ROSH HASHANA RECIPES FOR A SWEET YEAR

With pumpkin butter rugelach, you can have a sweet Jewish New Year.

Fall is the start to some of the best parts of the year.

Football, (slightly) cooler weather, pumpkin-spiced everything and the Jewish high holidays. If that last point perplexed you, allow me to explain. The major Jewish holidays of the year start with Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year, starting this year Oct. 2) and end with Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement, starting this year Oct. 11). Like most holidays, there is food, food and more food.

For Rosh Hashana, we eat sweet foods to ensure a sweet year. Apples dipped in honey are traditional, but you’ll also find fall produce such as pomegranates, dates, figs, leeks and beets, and stranger items like fish heads to head into the new year.

Because I like my new year to be a little spicy and sweet, I add a few red chili pepper flakes to my apple, honey and goat cheese crostini, which are the perfect appetizer for Rosh Hashana dinner. To combine a few of your favorite fall flavors, you can caramelize figs and make your own pumpkin butter to transform regular old rugelach.

Yom Kippur is actually a day of fasting, to atone for our sins of the past year. It’s sort of like confession for Jews. So there is no eating or drinking for a full day. It’s tough, but meaningful. But then we break the fast with tons of food — bagels, lox and cream cheese, whitefish salad, potato or noodle kugels, and blintzes are just a few favorites. My vegetable kugel with tons of vegetables, including leeks, is the perfect colorful addition to this meal.

CONTRIBUTED BY AMY KRITZER The Jewish high holidays are a time to celebrate the Jewish New Year, often with a little something sweet, such as these pumpkin butter rugelach.

CONTRIBUTED BY AMY KRITZER Austinite Amy Kritzer is the author of “Sweet Noshings” and the blogger behind WhatJewWannaEat.com.