It is that time of year when we get a lot of harvest: Fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. Remember that we can always make fruit sauce out of any fruit.

It takes:

2 to 4 cups of small or chopped fruit, cored and peeled

3/4 cup of sugar dash of honey dash of spice like vanilla, cinnamon, etc.– that goes well with the fruit you are using a medium sized pot that is not aluminum.

Combine the ingredients and cook over low to medium heat, stirring quite often. Cook for about 20 to 40 minutes, depending on how long the fruit takes to cook down.

Taste and adjust sweetness, adding more sugar, honey or seasonings or add a little bit of lemon if they are too sweet.

You may strain the seeds out if you wish.

Remember you can mix fruits and people will think that is genius!

Favorite combinations:

Blueberries and peaches apples, cinnamon and raspberries strawberries and blackberries

Some of these you can cook in separate pans and then combine in dessert dishes but keep them separate and make one swirl through the middle so you can see the different colors.

Also, eat fruitsauce plain or use fruitsauce over ice cream or with pound cakes. You can call this fruitsauce or homemade peach blueberry sauce, etc.

Do not forget about local fruits like mulberries or quince, that you or your neighbor or your local farmer or gardener might have growing in their yard.

Try adding chopped fruit on top of ice cream, in salads, on cereal and on sandwiches. Place on a buttered cookie sheet and bake at 350-degrees F until the fruit is tender, usually 25 to 45 minutes, depending on the size of the fruit.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and/or melted caramel.

Baked Fruit

For baked fruit, use tree fruit, with pit or core in or removed, usually apples and pears but you can use other tree fruit and you can use large berries like strawberries – but they cook for a much shorter time, like only 15 minutes or until they are soft.

Wash and dry fruit, peel if you desire but then you must sprinkle them with melted butter and sugar or cookie crumbs.

Veggies for Dinner

This is the time when a lot of green vegetables are ready to eat.

Try peeling or peeling in stripes any of the green zukes and then adding peeled and thinly sliced summer yellow squash and then cooking them all in butter until they are translucent but still a little crispy. The veggies are great like that but if you wish, you may add a little fresh garlic or thyme or even a little Italian dressing and lastly sprinkle them with a little bit of panko and/ or parmesan.

If you try all the variations, you will learn your and your family’s favorites.

Try carrots thinnings, washed clean, greens sliced off, in salad.

Try green beans, their ends “snapped” off, which is why they are called snap beans, lightly steamed, until they are still a little crispy with melted butter.

You can make butter sauce thicker by sprinkling in a little bit of corn starch or even flour but you must cook the flour for about 3 or 4 minutes in the butter or the sauce may taste raw. Grated cheese also thickens butter sauces. White sauce, which is 2 to 4 tablespoons of butter and flour each cooked and then slowly combined with 1 to 2 cups of milk, is delicious over most steamed vegetables. Grated cheese may be added or other seasonings, from salt and black pepper to even quite spicy ones like rosemary.

Also try white sauce with extra cheese on steamed broccoli and on baked potatoes, with fresh chopped chives or scallions on top. Slice potatoes thinly, lay one layer into a buttered casserole, spread with white sauce, layer with potatoes again, then layer with white sauce, and lastly, thickly sprinkle with grated cheese and bake at 350-degrees F, until golden brown on the edges, to make scalloped potatoes.

— Mel Baker is an experienced chef, caterer and cafe manager. She resides in York County and has published “The Noisy Oven” since 2006. Email her a [email protected].