Happy FIRST DAY OF FALL, everyone!

Oh, I LOVE Fall! And while it’s kinda hard to tell here in Florida that today IS the first day of my favorite season, I AM thankful that it doesn’t feel like I’m breathing soup when I walk the dog at 5:30 in the morning anymore. (It’s the little things!) The weather will make greater strides soon enough.

As is customary, just before Fall begins, I choose five recipes from my Fabulous Fall board over on Pinterest (CLICK HERE if you want to follow it!) that I pin to all year long to test! Here’s what I chose this year:

Drooling yet?

Clockwise from top right: Loaded Sweet Potato Slices, Vegetable Tian, Cheesy Chive Bread, Caramel Apple Dump Cake (with Spiced Whipped Cream) and Pumpkin Glazed Turkey Legs. (Photo credits to the blogs listed below!)

Let’s start off with the Loaded Sweet Potato Slices.

The original recipe came from Susie over at SusieQTpies Cafe – you can find it by CLICKING HERE – but I’ve modified it quite a bit. We’re big fans of loaded potato skins at our house, but in the FALL you just want SWEET potatoes, don’t you?!

Here’s how mine turned out..

I served them as appetizers, and I must say, they were AMAZING! My guests loved them! (And I ate the last 3 while cleaning up the kitchen later that evening!) I’ll certainly be making these again for some upcoming holiday parties! And you know what?! They’re PRETTY, too! (Okay, now I’M drooling!)

Okay, on to the Vegetable Tian. 

The original recipe came from Beth over at Budget Bytes – you can find it by CLICKING HERE – and of course my favorite thing about it was that it’s gluten-free! I didn’t modify anything from her version (and she gives fantastic step-by-step photos) so check it out! Here’s what mine looked like:

I didn’t take a photo of it while it was still lined up all perfect in the dish, but I LOVE the colors! If there’s one thing I would change about this one, it would be to season WELL. We felt like it could use a bit more, but it was still delish!

The Cheesy Chive Bread is next! 

The original recipe came from Peabody (that’s seriously her name – isn’t that fantastic?!) over at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody! You can find it by CLICKING HERE. I couldn’t test this one, as it is not gluten-free, but it was proclaimed a great dinner bread by my guests, who slathered on the butter and enjoyed! Here’s mine:

The consistency of a cornbread, and oh-so-easy to make and slice! 

Now for the Caramel Apple Dump Cake with Spiced Whipped Cream.

The original recipe came from Baked Bree over on Tablespoon – you can find it by CLICKING HERE – and was one of the easiest desserts I’ve ever made! So little work for so much gratification, I’m tellin’ ya. The only thing I changed was forgetting to garnish with the chopped pecans and caramel sauce, but that changed nothing about the taste, I promise! This was also a very cost-effective dessert to prepare, I might add. Mine…

It’s highly reminiscent of an apple cobbler with ice cream – but much richer! It was a HUGE hit with my tasters – the spiced whipped cream really sends it over the top!

And last but not least, the Pumpkin Glazed Turkey Legs.

The original recipe came from Carrie over at Bakeaholic Mama – you can find it by CLICKING HERE – and I’ve got to say that the glaze for these things was THE BOMB. I made the apple cider version, not the hard cider version, and I think the difference is the color at the end. Her hard cider version is a bit deeper than my apple cider version…but I can’t imagine the taste was that far off! 

Here’s one of mine…

I DID have to cook a bit longer than her recipe called for, but that might just be an oven thing. You’ll see I totally forgot to garnish, as well, but I served mine with an extra spoonful of the glaze, because it was so gosh darn GOOD!

So there you have it! This year’s Five for Fall!

Whatcha think? Planning on trying any of these yummies yourself?

Oh, I almost forgot about the SNEAK PEEK of our Fall Front Porch!

Do you remember at the start of the summer when I published a post called “Summer Improvements for your Whole House”? (You can CLICK HERE to check it out!) It was a lovely online magazine courtesy of Monkey Bar Storage with tons of ideas for freshening up your home for the summer! Well, coming soon is the Fall version! And the fine folks at Monkey Bar Storage asked to feature OUR decorated-for-Fall front porch in the guide! So exciting!

Never fear, I will publish the guide with all the pics and my write-up when it goes live, but until then…here’s a peek at what our porch looks like right now!

Okay, that’s all you get for now!

Is it starting to look like Fall at YOUR house?!

Due to the amount of comments from all of my wonderful readers, it is not always possible for me to respond to each one. However, I absolutely do read them all, and if you’d like to address something specific, or have a question for me, please don’t hesitate to email me at Kristen@theroadtodomestication.com. I will respond to your email as soon as possible! Thank you for visiting the blog!