Apple Day...

It was with some tentative steps that I walked out of my bedroom yesterday morning just PRAYING I would step outside and it would finally be COOLER out.  An thankfully, I was met with a nice September morning chill in the air!  NICE!!!!!  And PERFFFFFFFFFFECT for our Sunday morning "Fall" activity: Apple Picking! :)  We headed for Terhune Orchard in Princeton, NJ and made a beeline for their cute little farm market....

Because the sure fire way I can ALWAYS get Scott to agree to Apple picking is that it is the perfect excuse for....

An Apple Cider donut breakfast! :)  Yum!!! :)

We look forward to these every year!  They are just the perfect little Fall treat of Cinnamon & Sugar:)

Next, we headed off to the orchard...armed with our map of what apples were prime for picking....

And got down to the serious task of quality control to make sure we were picking some winners;)

That's what orchards are for, no????

Then we got to pickin some Red Delicious, McIntosh, Macons, Jonathan, Empire & Fuji apples....

We usually make it to the orchard a lot later in the season (last year, it was the week of Halloween:), so we were pretty happy at the amount of boulders HUGE apples we found!

And it was just so nice because we went first thing in the morning when hardly anyone was around and it was just so nice & peaceful...

...but as soon as we heard the tractor pullin around a packed wagon full of folks, we grabbed our nearly-full bags and booked on out of there;) hahahahahahhaha....

Think we got enough?????

We even made an effort to be organized and try to keep each variety in order...well, at least we tried to anyways;)  hahahahahaha.....

And then I went into whipping up baked apple treats for the next...hmmmm....3 hours or so:)  hahahahaha...I was ALMOST too tired to make dinner.  Almost;)

Yesterday turned into more PURE FALL COMFORT FOOD...with a little kiss of fresh apple...:)

The apple coming from my quite unphotogenic Pork Chops with Scalloped Apples....

The apples were JUST sweet enough to go with the seasoned pork...soooo good (even if it wasn't the prettiest:)

And as soon as I spied this side dish, I knewwwwwwww Scott was going to love it hook, line & sinker! :)  You started by sauteing 1 diced onion & 5 diced scallions in a hot pan...and then adding 5 cups of frozen hash browns.  I've NEVER bought these before, but I think Scott will now be a fan since he LOVES hash browns:)

After you get the 'browns...well, brown & crispy....you top them with some (low fat) shredded cheddar cheese.....

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...talk about warm & cozy!

We loved, loved, loved these...although, that's not really that hard to imagine!  Potatoes + Cheese = Yes, please!! :)  A perfect compliment to the sweet/salty pork chops!

And speaking of sweet & salty...how 'bout THIS one to tie everything together....SPICED squash with Brown Sugar Glaze....oh heavens!

Not gonna lie...making this was a TOTAL pain.  I mean...a little more work than normal for a side dish....

HOWEVER, they were indeed worth the effort!  The squash was super tender and filled with warm spices from my much-neglected Chinese 5 spice powder and the sweetness of the brown sugar glaze.  this was just TO DIE FOR and is soooooooooo going to be a side dish staple all throughout the Fall/Winter! 

This was one of those meals where we just kept saying "ohh...the squash is so good"...."oh, the pork chops are so good"...."THESE POTATOES ARE SO GOOD!"  hahahahaha...can't beat those kinda meals, huh??? 

And for dessert we cracked into ONE of the treats I made (I'll share more with you tomorrow!)....are you ready for this one???

A Bacon-Crumble Apple Pie!   If this is wrong, I don't want to be right! :) 

I made a few swaps to make this one a TAD on the 'lighter' end of the spectrum;)  I used:

• 2 slices of Trader Joe's bacon, rather than a half a pound
• Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese
• And my no-fail Weight Watchers Pie Crust Recipe:
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1 tsp. apple-cider vinegar
• 4 Tbsp. ice water
• 1 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

I pulse all of the dry ingredients together in the food processor.  Add the oil & butter and pulse until the dough forms crumbs.  Then mix the water & apple cider vinegar together and pour in the chute while the processor is on low and allow to mix until the dough is just formed.  Then you flatten into a disk and refrigerate for a half hour. 
This seriously couldn't be an easier crust to throw together!  You could mix it by hand as well, but the food processor just makes it ridiculously easy...and the dough itself is SOOOOOO nice to work with, smooth & not too sticky.  Gotta love that!

OK....have you heard about apples enough yet??  Well, get ready because our whole WEEK is planned around using up our fresh pickins:) hahahahhahaha....maybe it will give you some ideas for your own harvest:)  Stay Tuned & Happy Monday....even if it's a rainy one here:P