Festive Fall Desserts and Other Fall Stuff

My husband, Dave, and I both love fall and pretty much everything that it symbolizes. We love the weather, the festivals, bonfires, and especially the food.

With the first gust of cool fall-feeling air, we are both just overwhelmed with emotion. We may still be here in Indiana about our regular careers and responsibilities, but our hearts are not. Tears come to our eyes. Because each year we realize another 365 days have gone by and we are once again not home with our families in Ohio during harvest. We both grew up on farms in the Buckeye state and harvest was a very special time of year for us. It's in our blood. And it is so hard to not be there.

source

This weekend Dave shared with me that the cooler weather also causes him to begin thinking obsessively about deer hunting. He says each night he dreams of deer.

And I shared with him that it also causes me to want to bake / cook hearty comfort foods. There's just something about the autumn air that makes me want to gather my family in the warm house together and fix things like deer stew, chili, cornbread, pumpkin cookies, apple pie, etc. Even though most of the year we eat quick little meals like fajitas and tacos on weeknights and don't have dessert unless it's a quick bowl of ice cream, in the fall I somehow become my Grandma and I'm fixing cube steak, mashed potatoes, and baking sweets on weeknights! So basically, if you ever want to come stay with us, make sure it's in the fall. You'll get the best food by far.

So, all that being said, today I'm going to share with you some of the yummy fall desserts we've been having lately.

A couple weekends ago, we went to Stuckey Farm Market and Levi (our little 13 month old man) helped us pick a dozen Gala apples off the trees in the orchard. He also really enjoyed the tractor ride and running away from Mom & Dad in his new workboots. He is HOT STUFF in those boots.

We used the apples Wednesday to make an apple pie using my mom's recipe.

Mom concocted her special blend of spices sometime in her 20s when she was at home baking a lot with me and my sister and it always gets rave reviews.

And my own little tip on the apple pie is to peel the apples then use the Pampered Chef Apple Wedger  to cut the apple into wedges, but then cut the wedges into at least 4 even smaller tidbits. This causes your apples to cook more thoroughly while baking and results in a more tender apple pie. My husband's family cooks the apples on the stove before baking the pie and that of course makes them very tender, but I prefer just cutting the apples smaller to begin with and saving a step. Not to mention that I don't really like eating a pie with large wedges of apple that I have to awkwardly tear with my teeth while eating.

Running out of ideas for festive fall foods, I scoured Pinterest for more inspiration. It's my source these days. So we used the rest of the apples on Friday afternoon to make some very yummy Apple Cider Bread.

source

Then Sunday night I made some Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting, also found via Pinterest.

source

In years past, Dave & I have also made homemade caramel apples with nuts

 as well as Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

(which has a very yummy Ginger Snap crust)

and we also love classics like pumpkin pie and pecan pie, and have even tried pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, which are also delicious. Oh my, the possibilities are endless!

I'm linking this up the The DIY Showoff.