I’ve got some good things for you Girlfriends!!! MUSICA
Oh, how I’m loving October! 🍂 Weather has totally changed on the island, summer is a thing of the distant past. We’ve had two Nor’easters recently, wild wind and rain out of nowhere . . . ferry boat was stopped, we’ve been cut off, out here alone, leaves flying by the windows. My favorite. Light the candles, make a fire, cook, and cozy-in to the quiet. With Jack. And Joe.💞
Look at me! After three months of an out-of-order broken wrist, I’m painting again!
I wasn’t sure I’d still know how! I’ve started working on the 2021 calendars (yes, 2021 😜, try not to think about it). As you can see Jack has been lending support. I’m still going to Occupational Therapy once a week, working to get all that luv-lee flexibility back. But I’m sooo much better. Lifting little weights! See that writing up there? Now look at this:
This is a shopping list I wrote with my left hand a couple of months ago! I told my brain, “MAKE A ‘G'”, but my brain said, “Is that a right turn or a left?” This took HUGE concentration! I kind of liked it!
Still eating healthy, and still loving it. Doesn’t that look delicious? Well, it was! Best words I ever told myself about losing weight? “I don’t care how long it takes, I’m doing it.” Very powerful. As they say in the Biz, “It’s a Lifestyle Change.”
Here’s a wonderful little healthy snack. If you are a homey cottage-cheese lover like I am (and many aren’t for good reason ➡️), there is nothing nastier than the milky wet cottage cheese you find in so many grocery stores. So I have something new for you to try. Look for Friendly Farms Cottage Cheese. It’s heavenly. Sturdy and creamy. Not drowning in milky wetness!! Available in tons of places. Perfect to put on crackers, or, like above, on buttered, toasted Ezekiel Bread, sprinkled with seeds, nuts, salt and pepper! Sprouts taste good on it too. It’s a treat!😋
Yes, it’s that time of year for Carrot Cake! Lots of Birthday’s around here lately . . . and Saturday is Rachel’s Birthday! 😘😘😘 Sending love to you Ray ~ I really wish you could help yourself (all of you!) to a piece of this! I won’t be a bit surprised if they figure out how to do that someday! Wish they’d hurry! You can wish Rachel a Happy Birthday here in the comment section, OR, write her on Twitter, HERE!❤️
You’ll recognize the recipe for the three-layer carrot cake I took to Jaime’s house for a birthday party . . . I forgot how good it is! Everyone loved it!
If you’ve never tried to make a carrot cake, you really should! It comes together so easily, and it’s filled with fruit and nuts! Right, Jack? Right!
Here I am at the party, sitting on the floor in front of the fire, among my oldest and dearest, toasting Joe through the crowd as he takes a nicely blurry photo of me!
In this one, I have the camera, so you can see what my view was from my floor position. People putting their rings around the candles, so everyone gets to make a wish.
My cake came in last and I was too busy cutting it to take pictures! I’ve made it lots of times, but usually, I just 
put frosting between layers and on top. This time I made extra frosting and did the sides. Decorated with chopped (green) pistachio nuts, a marigold from the garden, and strips of carrot peel I rounded at top with a knife, and made pointed at bottom. Isn’t it cute? I thought it looked like a happy circus cake! There were zero leftovers, no crumb went unattacked! You could do this!!!😘
The fans would love it! This recipe also makes amazing cupcakes. You can tint the cream-cheese frosting if you like.
All home-sweet-home this time of year. Hovering between 50º and 60º most days now. See our wisteria, so insidious, sneaking its way around everything, will crawl under a window and into the house if we aren’t careful! But very gracefully!
I love being a homebody. Garden is changing so fast . . . but we still have a few herbs, some nasturtiums, kale, lettuce, and a couple of tomatoes growing. A few rose buds and marigolds. No freeze yet, so we’re milking the garden for all it’s worth.
The wind blew our yard full of leaves . . .
And, btw, that Carrot cake recipe (and cupcakes) is in the book on the table! (Heart of the Home 30th Anniversary Edition.) If you make it, cool the cake before you put the frosting on!
Look at this! Fun with food! Joe cut into this radish and look what he found! Good enough to sell on eBay! (No, we won’t😅) Had to take a picture of it! Love the tail! Crazy radish bug!
And yes, Casper is back in his high spot, in the guest room on the second floor . . . looking out . . .
Over the neighborhood . . . he’s become a tradition, lighting up this window every October for years.
Cheering a stormy day, a harbinger of Halloween . . . he’s got a perfect view.
