beets and other suitable vegetables can become delicious pickles.

If you’re canning them for shelf storage, use a tested recipe because acidity and processing times matter.

17. A Homemade Pie

At least once this fall, make a pie completely from scratch.

It doesn’t need to look perfect.

In fact, an imperfect homemade pie somehow feels even more old-fashioned.

Apple. Pumpkin. Pear. Blackberry.

And if your crust looks a little wonky?

Call it rustic.

18. Pie Dough for the Freezer

While you’re making pie crust…

Make extra.

Freeze a few rounds of dough for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This is exactly the kind of October project that will make you feel ridiculously organized later.

19. A Batch of Old-Fashioned Cookies

Pull out the handwritten recipe card.

Molasses cookies. Oatmeal cookies. Snickerdoodles. Peanut butter cookies. Ginger cookies.

Make the kind of cookie that doesn’t require twelve specialty ingredients and three hours of decorating.

Bonus points if the recipe came from your mom or grandma.

20. Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

This is such an easy little pantry project.

Make a jar of hot cocoa mix now and you’ll be ready for cold afternoons, movie nights and the first really miserable rainy day.

Make extra jars and you’ve already started your Christmas gifts.

See? September-you is getting very organized.

21. Apple Cider

A pot of cider simmering with cinnamon and warming spices is basically autumn in liquid form.

Serve it warm after working outside, at a Halloween gathering, or during a cozy family night.

And yes, your house will smell better than any fall candle.

22. Freezer Meals

This isn’t glamorous, but it’s one of the most useful things you can do before winter.

Make an extra pan of lasagna.

Freeze chili.

Prep a casserole.

Make soup.

Put together breakfast burritos.

The goal isn’t to fill an enormous freezer overnight. Just start making two instead of one whenever you’re already cooking something that freezes well.

23. Homemade Flavored Butter

This is such a simple old-fashioned luxury.

Try cinnamon-honey butter for biscuits and pancakes, or garlic-herb butter for bread, potatoes and vegetables.

Serve it in a little crock and suddenly Tuesday-night dinner feels fancy.

24. A Big Batch of Chili

There should be a law requiring at least one giant pot of chili every fall.

Okay, maybe not.

But there should be.

It’s inexpensive, filling, easy to stretch and usually tastes even better the next day.

Serve it with homemade bread or cornbread and freeze the leftovers.

25. One Family Recipe You Don’t Want to Lose

This might be the most important thing on the list.

Before winter, make one recipe from your family’s past.

Grandma’s pie.

Mom’s soup.

Dad’s chili.

Great-grandma’s bread.

That casserole everyone makes at Christmas.

And this time, write it down.

Ask questions if the person who makes it is still here.

How much flour does “until it looks right” actually mean?

What size pan?

How long does it bake?

What brand did Grandma always use?

Take pictures. Write down the little details. Let your kids help.

Old-fashioned cooking isn’t really about pretending we live 100 years ago.

It’s about making sure the good things from the past aren’t lost.

You Don’t Have to Make All 25

Please don’t read this list and decide you now need to spend the next three weekends making everything from scratch.

Pick five.

Maybe this year you learn bread, make applesauce, dry your herbs, put two soups in the freezer and write down Grandma’s pie recipe.

That’s plenty.

Then next fall, learn something else.

That’s how old-fashioned skills become part of everyday life—not because we master them all at once, but because we slowly bring them back into our homes.

Stock Your Old-Fashioned Fall Kitchen

You don’t need fancy equipment for most of these projects, but there are a few things that make fall kitchen days much easier.

A few things I use or would look for:

Shop Mason jars → HERE
Shop Apple Peelers & Corers → HERE
Shop Dutch Ovens → HERE
Shop Bread-Making Supplies → HERE
Shop Canning Supplies → HERE

A Slower Kind of Fall

Maybe that’s what I love most about an old-fashioned fall kitchen.

It forces you to slow down a little.

You peel the apples.

You knead the dough.

You stir the soup.

You wash the jars.

You hang the herbs.

And slowly, the pantry and freezer begin filling up for winter.

Not everything needs to be homemade. Not everything needs to come from your garden. And you certainly don’t need a homestead to do any of it.

Just make something.

Turn on some music, open the windows to that cool fall air, put a pot on the stove and let your kitchen smell like autumn.

Because before we know it, the garden will be sleeping, the evenings will be dark, the rain will be tapping against the windows…

And we’ll be very glad we made that extra loaf of pumpkin bread.

Share