Baby Food

The newest baby of Luke's family was visiting NY from Vermont so Luke's aunt had a dinner gathering last Sunday!

The baby is like 3 months old and he was so freakin cute!

Let me just preface by saying that Luke's mom and her sister can COOK! Every time these ladies cook, I know I'm gettin' sumthin' GOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

Chicken Scarpariello
(Holy ish, this was so good with all the sausage chunks and stuff...)

Pasta with Peas and Parmesan


Garlic Bread



And for the GRAND FINALE! The desserts! Yes, there were two and I had both...

Guess...







It's Key Lime Pie... and the Limes were grown on her own little tree! Which is now in the garage... :-)

and Chocolate Pecan Pie

My slice:



Welcome to this world, Kal!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had two Thanksgiving meals today! The first one was Japanese and the second one was a traditional American one! I am so full right now... I feel like I'm going to VOM! But every bite was so worth it...

So at my mom's we just had a bunch of stuff including salads, tonkatsu, and shabu shabu...

Cheese and crackas of course!

Sauteed Green Beans, Squid, and Shrimp

Watercress and Poached Chicken (Ponzu Dressing)

Carrots and Cucumber (Mustard, Vinegar, and Oil)

Nimono with Egg, Bamboo Shoots, Lotus Root, Konnyaku, Snap Peas, Shiitake, Carrots, and Daikon

THE BIG OL' PLATE! *Notice the tonkatsu and cabbage!
Then the main dish... (it kinda looks like ish but it was awesome!)

Shabu Shabu (communal hotpot... you cook your own thinly sliced pork and beef!)
And dessert... nice and refreshing after a big ass meal...

Coffee Jelly with Evaporated Milk and Vermont Maple Syrup

Then the American dinner at Luke's!

Of course the Turkey!

Cranberry Sauce

Cauliflower with Garlic and Raisins (and some other stuff I forgot!)

Onions in a Cream Sauce with Bacon (this was my favorite!)

Beets and Canneloni Beans (Luke's mom roasted the beets herself!)

Yams with Streusel Topping

Stuffing with Sausage and Cranberries

Rolls.

And the BIG OL' PLATE! (I was still so full but everything was so good I kept eating!)

And for dessert, which I am waiting for my stomach to make room for at this time, there is Pumpkin Flan which I didn't get a picture of, and Apple, Blackberry and Pear Cobbler...

From Thanksgiving!

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope everyone had a great day!

"You Are The Apple Of My Eye"

...said the 6 year old boy I babysit. "It's my favorite idiom!"

When did they start teaching kids about idioms in first grade?!

Anyways, for me, apples represent fall, obviously because of apple picking... which then lead to apple cider... and apple cider donuts... and the other delicious stuff that apple farm market places make.

Me, Luke, and his mom went to Wright's Farm in Gardiner, NY. Super coincidentally, Luke used to live in the house right next door right after he graduated college! We creepily took pictures!


The first thing we did was eat donuts. Obviously.

...and I was ready to go home. LOL u mad.. jk!

We then waited for like an hour for the bathroom. And finally gots to apple pickin'!


They had Golden Delish.

Red Delish.

And Empires.

Not the best selection of apples, but it was fun nonetheless.

It was a gorgeous day... it was right after the week of cold and rainy days, so the cloudless skies and 80 degree weather was a very nice surprise!


They even had live music!
And after we picked, we went back to the market where we bought a number of pumpkins (which will have it's own post because our carvings were that awesome!), jams, applesauces, cookies, etc.
And here are some other pictures!

Rotten!

A wilting, little-bit dried up sunflower.



How hot is he?!

We drove into New Paltz, where Luke went to school and we made a few pit stops... We went to a little mountainy area, and we also went to a lake.

Gorgeous?

We were gonna go to some German restaurant but there was a 40 minute wait so we instead drove into the town of New Paltz and stopped at Yanni, a little Greek place.


We ordered some apps and entrées...

"Fried" Eggplant and Zucchinni (A little misleading... we thought it was breaded/deep-fried). It was delicious though!

Sausage... it was almost like a meatloaf consistency so it wasn't like "sausage" sausage, but remember that I do love meatloaf!

Another eggplant dish... it was sauteed with a tomatoey sauce... delish!

I got a Gyro which was good... it wasn't like OMG THE BEST GYRO! but it was good.

Luke got a Chicken Souvlaki Sandwich. I don't know how it was but he seemed content!

And Luke's mom got Moussaka. I think I just LOVE eggplant and anything that has it as an ingredient!

They had a scary giant container of salt. It was diesel.



Wright's Farm (orchard, market, bakery)
699 State Route 208
Gardiner, NY, 12525
Phone: (845)-255-5300
Fax: (845)-255-5301

Yanni Cafe
51 Main Street
New Paltz, NY 12561
Phone: (845)-256-0988

Happy Birthday, Shumai!

Happy Birthday Luke!
My baby's 28 years old! He's getting ollllllllllldddddd, but he looks mad young! We like to pull the good ol' "How old do you think I am" shanannigan when we get cigarettes... the CVS employees don't enjoy but we still get a kick out of it!

His mom cooked a seriously DOPE dinner: an Italian Chicken Cordon Bleu, Potatoes au Gratin, Carrots, Asparagus, Lard Bread, and a homemade dessert TBA



Here's the cute little set-up...

Notice the cute placemats!

Carbo-load!

Here's surprise within the Carbo... mmmmmmmmm

Potato-load!

We had a whole conversation on the benefits of Carrots!

Aspergras! My favorite!

Don't even get me started....

Grueyere+Proscuitto=Creaaaaaammmmmmm
X 2

after a quick run to shoprite for creamer, the birthday boy blew out the candles!

or did he?
They were the trick ones that you can't blow out! And as we were all laughing that Luke was trying so hard to blow it out, when it came time to cut the cake, we noticed there were ashes all over the cake hahaha...

Before dinner being teased by the beautiful homemade cake:



YAY! Time to eat it!


Everything was so damn good... I've been meaning to blog about Luke's mom's food but I always end up stuffing my face before I realize that I should've taken pictures. So I guess this is a perfect introduction to her cooking... It was fabulous Mary Kate! Thank you so much (for this and every other meal that you've made, which is every night haha)!

CORN BABIES!