I wob him. When we go into downsize mode someday and sell this house, I hope the people who buy it will want Casper too! Because I know he will want to stay.🎃
There is something in October . . .🍂🍁🍂
Out on our walk, the bittersweet is wild!
Such a magical vine . . . invasive, they say, but what a way to go! We’ll be decorating around our front door with it!
The woods are prettier every day . . . we’ve had lots of sunny, crisp, and breezy days . . .
And the rainy days just make it better!
We just make a fire! Last night, girlfriends came over after Mahjong, we sat on the sofa and talked in the quiet, listened to the fire popping, clock ticking, wind blowing outside . . . 🍂🍁🍂
What’s up at the Studio? We’re getting new things all the time, I can’t quite keep up. Doing our best to make our web store one-stop shopping where you’ll find lots of little special things filled with ❤️ ~ with the holidays coming up so fast, it’s that time again!
Just in ~ our brand new Winter Dream Charm ~ like any starry night, you can make a wish for dreams come true.
And these too, precious house cut-outs ~ one of which is now sitting on my stove shelf. I tried it all over the house, on a window sill with my rusty birds, on the mantle with a candle behind it, there’s no bad place! It’s going to be gorgeous with my white Christmas trees!
SO, something else . . . There’s a new article featuring guess who? Me! in Edible Vineyard (the 2019 Harvest Issue), a wonderful island food magazine produced through the Martha’s Vineyard Times. It’s available everywhere here on the island . . . and I have to say, every article in it is interesting! Really well-written. Kind of like the New Yorker of food! I don’t know if the paper is selling them, but I’m sure you could ask.
On October 26, I’ll be speaking and signing books at the 
newly renovated and beautifully restored Carnegie Library on North Water Street in Edgartown, MA, from 2-3 pm, sponsored by the Vineyard Trust and Edgartown Books. It’s free! And they have a gift shop! 😜 I’ll bring signed copies of Edible Vineyard to give out! Come join us! And guess what? Kellee and Sheri will be there (Joe too!). They’re coming to stay with us for a few days next week, to get a little taste of New England fall!🍁 💃
The Edible article was beautifully written by Alisun Armstrong, photos by Lexi Pline. Quotes from the Fairy Tale Girl and Martha’s Vineyard Isle of Dreams. Recipes from the 30th Anniversary version of Heart of the Home and my Autumn Book.❤️
No reason for this photo, just loved the colors!
This too! I told you it was a huge Birthday Month . . . I also had a Birthday Party for Martha . . . this was the table setting. Very simple, purple flowers (Johnson Brothers WindsorWare plates) and plaid napkins on old bedspread, with hydrangeas from the garden.
Colorful! Girl Party! This whole lunch was scarily done without a recipe. When we were in Hudson, I tasted some fantastic things, spicy 
sweet-potato fingers with minted lemon sauce and a Coconut Cilantro Chutney (with hot peppers and garlic and ginger). I wrote down what I could, so I could try making it at home. I was nervous, realizing too late that this might not be the smartest way to do a birthday lunch, but it turned out GOOD. I served it with deviled eggs, minced red onion, and smoked salmon, and toasted walnut bread ~ with homemade Basil Ice Cream and Lemon Polenta Cake for dessert. My wrist allowed me to do everything except Joe chopped the onion and got that pretty green ice cream out of the freezer container! Pretty darn good!
And then there’s this! Because I couldn’t find them on the Island, I had to make them. Since they’re not here, I imagine you may not be able to find them either, so I thought this recipe could come in handy, for Apple Cider Donuts! They’re easy! They bake in the oven like a cake! You have to have them!🍁
So Here’s what I did . . . first off, on the stove, out of sight, is a pan filled with Apple Cider (the plain, non-alcoholic kind) boiling down to a syrup (don’t worry, I’ll put the recipe at the end of the post). Then I buttered the donut pans with melted butter and set them aside. Don’t have donut pans? Stay tuned . . .
I lightened the flour by stirring it with a whisk so I wouldn’t have to sift it. Then I measured it out lightly and put it in a medium bowl . . .
and whisked it together with baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.
In another large bowl, I whisked together egg, milk, vanilla, brown sugar, and granulated sugar.
whisking . . .
. . . adding in the reduced cider . . . whisking until it was blended.
Then, because it’s too difficult to get the dough neatly into the tiny donut pans with a spoon, I poured the batter into a plastic bag …
. . . then squeezed the messy thing down to get most of the batter in the bottom of the bag,
then I twisted it up at the top, and cut off a tiny bit of corner, so the batter would come out in a controllable manner.
