Another Canadian Thanksgiving has come and gone and I can’t believe how quickly it crept up this year! I was so happy to be back on the East Coast to celebrate with my family this weekend, and while it was mild temperature wise, the leaves are in full bloom and it is beyond gorgeous. We had our turkey dinner on Sunday evening followed by a dessert party at my grandma’s house which consisted of homemade pumpkin pie, cranberry cheesecake, apple crisp and a lot of pumpkin beer. Needless to say, my heart and belly were pretty dang full. Typically, if I know I’m going to be eating a big meal later in the day, I don’t like to eat too much beforehand so I’ll lightly snack to keep my energy and health up leading to dinner time. This year, I thought that making a fall themed fruit tray would be the perfect, healthy way to fuel up before our massive turkey dinner and dessert feast. When coming up with this idea I attempted to research fall fruit trays and ended up not really fiding anything online. I feel like fruit trays tend to be very similar and summery and so I wanted to create something different that felt festive and seasonal. I went about making this by simply heading to our local grocers and browsed around the produce looking for fall colored fruits. I arranged my bounty accordingly on a rustic, wooden stump and simply added a caramel and ricotta based dip. The fruit tray turned out better than I had imagined it in my head and I just love how rustic and fall-esque it turned out, the colors even look like fall leaves!
- Apple, sliced
- Pear, sliced
- Oranges, sliced
- Grapes
- Figs, sliced
- Pomegranate
- Gooseberries
- Blackberries
- Cranberries (optional as they're quite tart but I actually enjoy a few!)
- Homemade or store bought caramel
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- About 10 blackberries
- Tsp honey
- Slice all ingredients and arrange them from largest to smallest around the fruit tray. I like to start with the oranges, then apples, pears, grapes, figs, pomegranate and then scatter the blackberries, gooseberries and cranberries over the top.
- Tip: Have a bowl of fresh lemon juice off to the side so that you can add your pears and apples to it before placing them on the fruit tray. This will stop the quick browning of those fruits.
- Blend all ingredients together and serve.
