It’s a toss up as to whether my favorite season is fall or summer. I do know that summer fades into hot, sweaty and mosquito-infested, whereas fall starts off with beautiful Indian summer days and crisp nights and has it’s wonderful finale with Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season. Fall definitely has that going for it!

I am ready to get out the sweaters, start cooking some harvest-inspired dishes and, my kids’ favorite part, start decorating for the season. (Now if the darn leaves would just start turning here!)  This year, like everyone else, we have one eye on the stock market (goodbye retirement), and another on the rising prices of everything. Decorating is fun, but it can get expensive. One way to lighten up the cost is to decorate from the grocery aisles and then eat your decorations!

I went shopping the other day and took some extra time in the produce section, looking for foods that would be tasty and decorative. It wasn’t hard at all. Here’s what I found:

On top is a mix of colored grapes and on the bottom are a few different varieties of pears (I love the red Bartlett ones), apples, pomegranates and avocados. I snipped a few mum blossoms from my garden to add some flair. You could also use gorgeous fall-colored leaves, you know, if you live somewhere where the leaves have started to turn. (Hurumph.) [Read more...]