. . . and Voila . . . into the oven they go!
While they baked, I melted some butter and mixed together sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon for coating the donuts when they were done.
And here they are, hot from the oven. I slipped a tiny spatula around them and they came out like buttah.
I dipped them, tops and bottoms in melted butter, and laid them into bowl with the sugar and spice . . .
Spooned over sugar, pressed it in, until they were well coated. Pushing Joe, get away. no touching. Oh, poor baby, okay, eat one. Gimmie a bite.💋
I wrapped the rest of them in an old linen bridge-table tablecloth, put them in a basket and walked over to lowely’s for Mahjong . . . we start with tea, and yesterday, with donuts still warm from the oven!
The recipe made six large donuts and ten small ones. So, who wants to make donuts? Leave a comment, we’ll have a drawing, and the winner will receive the exact tins I baked these donuts in! Two tins, used once only, they’re festive, they have red bottoms, together they make six large donuts and a dozen little ones . . . there are more in our web store, just in cases. And I’m including a package of holiday recipe cards!
I’ll toss in a signed copy of Edible Magazine too…
So that’s it . . . sunshine through blowing leaves, through kitchen windows, sliding across the stove, weaves through sugar-donut fragrance, skips along the floor, over the table, dancing fairy-like over a bowl of apples, and shimmers onto our walls.
Our world sometimes feels upside-down, we can feel overwhelmed by daily happenings, making ends meet, meeting the needs of our beloveds, drains energy, there’s no rest for the weary or the worried! Dreaming of a better tomorrow? Let it show in everything you do. Let the things you value in life shine through, home, family, friends, the little things that make life sweet. Do stop and smell the flowers, run and catch a leaf in mid air. Watch an old movie with your petty pet. You’ll feel better, I promise. Kisses and blessings on you and yours. Take a deep breath . . . ahhhhh.
Don’t forget to leave your comment for the drawing! HERE is a little chart that shows you how to sign up to get this BLOG delivered to your email address.❤️
A P P L E C I D E R D O N U T S
Makes six large donuts and ten small ones.
Set out 1/2 c. whole milk and one egg to come to room temp. Slowly melt 1 1/2 c. (12 TB. or 1 1/2 sticks) butter (you’ll ned some to grease the pans, some for donut batter, and some for the topping). Put 1 1/2 c. non-alcoholic apple cider in small saucepan. Bring to boil, then simmer until liquid reduces to one-half cup. 👀 Watch it. Takes about 15 min. Set aside to cool. Use a pastry brush, butter the donut cups.
Preheat oven to 350º
- 2 c. all purpose flour, whisked to lighten, then measured
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp. cloves
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 egg, room temp.
- 1/2 c. whole milk, room temp
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 TB. melted butter
- 1/2 c. reduced apple cider
- 1/2 c. dark brown sugar
- 1/3 c. granulated sugar
T O P P I N G
- 1 c. granulated sugar
- 3/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice*
- 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- the rest of the butter, put in shallow wide dish.
Preheat oven to 350º. In a med bowl, whisk together first 7 ingredients. Set aside. In large bowl, whisk the egg, then whisk in the rest of the ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet and whisk until smooth. Fill a large plastic bag with batter. This is messy. Once filled, hold it at top and squeeze batter down, twist the top so batter is pushed into bottom. With scissors cut a tiny corner off the bottom of the bag (not too much, you can always cut it bigger). Squeeze the batter into the donut cavities, filling about 2/3 full. Bake 10-12 min until they spring back when you poke them (I baked the small donuts slightly less time). Let cool 5 min in pans, Use a small spatula to loosen each one and turn them out onto tea-towel-covered cooling rack. While they are baking, make TOPPING: in a small bowl, mix together first 3 topping ingredients. Put the rest of the melted butter in a shallow dish. When donuts are cool enough to handle, dip tops and bottoms in melted butter, put them in the sugar mixture and spoon over generously, patting them so the mixture will hold on. Eat! Lovely in a cloth covered basket to bring to tea! Excellent with a cup of coffee!
*You can make your own PUMPKIN PIE SPICE for the topping, just add 1/2 tsp.nutmeg, 1/4 tsp.ground ginger, and 1/4 tsp. ground cloves to the cinnamon.
