Mmm, Food

We had an excellent dinner and dessert tonight comprised of one new recipe (Curried Pear Chicken) and one tried and true (a pumpkin roll). The chicken dish came from our Eating Well cookbook and involved a sauce of shallots, white wine, chicken broth, cilantro, mint and coconut milk along with a sliced Bartlett pear. The fruity sweetness combined with the cilantro is an incredible taste reminiscent of the Chicken Tagine that we love. (That recipe uses prunes and cilantro). The sauce was so delicious I might double the sauce ingredients next time. It would be nice to have had more to mix with the brown rice that we served with it. The pumpkin roll is a neat looking dessert that is easier to make than it seems, and the taste is thoroughly fall-ish. I wonder if what we think of as "pumpkin" flavor actually comes from the pumpkin itself, or just from all the delicious spices we add, like cloves and cinnamon. In any case, it tastes delicious!

Hacklebarney

Well we did indeed embark upon an adventure to Hacklebarney Orchard today. It was so much fun! Chester is a beautiful wooded area and it was a charming cider mill with shady spots to sit, a little store, and lots of cute dogs running around. We watched a couple guys pressing the apples and got to see the various stages of how the cider is made. The mushy ground apples that go into the press look rather icky, but the end result is delicious! It was interesting to see the apple pulp that gets leftover at the end. It looks like apple cardboard. :) We had a fantastic lunch under the trees of cider hot dogs with sauerkraut cooked with apples on top and cider baked beans. We of COURSE had to go into the store and get cider donuts as well! We also bought some of their homemade cider and fig jam and apples from their orchard. Cider is the quintessential taste of fall for me. I forgot how delicious it is. We enjoyed petting the doggies and then journeyed a half mile further down the road to check out Hacklebarney State Park. It was a nice area with walking trails, small waterfalls and picnic/grilling areas by the creek. We decided it would be great to go back sometime and have lunch or dinner there. Just to walk through the woods and smell that amazing forest smell reminded me so much of home and felt very therapeutic. A wonderful Labor Day weekend day trip!