October 4: Apple Picking

One of my favorite fall activities each year is the day we go apple and pumpkin picking.

This year, things have not worked out according to plan. 

We've been trying to go apple picking for a week now, but, as I mentioned in a recent post, our favorite local orchard had a bad crop this year and didn't have apples for picking this season. I found a couple other options for us, but it rained all weekend so we didn't get out to do it. We were planning to go yesterday since the girls had off from school, but I wasn't feeling well so we had to postpone. Today we decided to go right after school, knowing it would be a bit of a time-crunch because the place is about 30 minutes away and they close at 5. But we figured we'd still have an hour of picking time and that would be enough. We didn't count on the excessive traffic, nor on the out traffic light less than a mile from the orchard that had us sitting in backed-up traffic for 15 minutes. We finally rolled in at 4:30, 55 minutes after leaving the school and only 30 minutes from closing time. YIKES.

That made it kind of a whirlwind trip for us, but we made it work. (Though, admittedly, we got fewer pictures than we usually do on these trips. There was more picking than posing. Boo.)

We started with a tractor ride to the orchard area itself. That left us 15 minutes to fill a giant bucket with golden delicious apples and some red apples whose name I can't recall but that, in any case, weren't very red (as you can see from the photo above).

We got a good crop of larger apples this year which is nice because when I cook using apples, it ends up being less for me to peel and core. Score to laziness! haha.

There were a TON of gnats flying e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e because it was so damp from the rainy weekend. That part was gross. Luckily the canopy of the trees themselves gave us some sanctuary from the pests.

 

That's my "ew, there's a gnat in my eye" face

When we finished, the tractor took us back to the entrance area. We paid for our haul ($25 for our giant bucket--calculated based on weight) and then walked through something called Spider Web Alley, which was a little indoor maze with blow-up Halloween decorations inside. The girls enjoyed it and ended up running through a second time before we left.

Though we will need to do our pumpkin picking another day (and this weekend looks like it might be a washout again because of Hurricane Matthew potentially moving up the coast) I'm happy to have the apples since at least two of the recipes I'd planned out for this week were apple-based. As you've seen, however, there hasn't been an apple recipe in the bunch yet, and that's because I was lacking the star ingredient!

But now that I've got them...let the apple recipes commence!

October 3: Here's Looking at You Truffles

You know how making Oreo fudge is kind of my thing lately? (What do you mean you didn't know that? I feel pretty confident I mentioned it at some point, though, in fairness, I don't remember exactly when. So I guess you can have a pass. The point is, I've become somewhat famous around town--ok, town might be something of an overstatement, but let's just go with it-- for making this phenomenal Oreo fudge. It's a Sally's Baking Addiction recipe from her Candy Addiction cookbook. That's a fab book, by the way. You should get it.) Well, I've just found another Oreo-based recipe that, in terms of pleased-crowd reviews, is right on par with that fudge. 

I made these Oreo truffles for the first time at the beginning of September when my husband hosted Fantasy Football Draft Night at our house. This House of Yumm recipe for Oreo footballs looked so simple and festive, I decided to try them. They were a huge hit. And why wouldn't they be? Once you bite through the chocolate exterior, your teeth sink into the soft, rich truffle-y interior. Oreo goodness with just a hint of cream cheesy tang. Ahhh...

Since then, I've had several requests for more of them, but since we're pretty much swimming in sweets the whole month of October thanks to my Month of Tricks and Treats, I knew the only way I could make them is if I adapted them to fit my theme.

I'm kinda loving how they turned out.

Though, for such a simple concept, adapting them wasn't without its hiccups. (I will share those hiccups with you so you can see how my little projects evolve. Oy!)

I originally thought I'd make them into little spiders with the balls serving as the bodies and pieces of thin pretzels serving as legs, but because they're dipped, that would present an issue with mess so I ditched that idea before even trying it. Then I thought I'd do half of them in chocolate and half of them as pumpkins using orange melts instead of the chocolate melts. Turns out--which I should have remembered from past uses of the tinted candy melts--the texture of that stuff is simply not the same as the chocolate and, as such, was MUCH harder to work with in this capacity. My attempted pumpkins were disastrous. I was not a happy camper.

These drippy orange blobs were a nightmare--the white decoration can't hide it

So back to chocolate I went. I tried using white candy melts to decorate the tops to look like spider's webs, but the tip of the baggie was a smidge too wide (see thickness of the white in the photo above) to get the thin circles that would have worked best to make quality webs.

I stood glaring at these stupid brown balls, wondering what the hell I was going to do with them to make them look Halloween-y. Turns out the answer was staring me in the face. (Oh, the Halloween puns...gotta love 'em!)

Eyeballs!

What can I say? It just worked.

One of the great things about these is that you can use whatever kind of Oreo you like to make the delicious interior of the truffle. So far, I've only tried it with the original flavor, but I am eager to try it with the mint and peanut butter varieties, too. Mmm. Feel free to experiment with your favorite variety.

