Fall found its way into my house last night. I love how a simple lit candle motivates me to clean the kitchen, fill the crockpot, and bake bread. I love how a 65 degree high in September moves everyone to break in their blue jeans and sweaters, but a 65 degree high in April is matched with shorts, tank tops, and flip flops. It's one of the reasons I relish in Iowa's four seasons. We never quite have a chance to take a season for granted. It makes the first bike ride of spring, the first ear of sweet corn of summer, the first football game of fall, and the first cozy movie night of winter better...
and better...
and better...
I know I always say this, but fall is my favorite season. I think I like it for its simplicity. Summer is busy, Christmas is expensive, and spring is too short, but fall is just right.
Fall is an oven-baked pot roast, complete with carrots, potatoes, and a glass of Chardonnay.
Fall is a pan of homemade, melt-in-your-mouth, chocolate chip cookies, fresh out of the oven on a Saturday afternoon, with the sounds of the Iowa Hawkeyes filling the space in the background.
Fall is the crunch crunch crunch of leaves under shoes.
The warmth of a cinnamon spiced cappuchino from Kwik Star.
The first roaring fire,
and the look of three pumpkins placed perfectly on the front porch.
And with every new season, comes a wish list. Mine is a little lengthy this year...
1. Make every recipe from the William Sonoma Comfort Food Classic Cookbook…and make my dishes look as good as the pictures in the book!
2. Plant some mums in place of my dead summer flowers
3. Begin a love affair with The Pioneer Woman. I have a feeling we could be great friends.
4. Eat lots of Honeycrisp Apples. In breads, and cakes, and pies, with peanut butter, and caramel…
5. Find a super cool Halloween costume for our new little pumpkin
6. Make banana bars with cream cheese frosting that runs picture perfect off the edges
7. Sit on the deck on a Sunday morning with a newspaper and a mug of cider
8. Snoop around in some gift shops
9. Hibernate under tents of blankets and sheets, chairs and chip clips
10. Build a fire and snuggle
11. Pumpkin bread
12. Have breakfast for dinner
13. Carpet picnic and movie date night
14. Road trip to Northeast Iowa with Baby J in tow. Cozy blankets, a stroller ride, leaves, wine, and apples!
15. Keep crocheting
16. Marshmallow popcorn and True Blood...it's morbid how much I love this show
17. Hooded sweatshirts, a mittened hand clenching a Styrofoam cup of cocoa, and a chilly football game
18. Bake an apple crisp…or two.
19. Clean out my junk drawer
20. Wild rice soup. Chicken tortilla soup. Beau’s chili.
21. Make s’mores by the fire…outdoor or indoor
22. A new pair of pajamas and a new pair of mukluks
23. Fresh flannel sheets
24. Go to a pumpkin patch…for real.
25. Decorate with hay bales…real hay bales
26. A-corn squash with so much brown sugar and butter
27. Dinner in a pumpkin
28. Drink lots of pumpkin spice cappuccinos
29. Take Baby J trick-or-treating (and eat all of his candy corn)
30. Eat Pepsi roast…all the time
31. Lay around in pajamas and snuggle with our little one all day
32. Spend an afternoon at Heartland Farms
33. A dinner-and-movie theater date night, pre-Baby J, complete with buttery popcorn and lots of candy stuffed in my purse.
34. Make caramel apples for the first time
35. Game night! Potluck style.
36. Hold my baby. Rock my baby. Pat his footed-sleepered little butt as he snuggles in close. Bundle him up with pretty blue blankets and take a walk around the neighborhood.
Tonight, we devoured a crockpot of Beau's famous, Hall of Fame Chili and finished the third season of True Blood. Check and check!
I must know...what is Pepsi roast? And I think I want to steal most of your to-do list :)
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