Sugar & Spice by Celeste

  You won't find any tricks here today...only treats!  Hopefully your costumes are ready and bowls of candy wait by the front door in preparation for tonight's festivities. I've seriously been craving something baked with apples and cinnamon lately, thanks to the arrival of my very favorite season.  Fall, I heart you. This bread was fabulous.  It was perfectly sweet, packed with fresh apples and delightfully cinnamon-y.  It's easy to make and will infuse your entire home with delicious wafts of goodness. I repeat, delicious wafts of goodness, people.  :) It was hard for us to wait until the photos were taken before devouring this loaf.  You'll love it, too!  The next time I bake this (and there WILL be a next time!) I'm thinking about mixing the apples throughout the batter before it goes into the loaf pan, and then using the technique below to create the cinnamon/sugar swirl.  I think the bread would be equally fantastic...

Well, my food photography studio is finally back up and running after a short hiatus following our move...I'm so excited to get the blog posts flowing again.  I've even got a window in the studio that has gorgeous natural light, so I'm looking forward to experimenting with that. This delicious seafood dinner graced our table last night.  Shrimp & Grits has long been a favorite of ours, but I love recipes that put a new twist on stand-by favorites.  The sweet potato grits are what originally caught my attention.   I used an apple-smoked gouda cheese in the grits, which paired with the mashed sweet potatoes perfectly.  It gave the grits a wonderfully cheesy, smoky flavor, and the sweet potatoes infused the grits with super food nutrients. This is an easy dish to prepare and left us plenty of time to enjoy our new fire pit after dinner.  My sweet hubby built a fire pit for me recently, and we love spending time around it roasting marshmallows...

I promise I haven't completely fallen off the blogosphere!  This year has been insanely crazy on so many levels.  In July, we moved into a new home, so we've been busy setting up house and decorating.  I'll have to share some photos of my new kitchen with you in my next post.   Because of all the packing, moving and disarray, my food photo studio has yet to be re-assembled in the new house.  It's coming VERY soon, though!  Then, I'll be back up and running in full force.  Because you know what?  I've missed you guys! :) Throughout all the moving chaos, my nieces and I have carried on our tradition of Sunday morning breakfast goodies after a sleep-over.  One such morning involved Purple (err, Blackberry!) Pancakes and hand-picked knock-out roses from the new garden.  I thought I'd have some fun and change up my favorite Buttermilk Pancake recipe with some chopped blackberries.  They added such a terrific color, that t...