Tuesday 4~Fall Traditions and Memories

I'm late with the Tuesday 4, but you know the old saying, "better late than never". 

 

Fall Traditions & Memories


Welcome to another Tuesday 4 a fun meme started by Toni Taddeo.


It is Halloween , all Hallows Eve and tomorrow is All Saint's Day. Originally these days were to remember the deaths of Christian martyrs but things have certainly changed and the dark, the scary and remnant of Samhain (So-Win) have been introduced.

I waited until tonight on Halloween to write this post, so I would have some new pictures to share from this evening's fun.  

1. What is your opinion of Halloween?  I wrote about this in my post yesterday, and this is basically what I said:

"On Halloween, we look forward to the children coming to our neighborhood for Trick or Treat. It is one way we can be friendly and neighborly and let the children (and their parents) know that we care about their kids.  I love to see their cute costumes and their happy faces as they come to the door for the candy. Our world is getting so sad and scary and there just aren't very many safe and happy ways to do things in our communities anymore. I'm glad that there are churches who also provide a happy time for the kids with a "Trunk or Treat" event in a safe environment.  I think if we can capitalize on the fun aspect of this "holiday" rather than just dismiss it as something bad, we can use this opportunity for a positive way to reach out to the children of our communities. That's my thoughts on it, for what it's worth.

Happy Halloween from our house to yours:

Rose with Sugar and Spice, me with the candy bowl, and hubby John on the porch with Lily Grace...

And here's a close up of Lily Grace and her dog Bailey.  She wanted to be a "Rock Star" for Halloween...

I've had this ceramic jack o' lantern for many years. It was a gift from my Aunt Marion...(cousin Becky's mother).  Miraculously it has survived many moves and still looks great!

The scarecrow didn't scare anyone away. We had quite a few trick or treaters, but they mostly came when it was already getting dark and I didn't get any pictures of them this year.

But we enjoyed these two little trick or treaters...Sugar and Spice and every thing nice!

Back inside after the action is over...

2. Memories are important. Some of them are seasonal good times. What fall memories and traditions can you share with us?

Seems like I've talked about this before... If you really want to know...click on THIS LINK for lots and lots of fall memories.

3. Stews, soups and chili dishes warm the tummy on chilly fall days. Have you a good recipe to share for a good fall dish?  No special recipe that I haven't already shared, but one thing we do enjoy occasionally is a good old bowl of Campbell's Tomato Soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. This was just the other day...Sorry I already took a couple of bites out of the sandwich before I thought to take a picture. But it was so good and I couldn't wait!

Another tradition we love in the fall is homemade applesauce with biscuits for breakfast. I finished up the last of our Georgia apples with this dish of applesauce...

And served it hot over biscuits.   HERE is a post I devoted to this tradition from many years ago.

Another fall recipe we love is Hobo Stew. HERE is a post with the recipe.

4. Fall is football season. Are you a fan of any teams? Do you watch games>

This picture was taken on Saturday, while hubby was watching the Florida Gators vs. the Georgia Bulldogs. This is always a big event in our state. The University of Florida is quite close to where we live, so of course there are many Gator fans here.  However, unfortunately, the Bulldogs beat the Gators in this year's game.    My hubby watches all kinds of football...college and NFL.  I personally don't get all that excited about it and usually find something else to do during the games. Living in a home where I was outnumbered 4 to one (3 sons and 1 husband), I gave up long ago trying to watch anything else on the weekends.  But that's okay. They always had a good time watching the games together, and I had plenty of other stuff to keep me busy. I loved hearing them cheering for their favorite teams and making all the noise that guys make while watching football. Thankfully, our son Benton came over and watched a game with hubby on Sunday afternoon. It made my heart happy to hear them together. Even if their team didn't win. 

I hope you've had a blessed and wonderful day today. Hard to believe tomorrow will be November already, and the beginning of another busy and happy month of giving thanks to God!

Here's some good closing thoughts for the day:

Oh, here's a bouquet of wildflowers I picked on our walk this afternoon...our first walk since hubby had his surgery almost a month ago!  It felt sooooo good to get out and take a nice walk in the woods! 

Praise God!

Good night everyone!

Let's go see what others are writing about today at Tuesday 4!

Tuesday Four: Autumn Days

 

Autumn Days



Welcome! This is Tuesday 4 in honor and memory of our friend Toni Taddeo.

This week's questions are from ideas given by Susan who owns Susan's Sayings.

Remember to visit Susan.

I will start this post off with a couple of pictures way back from the past. You can read more about them HERE, but this was one of our favorite fall traditions when our kids were little...we had a church "Hobo Party", where people dressed up like hobos and we played fun games and had a great time with the kiddos.  Here we are all taking our turn bobbing for apples. Have you ever done that? You should try it sometime! LOL.

L to R: our son Benton and son Scott, and then our son Matthew and Scott, trying their skills at apple bobbing for the first time. This was probably in 1978.

And of course, we wouldn't ask our kids or our friends to do anything we wouldn't be willing to do as well. Here we are left to right: Yours truly with Scotty and then my hubby. We were in our Hobo outfits and having a lot of fun.

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

These pictures are actually from last year's Thanksgiving display. I have already shared my current fall displays before HERE and HERE, and they will be updated for Thanksgiving as we get a little closer to the date, but it will probably look a lot like this:

This one is current now...I just turned the little candle lights on for this "Scarecrow Crossing" display.

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

Since we live in Florida, we do not have the big showy autumn leaf displays that you have up north. But if you look closely enough here and there you will see some lovely colors on display, especially the maple trees along the rivers and ponds that are starting to change colors a bit. 

