Good Morning!

Fall is finally upon most of the country and I was ask about something new today, what could be served to the adults while the kids are trick or treating? My first thought was a rustic red wine to keep you cozy while passing out Kit Kat or Snickers bars. Then I started thinking about my childhood and what I loved about fall.

We lived in Muncie, Indiana and I was fortunate to live in a house that sat in the middle of 2 plus acres of apple and pear trees. My mother had a kick ass garden that was about an acre and we also raised raspberries. I was raised on fresh food from spring until the freezer was empty late into the winter. We grew 3 different types of apples, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and the bright Red ones, can not for the life of me remember the name of them…anyway, we would start picking apples in early September when it would still be warm and those apples would be for applesauce and pies. Or mom and grandma would freeze then for later in the winter. The rest of the apples we would wait until mid October and it would be time to make cider.

It would take several of weekends to gather all the apples, we had a really old manual cider press, ( I am sure the press would be worth a fortune by now), but both sets of grandparents and my aunts and uncles would come over and the women would triage the picked apples and the men would shake the trees and my brothers and I would gather up the apples and watch Grandpa dump the apples into the press. When I think about this process now, it is no wonder I love making wine…the two are quite similar.

We would save all the plastic milk jugs from the year and wash them for the fresh cider and we would set up a stand in the front yard to sell cider we would not drink right away…This stuff was not pasteurized. The neighbors would bring over jugs and we would fill them up. I remember one family would bring over cake donuts every year and the taste of fall for me is cider and donuts. One year we gave the church gallons of cider for the kids Halloween party and I remember being so proud of all the hard work we did to make the cider.

My great grandmother would come over from Ohio and make Chicken and Dumplings while we made cider and it would be the last time we would all be together again until Christmas, so it was a very special memory of my childhood. Sorry for going on about it, but it brought me so much joy, I had to share it with you!

So when I got the call about what could the adults enjoy while the kids are trick or treating, it made me think of the cider and I found a recipe that takes cider to a new level. Go pick up some spiced rum ( I like Captain Morgan) and a few spices you probably already have in your cabinet and make this great warm cider drink…you can add more rum, but I like the cider taste more than the rum taste!

Spiced and Spiked Cider

Serving Size: serves 4

Ingredients

1 tsp. whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
2 whole star anise
juice of 1 orange
4 cups apple cider
3/4 cup spiced rum (use more/less, if desired)
orange peel

What to do:

Add the cloves, cinnamon sticks and star anise to a large saucepan over medium heat; lightly toast the spices in the pan for 1 minute.
Add the orange juice and apple cider, simmer, but do not boil the cider for 10 minutes.
Reduce the heat to low and add the rum.
Ladle the cider into serving mugs and garnish with a strip of orange peel. To keep warm, the cider can stay on very low heat while serving.

I like to make a double or triple batch and keep it warm in the crock pot!

My neighbor boy, has his costume already and he is going to be Spider Man with muscles built in, he told me to make sure not to get candy with nuts because he has an allergy. I will actually be in California over the holiday, but I will make sure I stop by and give Spidey a bag of something special before I head to Sonoma!

Enjoy the Donuts and Cider!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi