Monday, October 26, 2009

The flavors of fall


Over the weekend I enjoyed an afternoon of fishing and then a fish fry at my parents' house. The weather cooperated and we enjoyed quite a few sunny stretches. The leaves are beginning to really change colors, and it was great to have such a lovely backdrop to the afternoon.

I like how the lake winds up in this cove with an archway of trees overhead.



I caught only one little fish, so small it had to be thrown back (and yes, my husband had to bait the hook since I don't do worms), but I must say my nieces did pretty well (in order of appearance, that was Madison, Cari and Amelia).

If fish and fishing aren't your cup of tea, perhaps these will be! My contribution to the evening's meal was dessert, these Caramel Apple Cupcakes from a recipe I found online when I was researching cupcakes for that wedding baking project a few weeks back. With tart Granny Smith apples, cinnamon, and a cream cheese frosting flavored with maple syrup, these are the perfect fall cupcakes to me!

First, we have fall baking cups from Hobby Lobby.

Using this recipe, I chopped up some Granny Smith apples and prepared the thick, lumpy batter that resulted in these.

Once frosted, I had to pop one of these in a miniature glass stand to see how it fits. Perfect! And although we had iced sweet tea with our fish supper that night, I paired my cupcake with a cup of hot Keemun Mao Feng tea. I thought anything with cinnamon or even maple flavoring would compete too much with the flavor of the cupcakes, and the Keemun was a terrific fit. I think "caramel apple" (the flavor as well as the caramel-covered fruit) is my favorite fall flavor, followed by maple and then cinnamon. Do you have a favorite fall flavor?

15 comments:

  1. Spiced cider...cloves, cinnamon, ginger and star anise. (I guess that's several.)

    Love the shot with the beautiful young woman in a stocking cap AND flip flops! ;-)

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  2. Sounds like a fun get-together. My favorite fall foods are amongst what you might expect: pumpkin and sweet potatoes.

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  3. Angela the fall pictures are terrific and it looks as though the girls had such fun.
    I do love the smells and tastes of pumpkin, baking apples, and constant comment tea and & all that go with it during the fall.

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  4. I love caramel apples and spiced apple cider in the fall. Your family outing and fish fry brought back many fun memories of my parents.

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  5. Ooh, Carmel Apples or anything pumpkin!

    What a catch! And the photos of the area look so relaxing. It looks like it was a great place to spend the weekend. :)

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  6. Looks like a fun afternoon. I loved fish fries at the cottage, after catching lots of bass and perch. That catfish sure was a whopper!

    The cupcakes look delicious - thanks for the link. Pumpkin is one of my favorites, especially pumpkin pie.

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  7. My Fall tea is Puerh. Food to go with it? I'm not sure about that. Last time I ate sweets I got sick and felt guilty on top of it. I'll stick with the tea and pass up the rich food. --Spirituality of Tea

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  8. Caramel apple sounds good to me. I would be so excited to catch even a little fish. I have all the equipment for fly fishing, but have never caught a fish. I really need to try to improve on that next year. How fun your fishing day sounds.

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  9. What lovely photos of your nieces, they did so well at fishing, didn't they? Oh and those cup cakes. Yummy, I would love to try them. I love the taste of cider in the Autumn.

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  10. Oh my stars, look at that catfish! And it was in that pond? Wow, she did awesome!

    Lurve your cupcake photo too, sounds so yummy right now.

    My favorite fall tea is still Vanilla or Vanilla Cream.... I never get bored of it!

    Fun pictures, thanks for sharing with us!

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  11. Wow that's a big fish that Madison caught. Thanks for sharing the cupcake link. My husband loves apples. I'm going to make these for his weekly meeting at work next week.

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  12. Looks like a fun time - can't believe the size of that catfish: wow! Your cupcakes looked delicious...I love apples and cinnamon. Thanks for sharing, Joanie

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  13. Angela, Do the cupcakes need to be refrigerated?

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  14. Ginger, I actually made mine the morning of the day we all ate them, so ... I don't know! But I guess if I were serving them the next day, I probably would have refrigerated them because of the cream cheese in the icing. Good luck!

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