Here's Looking at You Truffles

Yield: 37 eyeballs

Ingredients:

1 pack of Oreos

8 oz brick of cream cheese, softened to room temperature

12 oz bag of chocolate candy melts (you can use real chocolate if you prefer)

2 oz white candy melts

candy eyeballs (I've purchased mine from the baking aisle at Target and at craft stores)

Directions:

1. In a food processor, pulverize your Oreos into crumbs.

2. Pour crumbs into deep bowl. Add brick of softened cream cheese. Use a fork to fully combine the crumbs and the cheese. Keep stirring until there are no white globs remaining.

3. Use a small OXO scoop (about 2 tsp worth), scoop out uniform blobs of the mixture. Roll the blobs gently between your hands to make them round.

4. Put the tray of balls in the freezer for at least 10 minutes to harden.

5. Melt your chocolate (follow the directions on the packaging, and be sure to watch it and stir in between heating so you don't scorch it). Drop your balls into the melted chocolate and use a dipping tool to roll it around and remove it. Because these are going to be eyeballs and are meant to be sort of ghoulish-looking, it's fine if they aren't perfectly beautiful. That said, you should still work quickly because the balls are cold and the chocolate is warm. Why does this matter, you ask? Because A. The chocolate will set up quickly on the cold ball, and B. If the ball gets too warm, it can start to flake apart and get crumbs in your melted chocolate. No bueno.

Replace on sheet to set.

6. Once the chocolate has set, melt the white chocolate and scoop into a baggie. (The freezer kind work best because they are thicker.) Snip the tip of one corner. Squeeze a small dollop of the white melt on the top of the ball, then position a candy eye on top. (Another option here, if you'd rather, is to add the candy eye after the original dip when the balls are still wet. That's up to you.)

 If you set the baggie over the top of a glass, it holds everything in place while you fill your makeshift piping bag.

And you're done! Eyeballs all around!

Now, if you were doing these for another occasion and didn't want to make a candy body part, you could just do a swirl or zig-zag across the top of your truffle.

Like I said before, the tip-snip I gave my baggie was a smidge too wide

so I didn't get the thin stream I was looking for.

No matter how you end up decorating them, the flavor is to die for.

Make them and see for yourself! (Hahahahahahaha)

October 2: FALL Corn Candle Craft

It has been dreary where I live for several days now and, honestly, I'm getting kind of bummed about it. We had apple and pumpkin picking on our agenda for this weekend, but it's much too moist out there for those activities (plus? the place we usually go for our apples had a bad crop this year so we have to find another venue this time! AHHH. Fall crisis!)

I was going to try to make my own orange orbs this morning (aka-- pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes) but I've been suffering through insomnia recently and last night was a particularly lean one on the sleep front so I just didn't have it in me to deal with pancakes today.

And so, what to do? Besides a frantic google search on insomnia treatment tips, it seemed like a craft was just the ticket.

I found the idea for these festive candle holders through the Passionate Penny Pincher blog in a post about how to decorate for fall using supplies found at Dollar Tree. I didn't do mine exactly the way the original poster did--for instance, she used an etching technique on hers and made more holders and used tea candles--but I was certainly inspired by her craft to do my own riff on it.

It couldn't have been easier, and, all-told, cost me around $7 to make (not including the stencils and paint since I already had those on hand). I bought all my supplies--including the popcorn--at my Dollar Tree.

Allow me to take you step-by-step through what I did.

FALL Corn Candle Craft

Supplies:

4  3"x3" square glasses
4  votive candles (I got a 4-pack) or tea candles
2  20oz bags pop corn
acrylic paint in color of your choosing (I used a mix of yellow multi-surface satin paint and some orange plain acrylic paint since I wanted a shade that would contrast against the corn)
letter stencils (I had some around my house because my kids had a "poster-making kit") - if you don't wish to buy them, you could probably free-hand this if you are careful about it
paint brush (my photo above shows a sponge brush, but I changed course as I worked)

Instructions:

1. Tape stencils onto glasses.

2. Mix paint color on small dish (if applicable)

3. Carefully paint your letters. I ended up doing a few coats (without much drying time in between coats) to get a thicker layer of paint on there. Typically, I would have stressed about getting it perfect, but this time I embraced the idea of it being texturized and non-uniform. I thought, "Shouldn't it be a little rustic and homemade-feeling?" Then I thought, "Plus, you're going to put the finished glasses on the mantle so it isn't like people are going to be right next to it examining your somewhat shoddy paint job." That's a big departure for me. So just do it however you feel inclined to do it and I'm sure it'll look lovely.

4. Carefully remove the stencils. It doesn't have to be fully dry as long as you are careful not to touch the paint.

5. Fill your glasses with the popcorn, leaving about a finger-width's space at the top of the glass. (Luckily for me, that was right along the top of my lettering!) For the 3x3 jars I used, one 20oz bag of popcorn perfectly filled two glasses.

6. Nestle the candle into the popcorn.

7. Display and enjoy!

The original blogger etched other letters on the reverse sides of her glasses. I was discussing this idea with my mom, and we talked about me possibly painting NOEL in red or green on the reverse of these glasses and filling the insides with holiday potpourri or something like that. More bang for my seven bucks! haha.