I am so happy for you that your arm is coming back to use, for I cannot think of anything more frustrating than a head full of ideas and sparks with a hand that won’t connect. My uncle’s wife had some sort of neurological disease and taught herself to write and do many other tasks with her non dominant hand. Amazing tenacity she had.
We seem to be getting more than our fair share of westerlies here too, far too early in the season, but a good excuse for baking and hunkering down with candle cosiness snuggling under quilts with hot chocolate to comfort us.
~~~Waving~~~From Across the Pond~~~Deb in Wildly Wuthering, Wet, Windy, Wonderfully Woolly, West Wales xoxo
I think if I had to I could get good at the non-dominant hand thing. It was slightly fun, when it wasn’t a pain! Happy Fall Deb!
Happy Fall, Dear Susan! xoxo
My tummy did a little flip flop when you mentioned down-sizing…
Funny that mine doesn’t! I’ve always loved little houses, and think a lot about what this one might look like!
I just hadn’t thought about you eventually moving. I love my little house! It’s what I consider the perfect Grandma house, brick, steps to the front door and best of all it already had a clothes line!
Heaven!
Did I miss the recipe?
It’s coming, tomorrow morning!
Those doughnuts look amazing, as does everything else you made, I can’t wait to make them.
So glad your wrist is doing much better! Being hurt makes you really appreciate your body and want to take the best care.
I just love the flavors (pumpkin spice everything), colors, and everything about Fall. Love your blog also!!
Please wish Rachel “Happy Birthday” from her birthday-twin in Washington State! There is literally no better time to have a birthday than October 19th!
Happy Birthday Lisa!
Thank you for a beautiful, happy blog post Susan. So glad your wrist is healed and you are back to doing all that you want to do! Especially enjoyed your post about Hudson, Olana, Rhinebeck, Red Lion Inn, etc. as we live just outside Albany….you visited some of our favorite places!
Happy fall🍂. A very dear friend of mine has been teaching third grade for almost 25 years and decided to go back to school and get her master’s degree. After she got it I sent her your ” Go. Be. Love.” ornament, she was thrilled. I thought that it was very fitting! Thanks for the information on the cottage cheese, I was happy to see that it is at our neighborhood store, Publix and can’t wait to try it. Glad things are back to normal with your wrist.
Sweet of you to celebrate her success!!
Oh I would love to make donuts for my college students when they are home at Thanksgiving!!!! Me! Me!! Me!!!
Keep warm!!!
Hugs from
Laura in Illinois
If dreams came true I’d live in that shingled house. I’d bake donuts, read, draw, paint, knit, listen to my favorite music, stare out for hours on end and I’d be loving on the weather. We’re still wearing shorts here in my part of Texas. Everything’s green, flowers are in bloom, birds sing like it’s spring and I’m sweating buckets. It’s coolish with a return to the 80s any minute now. How I long for cold. I dream of snow. Thanks for presenting all the tools I need to imagine what it would be like to be on the Cape. You’re so good at transporting us.
Makes me happy to hear that, you’re a pretty good transporter yourself!
So happy your wrist is better! Now I have to go make donuts! Just some nds too yummy not to!
Oh, Susan – What a wonderfully cozy post ! I just came home from a tea date with good friends to celebrate the end of chemo for a dear friend. We had High Tea at a cute little tea shop near here and the leaves were gorgeous on the drive. Afterwards we stopped and bought apple cider doughnuts…and then I came home and found your post. Can’t wait to try your recipe and would love to win the pan. Also – thought you would enjoy this article that came up on my Facebook feed –
mypositiveoutlooks.com/psychologists-explain-benefits-and-the-joy-of-baking-for-other-people/
I love to bake for other people just like you do. A few goodies in a little bag with a cute tag and note can make someone’s day. It is a way to spread good….and we need that now. Thank you for your always positive attitude and great ideas to live a wonderful, cozy life!
Great article, thank you Ann, I just put it on Twitter. Love a little positivity in the dark places!
Susan, my birthday is in October also and you gave me all my favorite things. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, bitter sweet, fall leaves and you out did yourself with cider donuts. Thank you so much for loving fall as much as I do.
Happy Birthday Cyndee!
What a wonderful cozy post. I love fall. Glad to see someone else appreciates the rain as much as I do. The article in Edible looks wonderful. Thanks for the chance at the give-a-way. Happy Fall!
Apple cider donuts and a cup of tea sound heavenly.
Dear Susan,
I am so glad to see your wrist recuperation is going so well! Cannot wait to try your donut recipe! Best wishes! Cheryl
So excited to read your blog today. Glad your wrist is healing.
The doughnuts look fantastic.
Happy Fall
Patsy in Kansas
Those donuts look as heavenly as the season of Autumn itself! I know they were delicious! Thanks, Susan, for another beautiful and inspiring post.
I went for the perfect fall walk today and brought home colored leaves to decorate! Just like you with your bittersweet!
Love the free stuff!🍁🍂👏
Do you like playing MahJongg? I played for years with a group of young mothers like myself when I was in my 20s. I found a MahJongg group of older moms and Nanas like myself last year. Great fun. Makes your brain work.
🍂🙏🎃 I love this time of year. I guess I just love the change of every season. Windows open, extra blankets on the bed, snuggly slippers, pups chasing blowing leaves on the lawn, everyone putting up Halloween and fall yard decorations. 🎃🍂🍃
Thank you for a fun read once again. I just love your blogs. See you on Twitter.
I am so very happy that your wrist is better. I love that picture of you practicing with Jack helping you.
What I really like is seeing more of my friends, and since this is what they do, this is what I do! Thank you Peggy!
Oh, Susan have wanted to make Cider Donuts for ages. Love the step by step…something must be wrong with my computer though…can’t find the actual recipe. Happy Autumn to all our sister Homebodies.
I’ll put it up tomorrow morning. . . I got home from the walk and found over a hundred comments… doing that now, will put up the recipe while everyone is still sleeping!
Love cider donuts. Can’t wait to try my hand at them. Saw a similar recipe where the batter was piped into greased mini muffin pans. Turned out like munchkins.
What a delightful post and I am with you on loving glorious Autumn. Tonight the low in our part of Virginia is forecast to be 37*F. YIKES!
Cheers that you’re right hand is working once again. 🙂
Today I pressed and hung my Halloween quilt that was quilted with orange thread. Love it!
BTW, whatever happened to Jack Frost getting credit for painting the autumn leaves? I had an illustration that hung in my childhood bedroom that shows this very thing: Jack Frost perched among the leaves with an artist’s pallet of autumn colored paints.
Hugs!
How do you do it, Sue? Baking, sharing, writing, painting, interviewing, walking, baking, cooking, spending quality time with your boys, garden-gathering, having guests, baking, going out to other friend gatherings, running a business (or is it several), taking wonderful photos, baking, doing physical therapy, creating calendars for the future, (and ~for sure~ doing so much more), and then sharing a large part of it all with lucky us through twitter and this best of all blogs. Your sharing, by the way, is a very powerful inspiration to go and do alot of the same. I have been sprinkling a home-made mixture of seeds on my toast for months since you first shared your toast-with-seeds photos. Every time I see the little jar of seeds on the counter, I think of you. I think of England too because I’ve put the seeds in a Devon Clotted Cream jar saved from a little tea party. And now apple donuts are on my weekend menu, yum yummy!! Well, back to work; but, thank you for this wonderful time in your kitchen and garden with you. I’ll read it all again first thing tomorrow morning to get my Saturday inspiration fired up, and to get the Apple Donuts recipe. xoxoxo
Don’t forget I’m consolidating 3 weeks into one little blog . . . if you wrote everything you did in 3 weeks, you’d be shocked at all your energy!!!😅 xoxo Christie!
Oh, apple cider doughnuts bring back the happiest memories of my first year of marriage! We were Southerners who had just moved to New York, and now that we’re home in the South, those apple cider doughnuts are one of the things I miss the most!
Love Autumn and would love those donut pans!
So glad you are able to paint, glad you are eating healthy and enjoying every moment! Loved this post. I just need to make those donuts!
Those donuts look wonderful! Reading your blogposts always make me feel a little
bit better. Thank you
Mmmmmmm! My mouth is watering!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rachel 🙂
yummy, warm donuts! Love Casper and Jack is too perfect, want to cuddle with him in front of the fire.
Happy Autumn
Kathleen
One storm after another. Some days the rain comes so hard one wonders if the ocean is dry. Then the clouds lift, the mist starts to rise and a quick vision of almost sunshine and it repeats again. Fall. Ice tea breaks change to hot chocolate, ice cream desires switch to warm cookies. Wool socks, hoodies, long pants, raincoats and of course, sunglasses–just in case. The stores are full of different colors, rushing Halloween out the door before it gets here, a token nod to the middle child holiday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas galore. Smile, ignore, enjoy, hug someone who needs one, snuggle the dog (or cat). This is the time to remember good things, simple things, make a memory for someone else.
This is Autumn.
