"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!