My Fall Bucket List

I love Fall!  I love the fall holidays.  I love the crisp fall mornings, the crunchy leaves, and the piles of fat pumpkins.  It is by far my favorite season so I always have a huge list of things we need to do to mark this wonderful season. 

Here are just a few of my favorite things.

Check out the local corn maze.  Bishop’s Pumpkin Patch is located in Wheatland, California off of Highway 65. Bishop’s is packed with fun.  Attractions include a Corn Maze, a Coyote Mine with giant 2 slides, petting zoo, Charlie’s Carousel, a railroad, a zipline, a flower farm, a mini Sunflower Labyrinth, and pony rides.  What pumpkin patch would be complete without pumpkins?  There are plenty of those available.  You can take a free hay ride to the pumpkin patch to get the right one.

Take the grandkids to Boo at the Zoo.  The Sacramento Zoo is so much fun during Boo at the Zoo.  There are trick-or-treating stations throughout the Zoo, face painting for kids, ghoulish games, themed stage shows, keeper chats and animal enrichments. The kids love riding on the Spooky Zoo Train and the Creepy Carousel.  This year the event is Oct 29th -30th.

Host Witches Night Out.  I just love to celebrate Halloween.  Every year host a Witches Night Out Halloween Party.   I start planning for it in August.  Each year the theme, decorations and food is different we always play Bunco.   

Make soup in the crock pot.  Yummy!  I make soup at least once a week if not more from now until Christmas.  I love to share it with my mom.  She is 95 this year and for as long as I can remember she has loved soup.  Each week I package up one-two-or three different soups and take it down to her.  We’ll have one for lunch while I’m there and the others can be eaten during the rest of the week. 

Go wine sipping in Lodi.  With more than 85 wineries in the Lodi, CA area, there are plenty of options for wine tasting and scenic strolls through seemingly endless rows of grapevines. You’ll find wine tasting rooms large and small, brand new and decades old.  Sip can often find yourself sipping your way through the Lodi award-winning wines with a fourth-or-fifth generation winemaker, who is passionate about his product.

Bring back Friday movie nights.  Somehow we get out of the habit of family movie night during the summer nights.  But when it starts to get darker earlier we get back into the habit.  This is the perfect family evening—eating popcorn, sipping hot cocoa with those tiny marshmallows, and watching a good movie. 

Go apple picking.  Apple Hill  in Camino, CA is a great day trip with plenty of opportunities for picking your own apples (not just apples but blueberries, strawberries, grapes, peaches, pears, pumpkins, and many other fruits.) 

The orchards and farms are loaded with fun things to do for kids of every age!  You’ll find hay & corn mazes, pumpkin patches, pony rides, craft stands, a train ride … plus a whole lot more.  Apple pie, giant caramel apples, fudge, turnovers, hot cider, candies, and anything else you can make with apples are available for purchase at the many stops.

Bake an Apple Cake.  After we pick those apples we bake an Apple Hill Apple Cake.  This is one of the most delicious apple desserts.  I think this recipe has been in the family for 50 years.  My mom used to bake them every year.  The recipe is from the growers of Apple Hill.  She picked up the recipe on one of our early family outings to Apple Hill and we’ve been making it ever since.  It wouldn’t be Fall without at least one of these cakes. 

Before I share the recipe let me tell you it is very easy to make and each pan is a guaranteed success.

Apple Hill Apple Cake

Ingredients

Servings 6-8

• 2 cups sugar
• 1⁄2 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 4 cups granny smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons baking soda

Instructions

1. Combine sugar, oil, eggs and apples.
2. Sift in flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda.
3. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until combined.
4. Pour into a 9×13 greased pan and bake for 1 hour in a preheated 350 degree oven.
5. Serve hot or cold with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

The end of summer is at hand, fall is on the horizon, and delicious apples are ready to be picked.  It’s time to plan our first of many fall activities.