There is just something about Fall in the South….

It’s the smell in the air when the weather is cool at night, but still scorching most days.  The kind of weather where you thinks it’s an awesome idea to wear your riding boots to work, but regret it terribly when your feet are on fire when you walk two blocks to lunch.

It’s the sounds of college football and tailgating at the crack-o-dawn for an evening game – with mimosas, screwdrivers, sausage balls, low country boil – but then not making it to the game because you were “over-served” with booze or food, or both… WHO CARES?!?

I JUST LOVE FALL…. I mean, absolutely, hard core love love love it.  I know it can bring about those pesky welcome back to school lice and the ragweed is enough to make your head want to explode, but the absolute fantabulousness of the season completely outweighs the negative.

I know that a lot of people love fall for football and cool weather and changing leaves, but here are some special things about fall that are important to me.

I figured it was appropriate to choose my 7 favorite things since my favorite South Carolina Gamecock football player wears the #7 jersey!

1) Salted Caramel Mocha from Starbucks

They’re back!!!!  Have you ever in your life wondered what it would taste like to melt a candy bar in a mug, spray whipped cream on top and sprinkle it with salt?

WONDER NO MORE.

I’m telling you this is the richest, most heavenly drink I have ever had in my entire life.  Sure, it may have more calories and fat grams than the USDA recommends for, well, like A LIFETIME… but HOLY HELL.  Worth every pound you pack on.

Do you think it’s a coincidence that Starbucks sends me a “free drink” card for my birthday?  And it’s in September?  Nope.  They love me.

2) My Ever-changing Seasonal Wine Selection

As the weather changes, so does my taste in wine.  I spend all spring and summer craving the crisp, light taste of my favorite St. Supery Sauvignon Blanc.  I CANNOT GET ENOUGH.

But as soon as the weather begins to cool at night, I want something with a little more weight… a little more substance.  I start craving a nice Chardonnay.  And let me tell you something!  After a whole summer of drinking Sauvignon Blanc or Prosecco, Chardonnay tastes like drinking butter.   Thick and creamy butter…  But it is thick and creamy butter that keeps me warm!

I may even take a chance and drink some Pinot Noir during the Fall.  It just feels right.

3) Fall Comfort Food

As if I need to remind you all, I LOVE FOOD.  There are some foods that just taste better in the Fall.  They fill your belly with all kinds of hot yumminess – which is why I think we wear so much clothes in the Winter.  It’s God’s way of apologizing to us for letting us eat so much good food that we gained 15 pounds in the Fall.  We then have to work our bottoms off (LITERALLY) all Spring to get ready for bathing suit weather!

These are two of my favorite dishes to cook and they compliment each other beautifully.  I have even combined the recipes and made a Black-eyed Pea and Collard soup (I personally think it was even better than what they sell at Whole Foods).  These two pots cooking are black-eyed peas with sausage and collard greens with ham hocks.

4) Tacky Yard Decor

It just would be Fall in the South without yard decor galore!!!  Hay stacks and pumpkins and Mums out the wazoo.  And if you are lucky enough, you can actually find Mums in the colors of your favorite football team!  Double points for that score!

In the South, we love a “vignette.”  It’s even just fun to say.  All around the inside of our homes we have vignettes – in the parlor, in the formal living room, in the formal dining room.  We love a little vignette.  During the Fall, we have a change to do small vignettes in our yard.  A little vignette of Fall around the light post out front, another little vignette by the back door.

5) Sun Porch Weather!!!!!

My sun porch is absolutely amazing.  For like two months a year.  Seriously, it is a great room – very relaxing and calming with a ton of windows that look out into the yard.  The problem is the sun porch has its own AC unit, which doesn’t work.  So the room is not functional for a majority of the year in North Carolina.  It could be useable in the winter, but the heat out there is electric and it does a MAJOR NUMBER on my power bill.

I plan to enjoy the porch for the next month until it gets too cold to sit out there.  Tonight, my sweet husband even offered to bring the big screen TV onto the sun porch so I could enjoy three of my FAVORITE things – the sun porch, wine and football.

He sure does love me….

It’s also an amazing place to write.  Even in this large home, I have a hard time finding my quiet space.  But this porch has become a little piece of solitude for me.  And Lord knows I need some solitude every once in a while.   It seems like over the past month it has been ONE THING AFTER ANOTHER.

6) Camellias

A close sixth would be the flower that I literally squealed about when I drove up the driveway today.  CAMELLIAS!!!  I live in a sixty year old home with a yard FULL of magnolia trees, camellia bushes, and azaleas.  And every fall I get so excited about the camellias blooming.

Although the blooms don’t last long, they are still a POP of color that is fun to have inside the house.

7) HOT CHOCOLATE STANDS!!!!

All summer long we have lemonade stand after lemonade stand.  The girls make a killing because they wait until they know the men are leaving the golf course for the afternoon and they strike while it’s hot.  They have learned the art of negotiation and sales so that when a customer pulls up and asks how much it is for a cup of lemonade, they say, “You name your price.”  The person ends up giving them a LOT MORE than $.50!

But during the Fall, we like to get wrapped up in our warm clothes and UGGs and sell hot chocolate as the golfers are GOING to play golf.  I thought it was a questionable concept before we did it for the first time, but then I realized that it was really working for them!

And if you click on the picture above, please notice my amazing fall vignette around the lamp post in the front yard… Yep, hay, pumpkins and mums!!!

So there you have it… my seven unconventional favorite things about Fall in the South.

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*** Edit – I have had some people email me regarding the recipes I use for my black-eyes peas and collards.  I have not found anything better than Emeril’s Smoked Sausage and Black-Eyed Peas.  ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! And some people are scared of collards because they think they stink up the house, but I use the Magnolia’s restaurant (in yummy Charleston, SC) collard green recipe.  I think it’s the vinegar or cooking them in chicken broth that makes them taste heavenly and they DO NOT stink up my house!  I highly recommend the Magnolia’s cookbook also…