I love the middle child most of all!
What a cozy post! My sister lives on Cape Cod and has weathered those storms. So glad you didn’t have any damage. I just love how Jack shares your days!
Oh Susan, your post was just what I needed today! And your last paragraph – so,so spot on! Breathe! Yes! And I would love to make some doughnuts – the apple cider or pumpkin. ‘Tis the season for them!
Love to you, Joe, and Jack.
Mary
Your last paragraph was like sweet balm to my weary soul. I know that sounds very Anne of Green Gables dramatic, but so true. We are 10+ year empty nesters who have taken in our 8 year old grandson, for a season (we hope) and our world has been rattled, to say the least. Stopping to smell the flowers, taking deep breaths, those ideas seem so foreign. Changes are all around in this season of Autumn. Life continues to march on, but at a little slower pace, I hope. Thank you for the reminder to take breath. I so needed the reminder.
You always are so soothing and refreshing all at the same time!
XXX OOO,
Bethany
Love and blessings to you Beth. xoxoxoxo
My sister could use these pans to make donuts for her five grandchildren! She is moving to another state next week to live with them… but first has to recover from emergency surgery. Life is what happens when we’re making plans….:) Glad your wrist is better!
She will be a very popular grandmother if she does!! xoxo
I think I need this gift! Baked donuts MUST be healthier than the fried ones down here in Texas! 🙂 Love your newsletter!
They HAVE to be! 😅
Dear Susan,
Thank you for the Beautiful Words that you ended your Blog Post with….they are oh, so true and inspiring! Happy October! I wish that October could be extended at least another 10 days…I always hate saying goodbye to it. And Rachel is having a Birthday tomorrow….Happy, Happy Birthday to you Dear Rachel!! Yaaaaaaay… you are painting again!!! Susan, your left-handed writing is much better than some people’s REGULAR writing!! I think that it is sad that schools have removed Penmanship from their curriculum! I too am a homebody. I love being at home..there is NO place like it! You mentioned “down-sizing” and eventually selling your home one day….that is such a sad thought and it is something that many of us are facing one day. Your words about hoping that the new home owners will want Casper, left me feeling melancholy. 😥 I am very sentimental and sometimes that isn’t good. I am getting better about it and have been parting with some things that I never thought that I would. Finding special homes for some of my old treasures feels almost like a burden lifted. It is all so bittersweet! Speaking of “bittersweet”…you live in a “bittersweet” paradise!! How fun it must be to just walk down the lane and pick bittersweet?!!😌 I LOVE your new WINTER WONDERLAND bead…I just ordered it along with your new Christmas Recipe Cards (sooo cute!!) and the White Christmas Tree banner. Will you ever bring the KITTY LOVE bead back? I would dearly love to have one…I check your Blog Store often with my fingers crossed! Your Carrot Cake and Apple Cider Donuts look Wonderful!! I am looking forward to getting your donut recipe…I have never made baked donuts before and am anxious to try them!! Have a wonderful, Cozy Fall!! xoxo
It’s funny, maybe I’ll change when the reality comes and we really DO move away, but when I think of finding a new house, maybe even a cottage, I wonder what the kitchen will be like, I wonder if there will be bookshelves on the sides of the fireplace, I wonder if it will have a porch! I will have a new walk! I sort of like the idea. But that’s because, I’m sure, it isn’t imminent. I’ll have to ask Sheri about the Kitty Love charm … she keeps track of most-requested . . . we have to order at least 2000 of them at a time, so we like to think we can maybe sell them! Here’s to us homebodies dear Kathiellen! xoxoxo
Love love love the donut recipe! And they are baked instead of fried. Hooray. Thank you for the inspiration 😊❤️
Hi, Susan,
I’ve never made donuts, but have I eaten them – way too many to honestly disclose! No time like the present to try, if I win the drawing. Fingers crossed!
I’m going to try the donuts! We didn’t get them here either, except at Trader Joe’s, and they were a great disappointment. As always your words are a delight and I love seeing fall through your eyes…
I love The grocery list. This post makes me want to buy some carrots for the cake!!
Those donuts look delicious! I would love to make them for my guests but I have no donut pan. 🙁 So I need to win the drawing.
I live amidst the mountains of New Mexico and we we too are having very fall weather, with aspen leaves flying by the windows! Fall is my favorite time of year up here.
I think I can smell those donuts. Is that possible? Love your writing. Happy fall!
Fall has so much going for it! Wonderful post and I really can’t wait to make those 🍩!
