Mr. Lemon and I had a few friends over for Sunday dinner recently and I created a fall tablescape and dessert table for the occasion.  In general, I am much more likely to decorate for Fall as a season than Halloween and Thanksgiving specifically, so everything I used here works well through both holidays and Mr. Lemon was pretty excited when I told him I planned to keep much of it up, so I guess that means it’s approved!  I wanted to focus on natural elements, so mini pumpkins, gourds and green apples took center stage.  I also used acorns from our backyard as vase filler and dried curly willow for height on both tables.  A few color coordinated pieces of scrapbook paper were used for leaves in the wine glasses and an anchor for the centerpiece.  Burlap placemats added additional texture on the dining table.  One of my favorite details were the place cards made by adding flags on the end of caramel apple sticks.  Adding a single sticker letter onto each flag marked the person’s seat – simple and cute!

For dinner, we had green leaf salad with tomatoes and dressing and individual chicken pot pies made with our new pie press.  I found the Nordic Ware Pocket Pie Mold at Target for a mere $5 and after one use, it’s already become a kitchen utensil favorite.  Since we had a bit of leftover dough but no more pot pie filling, Mr. Lemon filled two more mini pies with berry preserves from the fridge – they turned out delicious!

Not that we really needed to add anything to our dessert menu!  We’d kept the dinner menu light so that everyone would have room for dessert, starting with our new favorite cookie.  The new cookie of choice at our house is Oatmeal with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries, known as Hooty Cakes. The first time I made these, I thought the recipe was titled “Hooty Cakes,” but after we’d been calling them that for about a week, I looked at the recipe again and realized they were actually called Hootycreeks.  Neither name makes much sense to me, but there you have it!  Hooty Cakes made their way onto our dessert table by Mr. Lemon’s popular demand!  I also tried my hand at Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Frosting for the first time…so yummy!  I need to be on the lookout for a smaller ice cream scoop (with a trigger), because these turned out quite massive, but very delicious.  Some miniature apple pies and individual apple juices rounded things out nicely.

To coordinate the dessert table with the main table, I used more gourds, mini pumpkins and apples.  The pumpkins and apples were also a nod to the flavors for two of the desserts, so I set a pumpkin with the whoopie pies and an apple with the mini pies.  Height is so useful for dessert tables, and I was excited to use a few vintage suitcases that we own in this setup.  The brown suitcase I’ve had since I was a little girl and the green suitcase is one of a set that resides in Mr. Lemon’s office.  I also scattered a few scrapbook leaves on this table and added a white ceramic owl for a nod to Halloween (plus I’m kind of in love with this little guy right now!).

We had a great night with our friends and – bonus! – our fall holiday decorating is all set!