Most recipes that call for pumpkin recommend using canned pumpkin puree. There are a variety of reasons for this, including the facts that pumpkin puree is relatively inexpensive, easy to find, convenient to use and very consistent in color, flavor and texture. Having a standard ingredient to recommend helps cookbook authors and recipe writers to help you achieve the desired results with their recipes. You can find both regular and organic pumpkin puree pretty easily these days at both regular and specialty markets. That said, it is also very possible to make your own pumpkin puree and this is a great option or those of us who like to eat squash and pumpkin on a regular basis.

First, start out with a whole pumpkin. It’s best not to have one too large, or it will be difficult to work with. Peel it, slice it open and seed it. Bring some water to a boil on the stovetop. Cut up the pumpkin flesh into chunks and drop it into the boiling water. Cool the pumpkin pieces until they’re tender, exactly the same way you would with potatoes.

Drain and cool the pumpkin pieces, then put them in the food processor. This is the only part where making your own gets tricky. Pumpkin can be fairly fibrous, and canned pumpkin puree is very smooth, so make sure that you process your pumpkin as much as possible. Sometimes, I add back a little bit of water to the puree so that I can process it more easily. I aim to get the consistency close to that of the canned puree (fairly thick, but not dry) so that I know it will work out in the recipes that call for it.

When I make it, I use pumpkin puree within a day or two of making it, storing it in the refrigerator in the meantime.

For a long time, figs were a very mysterious fruit to me - and I’m sure they were to many others who did not see them regularly. Although many people in my area had fig trees, I rarely saw anyone harvesting or eating the fruit when I was growing up, so the first item I was faced with a basket at the farmers’ market, I hesitated before picking them up. Figs are actually not berries, as you might expect. They are the flowers of the fig plant, where the seeds and petals grow together into the edible fruit that we recognize.

There are many different varieties of fig, each with a slightly different color of skin and flesh, but all can be handled in pretty much the same way. Figs are eaten whole (after washing, of course). There is no pit or other large seeds to get in the way of their sweet, jammy flavor. Their skin is very thin and tender and puts up basically no resistance. A ripe fig is slightly soft and gives under light pressure. Figs can be used whole in recipes, can be cooked down into a jam with sugar and water, or can be dried and used in recipes that way.

White peaches are my favorite type of peaches to eat plain, so I often stock my kitchen up with them when they are in season. This means that white peaches make it into my desserts and baked goods more often than standard yellow peaches do. The two fruits are absolutely interchangeable in recipes, but there are a few flavor differences between white and yellow peaches that are worth noting.

White peaches tend to have paler skin than their yellow cousins, but have the same blush, softness and overall look as a standard peach. The real difference is that they have a white or champagne-colored flesh that is a clear departure from just about any yellow shade. They look beautiful sliced, as the white contrasts nicely with their reddish center (the same red center around the pit as in a standard peach). These peaches were not commercially cultivated in substantial numbers until the 1980s because they were considered to be more delicate than yellow peaches and had a much shorter growing season, meaning that they were not usually as profitable for farmers. These days, selective breeding has made white peaches a bit more resilient and has given them a longer season, so they are showing up more and more in regular markets.

In addition to the color, there is a distinct difference between white and yellow peaches. White peaches have a soft peach flavor, but are much more floral tasting.  This translates to a delicacy in their flavor that isn’t quite there in a yellow peach, and I think that they taste a lot sweeter for it. These subtle flavors come out when you eat the peaches on their own, but they will also make it into a cobbler or a pie if you choose to use white peaches for those dishes.

A strawberry huller is a little tool that is designed to remove the hull - the leafy top and white-ish center “plug” - of a strawberry before you eat it. Unless you’re eating berries by hand and tossing away the hulls one-by-one (or dipping them in chocolate and need a “handle”), you’re going to want to remove the hulls before using the berries. They make a better presentation when they’re hulled because the berries are absolutely ready to eat. Once hulled, they are also ready to be chopped up and added to anything from cereal to bread pudding.

Strawberry hullers come in various designs, from little scoops to dedicated coring tools, like the Oxo Good Grips Strawberry Huller. Since strawberries also come in various designs - from tiny to huge - hullers don’t always make the job faster than, say, using a paring knife to pop the hull out. This is because a dedicated huller can require repeated attempts to get out a large hull, and can remove too much of the flesh from a small berry, requiring you to use a paring knife anyway for those fruits. The OXO, for instance, works well for medium-sized berries, but not for very large or very small berries. The only hullers that seem to work all the time are those that look like tiny paring knives or sharp spoons and will fit a variety of fruits, although if you already have a small knife, they’re not entirely necessary.

Apples have caramel. Strawberries have chocolate. I think that peaches should have dulce de leche. Actually, I think that a lot of things should have dulce de leche, but I’ll stick to peaches for the moment. All fruits have other flavors that pair well with them, and although fresh fruit is a treat all on its own, it’s nice to have the option to make things a little more decadent. White peaches are one of my favorite summer fruits and I have a bounty of them. A little experimentation brought me to the combination of white peaches and dulce de leche, which turns out to be a fantastic way to enjoy peaches as a snack or simple dessert.

The soft dairy notes of the dulce de leche really brings out the floral notes of fresh peaches, adding a nice complexity to a simple combination. And even though the dulce de leche has quite a bit of sugar in it, it is not too sweet for the peaches - by which I mean that it neither covers up nor mutes the natural sweetness of the peaches in any way. Instead, the darker caramel flavor creates a background to showcase the peaches

Cooking outside when the weather is nice is very appealing, and it’s nice to be able to make dessert while you’re outside - and without heating up the house to bake - so one of the best summertime desserts out there is grilled fruit. Grilling can make fruit sweeter, as it caramelizes the natural sugars in the fruit, and can make them seem even juicier than they are naturally. Having some nice grill marks and a bit of a savory flavor (from smoke, meat or anything else you’ve grilled) is not a bad touch, either.

When it comes to choosing fruit to grill, you have lots of options. You can put anything on the grill, but some fruits will hold up better than others. Berries, for instance, could be grilled for novelty, but generally soften to the point where they’re not nearly as appealing as they are when fresh.  Your best bets are fruits that are firm enough to withstand the heat without becoming mushy, and anything that is in-season is going to give you the best flavor. Peaches, nectarines and other stone fruits are fantastic choices. Pineapple takes on a lot of additional sweetness when it is grilled, too. Apples don’t soften up enough during grilling to make them great options, but I’ve seen pears and melons (often with prosciutto and more as an appetizer than dessert) used.

Turn the heat on the grill down, so you don’t burn the fruit, and use a little oil or cooking spray to keep the fruit from sticking. Serve the grilled fruit on its own or with ice cream. You can also chop it up and incorporate it into other desserts, like cream puffs and shortcakes, as well.