Farewell, Summer Lobster Feast and Hello, Fall Apple Butter Pancakes!

Though school started weeks ago and the weather has been working hard to convince us that fall had arrived, it was still officially summer through this weekend. Being our final summer before the kids’ school schedules steals our freedom– I mean, change our routine– for the next few decades, we decided we wanted to do something special to honor this change in the seasons. So, we snuck away to the cottage for the weekend with friends, spent the final sunny afternoon of summer with our toes in the sand, and wrapped up the day with a fabulous feast of homemade lobster mac and cheese and glasses of bubbly! Sometimes in life you’ve just got to go big, right?!

Mother Nature brought her best and the sun was shining brilliantly all day. It truly could not have been more beautiful on the Oregon Coast!

Not so sure about Cole’s catching form just yet, but he sure has mastered the enthusiasm!

There aren’t many photos of our meals, because we were far too interested in eating!

We welcomed fall with stacks of pancakes drenched in homemade apple butter! I had it bubbling away on the stove all morning, filling the air with the sweet and spicy aromas of autumn.

I don’t use an exact recipe for our apple butter, but it goes a little something like this:

• 4 C applesauce (homemade or store bought)
• 6 T butter (we use salted)
• 1/4 C tightly packed brown sugar (you may need to add more if your applesauce is very tart)
• 1-2 tsp cinnamon (to taste)

Put all ingredients into a sauce pan over medium-low heat and let it simmer for 2-3 hours, until the mixture thickens and turns a rich amber color. Stir occasionally. Do your best not to eat it all straight from the pan. Serve warm over pancakes or waffles, along with a little drizzle of real maple syrup. There’s no tastier way to welcome the fall!

To work off a bit of the indulgent meals we’d been enjoying, we spent the rest of the morning hiking all over the hill near the cottage. We fished for rocks in puddles, searched for mushrooms, picked the last lingering blackberries, and made it back to the cottage just as it began to rain.

Love, love, love this little slice of heaven right here! It’s definitely looking like fall on the Oregon Coast.

Celebrating the seasons has always brought our family such joy! These celebrations give us so much to look forward to each year, as well as the excitement of building new traditions together. It is definitely safe to say that we would be happy to bid summer farewell with lobster mac and cheese every year from now on! Does your family do anything special to usher seasons in and out? We’d love to hear about it! The comments section is below =).