Apple Season!

I've been visiting the apple orchards in my area, stocking up on apples for both eating and baking. I like Red Delicious best for eating ... especially when they're crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside. Bliss!

We're fortunate to be surrounded by apple orchards so there's no reason not to have plenty of fresh apples on hand during the Autumn months. There are a couple that I visit regularly but the one I like best has bushels and bushels of various kinds set out so if you want, you can mix and match different varieties. During the week they put out a metal cash box where you can deposit your money ... completely on the honour system. That's pretty rare these days.

Some of the apples will be made into pies and crisps with the rest being made into applesauce.  There's nothing like homemade applesauce!  It's so easy to do and freezes really well if you want to make more than one batch at a time.  MacIntosh apples are great for making applesauce.  They cook down quickly and have just the right amount of tartness.

Homemade Applesauce
Peel and core 6 large apples.  Slice them into pieces and place in a saucepan with about 1/4 cup water.  Cook over medium heat until they're soft.  Remove from heat and add brown sugar to taste (or leave it unsweetened if you want to use if for baking - applesauce is a great substitute for oil in recipes) and a dash of nutmeg.  Enjoy!

Orange and Gold

We had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend ... three days of record breaking warmth and sunshine!  Perfect for getting out and enjoying a fall fair along with the changing colours ...

  Leaves that have turned to beautiful shades of orange and gold ...

Old trees with a colourful carpet of leaves below ...

Spots of orange tucked in among the green ...

A display of pumpkins at a farm stand ...

Bushel baskets filled with squash, gourds and mini pumpkins ...

Dirt still clinging to just picked pumpkins ...

Perfect Autumn days.

Back to baking

The cooler weather has me back in the kitchen and baking again. Baking is one of my guilty pleasures ... I love to bake! The problem comes in eating everything that I bake. Luckily I have lots of friends and family who are willing to take some baked goods off my hands. Zucchini bread is something that I usually only bake once a year when the zucchini is plentiful. I actually baked this one a couple of weeks ago and although it makes two loaves, they're already gone. I like to keep breads like this on hand ... they freeze well and are great when you have unexpected company drop by.

Zucchini Bread

2/3 cup shortening

2 2/3 cups sugar

4 eggs

3 cups shredded zucchini (about 2-3 medium)

2/3 cup water

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp vanilla

2/3 cups walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 2 9x5x3 loaf pans. Mix shortening and sugar in a large bowl.  Add eggs, zucchini and water.  Blend in flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves.  Stir in walnuts and pour into pans.  Bake 60 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool before slicing.

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This weekend we'll be celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving so I'll be offline, spending time with family and friends and hopefully taking advantage of the warm weather to clean up in the garden.

Have a lovely weekend ... and Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends!  I'll see you next week.  xo

Burnt Orange Season

Hello friends!

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my calendars!  These are the first I've offered for sale and I'm so excited about them.

I'm using my new computer but as I've mentioned to some of you, the transition didn't go quite as smoothly as we'd hoped.  My husband actually got the brand new computer and I'm using his old one, which he's only had for about a year and a half.  I was quite happy about that as my computer was 6+ years old and getting slower by the day.  To make a very long story short, we've had problems with everything from discovering I was using pirated software (which I bought online from what I thought was a legitimate source) to having my camera USB cord not work on my new computer.  Everything does have a happy ending though ... while I'm out the money for the pirated software, I was able to purchase a legitimate version from Adobe.  And we found a USB cord from an old camera that works just fine.  Minor (major to me!) glitches keep popping up here and there but I'm lucky that my husband is a computer geek and able to fix them.  He has so much patience!

But enough computer talk ...

Autumn is my favourite season. I love all the colours but burnt orange is my favourite. I bought lots of these mini pumpkins to use around my home as decorations.

I love how the light makes these maple leaves look like they're glowing!

Pie pumpkins in wooden crates waiting to be used for decorating ... or if you're really energetic, in pumpkin pies. I prefer using canned pumpkin ... this is just way too much work!

 Pumpkins ready to be carved into jack o' lanterns for Halloween sit in straw at a local pumpkin patch.

  And who knew pumpkins grew on trees!   Every Fall a local farm hangs pie pumpkins from their trees ... so fun and guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.