Fall's Annual Apple Harvest

Every fall Mr X and I go to a local apple orchard and get about 3/4 of a bushel of apples so that we can make and can our applesauce supply for the year. We just finished our last remaining jar from the previous fall's canning back in August. The varieties of apples we get always depend on what weekend we go to get our apples and how the weather has been for the year. It's usually a mix of heirloom apple varieties. This year we got Akane, Ginger Gold,  McIntosh and Jonathon apples.

This year, for the first time, I tried dehydrating some apple slices. I didn't do anything to them - no spices, sugars, juices. I just sliced them and dried them. They turned out great. Now I wish I had dehydrated more. Oh well, there's always next year.

We made 14 pints of applesauce this year. I re-make up the recipe each year. This year I didn't use brown sugar but turbinado sugar instead. That's why it's lighter in color.

The Yearly Trip to the Apple Farm

Each fall here I drag Mr X to a local apple orchard and farm so we can take home a half bushel of apples. While there we usually feed the giant horses some carrots and feed ourselves an apple cider doughnut or two (or three...) and maybe sample some freshly pressed apple cider. Some days later I make and preserve applesauce - with Mr X's help.

I don't have an applesauce recipe. Each year I just make something up as I go. This year I threw some cinnamon, vanilla, ginger and bourbon into my applesauce. Mr X and I both thought it turned out great.

Photo courtesy of the interweb.

 

Photo courtesy of the interweb.

Photo courtesy of the interweb.

Photos of my applesauce, courtesy of me. Mr X and I prefer our applesauce rather chunky. No paste-like baby food consistency stuff is allowed here.

1st Snow of the Season - Peaks Only

On September 23rd here in Colorado the mountains got their first dusting of snow for the winter season. We didn't get any here at our house but  I was still giddy with excitement. The peaks looks so beautiful in the distance with a dusting of white on them. 

I really hope that we have good snowfall this year. The past two seasons the snowfall here has been disappointing and as a result the state has plunged deeper and deeper into drought. This summer was cooler and wetter, which we needed, but we are still technically drought-stricken so I hope that we are blessed with a great snow pack this winter. Plus, it'll make for a spectacularly good time on the slopes. 

We usually get our first snowstorm of the season sometime in October so it really could be any day now. I can't wait to wake up one morning and look outside my window to see a white blanket of snow. Here are some photos (courtesy of the interweb) of the results of our first dusting of snow at the local ski resorts:

We're getting there s l o w l y . . .

Every day for the past month I've been checking the aspens around our house for budding green leaves. I've been disappointed every day as well. Until last week. FINALLY! 

Whenever Mr X and I drove down into Denver all of the trees there were bursting forth with vibrant green. Then we'd drive back up the hill to our house (about 2,500 feet) to be greeted by the naked, seemingly dead deciduous trees surrounding our house/neighborhood. I was getting so impatient that I decided that maybe our trees had all truly died over the winter and what if they never came back!?! How tragic! 

(The various stages of the aspen budding.)

 

I'm thrilled to report that they're alive and well.

Welcoming Spring with Strawberry Pie

While out and about last Saturday Mr X and I decided to take a peek at one of the many local Farmer's Markets. The markets here don't typically start until May as it's usually still pretty much winter here until then. We have very late springs and very early falls. In fact our last snowstorm of the year usually happens in May while our first one usually happens in mid-October.

The market was fun but a bit disappointing because I was hoping to take home some fresh strawberries or cherries or rhubarb. None of those have made an appearance at the markets yet. It's all still just baked or canned goods and some fresh herbs and spinach. I guess I'll have to wait a few more weeks.

We bought strawberries at the regular store instead. I've been wanting to try out a recipe I found on the blog Worth the Whisk: Strawberry Sour Cream Pie. Fresh strawberry pies are good but they don't seem like pie to me because you're just basically cooking a pie crust and putting fresh berries in it with some sweet glaze covering them and then maybe adding a bit of whipped cream. Don't get me wrong, it's delicious. But it's just somehow seems less like a pie and more like a fruit salad of sorts in a pie shell. But baked strawberry pies always seems to have an unappealing texture to me - an unappealing mushiness. I was curious if a cream-based strawberry pie would alleviate that issue to me. It did. The strawberries were still mushy, of course, but they were swirled into a creamy base that somehow made it work. Here is the recipe if you'd like to try it out yourself.(And hopefully you do!)

Our good camera's battery was dead so I had to make do with my camera phone. The pictures don't effectively convey the deliciousness of this pie. Mr X says the pictures make it look like a margarita pizza instead.

Strawberry Sour Cream Pie

• 1 unbaked pastry shell (preferably homemade)
• 1 qt. fresh strawberries
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/4 cup sugar, reserve 1 tablespoon
• Dash salt
• 1 cup regular sour cream (NOT fat-free)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Hull and wash the strawberries, slice in halves, set aside.  Into a large mixing bowl, sift flour, sugar and salt.  Add sour cream and blend just until creamy (it will look like wallpaper paste).  Gently fold in the berries; don’t over-mix.  Pour fruit into pie shell and using a spatula, gently spread to edges but DO NOT PACK DOWN. There should be some air holes throughout.  Sprinkle the top with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. 

Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F. and bake an additional 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Broil for about 2-3 minutes, watching carefully, to “brown off” the top.  Serves 6 to 8.

I Swear These Are The Last Ones

I know you're probably sick of all of my peeping pictures but, I can't help myself. Besides, these are the last ones I took this season/year. After this you'll have an 11 month reprieve from fall photos.

Mt. Elbert & Scenery

Last weekend Mr X and I decided to get in the car and drive ALL DAY around the state in order to take in the scenery, snapping photos along the way. In the end it made for a really long but beautiful day. We caught the last burst of fall colors (as much of the leaves have fallen by now) as well as the emergence of winter. There were so many pictures that I decided to break them up into several posts. So this is the first of 4 or 5 post with pictures from this trip. It's just as well because we dropped our camera off to be cleaned because it was dirty and as a result the focus was misbehaving. At least I hope that's the only reason the focus has been disagreeable. But anyway, it's going to be in the shop for a couple of weeks we we're without a decent camera for a bit.

This is the road from Copper Mountain heading towards Leadville.

This is Mt. Elbert.

After passing Leadville and Mt. Elbert we turned west, heading toward the pass between Leadville and Aspen. This is the beginning of that route.

This is the view looking east. We were nearly to the top of the pass.

The next three photos were taken from the top of the pass.

The view to the west.

The view to the South.

CO: Fall Colors

Fall is my favorite season. I love when the nights are cool and crisp but the days are still warm and pleasant. I love the relief that comes from the sometimes oppressive summer heat. I love the bounty that comes from the harvest season. I love the promise of the best holidays just around the corner. But most of all I love the colors. Mr X drove me around to some of our favorite areas so that I could snap even more pictures of beautiful Aspen trees in all of their colorful glory. I have a bazillion from last fall but I doubt I'll ever tire of running around this gorgeous state in pursuit of more fall photos.

This was the view during our drive.

This photo doesn't capture it well, but when the light hits the Aspen trees just right, it almost hurts to look at them.

This picture and the ones below are specifically targeted to my mother. She was complaining last year that the Aspens here don't turn any other color but yellow. They do, you just have to be patient and wait for their colors to mature.

I love this photo - the trees, starting from the bottom, go from green to yellow to orange and then to red. It's spectacular in person.

Already?

When I went outside today I was greeted with this:

So it seems fall is starting already.