Fall is in the air...along with the smells of apple crisp!

There's a nip in the air and the leaves are starting to change colors!  My favorite season is here!  Time to break out the warmer jackets, sweaters and jeans.  Put away the Crocs, break out the soccer cleats!  It's time for planning apple and pumpkin picking trips, playing in leaf piles, crunching leaves and apples, starting to settle in for the colder months and  baking all things apple.  Notice a theme in that paragraph?

Years ago, when my husband and I lived in Detroit, we started the yearly tradition of apple and pumpkin picking.  There have been a couple of years where, for one reason or another, we have not been able to actually pick our apples and pumpkins from the orchard or field.  For example: last year, my husband was not feeling 100%, and we had a nursing 2 month old ("You can go apple picking with a nursing 2 month old!", you say?  Read on).  But, we have still gone to a stand or apple store to gather our bounty for the annual apple creations.  This year, we're hoping to visit a place in OH that has both U-pick apples AND pumpkins (the closest ones in PA are about an hour and a half away! See where the nursing 2 month old bit could be a bit of an issue?).  And oh boy and am I looking forward to the treats we'll make with those apples!  Apple sauce!  Apple fritters!  Apple muffins!  And my favorite:  Apple crisp!  Tender apples, warm and gooey, with a sweet, brown sugary crunch on top.  Perfect right out of the oven for desert, or warmed in the microwave for breakfast.  Can. Not. Be. Beat.  I'd love to share the recipe with you, but I'm afraid I'd risk copyright infringement.  You'll just have to take my word for it! :o)

We got this fantastic little book at an orchard we went to in Michigan (I don't remember the name of it, sorry!) that has our tried and true recipes that we use every year.  Needless to say, it is well loved and our favorites are marked with sticky notes.  Definitely a book to hand down. Here's the name of the cookbook:  Apples!  Apples!  Apples!  Cooking with Apples by M. Mosley, published and distributed by Hearts & Tummies Cookbook Co. (a division of Quixote Press).  You may be able to find it at your local orchard!

Happy apple and pumpkin picking!