The entire project took about a half hour, and that was with me stopping to photograph all the steps. Imagine how quickly you might be able to complete it if you, you know, just *do* it!

October 1: (1-2 Pan) Autumn Chicken Dinner

Since it is officially autumn AND today marks the first day of our month of October fun, I thought it fitting to begin this journey (it appears I've been watching too much Bachelorette...) with an autumn-themed dinner. Bonus--it's a one-pan meal. Well, it *can* be if you want to do it like the original. Full dislosure: mine was a 2-pan meal. But that's still pretty great.

Regardless of how many dishes you end up dirtying to make this thing, I suggest you make it. In fact, I suggest you make it for company. Because it's flipping beautiful. Like, put-it-on-a-special-platter-then-get-out-your-camera-and-snap-a-pic-because-it's-too-pretty-not-to-be-photographed beautiful. Like, invite-your-inlaws-over-just-to-impress-them beautiful. Like, you-almost-don't-want-to-eat-it-at-all-because-you-just-want-to-keep-looking-at-it beautiful. You get the point.

The damned finished product is aesthetically pleasing.

And the smell...mmm!

And the taste...yum!

I found this gem of a recipe over at Cooking Classy's blog. Jacqueline has provided many a tasty dish option for me over the years (including this soup that is my kids' absolute favorite meal), so I accurately suspected this one would not disappoint.

I made a few modifications based on family preferences, available resources, and recipe commenters (those can be helpful to read in advance of trying recipes, I find, as people occasionally note things they tried which worked well for them or even ask the recipe creator questions about substitutions or the like), but the base recipe was easy to follow and you could follow it to the letter with no trouble.

Here's what I did.

Autumn Chicken Dinner

Servings: 4* (depending on how many chicken thighs are in your package)

Ingredients:

2-2.5 lb package of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (the original recipe called for four 6-7 oz thighs, but at my market, there's no way to tell how much each one weighs except through estimation based on the net weight)
5 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp each, minced fresh thyme, sage, rosemary (optional: more for serving)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lb sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 3/4-inch cubes 
10-12 oz bag Brussels sprouts, sliced into halves (the original recipe called for 1 lb)
2 Fuji apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into half moons about 3/4-inch thick
2 shallots, peeled and sliced about 1/4-inch thick
4 slices bacon, chopped into 1-inch pieces

(the original recipe left the skin on the apples and said skin removal on the sweet potato was optional. I'm not a big fan of cooked apple skin and I knew my kids would balk at the sweet potato skin, so I peeled everything. The choice is yours!)

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Salt and pepper chicken thighs.

3. In a gallon-sized resealable baggie, combine 2 Tablespoons olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, and fresh herbs. Add chicken to bag, then seal it (leaving as little air in there as possible) and massage mixture over chicken in an effort to evenly coat each thigh with the herby mixture. Set aside to rest.

4. Chop sweet potato, apple, Brussels sprouts, and shallots. Place on a large rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 Tablespoons olive oil and salt and pepper, then toss to evenly coat. Spread into an even layer and set aside.

5. (Optional step-- this is where I dirtied the second pan but I felt like it was worth it. Plus, my husband usually does the dishes, so it was EXTRA worth it. haha.) Heat 1 Tablespoon olive oil in a cast iron or aluminum skillet on med-high heat. Pan sear the chicken thighs for 2-4 minutes per side to get a golden crust on the skin. (Discard the juices leftover in the bag.)

6. Set chicken skin side up over the vegetables on the sheet pan.

I experimented to see if searing the chicken first was worth my effort. I seared 3 of the 4 thighs

and left one raw so I could compare the end result. The chicken above is the un-seared one.

The thigh shown here has been pan-seared to a light brown.

I probably could have even left it on longer.

You can also see the bacon arranged around the chicken as per step 7.

7. Arrange bacon evenly over the vegetables on the pan. Separate any pieces that stick together.

8. Roast about 30 minutes (though mine took closer to 35) in preheated oven, until chicken and vegetables are golden brown and chicken is cooked to 165 degrees in the center. If you didn't pan sear your chicken at the onset, you can broil it during the last few minutes of cooking to get a more crisp, golden chicken skin. (I did end up broiling mine for a few minutes anyway, which is why some of my herbs look charred.)

Serve immediately and garnish with additional fresh herbs if desired.

For the record, my husband and I agreed that the thighs that got the pan-sear 

ended up with a more satisfying crispy-skin factor.

I found the cook times provided by the source recipe mostly accurate. However, I found the apples a little mushier than I prefer an apple, and a few of the bacon pieces could have gotten crispier. I ended up throwing some of those back into the oven by themselves while I was transferring everything to my serving platter. But that's a preference thing, I suppose.

The star of the show, for me, was the vegetable mixture. There was sweetness from the potato and carmelized shallot, tang from the apple, earthiness from the sprout, and salt from the bacon. Usually I'm not a huge fan of cooked Brussels sprouts (though I enjoy them shaved raw in a salad) or charred things, but the roasting process got such a nice crust on the outside and those ended up being my favorite bites.

This meal is autumn on a plate. Enjoy!