I love a good Fall Festival. The cooler air, the smell of roasted popcorn or bbq cooking, seeing friends and embracing the small town charm of a festival.

So, grab your favorite fall scarf and adorable boots(I can't wait to wear again) and lets get out there.

Carolina Ballon Rally

October 20, 21, 22nd

Website-Carolina Ballon Fest

Carolina Renaissance Festival

September 30- November 19th

Website- Carolina Ren Fest

Harvest Folk 

FestivalSept 30-Oct 1

Website-Catawba History

Mayberry Days

Sept 19th-24th

Website-Surray Arts

Matthews Alive Festival

September 1-4th

Website- Matthews Alive

Hart Square Festival

October 28th(one day only and once a year)

Website-Hart Square

                              These are just a few of our favorite things to do this fall. 

           Do you have a festival you enjoy attending? Please leave details in the comments.

I have always adored Julia Child and watched her all the time growing up. On Tuesday August 15th she would have been 105 years old. She brought French cooking to Americans and it was a huge hit.

In honor of Julia's upcoming birthday, I attended a french cooking class with Heidi Billotto. Heidi is a culinary expert and she lives in Charlotte. Let me just say this woman knows her way around a kitchen. She is a wealth of knowledge, tips and skills about all types of cooking.

Before we started cooking, Heidi brought out champagne and we toasted Julia Child. What a cool way to honor her and let her know we still love her. We started with small appetizers and then moved on to the delicious main menu.



The menu was so Julia featuring Classic French Onion Soup( my favorite),Classic Cheese Souffles(first time eating this and yummy), Julia Child's French Roast Chicken, Julia Childs Cog au Vin, French Almond Chocolate creme tart. A group of people were in attendance and we all jumped in and started prep work under Heidi's guidance.

Heidi likes to use local products from local farmers and if she can't find local she goes with organic.
The taste was amazing as we had ducks eggs which are bigger than a regular egg. We used fresh chicken from the local farmer's market and some of the most amazing spices I have ever tasted, the recipes called for cheese and a lot of it. My last meal request, may just be cheese.