In October my thoughts turn to holiday baking. It's time to gather our favorite recipes, start budgeting for and stockpiling hard-to-find ingredients, and schedule days for making cranberry bread, Christmas cookies, and all those other goodies that make November and December more festive.

I'm a big fan of Wilton's food coloring. I love the brilliant colors it gives our frosted sugar cookies the week before Christmas. But alas, just try to find their reds and greens after Thanksgiving! There must be a horde of people hoarding the good stuff, because every year I'm too late and find myself scraping the bottom of LAST year's stash! So this year, ladies, I've joined the hordes and have made myself a new stash in October. And I've threatened everyone in the house that it's not to be used by anyone for any reason--not in ice cubes, in rainbow milk...no green snickerdoodle dough or scrambled eggs, no red cornstarch play-dough. On pain of death! A slow death!

And last weekend Aubrey and I got in the kitchen during the ill-fated Notre Dame/USC football game and made a huge batch of Holiday Fruit Poundcakes. This is the only kind of "fruitcake" I've ever been able to eat and enjoy. I assure you it has nothing to do with the fact that these cakes age for eight weeks in peach brandy....nothing. Anyway, those are wrapped and soaking in the back of one of the refrigerators, just waiting for the first holiday gathering.

(I don't expect a stampede here, but if you'd like the recipe for a holiday cake full of great dried fruits, whole wheat flour, real butter, molasses and honey, and the aforementioned "spirits," let me know and I'll email you a copy :-) Make it early!)