As the weather starts to turn from balmy to brisk, how do you gear up for fall? Do you go on a pumpkin-picking pilgrimage? Do you exclusively drink Pumpkin Spice Lattes? Do you stock up on sweaters? Or do you just hibernate until it's warm again?
Well, the 3rd Hour of TODAY hosts fully embrace it, filling up their homes with seasonal decor and the smell of festive, fresh-baked goods.
Al Roker enjoys apple-picking with his family when the weather starts to change. "It's something we've been doing since my first little girl, Courtney, was, gosh, like 5 years old," he says. "The same orchard, Hilltop Orchards in Richmond, Massachusetts."
But the best part of apple-picking, he says, is the apple cider doughnuts. But after you've had a dozen, what do you do with the rest?
Al transforms the almost-stale doughnuts into a cinnamon-scented apple cider doughnut bread pudding — which is actually a recipe from his daughter Courtney.
While some folks deck their homes with Christmas decor, Sheinelle Jones prefers to spread fall cheer on her dinner table with gourds of all sizes and autumn leaf-colored accents — and it only takes a couple minutes.
"I'm inspired by my mom," she says. "When I was little, every year, she would just change the table settings."
Dylan Dreyer, like Al, goes straight to the apple orchard with her family when fall arrives, bringing home the fruits of her labor (so to speak) to make her signature apple crisp when she gets home —and she always tops it off with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.
"I make it every single year. Calvin and I made it over the weekend," says Dylan. "It's my go-to. It makes it feel like fall."
Craig, on the other hand, prefers pumpkin-picking with his family, and instead of baking with his haul, he and his wife Linsday prefer to paint them with their young kids Delano and Sibby.
"My wife spearheads it — I just kind of watch," he admits.
