Apples and pumpkins

For many years I said that spring and fall were my favorite seasons because I love it when the temps are not too hot and also not too cold. In particular I love it when the temps are in the 60's or 70's. Over the past 10 years my favorite season some years has shifted to the summer because I enjoyed walking to the playground in the morning and swimming in the pool in the afternoon with the kids. My dislike of cold temperatures has also grown over the years. One constant has been that winter is my least favorite season. The trees are bare, the grass is brown, there aren't any flowers, and it's COLD outside. Yes, snow is pretty to look at, but I really don't like to drive in snow or ice, and it has to be cold outside for their to be snow. In the spring there are beautiful blossoms on the trees, the flowers begin to bloom, and the grass turns green again. In the fall there are oh so beautiful leaves on the deciduous trees. Although in all reality we could eat just about any food any time of year, there are still foods that are associate with the various seasons. We eat a wider variety of fresh fruit in the summer. That's another big plus for summer! Two foods I associate with the fall are apples and pumpkins. We eat apples all year round, but I'm more prone to make apple crisp and drink apple cider in the fall. Our family's first choice when it comes to apple variety is gala, and our second choice is golden delicious. Recently I bought some Granny Smith apples for making apple cake, and we also tried two other kinds. The kids and I found a new favorite - Jonagold. I'm not sure how often that kind goes on sale ($1.00/lb. is the most I pay for apples), but the kids and I really like that kind! The rest of us didn't enjoy the Honeycrisp variety, but Paul really did. I don't typically make pumpkin pie, but I do make pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin bread. There are some pumpkin things that I see at the store that seem revolting to me (ex. pumpkin yogurt or pumpkin ice cream), but most of the time I do love pumpkin! Speaking of seasonal foods, I put some eggnog ice cream on the apple cake this evening. Wow! Was that a delicious combination!!!



We got our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago when the cousins were here, but I figured we should wait until closer to Halloween to carve them. In hind sight I wish we had done it earlier in the week when it was a lot warmer outside. We've always carved our pumpkins outside, but we did it in the kitchen today. Plus I am a big fan of natural light when taking pictures. Usually Paul and I have helped the kids together with the pumpkin carving. In 2016 Pop Pop helped instead of Paul. This was the first time I was the only adult helping. We carved three of the four pumpkins. The kids all think the pulp is disgusting. They each helped some, but I did the lion share of that task. This was the first year I let Nadia carve her pumpkin. I helped her a tiny bit, but she did most of the carving. Ian drew the designs on his pumpkin and Oliver's. Oliver changed his mind from tree to spider, and eventually he settled on Frankenstein. Ian's is a three eyed alien. I know we are a day late with this project, but considering the trick-or-treating was postponed to tomorrow, we still have completed the carving one day before trick-or-treating. The wind and rain was bad last night. I can understand why they rescheduled!