Fall...

I've decided it's my favorite season.  Spring is supposed to be the season of beginnings, and it is.  But Fall also has its beginnings, and I love them.

Fall is the beginning of football season.  For many wives, this is a "pause" on time spent with their hubby.  For Andrew and I, it's one more common interest we share.  I love the anticipations of waiting for the game on Saturday almost as much as the game itself.  Please note, I did say almost.  I also love the anticipation of waiting for the rankings to be posted.  Unless we (MSU) lost on Saturday. Then, I dread the rankings.  Fortunately, this week we won and moved up one spot.

Fall is the beginning of things that smell and taste wonderful:
Apples.  Apple pie.  Apple picking.  Apple cake.  Apple dumplings.  I'm going home to Greenville this weekend, and if my mom makes apple dumplings, I will die of happiness.
Pumpkin spice lattes and everything else "pumpkin-y".  I currently have pumpkin spice soap in my kitchen and apple pie soap in my downstairs bathroom.  When you come to my house, find a reason to wash your hands.  The festive smell is wonderful.
Leaves and the smell of burning them.  It's refreshing.  I don't know why, but it is.  It also makes me nostalgic, because I spent many fall days in Michigan raking leaves with my brothers who now live states away from me.

Fall is the beginning of a new routine.  I've always been a sucker for routines.  Because school starts back, everyone and everything settle into new routines.  I like the predictability of that.

This one is the best one, so brace yourself.  Fall is the beginning of the holiday season.  I include Halloween in this because Andrew really likes spooky things.  During the month of October, I can count on him to sing "The Ghost of John" and try to spook me in every silly way he can think of.  I sincerely hate being scared, but being spooked is a bit different.  It's silly, and I secretly like that.  Don't tell him.  That would take some of the fun out of October.
October also contains Andrew's birthday.  I love birthdays, so that's almost a holiday as well.
Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I should just leave it at that, because they really need no explanation.  However, my favorite thing about Thanksgiving is that it anticipates Christmas.  I love that for the entire month of December, I am reminded of how Christ came to earth into humble circumstances to live a perfect life and die the death that would give me life.  I love that.

Fall is also the beginning of super fun festive decorations.  Mine this year cost me $20 in the target dollar aisle. Here they are:

 The mantle with fun fall additions

 The front door wreath I made

 The steps - with my white pumpkin that I adore

 My totally unimpressed boy. He really likes the pumpkins, actually.  Don't let the snarl fool you.

 The kitchen table - I love when I have a centerpiece.

That - all those rambling reasons - is why I love fall the best.

Caramel Apple Pie

With Bram making our lives interesting and wonderful these days, I should probably start blogging again anyway, so I'll post the apple pie recipe from Saturday here. Saturdays in the fall are wonderful.  There's football and tasty spiced things to make. I really like it when my Saturday looks something like this:

This pie is NOT low-fat, low-sugar, or anything remotely resembling healthy, so plan accordingly... maybe eat only veggies the day before or after :)  It is, however, my favorite pie.  It also is quite time-consuming to make.  Plan 1 hr to assemble (if you're not interrupted by kids, pets, football games, etc) and some clean-up time after to scrub off the caramel-apple juices from your pans.  It takes some effort - maybe recruit someone else to do this for you.  I don't love clean up.  I just love baking and eating.


For those of you who are visual, here's your goal:

So good. There really are no words, so I won't try.



Caramel Apple Pie:


Crust:  (you can use ready made crust-with top & bottom-, but I think this recipe is so much more wonderful - and you know all the ingredients in it! No preservatives with weird names you can't pronounce!)


Into 3 cups all purpose flour, cut 1&1/4 cup plus 1Tbsp Crisco (vegetable shortening)
 IN A SEPARATE BOWL: mix 1 egg, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, and 5 Tbsp water
Add to flour mixture and mix well with a fork (I usually end up finishing the mixing with my hands.
Create 4 balls with the dough.  You have enough for 2 pies, so I usually freeze 2 of the dough balls for later.
Roll out the bottom crust and shape into the bottom of your 9-inch pie pan.  Roll out the top and save it for later.


Filling:
6-7 cups apple (mixture of tart and sweet works best: granny smith or golden delicious and empire is a good mixture)
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1/4 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
4 Tbsp heavy cream
4 Tbsp butter

Crumble Topping: (yes, this pie has a crumble topping AND a top crust. sinful.)
1/2 C all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon butter
24 Werthers Original Hard Caramel Candies (crushed - with a mallet or whatever you want)


Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Make filling:

Peel and slice apples.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and add apples.  Toss to mix.
Add vanilla and cream to apple mixture and mix well.
Melt butter in a large skillet.
Add apple mixture to the skillet and cook approx. 8 minutes until apples are a bit softened (5 minutes usually does it for me).
Turn mixture into pie shell.


Make crumble topping:
Combine the flour and sugar. 
Mix in butter with fork until coarse crumbs form.
Stir in the crushed Werthers.
Sprinkle over the pie.


Add top crust.  Seal & flute edge and vent top.  Brush top with beaten egg white or a bit of milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes on middle rack (until top is golden). Then, reduce heat to 350, lay a piece of foil on top of pie, and continue baking for 35-45 minutes longer.  (Set your timer for 30 minutes and then check with a fork to see if the apples are softened.  30-35 minutes is enough in my oven. If you like your apples to be mush, 45 minutes might work fine, but I like mine to be soft while still holding their shape.)

I have started placing my pie pan on a baking sheet about halfway through the cooking time because my juices run over into my oven sometimes.  If you use fewer apples, this may not be a problem for you, but I like to pack mine full of apples.


Seriously, seriously yummy. I'm glad it's a bit of a process to make or I might make it too often :)
Enjoy!