Perfect Fall Ingredients

My Saturday has been fairly routine. A weekend routine I love: sleep past 6 am for a change, eat a leisurely breakfast on my couch while watching the TBS Saturday morning movie (or today Grey’s Anatomy Season 2 on DVD), and then slip on shorts & a t-shirts and throw my hair in a pony tail so I can go run errands and exercise.

As I walked the path at Granny White Park and stopped for groceries, I couldn’t help but smile. It was rather hot outside, in fact I finally had to roll up my windows and turn on the AC in Boy Scout. But even with the machine-made cool air, I smiled:
hints of fall are every where…

The leaves are starting to all have a hint of yellow on them and make a rustling noise when the breeze sweeps through them. The first pumpkins were on display outside of the grocery store. The city of Brentwood employees were busy changing out the patriotic banners in the shopping center with fall ones. I had to keep repeating, “You’re here to buy body wash, you’re here to buy body wash” in my head at Target so I wouldn’t get sucked in by the aisles and aisles of Halloween candy and decorations. And every major television network is broadcasting college football right now.

There are so many things I love about the changing of seasons. One of them is how it seems like every year, I magically find myself in the middle of a perfect day that sums up everything I love about that particular season. Isn’t it funny how a simple thing like the weather outside can just perfectly set the scene for moments you’ll remember forever and look back on fondly year after year? I think that’s what I love the most…the memories that a new season awakens and the possibility of creating new ones.

Since today was too hot to be one of those perfect fall days, here are three favorite days from the past couple of years:

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Mary Alice
A couple of years ago it was a cloudy, chilly afternoon and I found myself unexpectedly done with work about 3 pm (I was still splitting my time between Ground Force and nannying). I was wondering what to do with the gift of extra time when Mary Alice called. She was at Frothy Monkey studying and wondered if I wanted to keep her company. So I joined Mary Alice at one of the tables outside on the deck at Fro Mo. It was perfect: they had heaters turned on at each table plus we each had on a fleece jacket and warm beverage to keep us cozy and warm. We sat outside sipping hot cocoa talking about how perfect it was outside and plotting our next move to make the most of the first almost “cold” day of the season where neither of us had to be working. There’s really only one solution to that dilemma: grilled cheese sandwiches made to perfection thanks to George Foreman, tomato soup from Bread & Company (it’ll change your life), and watching the movie Serendipity. We plan to re-create this day on the first cold day this year.

Pre-Thanksgiving Feast with the Baileys
Last year I was in Dallas for work and enjoying a few wonderful days with Stine and Steven. They both share my appreciation for making the most out of fall days and lucky for us, it was unseasonably cool in Dallas during my trip. We decided to have a pre-Thanksgiving feast in celebration of the cool weather and the fact that we were together. Stine and I made a whole day of it. We started the day off by taking a heavenly walk around a beautiful lake Stine had discovered near their apartment. It was one of those mornings where you needed long sleeves even though the sun was trying to peak around the clouds. After our walk, we grabbed some smoothies to tied us over until our feast and went home to plan the meal and trip to whole foods. We flipped through Stine’s Apple’s of Gold cookbook and decided to make the following:
- honey baked Virginia ham (we actually bought this at the Virgina Ham store)
- zucchini casserole (so creamy and covered with crushed up crackers)
- rolls sprinkled with chedder cheese
- salad with apples and almonds
And of course dessert…snickers bar cookies.
With our list in hand we headed off to Whole Foods. Not only did we get everything we needed for our feast, but we also picked out three pumpkins that were just begging for us to decorate them.

When we got home from the store, we left the door to the apartment open so the cool fall breeze could come in the apartment, lit their apple-scented Yankee candle, said hi to Steven who was watching football and set to work on the meal (for the record Steven is such a good cook, we told him he had to let us do it all so we could improve our cooking skills). We split up the menu and each did our part to make each dish while Steven kept us laughing in between plays of his football game. In no time at all, the oven was working its magic while we cleaned up the kitchen and showered. We then savored every bite of our pre-Thanksgiving feast by candlelight. It couldn’t have tasted better if it’d been Thanksgiving Day. And although I can’t remember for sure I’m pretty sure we convinced Steven to then let us watch one of the movies that Stine and I can quote in it’s entirety and never tire of. It was probably Serendipity (yes, again). Or When Harry Met Sally. Even though we forgot to decorate our pumpkins, it couldn’t have been more perfect.

Boston with Farrah
On my flight home from Dallas, I was lucky enough to score a free plane ticket that allowed me to accompany Farrah on a trip to explore Boston and help her find an apartment to make her upcoming move there a little easier. It was early November and the perfect Boston fall experience. We spent our first morning in Copley Square, the Boston Commons and the Public Gardens just soaking in the beautiful colors the trees were painted with and their reflections in the ponds. In the afternoon we made our way past Quincy Market and followed the red trail to the Old North Church were we stopped in a very New England-ish coffee shop to warm up and read the paper for apartment leads.
Then we ventured into our favorite area (where Farrah now lives): Beacon Hill. Here we found a café that was love at first sight…with white twinkle lights around the windows, desserts that make you drool plus Italian food on the menu, and a name like Café Bella Vita, how can you not love it? In fact, we loved it so much we returned the following night for dinner.
And if all that (and all the memories from this trip I don’t have time to mention) wasn’t enough, on my last morning there we were able to watch them putting up the giant Christmas tree outside of Macy’s (don’t even get me started on how much I love Christmas…just ask Farrah how I instantly turned into an 8 year old girl again the moment I saw the tree). Lately, Farrah and I constantly talk about moments from this trip we loved and are already scheming for a similar weekend in Boston next year.

I can’t wait to see what this year’s fall has in store. I am certain I’ll have new memories to add to this list. After all, it only takes two key ingredients: cool weather & good friends. Does it get any better than that? No wonder Thanksgiving is in the fall.