photo op: this IS fall

RER 10.28.16

Fall is spicy and sweet, pumpkins and apples, warmth and cool air.  Fall is the mix of cold mornings and sunny afternoons with the rustle of leaves, amber from the changing seasons. Fall is light when it used to be dark and dark when it used to be light.  Fall is a mix of dichotomies, opposites that attract and mingle and meld to make the beautiful.

RER 10.28.16

RER 10.28.16

RER 10.28.16

RER 10.28.16

A few weekends ago, fall was the smell of sliced fat apples warming in brown sugar and butter, seeped in spices. I finally was able to use some gifted apples (I am a teacher) and made fall tumble into my newish kitchen.  The roasty caramelized apples sat atop some plain Greek yogurt and meal-prep protein waffles for a scrumptious and comforting autumnal brekkie. No recipe, just brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, vanilla, allspice, love, and fall.

RER 10.28.16 

RER 10.28.16

RER 10.28.16

RER 10.28.16

How have you cooked up fall?

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11.12.16

RER 10.28.16

MangiaMore: Silver Palate Sour Cream Apple Pie

RER 11.27.14

So, this Thanksgiving may or may not have been the first time I’ve made an apple pie. In fact, the first time I really made a fruit pie might have been this summer and the first time I have made dough for the crust was just this fall. It’s always fun to make new things and add recipes to the roster.

RER 11.26.14

We were having guests over for dessert on Thanksgiving, so of course that meant we had to go all out. We knew we were going to make the usual suspects: pecan pie, Aunt Lene’s Pound Cake, and Chocolate Cavity Maker Cake. But we needed more, something else. The four of us brainstormed for a week or more before the holiday, and finally Dad mentioned this delicious apple pie with walnuts and sour cream.

And that was it! We looked to Silver Palate for their Sour Cream Apple Pie, and it was a delicious experiment.

RER 11.25.14

RER 11.26.14

First, we made the dough. A little butter, shortening, apple cider and food processor action, and voila! Pretty dough ready for a night in the fridge.

Then, it was all about the apples. We had a mix of green apples (which we peeled) and sweet Pink Lady apples. The filling is decadent with sour cream and sugar!

RER 11.26.14

Next, came the topping, which rests, between the sweet and tart filling and the fall infused latticework.  It’s brown and white sugar, a dose of cinnamon and meaty walnuts.

RER 11.26.14

With help from my expert sister, the homemade pie dough was rolled and beautiful. Filling and sprinkling was a breeze, but creating the lattice was fragile work, resulting in what we like to call a “rustic pie.”

RER 11.26.14

We had extra filling, so we decided to whip out the frozen store-bought pie dough and put it to use with another apple pie (sans walnuts). This time, we skipped the lattice and went a different route. Using a star-shaped cookie cutter, we cut out stars to top the pie, which made for a merry pattern fit for the holiday.

Finally, we got to taste the pies and they were scrumptious. The filling was not syrupy and saccharine, but stiff and flavorful with distinct textures. It was sweet, but not too sweet— an adult take on the fall favorite. A lovely addition to our Thanksgiving sweets spread!

RER

11.27.14

RER 11.27.14

MangiaMore: APPLE cinnamon white cake

RER 11.11.14

Somehow apples always seem to get abandoned in my boyfriend’s fridge. He knows I love apples (they say an apple a day keeps the doctor away) so he buys me some and then they sit. He likes to get me my favorite varieties, so that means sometimes there’s a few Honeycrisp waiting for me or a plastic bag with gala apples inside. We like to pretend we use them for whole bunch of things, but in the end, those autumn jewels wait patiently in the refrigerator until their time is almost up.

RER 11.11.14

RER 11.10.14

RER 11.10.14

This time we had three pretty bright red and yellow green gala apples aging and getting tired. We were supposed to make something with them this weekend, something delicious to celebrate Fall. I gave up baking over the weekend but found the recipe I wanted (I was literally ready to eat it, just not too enthused to make it).  So, on Monday afternoon I got to work and ended up with this Apple Cinnamon White Cake.

RER 11.10.14

RER 11.11.14

The extremely easy recipe involved layering delicious vanilla intensive batter with fresh chopped apple(s) and the spicy sweet mixture of cinnamon and brown sugar. Easy as 1-2-3. The loaf cake is like a coffee cake with brown sugar and cinnamon crunchy and crumbly on its crown and a multitude of soft and tangy sweet apples inside. Despite having no spices in the cake, there is a lovely swirl of cinnamon throughout, making this a great autumn breakfast, especially with the apples. It’s buttery, spicy, fruity, fall-like and above all, super yum.

RER 11.11.14

RER 11.10.14

RER 11.10.14

What do you do when you have extra apples? 'Tis the season for apples, most def! Would love to hear about your favorite fall apple recipes!

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11.10.14

RER 11.11.14