Food Network’s senior culinary editor, Liz Tarpy, picks her favorite recipe for October.

I went to my local garden center this weekend to buy lily of the valley bulbs. Instead, I walked out with a half dozen apple cider doughnuts. I couldn’t resist the colorful display of pumpkins and gourds, bunches of dried corn, gallons of cider and bags of these cakey doughnuts (or “fat pills,” as a former boss once called them). Normally, doughnuts don’t appeal to me. But with the colors and smells of fall all around, buying the doughnuts (and supporting the local farm to boot) just seemed like the right thing to do.

It’s OK to have treats now and again, I reasoned, as long as they are balanced with more healthy choices. I can have my cake, and my vegetables, too.

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Food Network’s Senior Culinary Editor, Liz Tarpy, picks her favorite recipe for September.

I’ve never warmed to hot fruit with meat and even though there’s no one meal that ruined it for me. No scarring memory of family holidays made even stickier with glazed ham and pineapple (though my stepmom once made poached fish with prunes, but that’s another story). It’s just a knee-jerk reaction I have to any recipe involving sweet meat.

Intellectually and culinarily, I know that sweet and salty play off each other, so meaty and fruity flavors can also work well together. There are many examples in other cuisines that proudly blend the two: Thai curries with pineapple, Cuban picadillo with ground meat and raisins, German roast pork and apples. And let’s not forget the all-American roast turkey and cranberry sauce.

Get Liz’s September favorite »