Apple Desserts for Fall

It’s apple season here! And I wanted to share a few of the delicious-looking desserts I’ve been seeing recently.

First, if you’re planning to go to an orchard, check out these apple-picking tips from Bon Appetit. I wish I had read an article like that before Phillip and I went to pick apples at Apple Annie’s in Willcox! We had a fun time, but would’ve been helpful to know a few tricks.

Speaking of which, did you know you could core an apple with a metal melon baller?

1. Baked Apples (via a Beautiful Mess): Whole apples covered with puff pastry and stuffed with pecans – yum!

2. Caramel Apple Bar (via Craftberry Bush): A fun idea for a fall get-together, slice up apples for people to dip in their favorite toppings!

3. Apple Pie Bites (via The Blond Cook): A quick recipe for crescent roll-wrapped apple slices that taste like little pies. I’d try these with my DIY Holiday Spice mix.

4. Peanut Butter and Apple Oatmeal Cookies (photo and recipe by Creative Culinary): Okay, peanut butter + apple + oatmeal cookie…how could I argue with that combination?!

Do you have a favorite apple dessert?

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Photos via respective sites.

October 22, 2015October 22, 2015

Leaf Love: 7 Fall Craft Ideas

Whether or not the leaves change where you live, you’ll fall for these projects!

Embellish Leaves

Try applying paint or glitter directly to leaves. You can use leaves that are green or autumnal, real or silk, dried or pressed – you can even print your own!

1. Gold-Painted Leaves: Gold paint against richly-colored fall leaves is just gorgeous! A single painted leaf or small grouping of them in a simple frame would be lovely.

2. Hojas Pintadas / Drawn-on Leaves and Wreath: You could also go with an earthier palette and use ultra fine tip sharpies or paint pens where you wanted more detail. Once you have a stack of patterned leaves, you can gather them into a fall wreath.

3. DIY Falling Leaves Garland: All you need is some glue and glitter to make your leaves sparkle! Then hang them from a ribbon to create a garland, sprinkle them across a table, or display them in a glass jar. If you wanted to use real leaves instead of silk ones in your garland, you might want to skip punching a hole in favor of tying the ribbon around the leaf stems or attaching with clothespins or hot glue.

Leaves for Embellishing

Use real leaves (any color) to stamp, shape, or decorate.

4. Stamped Leaf Mandala Journal Page: Use leaves as stamps for your journal pages to remind you of the local flora. Stamped leaves in different colors can form the basis of a pattern like this mandala.

5. Leaf-Imprinted Clay Necklace: Press a small leaf into clay to make a one-of-kind pendant.

6. Sand-Cast Birdbath in a Leaf Shape: This is the most involved project on the list, but the step-by-step instructions make it look totally doable. A large leaf becomes the form for a concrete birdbath. You could also skip the pedestal-making steps and create an oversized leaf-shaped bowl, which would be a fantastic base for a fall centerpiece.

7. Foliage Pumpkins: Decopauge ferns or fall foliage on white pumpkins for an alternative to the traditional orange jack-o-latern. (original project, left photo)

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Photos via respective sites.

October 19, 2015October 13, 2015

Fall in Sedona

Travel writer Sherry Ott posted a list of “Most Unusual Destinations for Viewing Fall Colors” and suggests “While everyone heads east, why not just head North” to Minnesota or Alaska or across the ocean to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain or trek the mountains of Nepal.

For travel a little later in the season, you could look another direction: Southwest. Season-seekers in Phoenix are used to heading to Flagstaff and Sedona to get their fall color fix, but Northern Arizona isn’t on the radar for most people.

In Sedona, the fall color is set against the backdrop of its gorgeous red rocks. The peak color is on the later side. A lot of times we’re in Sedona over Columbus Day weekend, when the leaves are just beginning to turn.

Do the leaves change where you live? Have you ever travelled for fall color?

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