Oh,my! I can smell those donuts all the way to Northern Ca. Definitely will try to make them soon. xo
Oh, I’d love to try baked donuts. Thanks for always sharing happiness and great recipes. I’m so happy you wrist has healed well. What a scare to think it might slow you down!! Pets to Jack and hugs to Joe for being your “Dr. Kildare” as you healed.
October is the best! And the carrot cake and donuts look delicious. So glad you are recovering and back to work!
My gosh! These donuts look divine!!
Happy Autumn!!! I love Halloween too, and I’m sure the Tricker Treaters love seeing Casper!
I will have try your Carrot Cake recipe, it looks delicious!!
I’ve always wanted to make cider donuts! These look fabulous!
Those Apple Cider donuts looks scrupmtious! I could smell them baking through the computer screen! I miss living in New England where we would get these at the ready this time of year. Now in CA, i have to travel a bit to get them. Would love to win!
Thanks for sharing!
We already had 5” of snow, but have had some nice fall weather since then.
Oh it sounds lovely at your place. We are still on the hot side now dealing with Nestor (not much of a storm). I have never made doughnuts before. You have inspired me to give it a try. I am going to try to find a way to make them without a doughnut pan. So glad your wrist is getting better.
Happy Fall,
Edie
A lovely respite in the midst of a busy day! As always – thank you Susan! Hugs from the west coast! Nancy D.
As usual, you make my heart sing! Finishing up the binding on my flannel pumpkin 🎃 quilt and your post just makes life all the more joyful!
Xoxoxoxo
Jena
Love donuts! Would love to make them! Would love to win the drawing!
Carin from Central California
Oh the idea of homemade donuts sounds wonderful! A friend told me to make my cakes a day ahead and freeze them. Then frost them while they are frozen. The frosting goes on easily and there are no crumbs!
Isn’t autumn just the best time of year? There are so many pretty colors, the air is fresh and cool, and feasts are being planned! The donuts sound delicious!
Hope springs eternal! Count me in, please, Vanna!
Hugs to you, Susan ~ So happy for your healing wrist. Thanks, as ever, for your delightful posting and photos. Happy Autumn! 🍁🍂💕
Dear Susan,Glad to see you are able to paint again! You must have missed it?
The donuts look delicious 😋 Happy Fall! ❤️
♥ Loved your blog post, dear Sue! So Autumn! xoxo peg
Cozy autumn. Two of my favorite things. Thank you for celebrating the simple and beautiful things in life. You bring inspiration and happiness.
I think Autumn is the most beautiful season and your home reflects the cozy warmth of this time of year. Always uplifting, your blogs are a treasure to read.
Thank you Barbara!
Nothing says Autumn like Cider Doughnuts! Glad you’re feeling better.
Susan,
Fall is my favorite time of year, well at least until Christmas comes and the Christmas magic overtakes me! My husband’s favorite cake is carrot cake. I will have to get out your cookbook “The heart of the home” and make one during our very rainy, windy northwest days.Thank you for the lovely pictures of Fall on Martha’s Vineyard and reminding us all how lovely your “piece of the world” is. Happy Halloween!!
I was introduced to apple cider donuts when my son lived in upstate New York and we don’t have them out here in Washington so I’d love to make them. Your blog is always so uplifting. We seem to love all the same things!
Kindred spirits!
Celebrating that you are painting again!! So happy that your wrist is getting more and more well by the moment and cooperating with your gift of creating beauty! Happy autumn! Oh, by the way, we have plenty of delicious cider doughnuts in Kansas — come visit!
What a wonderful blog. Thank you. So happy that your wrist is healing so well. The donuts look amazing. Nothing keeps you down! You are an inspiration to all girlfriends❤️
Love this time of year! So much fun!
I love your descriptions of fall on MV and the cider donuts will make a welcome addition to cool fall days…. no matter where you live! Thank you for the uplift and new recipe!❤️
You have a beautiful way of getting me in the spirit of whatever season it is. Thank you!!
Love er ly…can almost taste the donuts…t’would be better making them with your recipe
In that beautiful donut pan. Thanks you for the wonderful photo’s…made me feel like I was right there…thanks for the get-away. Blessings to you
Oh my goodness Susan! Homemade donuts! They look fabulous, and I would sure love that donut pan-I have been a fan of yours forever, and have most of your books and just love your yearly calendar. Enjoy your October-wonderful time of year!
Oh these donuts look awesome. Thanks for the chance to win. Baking is my new hobby ans making donuts would be a first for me
Looks so yummy and screams “stop in for a visit. I have donuts!”
