Readers' Choice Fall Comfort Foods

Lisa Sparks, who owns Lisa's Pie Shop in Atlanta, Indiana (north of Indianapolis), blends tangy Granny Smiths and mellower Jonathans in her double-crust pie seasoned with cinnamon. Tapioca thickens her pale filling, making a lusciously clear sauce that wraps itself around the tender sliced fruit. The trick to tapioca: Soften it in liquid before baking. Lisa says this apple pie recipe brought top honors at both local and national pie competitions.

Apple Pie

Dan and Nancy Viste specialize in American classics at their Old Feed Mill restaurant in Mazonomie, Wisconsin. Their pot roast slow cooks until the meat turns brown and tender and the flavor mellows to an almost caramel overtone. Browned bits in the pan become the base for the rich red wine gravy.

Fork-Tender Pot Roast

Our quick and easy soup was inspired by the flavors of Minnesota, which leads the nation in turkey production. Smoked turkey mixes with the state grain, wild rice. Meaty shiitake mushrooms add more substance to the bowl.

Wild Rice and Turkey Soup

German-Russians settling the Dakotas put Red River Valley potatoes to good use in this creamy-rich potato-filled base with noodle dough cooked. It's white-on-white comfort food.

Knoephla

We often equate Amish food with comfort. Here's our version of a favorite apple dessert you might find at Amish-based restaurants in the Midwest.

Amish Apple Dumplings

No granulated sugar is added to this recipe; the sweetness comes from cider, fruit and applesauce.

Applesauce Spice Cake

Spoon cheese-sauced cabbage and sweet pepper over a crumbled corn bread base for this side dish. Serve with roast pork or ham.

Cabbage Casserole

This country-style chicken soup with dumplings will remind you of Grandma's recipes--hearty, rich and comforting.

Chicken with Lemon-Thyme Dumplings

Mix pantry ingredients—canned apple pie filling, canned sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, apricot preserves, orange marmalade and chopped pecans—for a quick and easy side dish with a crunchy nut topping.

Cranberry-Apple Sweet Potatoes

"This is a twist on a popular dish and is one of my personal favorites," says April Osburn from the Clabber Girl Bake Shop in Terre Haute, Indiana. Thinly slice the apples for this apple dessert so they get done in the allotted baking time.

Ginger-Cinnamon Apple Crisp

Erica Whitson, Maplewood, Minnesota, mixes black, kidney and garbanzo beans that bubble away in tomatoey brown sugar sauce with ground beef or turkey. Our heat rating: ! (Mild, Not Wild)

Three-Bean Beauty Chili

Ina Pinkney, owner of Ina's in Chicago--home of this pot pie recipe--calls this dish creamy, chickeny goodness. The pastry tops can be made a day or two ahead. Bake as directed; cool and then cover loosely with plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Chicken Pot Pie

Susan Corley of New Albany, Ohio, shared her version of the classic Italian soup in New Albany Cooking with Friends, a cooking club project that took regional honors in the 2007 Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards. Susan often slow-cooks a pot of the soup for family meals during the holidays.

Hearty Minestrone Soup

This tender, moist lemon-blueberry muffin counts on garden-fresh lemon verbena for its essence of herbed citrus. Or, substitute lemon peel. The recipe comes from a community cookbook called Tasteful Garden Treasures, put together by the Taylor Garden Club in Taylor, Michigan.

Mary Lou's Muffins