Tuesday 4 About Fall

For the past few weeks I have been following Annie @Tuesday's Place. She poses 4 questions each week. This week it is all about changes Fall brings.

Are you decorating your home for fall? Thanksgiving? Show us some photos if you don't mind!

Right now I am in the process of incorporating furniture and items from Mom's house into mine so seasonal decorating is about as far from anything I want to do as possible. I will throw some outside Halloween decor up before the actual day, but we are having no guests in our house and I am not feeling the need to decorate inside just for us. 

After Halloween I will change over the front of the house to a fall/Thanksgiving theme__maybe. Or I may just take the Halloween decor down and wait for Christmas.

Are trees changing in your area yet? Do you mind showing a fall photo from your area?

The leaves are not changing yet, but may have lost a little of their vivid green color, with the exception of the muscadine vines. The leaves on them are yellowing and falling.

If I knew where a fall picture from past years was I would be happy to share with you, but right now I can't think of where one might be. There are none on my phone picture roll.

Do you like to use scents in your home? What kind do you use and what scents do you enjoy in your home?

I burn a candle in my kitchen most days and tend to burn something sort of seasonal. In the summer I like citrus scents, in the fall I tend to burn coffee or chocolate scented candles. During the winter I like to burn candles that smell like baked goods or burning spruce. Springtime is the only time I use a floral candle. Kudzu is my absolute favorite. It smells like a cross between a flower and grapes. It is kind of hard to find and when I do I buy more than one.

Fall's weather usually turns a bit chilly. Sometimes we change how we eat by seasons. Can you share a nice recipe for a good fall meal with us?

This is my grandmothers apple roll recipe which is more of a "how-to" than it is a recipe. She could never tell you the amounts  because she learned from watching her mother, so I would watch her make it and take mental notes. Understand there was no measuring going on and everything was a handful of this and a pinch or two of that. We grew up eating it when I was a kid, and I make it rarely now but it is always delicious. And now that I am remembering it and how good it is, I am going to make one some day soon.

Grandmothers Apple Roll

1 piecrust recipe 

peeled sliced tart apples (I use Granny Smith but have used York or Winesap) 3 cups maybe? (I just eyeball it)

sugar (1/3 to 1/2 cup?)

cinnamon (teaspoon maybe)

cloves (about 1/8 teaspoon)

allspice (1/8 teaspoon) (Grandmother did not use allspice, but I like it and added it to mine)

1 1/2 tablespoons cold butter

butter, melted

extra sugar

flour

water

Roll the piecrust into an oblong shape. Through trial and error I have found it is best to do this on a sheet of waxed paper or parchment paper that has been floured.  Place  (mound) the peeled, sliced apples on the piecrust leaving about 1 inch on one side and two inches on the other free of any apple slices. Make sure you have about 2 inches of just piecrust at the top and bottom of the oblong also.

Sprinkle the sugar on top of the apples, then mix all the spices together and sprinkle them over the sugar. Cut the butter into small bits and dot the entire mound of apples with it. 

Now beginning with the 1 inch side begin to roll the piecrust like a jelly roll until you get to the two inch side. Run your fingers under water then take those same wet fingers and run them down the 2 inch side of the piecrust and fold it over to create a seal.  Pinch the crust on the top and bottom together using the same wet finger trick, then fold them over the roll to meet the two inch sealed side. Use damp fingers one more time to seal the top and bottom to the rolled pastry.  

Carefully place the apple roll seam side down on a buttered 9x13 baking dish. Brush the entire outside with melted butter then cut 3  short diagonal slices in the very top of the crust . (I have no idea if three is required or not but it is what Grandmother did so it is what I do)

Bake at 350 until it the crust is set and has a tiny bit of color but is not truly browned. Sprinkle the entire roll with sugar ( a generous amount 1/4 cup maybe). This next part is for the truly brave. I have been known to just add the sugar and let it finish baking, but sometimes I do the rest. I had the advantage of watching Grandmother so I know how it is supposed to work. It is hard to explain the magic without the visuals. Sprinkle about a tablespoon and a half of flour over the sugar, the oh so slowly pour about 1/2 cup of warm water over the top. Pop it back in the over and continue to cook, but you have to open the oven door every few minutes, stir the liquid at the bottom of the pan and spoon it over the roll. Continue until it has finished baking. You want to let it sit a bit before serving. It is delicious with ice cream or by itself. 

One of my cousins printed what she called Grandmother's recipe, but it used biscuit dough. I have a feeling Grandmother sent a bogus recipe to her mom so it would be close not nowhere near as good as the way she actually made it. This particular cousin was a foreigner (South Carolinian rather than an Alabamian) so she had no way to observe the makings of this like the rest of us did!