Well, it’s finally here: OCTOBER! October is probably my favourite month, tied with December. Both months I love, for obvious reasons – the holidays! I am a Thanksgiving nut and also have a soft spot for Halloween! It is seriously one of the best months for cooking, baking, decorating, crafting, all sorts of good times. Not to mention that this is the month baby Girl will be joining us! She will be a holiday lover crafter just like her momma too!

In honour of this awesome time of year, I wanted to share some favourites out of my kitchen. Most are classics but I have stumbled upon some real gems. It pretty much all came from William Sonoma!

Five Apple Cider – I found it very difficult to justify paying $18.95 for Apple Cider however after doing some research, it was not such a bad investment. First reason being, Apple Cider (the real good thick stuff) is surprisingly very challenging to locate. At least in my neighbourhood it is. I searched everywhere! I eventually found a pretty good one – at Walmart of all places! Unfortunately the Walmart one was not concentrate so you plough through it just like regular juice, doesn’t last too long. Which brings me to the second reason of why the William Sonoma brand is a goody – its concentrate! Essentially that means you only add a small portion to water and it goes way farther. Not to mention it’s delicious taste! You get what you pay for.

Mulling Spices – Okay slightly torn here. The Mulling Spices, when heated on stovetop, not only make your house smell seasonally divine, but when added to the cider, simply send you off to Fall Scented Heaven. That being said, these ones are a teensy bit pricey. You could very easily make your own. If you are a crafty one too, there are many adorable packaging techniques that you could DIY and give away as presents! I think I may do this in miniature mason jars for the holiday season. Everyone loves receiving some good ol’ Mulling Spice right?!

Cranberry Sauce – Now to each their own, but personally I like to make my own cranberry sauce. It is a bit of a tradition with my girlfriend Maria. Our first year, we decided to add rum to the mixture (the recipe recommended it!). We then proceeded to drink a lot of rum and I can’t quite remember how the rest of the sauce making day went. A success I am sure! Due to her having 3 babies over the years gone by, and me now preggo with my first, rum has been absent for our cranberry sauce days since. Hopefully at Christmas time we can spice things up again! Funnily enough, I do not even like cranberry sauce on my turkey. I just like making it and canning it into little mason jars and giving it to my friends and family as presents!

Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Pancake & Waffle Mix – bit of a mouthful today and an even better mouthful to eat! I think it just goes without even saying this flavour is to die for. I will say that obviously homemade is always better but for a mix, you can’t beat this one. The festive flavours make it a huge party for your pallet.

Stuffing – I think Stuffing could really be its own food group. I will often make it on the regular and serve it for dinner with roast chicken and gravy. Who doesn’t love stuffing! I like to make homemade every Thanksgiving and then have some stovetop as a back up because everyone else at the table loves stuffing too. This packet is on the large side and definitely enough to feed a small army – aka my family’s appetites during the holiday season.

I hope ya’ll enjoyed reading about these holiday favourites. I will be sure to share some success recipes that I discover over the next couple weeks, as well as our cranberry sauce making due to go down this weekend, sans rum of course. Cheers from my kitchen to yours friends!