Good!!
Listening to your Musica, looking at your lovely photos, thinking of fall and leaves and rain and fire, when here I am in California with 80 degrees and prediction of 90s in a few days. Thanks for bringing a bit of fall to us in your old state! Your posts are a treasure, any season of the year! I would love to be in the drawing for your donut pans. My mouth was watering as I watched you making them! Happy Fall!
I hope you get a little fall this year. I used to find a bit of it driving through the rolling hills of grape vines …
Those apple cider donuts look so delish. I’ve never tried to make donuts because I don’t want to fry them and waste oil, but this looked simple. I would love to try them in those marvelous pans.
Your desciption is so well done that I can almost taste those donuts!!! Mmmm. Love your blog and I love fall!
Yum, yum – the donuts sound delish! Have made them in the oven before but these sound extra special.
You know what I really like about your blogs? All the little lines of poetry that you sprinkle here and there!
Love hearing that!
You play Mahjong, too?? Cider Doughnuts sound like a great thing to have with Mahj!
They loved it!
My husband and I first had cider doughnuts while on our honeymoon in New England nearly 32 years ago. They were magical and we had never had anything like them before. What a treat. The apple press was massive and the fresh cider was glorious. What a delightful memory to have on this blustery Fall day. Thank you!
The donuts sound yummy! And love all your beautiful table settings
Loved listening to Dean Martin! I feel like I can always hear a smile in his voice when he sings! Thank you for another comforting, inspiring blog post. And this one was literally mouth-watering too with those donuts! I’m excited to try making them. Happy Halloween to you and yours – and darling Casper!
I hear that smile too!
I’ve never made doughnuts and these look so delicious!
Susan,
You play Mahjong, too? Cider doughnuts sound like an excellent thing to share with my Mahj group!
I think I’m more popular now!😅
Yes please include my name for the donut drawing. I’m so glad to see you are able to paint again. I’m the one who wrote to you on Instagram about my daughter in college with the broken wrist. She’s out of her cast but in a very high tech molded plastic splint, which much to her delight, she is allowed to take off in the shower!!! It’s the little things that make such a difference. Best of extremely quick recovery thoughts for both of you.
I had that too. She will grow to hate it.🤣 Don’t tell her I said that!
Oh, those donuts look delicious. My daughter adores apple spice donuts so your giveaway would make a delightful gift for her.
Have a happy autumn!
They look so yummy, my grandchildren would
love them
Oh MY!!! would love to win this time! We get Edible magazine here too. It’s called Edible WOW (for the Detroit counties – Wayne, Oakland and Washtenaw) and I pick it up whenever I see it. I attend chef dinners from Edible WOW. Wish I could read that magazine, while eating warm homemade cake donuts!! 🙂 “Pick me” she said. 🙂 Loved your post, as always, glad you are recuperating and back to painting, and back to partying!
Glad your wrist is better and you can paint again! 😊
Autumn is the best!! Thank you so much for your encouraging posts, they always make me feel better & inspired.
You always provide some “soul salve” – an antidote to the events of the week. I enjoyed this whole roasting a pork loin with lovely root vegetables, and homemade applesauce on the stove. Love to celebrate the seasons and your writings are a reminder to feed the soul. Thanks for staying in the fray but reminding us all to brake for seasons and friends.
Putting something in the oven is balm to the soul. xoxo
So glad you are well on your way to recovery. Lovely post…..I can smell the donuts!😊
So glad you’re on the mend! Happy Fall!🍁🍂🦃🍂🍁
I adore doughnuts but have never tried making them. Is this about to change?
Donuts, floating leaves, fires, reading, blankets, pumpkins, snuggling in! What says Fall better than just a few of these wonderful things! ~Linda
Usually we buy donuts for our Christmas tree cutting but this year I’ll be sure to make these! Judy
I. Love. This.
I can just imagine the yummy smell of the doughnuts baking. I haven’t made them in forever, but that used to be one of the things we’d do in the fall when our kids all lived at home- make all kinds of doughnuts one evening. Baking doughnuts sounds a bit healthier, and less messy!
Fall has definately arrived, with fires in the fireplace, the Geese flying south, and our new maples turning all gorgeous colors.
Those donuts! And the pictures! I’ve had three donut fails this year…I hope your recipe brings luck, and tasty donuts for my sons! 🙂 Thank you for your bright, comforting work!
I don’t think these can fail! Fingers crossed Reina!