Fall at the Farmhouse...



Ok, so I know it has been ages since I last blogged...time truly does fly by, sometimes, and I think I just woke up this morning and realized that the holiday season is just around the corner and the eve of a new year is creeping up to the front door.  Have I just been too busy to notice?  Maybe, but I think I've spent the past few months loosing my way a bit...too many obligations and conflicting interests, perhaps...and a little bit of the magic of life at the farmhouse has gone by without proper attention.  Today, I awoke to a warm fire crackling and the smell of pumpkin spice bread in the toaster (the benefit of a husband who lets me sleep in on Saturday mornings) and truly felt that familiar tingle that is November in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Hot, dry weather this summer resulted in more muted colors this fall, but the farmhouse is still beautiful.  We set out our pumpkins and mums and put the plaid throws out on our deck chairs so we could enjoy the chill of autumn evenings.  A couple of weeks ago, the house got a bit of a face lift with the addition of a new roof...we miss the terracotta tiles, but the bright red shingles make the house look so pretty.  We are looking forward to a new sun porch and deck in the coming weeks (before Christmas, I hope!) and Crawdad and my step-dad are back at work renovating the basement.  My artistic shelves have been quite popular, and I think I will take a similar artistic approach to our bathroom re-design next year.

 Of course, fall at the farmhouse means time spent in the kitchen. I have been organizing my homemade Yoganoodles cookbook for a couple of weeks in preparation for the holidays and love finding authentic Appalachian recipes for sawmill gravy and Christmas Stake Cake to add to the mix.    Recently, I even ran across a recipe for Upside Down Apple Gingerbread in a 1957 cookbook published by the Great Smoky Mountains Association...I've not tested or tweaked it, but I'll let you know how it goes!  Tonight, we are meeting up with friends for a moonlight bike ride around the loop road in Cades Cove.  I've promised to bring cookies, so I've already spent most of my morning combing through recipes and trying to decide my orange infused chocolate coconut cookies or maybe those yummy, chewy cookies made with brown sugar.

Oh, plans...baking, creating, remodeling.  I can hear my mother say "how will you ever find the time?"  She's right, of course.  We never really "find" time...but we do get to choose the things that fill-up the time we have.  So today, I choose to fill my time with a little flour, a little sugar in my sunny farmhouse kitchen...and tonight I get to enjoy friends and a November full moon in the mountains of East Tennessee.