Scents of Autumn

I check the weather in the morning and see it's going to be another 70 degree day. I plan my outfit, get dressed and head out of the house, only to be hit by a blast of chilly air. Sure, it's going to be a nice 70 degrees...LATER! In the mornings it's only 60ish. Autumn is on its way.

One argument I like to start in autumn is about pumpkin spice versus apple spice. Obviously all of you pumpkin spice people are very vocal, but you are also wrong. I hate to be the one to tell you. Apples are the true scent of the season. Just to prove it, I made some potpourri! You can too if you've chosen to see the error of your pumpkin spice ways.

You need:

• apples
• oranges
• cinnamon sticks
• whole cloves
• permission to use the mandolin cutter (There have been some "incidences" okay??)

 Set your mandolin on the smallest setting. Starting at the bottom of you apple, slice it up! Go straight through at least the middle where the seeds are. Those are the prettiest slices. I used a green apple and a red apple for color variety. You'll want to make wider slices on the oranges, since those are more juicy.

 Lay out your fruit slices on a baking sheet and put them in a 200 degree oven for about an hour. Check on things, flip the fruit over, and let it go for another hour. You want to dry them out slowly without browning or cooking them. I got mine to just about where I wanted and then turned the oven off and left them over night.

After they are all dried out collect them carefully. You can arrange your fruit slices in a bowl with some cinnamon sticks and cloves. You can also put some in a small pot of water or a potpourri simmerer. I places the extra in a bag in the freezer, so I can get some more out later.

My house smells pretty and it looks nice too. Not a pumpkin to be found!!

Want some more apple ideas to help convince yourself and ease your withdrawal from your unholy addiction?? Check these out!

Karen from Baking in a Tornado has an Apple Pie Cheesecake to celebrate Fall, apple season, and Rosh Hashanah.

  

Eileen of Eileen's Perpetually Busy made Mini Apple Crisp Pies that are easy and delicious with a crispy topping.

 

Kia of Think in English is Comparing Apples and Dragonfruit and teaching us how to assess students who come from very different backgrounds.

 Lydia of Cluttered Genius has a Harvest Front Porch Door that she upcycled to decorate the porch.

 And Tamara made some Apple and Sweet Potato Muffins that are deliciously only 100 calories!

What's your favorite scent of the season?  Have I convinced you of my wisdom??

An Apple Adventure at Carter Mountain

The view!!

One of the things that makes a regular appearance on our Fall bucket list is going apple picking.  Four years ago when I was pregnant with Benjamin, my friend Stacey introduced us to Carter Mountain Orchard in Charlottesville and we have been back every year since. 

 

This year the magic date happened to fall on Frances' birthday.  Henry had a soccer game that morning, then we piled into the van, stopped by Burger King for a quick lunch and headed over the mountain. We didn't actually tell the kids where we were going, so we endured quite a lot of "Where are we going?"s but it was a nice change from "Are we there yet?"

When we got to the orchard, we stopped for bathroom breaks and got a map to the trees that were ready to be picked.  We hadn't picked on this part of the orchard, so we had a bit of trouble knowing where to start, but once we found some apples, we found a LOT!  I had given the kids their own bags and hoped they would stop picking when their bags got too heavy. No such luck! They just started putting apples in my bag!

We finally picked enough, and headed over to pay for them.  We also picked up some frozen cider to cool off with and a dozen apple cider donuts (yum!) for the road.  Now I have 21.7 pounds of apples sitting in my kitchen, so I need to figure out what to do with them.  I have plans for apple sauce and a pie.  What are your favorite apple recipes?