You’ve heard the sayings “Spring Forward” & “Fall Back” relative to Day Light Savings Time, right? Well, clearly I’ve also associated them with my blogging activity! I’ve ‘fallen back’ on my blog throughout the season so this is my attempt to catch up and stay current!
Fall is one of my favorite times of the year – the crisp air, the smell of leaves, comfort foods…ahhhh! One recent morning after my run, I came into the house and told Frank “I love running during this time of the year – in the cool air with the crunch of leaves under my feet!” His response, “You’re crazy!” wasn’t as embracing of the season (or my early runs)!
On Columbus Day, we both set out to enjoy the season and went on a hike! (See - I told you we were going to attempt to do more things in nature!) We hiked Raven Rocks, which is a 5.5 mile section of the Appalachian Trail. On the way home we stopped in Purcellville and went apple picking – I even climbed an apple tree to get the ‘good’ apples! We had a blast! (Sadly we didn’t bring the camera apple picking and thus, didn’t capture my tree climbing skills.)
Another of my favorite things about fall is that it means indulging in comfort foods. Thankfully my dad’s fig tree was bountiful this year and even more thankfully, he shared his surplus with us! I tried my hand at many fig dishes including fig & gorgonzola pizza, chicken stuffed with figs, fig panini’s, etc. After apple picking, I also got to try out my new
Williams & Sonoma pocket pie mold and made mini apple pies. There’s something about hot apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream that just calls my name. (Ok – admittedly anything with ice cream usually calls my name…) We (yes, WE) also tried our hand at white bean chicken chili and added our own special ingredient: kale. (Frank’s on a kale kick – and I have to admit it’s a nice change from spinach.) There’s been mini banana breads baked in pumpkin molds, and I even went out on a limb and made Spiced Pumpkin & Shrimp soup (which was quite tasty).
