My favorite time of the year, without a doubt, is Fall. The leaves, colors, football games, pumpkins, warm weather food, the first time you where a sweater, Halloween, ahh, all of it!

So recently on a mini-trip back to my hometown of Basking Ridge, NJ, I went apple picking with my two childhood friends. For all intensive purposes let’s name these two little ones, Jessica

Apple Pecan Crumb Pie

, for her affinity to all things Jessica Simpson (don’t ask) and Pippi Longstocking (because she named her dog Mr. Neilson after Pippi’s pet monkey, again don’t ask).

So there I was roaming the beautiful apple trees of New Jersey (don’t judge, I swear there are nice parts) at Whitman’s Farm. The Lodi, Zestar, Ginger Gold, Dandy Red, Cortland, Honeycrisp, all the apples you could imagine! While Jessica and Pippi decided that throwing rotten apples and walking Mr. Neilson (the dog) through the rows and rows of trees more important than sampling and gathering, I thought about the wonderful pie I’d be making come afternoon.

Trekking out in our Hunter boots the three of us had successfully collected quite a bunch and in turn created quite a pie. The secret is the crumb topping my mother taught me, but instead of the traditional crumb components, I added Pecans, which reminded me of my falls during college in North Carolina. Either way it’s pure Fall perfection. Recipe to follow!