When Life Hands you Apples

I apologize to my loyal readers (mom, Eric) for not posting recently. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, but the good kind of hectic! I’ve been to Georgia and back three times in the past two weeks! All for good reasons though: wedding planning, a photography gig (see Madison Claire Photography on Facebook, shameless plug), and to pick up Eric from the airport after an interview in Boston!  

        

This past trip I was able to spend a few extra days in Georgia while Eric made me jealous with pictures of Boston in full fall color. I planned to counter this with a trip to North Georgia to go apple picking when he returned. North Georgia is famous for it beautiful mountains, small town charm, and delicious apples. I decided there was no better time to go pick apples in Ellijay, GA than a crisp October Saturday.

Turns out there was a much better time, but I’ll get to that.

My mother is a fan of cute towns and fall colors, so I asked her and my dad to come along with us. I figured they could drop us off at a roadside orchard and then through town and sight see. It was such a perfect plan to me… silly me.

The first sign of the line of cars drew a collective groan from the car. I should have realized that everyone else in the state of Georgia would have derived the same perfect plan as me on that beautiful October Saturday. The cheerful car ride soon turned into a sauna of impatience as we inched our way up the highway. Well, half the car was impatient… luckily for my dad and me, Mom and Eric have seemingly unending patience.

My perfect plan was sinking quickly, so I decided to just find some apples to buy so we could get on the southbound road as quickly as possible. We headed for downtown Ellijay and discovered the source of the traffic. Leave it to me to pick Apple Festival weekend, Ellijay’s biggest festival, to plan to pick apples.

Well, the mood in the car turned around when we found a prime spot near the Apple Art walk downtown, a spot that turned out to be right next to crates of fresh picked pecks of apples. We purchased apple pastries and enjoyed a quick walk through the tents. On the way out of Ellijay we passed the fairgrounds for the apple festival and saw more tents than at a SEC football game. Once again, leave it to me to pick Ellijay’s busiest weekend.

Thanks to some good apple turnovers and a large cup of boiled peanuts, our trip to the beautiful North Georgia Mountains wasn’t spoiled by bad traffic. And, thanks to half a peck of apples, I was able to make my mom’s famous apple dip. So I guess the lesson is, when life hands you apples, make something sweet!

Pam's Apple Dip 

A great dip for a snack or an appetizer for a party! Delicious on apples, or even by itself (ask Eric).

Ingredients:

8 oz package of cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of sugar

1 pkg of bits of brickle toffee (optional, but I love it)

1 can of pineapple or lemon juice

2-3 Apples

Directions:

Combine softened cream cheese, brown sugar, sugar, and toffee in a mixer or large mixing bowl and mix until well blended

Slice apples thinly and dip in pineapple or lemon juice to prevent browning, blot dry, and set on serving plate

ENJOY!

My lifetime love of the Atlanta Braves

Today marks a unique (and potentially dangerous) point in Eric’s and my relationship. Today he goes against an old and faithful love of mine. Today we put my beloved against his.

Today my Braves play his Cardinals in the National League wildcard game.

Let me explain to you just how serious I am about Braves baseball. I have been a fan since I was born…. the early years I was a fan by family default. History making Braves players such as Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Chipper Jones started playing right around the time I was born. Even after my family moved away from Atlanta, I knew that there was no other team I could cheer for but the Braves.

When I was in the 8^th grade we lived in the suburbs of Chicago. My science teacher was one of the biggest Cubs fans I knew. It happened to be that the playoffs that year would see the Cubs playing my Braves. Mr. J. knew I was a Braves fan and made a little wager with me: if the Braves beat the Cubs he would make a cake with the Brave’s logo on it and bring it to class, but if the Cubs won I had to make a cake with the Cubs logo.

Unfortunately the Cubs won, but as a good sport I surprised my teacher and made the cake (I don’t think he thought I really would).

The year my family moved back to Atlanta was the year the Braves acquired some of the best rookies since Chipper Jones. Jeff Francoeur, Ryan Langerhans, and Brian McCann brought the team out of a slump and got everybody watching. I personally am a huge fan of Brian McCann.

Last year I was a little bitter that the Cards beat out the Braves for the wildcard, so this year I’m hoping the roles get reversed. I’ll always be a Braves fan no matter what, but today for Chipper’s sake, for Atlanta’s sake, and for my relationship’s sake (haha, kidding…sort of) I am hoping to be chopping tonight.

Happy Choptober everyone!

Crockpot Soup for the Soul

In psychology I remember learning a child's behavior is primarily based off of two things, the child's genetics and the environment he's brought up in. The whole nature vs. nurture concept. You with me? Well I think this concept combats itself when it comes to my sense of seasonal temperature.

Genetically I'm Southern, completely Southern. Which makes sense because I love that warm sunshine on my face.
My environment growing up was the North, the frozen North. Like I lived in Minnesota (and I'm not exaggerating, they drive on lakes). So when the first cool day rolls around a part of me is giddy with excitement with the thought of pulling on my patagonia to go grocery shopping (the part of me that isn't genetically predisposed to love warm sunshine).

Today was one of those days. The second day of my favorite month was a delightful 60 degrees when I woke up this morning. It was cloudy and misting outside. While some of you might say this sounds like the worst, most miserable kind of weather, I disagree. This is what my mother would term "Home Alone weather" (the first cold, dreary day of the fall my mom starts her Christmas season by popping in Home Alone and lighting the fire place).


I call it Baked Potato Soup weather. So that's exactly what I decided to make today. My all time favorite crockpot soup.
It ended up being the perfect thing to warm me up, especially considering my hot water went out today...again.

But that's a problem for the maintenance guys in the morning, for now let's get to the soup!








Crockpot Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients:

4 large baking potatoes, peeled and chopped into cubes

1 large onion chopped

4 cups chicken broth (32 oz)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup of butter (half a stick)

2 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 cup half and half

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

10 slices of bacon, crumbled

cheese, sour cream to top

Directions:

Combine potatoes, onion, chicken broth, garlic, butter, salt and pepper in crockpot. Cook on high for 5 hrs.

After 5 hrs add half and half, cheese, crumbled bacon pieces.

Top with cheese and sour cream before serving!

good to the last drop...

And after, why not enjoy a good ole pumpkin spice latte? It is October after all... :)

Ode to October

My favorite month is HERE! 

October, the month when the holiday spirit starts brewing along with warms soups and hot cups of pumpkin spiced coffee. The month where nature’s color scheme heats up while autumn chills down. Lorelei on Gilmore Girls (warning: I reference Gilmore Girls frequently) claims she could write a sonnet to her beloved snow, that’s how I am about October.

Don’t worry. You’re safe from my attempts to emulate Shakespeare.

So instead of making you read all my musings about this glorious month, I’m going to share with you some of my favorite photos that I’ve taken in Octobers past. 

Taken at Samford University

Railroad park Birmingham, AL

At my high school's football game

A shot of my sister

October is a photographer's dream. There is never a lack of beautiful lighting! Just one of the reasons I love it so much. There's also the cute kids running around in Halloween costumes, Homecoming football games, pumpkin pie, and sweatshirt weather. As you can tell, I'm kind of an October junkie.

It probably helps that my birthday is in October too... :)

Happy October everyone!