Fall is in the air!

Today it definitely feels like fall. The air is crisp and the clouds outside are so dense it feels like our entire town is under heavy wool blanket. Tomorrow my in laws are taking us out apple picking. This is my favorite event of the season (well till Halloween)!

We will spend hours picking the apples with the cherry pickers (and of course sampling) while my father in law plays amateur photographer. Then on our way out we grab some early cider and fresh made cider donuts. If you have never had cider donuts then I feel bad for you, these things are amazing. They are at least 40% of the fun...I sure hope the orchard hasn't started a PPC campaign and they run out of donuts before we get there lol.

Tomorrow night when I get home I am going to make some apple crisp and freeze it for when my dad makes his annual fall visit. Here is one of my favorite apple crisp recipes, if you are diabetic then you can either cut the white sugar in half or try making it with Splenda.

INGREDIENTS:
3 pounds tart apples
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup rolled oats
4 tablespoons cold butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
PREPARATION:
Peel, core and chop apples, toss in a bowl with lemon juice to prevent darkening. In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg; stir into apples. Set aside.
In another bowl combine flour, sugar and oats. Cut butter into 8 pieces, and cut butter into flour until mixture looks like crumbs. Stir in nuts. Butter a 10 X 10-inch baking dish. Spread apples in bottom of baking dish then sprinkle with flour mixture. Bake at 375° for 30 to 45 minutes, or until apples are tender and topping is lightly browned. Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream.

What A Girl Wants

The new marketing hype is that women buy more cars, and have a larger influence in the car buying process then ever before, but what does that really mean to a dealership? Search Engine Marketers are driving tons of high quality traffic to your website but how do you convert them?

Women buy relationships as much as they buy cars. I remember when my now husband and I were looking for my car I was that salesman's best friend. At every point of contention that my husband offered I countered for the salesman even though it was costing us money! Why? I liked him. He was a little on the cute side and didn't talk to me like I was a "girl". He answered my questions directly and didn't seem bored with us. Now a few years later I hate my car but I would still buy from that same sales guy again.

Another thing women want is safety. We want proof that the car we are buying is going to be safe to put our loved ones in. Most guys think we care more about color (well OK sometimes we do.... burnt orange is *NOT* the new black) then we do about anything else. We can have pretty colors in our home where our children won't be flying down the street at 60 miles an hour separated by just tires and some fiberglass. We would like to go to your website and get all the information we need (safety ratings, community posting area where we can ask information questions, price, color, options, contact us forms) quickly and without a high pressure sales pitch. Oh and if you can share Gram's recipe for monkey rolls that would be great too :)