Six Word Fridays: Fall

Crunching, Crinkling

Spiraling, Swirling

Autumn Leaves

Red, Yellow, Orange, Purple, and Brown. 

Splendid, Exciting, Colorful. Fall is here! 

fall

Fall is for Apples

This is the best Apple Crisp I have ever made! Simple, too!

Ingredients:

2 tsp. flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp, cinnamon

1 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup oatmeal

1 cube margarine, softened

1. Peel and core apples

 2. Slice apples

 3. Fill bottom of baking dish with sliced apples

4. Mix together the 2 tsp. flour, sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle on apples

 5. Using a fork or pastry blender, mix flour, brown sugar, oatmeal and margarine.

Spread on top of apples

 6. Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees and 30 minutes at 350 degrees (1 hour total)

7. Dish up warm and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Delicious!

Apple Crisp is a favorite at our house. There's nothing better than the smell of tart, tangy, sweet red and yellow apples baking in the oven. I love when the juice from the apples bubble up through the crisp. Then you know it's just about done baking. Fresh out of the oven, it's hot and crisp. You can hardly wait for the scoop of vanilla ice cream to smother the top. With each bite, the ice cream melts slowly into the crisp, giving it the best kind of Fall dessert you could possibly have.

Apple Crisp is  a request for birthdays... even over cake! Enjoy!

writing prompt #4: share a favorite Fall recipe

Super Easy Pumpkin Treats

Not all pumpkins are created equal. Here's a run down of what size and variety of pumpkin is best for what...

Small pumpkins 

Choose Sugar Pie pumpkins and other flavorful varieties for baking. They are small and sweet, with dark orange-colored flesh. They are perfect for pies, soups, muffins, and bread.

A medium-sized (4 pound) sugar pumpkin should yield around 1 1/2 cups of mashed pumpkin. The puree can be used in recipes calling for canned pumpkin.







Field pumpkins

Field pumpkins are larger and stringy inside. They make perfect jack-o-lanterns.


















Jack-be-littles

These miniature pumpkins are small and are perfect for decorating.












Pumpkins for decorating

ornamental pumpkins and gourds



jack-be-littles made into spiders


pumpkin head helmets (Pumpkin Walk)



carved jack-o-lantern





Fall is all about the pumpkin! Whether you bake them, carve them, or decorate with them, pumpkins bring color and pleasure to cool Autumn days. 

One of my favorite things to do with pumpkins is to make treats and other sweets with and for the kids and grandkids. Two of my favorite super easy pumpkin treats will surely get your family in the pumpkin mood!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:  

15 oz. canned pumpkin
box of cake mix (I like spice)
12 oz. bag of chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1.  Pour dry cake mix into large mixing bowl

 2. Add canned pumpkin

3. Mix well

 4. Add chocolate chips

5. Stir into batter with spoon

 6. Lick the beaters! (this recipe does not contain eggs)

7. Drop by teaspoon onto a cookie sheet

8. Cook for 18 - 20 minutes

    Place on cooling rack and let cool

9. Yummm!



















Thanks Missy Moo and Buster Boo for helping grandma make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies!

Turtle Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. caramel ice cream topping, divided

1 Graham Cracker pie crust

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. pecan pieces, divided

1 cup cold milk

2 pkg. (3.4 oz. ea.) vanilla instant pudding

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tub (8 oz.) whipped topping, thawed, divided

Directions:

1. Pour 1/4 cup caramel topping into crust; sprinkle with 1/2 cup nuts.

2. Beat milk, dry pudding mixes, pumpkin and spices with whisk 2 minutes. Stir in 1 1/2 cups whipped topping. Spread into crust.

3. Refrigerate 1 hour. Top with remaining whipped topping, caramel topping and nuts just before serving.

This pie has become a tradition at our house every Thanksgiving. It's easy to make and so delicious!

(Food & Family magazine)

Prompt #4: Pumpkins! Anything with pumpkins!

Fall is Here!

What better way to celebrate Fall than doing some of my favorite things. I will call it my

Fall Bucket List

1. Carve jack-o-lanterns with the grand kids

2. Go for a drive up the canyon with the hubs, take a picnic and gather colorful leaves

3. Plan Harvest Fest... an annual event with the family to celebrate the end of harvest

4. Make scarecrows with the kids and grand kids

5. Birthday lunch with a favorite sister to celebrate both our birthdays (one week apart)

6. Create a Homestead Christmas Shutterfly book 

7. Plan this year's three-day Homestead Inn Christmas at Midway

8. Decorate Home for Fall Holidays

9. Visit Mom and Dad's grave

10. Cook up Halloween treats, a new Autumn dish, and make desserts that include pumpkin and apples... yummm!

Beautiful Fall Leaves... Sardine Canyon

Harvest Fest

We usually center Harvest Fest around a theme. One year we did Pirates. The kids had to follow a treasure map. When they got to the bottle of (root)beer. They had to sing 20 bottles of beer on the wall, while dancing around the tree. At the end of the hunt, they had to dig up a treasure box filled with coins, necklaces, and other pirate treasures. It was a very fun year. We also do a Spooky Hollow Forest walk through the orchard where they follow clues from a story to collect prizes as they encounter graveyards and bones, bats and ghosts, and a witch at the end. They have to grab their last prize from the witch's hut and run to the tractor and trailer that is filled with straw bales. Grandpa then takes them on a hay ride back to the barn. Harvest Fest is one of the big things I look forward to in the Fall.

Fall is my favorite season. I love to decorate the house, porch, and yard with gourds, pumpkins, leaves, and candles. A daughter, who is very creative with florals, made me the beautiful Fall wreath for my door. The witch in the center is my daughter-in-law who played the witch at the end of the Spooky Hollow Forest walk.

Homestead Inn Christmas

This is a big event that we do every five years. We take the family to the Homestead Resort in Midway for three days, just before Christmas. We ice skate, ride the Polar Express, tube, sleigh ride, play games, play in the snow, and exchange gifts around the Christmas tree. On Sunday, before going home, everyone dresses in their best and we go to Sunday Brunch together. I am looking forward to this year's family Christmas at the Homestead and can't wait to finalize the plans.

As you can tell, all my favorite things center around family! 

Writing prompt #5:  Fall is here! List your 10 favorite things about this Fall  

Leaves

Autumn is my favorite season. My birthday (Sept 21) usually falls on the first day of Autumn. I can always tell. There's excitement in the air, it smells crisp, is a little chilly, is splashed with vivid colors of orange, yellow, red, and green.... painting the landscape everywhere I look. Autumn really is the year's last, loveliest smile!

I took Kaylene's advice and tried a little magic on the original leaves picture (below). I photo edit using picmonkey, a free editing program on-line. I first went to effects and applied orton, and then cinerama. Then I went to textures to smudge and then paint. I can't tell you exactly what I did. I was just playing around and having way too much fun to notice. All I know is that I was pleased with the effect I created. Finally, I added text. If you haven't tried picmonkey you really should!

This is my original leaves picture. The hubs and I went on a Sunday drive to the beautiful Heber Valley where he grew up. I was amazed that the leaves in the canyons were already turning color in the middle of August. I took this picture above Midway, a small resort town just west of Heber.