This is how it looked on Still Waters Pond this morning: 

Those are the Maple trees across the pond.  They are getting prettier every day.

These are the holly trees full of berries along the edge of the pond. The birds are loving them!

And this is how it looks walking through the woods on a carpet of brown pine needles:

This is pretty typical for autumn in north central Florida where I live.

 

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

I tend to be very "scentsitive" to scents, so I don't use a lot of scented candles or other artificial fragrances.  However, my favorite scents would be the delightful aroma of apple pie baking in the oven, or a pumpkin pie with all of its wonderful spices.  Then, not only does the house smell nice and cozy and yummy, but you get to eat the delicious foods of which you were savoring the smells.

4.  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? 

I've shared my recipe for Hobo Stew before, but it is always a fall/winter favorite here at our house. Served with some fresh hot cornbread, it is sure to warm your tummy on a chilly day.  

Yummy hot cornbread, cooked in an iron skillet in the oven:

Here's the recipe:

Hobo Stew

Cook a couple of slices of bacon, chopped into smaller pieces, in the bottom of a large soup kettle or dutch oven.

Brown 2 lbs. ground chuck in the pot, and drain off fat.

Add 1 medium chopped onion to the meat and cover and cook until onion is tender

Add 1 can diced stewed tomatoes (I used the ones with green pepper & onion added)

Add approximately 3 cups of water to the pot, cover and let simmer while you chop up the next ingredients:

Add four medium, peeled and cut potatoes

Add four or five peeled and sliced carrots

Add two cups of chopped cabbage.

Add salt and pepper and garlic powder to season.

If needed, add more water, cover and let cook until all vegetables are tender.

(All ingredients can be added according to how much you want to make! This will make a nice dutch oven pot full of stew)

Serve with fresh, hot cornbread. We like to crumble our corn bread onto the stew.

We used to make this in Girl Scouts, and would put all ingredients in a large metal coffee can, cover tightly with foil, and bury under the coals of our campfire and let it cook all day. It would be delicious for supper!

Another favorite fall treat is some fresh hot homemade applesauce, served over hot biscuits for breakfast!  Click HERE for another post about this family tradition.

Core, quarter and peel about 6-8 of your favorite cooking apples (these are McIntosh) and put into a microwaveable  dish.

Add a about a 1/4 cup of water, sprinkle with cinnamon and cook covered in microwave until tender, about 5-6 minutes.

Then mash apples with a potato masher until smooth, add about a 1/4 cup of sugar (or less, depending on number of apples), and stir into the sauce.  

Serve over fresh hot biscuits:

Usual serving is two open biscuits per person covered with applesauce. 

 

I hope you enjoyed these Autumn days traditions, decorations and recipes. Please share some of your special fun times with us.  Now go to http://tuesdaysplace.blogspot.com/2020/10/autumn-days.html to see what others are posting.  

You Can Sense Change in the Air...

"I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations."  Psalm 89:1

Today was the first really refreshingingly cool day we have seen here in Florida in quite a few months! Yesterday was a foretaste of today...but this morning had me singing!  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cool fall mornings! My northern friends may scoff when I say that we enjoyed a crisp, chilly morning temperature of 53 degrees upon our arising from our beds to start the day!  That is almost unheard of this early in the fall in this part of Florida, so it is something to celebrate! You can sense the change in the air...a promise of good things to come...a new surge of energy and vigor that the hot, sultry days of summer had drained away. Yes, I am definitely a "fall" person...can you tell?

One of my family's favorite fall breakfasts is homemade biscuits and applesauce.  This was definitely a biscuit and applesauce morning!  There is no better smell in the morning than the sweet spicy aroma of apples cooking sprinkled with cinammon...try staying in bed when that tantalizing fragrance reaches your nostrils! It just can't be done! (Unless you're my son Scott, who could sleep through anything..., which he did...but he's the only one who really doesn't care about homemade applesauce for breakfast, poor kid)

If you have never made your own applesauce before, now is a good time to start!  I use any kind of good baking/eating apple (except for Red Delicious)...McIntosh, Winesap, Cortland, Jonathans, Empires, or Gala...will make a delicious applesauce.  I quarter, core and peel about 6-8 apples, put them in a microwaveable dish, add about 1/3 cup water, and sprinkle with cinammon.  Cover, and cook on high in the microwave for about 6 minutes, or until apples are tender.  Then mash the apples with a potato masher, and add about 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar (or to your particular taste) depending upon how tart the apples were. 

While the apples are cooking I mix up a double batch of home-made biscuits, (please don't use canned biscuits---if you don't know how to make them from scratch, use Bisquick or Jiffy Biscuit Mix).  Serve the hot applesauce right on top of the open hot biscuits.  If you think you need something else to supplement this breakfast, by all means eat whatever you wish...but save room for seconds on the biscuits!

This was such a great way to start the day! Did I mention that I LOVE the smell of homemade applesauce cooking? Who needs artificial scented candles and air-fresheners when you can have the real thing? 

So tell me, what are some of YOUR favorite fall traditions?  I hope to share more of mine with you as the days go by and I become so inspired!!

By the way, here's a few interesting verses of scripture regarding "apples"...

"Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons.  I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.  He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.  Sustain me with cakes of raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am lovesick." 
Song of Solomon 2:3-5


 "Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye."  Proverbs 7:2

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settngs of silver."  Proverbs 25:11

"He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye."  Deuteronomy 32:10

Can you find any others?

Have a blessed biscuits and applesauce kind of day!