Family | Our weekend farm visit with the cousins + Apple Cider Doughnuts

It's October! I've happily welcomed back my favorite pumpkin recipes and Sunday roasts for dinner.  Throw blankets have been unpacked and midday pumpkin lattes have replaced my iced coffees.  The leaves are just beginning to change and my boys are inside by 7:00 at night because it's too dark to stay out.  After an unbearably hot summer, the return of autumn and all it brings is even more appreciated than normal. This weekend my brother and his family were in town for a quick visit so we did the quintessential fall activity and visited a farm.  Corn mazes, hayrides, fresh cider and caramel apples with plenty of space to run and play made for a fun day.  We went to Blooms and Berries Farm in Loveland, just the right amount of fun yet still charming and authentic feeling.  Here are a few pictures from our day.

^^the whole gang.  maybe the only picture we have with all of us in it!  Of course Charlie and Carter are hamming it up. :) ^^

^^And with the fresh cider we bought, I made Smitten Kitchen's Apple Cider Doughnuts.  They are the BEST cider doughnuts I've ever eaten.  I have such an aversion to frying food, so I dabbled with  many baked doughnut recipes the last couple years in the hopes to achieve doughnuts like these, but alas, frying is sometimes necessary.  I made the recipe as written but had to add quite a bit more flour to have the dough come together.  Also, I used canola oil for frying (my aversion to shortening is even bigger than my aversion to frying.  Just can't do it.  I have a degree in nutrition for goodness sakes! :)) and I used a Dutch oven instead of a deep fryer.  These will become a new October tradition for sure.  They would be just perfect to share with friends at a pumpkin carving party.^^