We have several family traditions that we try to fulfill each year…one of my favorites is apple picking! The bonus on the back end of this tradition is spending an afternoon in the kitchen whipping up some apple pie fillings to satisfy our sweet cravings throughout the year until it’s picking time again!  We usually head to the orchard early in October to get our favorites before the trees are bare but we’ll always make the trip even if we can’t go at the most opportune time!  This year we got really lucky and could squeeze it in while the trees were just dripping with fruit…it also happened to be the Apple Butter Festival that weekend!  So while it was fun to see all the activities, crafts, and food offerings, the lines were almost too long to bear AND our favorite apple cider doughnuts were completely sold out for the day!  But that just means that we’ll HAVE to make another quick trip for a bag full of sugary goodness…like I said, it’s tradition!  Even though we didn’t get our doughnuts, we did spend a perfect fall day filling up our half-bushel bag with a combo of Granny Smith and Jonathan apples right from the tree!  And a week later…it was time to peel, chop, and cook the fruit into gooey, bubbly, sweet smelling pie fillings to keep in the freezer!  So that’s exactly what we did yesterday afternoon…spent some time together making the kitchen smell absolutely heavenly!  And along with the fillings, we HAD to make a pie too…just to make sure everything tasted OK of course!  I’ve shared my grandmother’s recipe before but I’ll include another printable copy…just in case you missed it!  It’s SO good and SO easy…I really hope you try it!

fun in the orchard…fun in the kitchen!