Girls Wine Weekend Part Two

Day two of wine weekend! which was arguably the best part of the weekend, the actual wine tour!

(again thanks to Kylee for pictures)
First, I should back up a little bit to Friday night when Sara, Caitlin and Abby arrived, yay! and we got to surprise Abby with a bachelorette celebration.

Surprise!

 The dogs were very interested in Abby's gifts:

The next day we got up bright and early to set out on our wine tour, we rented a sweet mini-van so we could all ride together; we were ready to go! 

We did a Cayuga Lake Wine trail because it was reasonably close to our house and why spend more time in the car when you can spend it chugging tasting wine? I did a fair amount of research and set an itinerary that would allow us to visit several different types of wineries, eat lunch at a reasonable time and not be in the car too much.  I was also responsible for the lovely binders/folders/packets/brochures you see in the picture above.  I wanted the girls to 1. know what the plan was 2. have a place to take notes on tastings and 3. have a souvenir.  I knew some of the girls would appreciate it/use it/enjoy it and that some wouldn't even open them the whole day (cough cough), to each her own :).  All in all I think everything worked out pretty well and we definitely had a great time (even myself as the DD).  So if anyone is in need of a wine tour/bachelorette party/ event planner, I'm yours.

First stop, Americana Vineyards, highlights: homemade FUDGE and chocolate labs Max and Ruby

 

Second stop, Lively Run Goat Dairy.  This one was mostly for me(hey I couldn't drink!), and I love cheese(it was pretty good too), but it was cool to see the goats and get some cheese straight from the source.

Some of the girls wanted a picture with the actual milking goats, so here it is

Third stop, Lucas Vineyards.  This was probably my favorite winery of the day, and I think some of the other girls agree with me.  The wine was good, there was a fun nautical theme to the wine, the tasting was a great deal (a set tasting and then pretty much whatever else you wanted to try), and there was a great gift shop.  It also helped that our taster? barista? (not sure what to call her, but the girl who poured our wine) was awesome, very friendly, fun and knowledgeable.  So add Lucas Vineyards to your future wine tour!  Fun fact: it's also the oldest winery on Cayuga Lake

Stop number four, Sheldrake Point Winery.  This winery was right on the lake, so in a beautiful location.  It also had good wine and friendly service.  We ate lunch here at Simply Red Bistro, the food was delicious (and all locally grown/raised sources), but the service was a little slow.  I would definitely stop here again though.

 Prepare yourself, we had a little too much fun taking pictures here; and this was AFTER the girls had food in their bellies.

Stop number five, Hosmer Winery.  This was probably the all around least favorite of the day, nothing in particular was bad about it, just nothing special after being to so many other places.

Next up, number six, Goose Watch Vineyard.  This place had a beautiful tasting room/barn and I also liked the wine here.  There was a very beautiful view of the lake as well.  The girls were also getting pretty entertaining at this point.

Number 7, Knapp Vineyards, which had a very cool tasting room and friendly service.  I didn't get a chance to sample any wine here, so not sure how that was.  Overall a pretty cool place.

See the hand on the left side of this picture?  Our "photographer" left Christine out of the picture!  So we had to get another one of course, poor Christine.

The last winery was about 40 minutes away, so there was a definite need for entertainment on the drive ... "Like a Prayer" was an absolute necessity:

 Last stop, Montezuma Winery!  This is another place I would recommend for any wine tour.  It is in a great location(at least coming from our direction) on the way to both Cayuga and Seneca Lake wine trails, it has a great gift shop and also a distillery so you can taste their "Bee" Vodka.  It also had some fruit wines, which kept all of our tastings from being redundant.  Also, it's closing time of 6 pm made it a perfect last-stop for our tour.  Definitely a must-see.

Thanks girls for such a fantastic weekend.  I know we all realize it and say it all the time, but I'm going to say it again.  We are unbelievably lucky to have such a great group of close girlfriends and I am so thankful to have you in my lives.  Thanks for making the trip up to visit, 'cause I miss all of you!

What's for Dinner?

I had a little bit of trouble figuring out what to make for dinner tonight but Kevin voted for pork chops, so he pulled frozen pork chops out of the freezer before he left for work, but since we JUST had pork chops last week, (they were on sale at Wegmans so I bought a bunch) I wanted to do something a little bit different with them.  BUT since I had already decided not to go to the grocery store, I couldn't just search for "pork chop recipes" in Google and be able to make whatever looked good, so I experimented and made up my own recipe with what we had in the fridge and came up with this, and since it was delicious I decided to share.

Apple & Goat Cheese stuffed pork chops:
1/4 c. bread crumbs
celery
onion
1 apple
4 oz goat cheese
2 boneless pork chops
white wine

Saute the celery and onion, and then mix them with the bread crumbs in a bowl.  Cut and peel the apple (you probably only need 1/2 an apple) and mix it with the bread crumbs.  Cut a small slit in the side of each pork chop, and then continue to widen the cut until you have a pocket.  Stuff about an ounce of goat cheese into the pocket (I did this so that it wouldn't melt out while cooking, but you could mix it in with the apples and the bread crumbs) then as much of the apple/ bread crumb mixture that you can.  Brown on both sides on medium-high heat, add a small amount of white wine to the pan, cover and simmer on low heat until cooked through(about 40 minutes).  Serve with your favorite sides.

ready to simmer ..

Oh and I don't usually have goat cheese, or really even white wine on hand at all times, or celery for that matter.  So I shouldn't promote this as a normal "use what you have" meal.  I got the goat cheese at the Lively Run Goat Dairy, which was a stop on our wine tour ... recently, I perpetually have wine on hand from multiple wine tours, and the celery was left over from Chicken and Dumplings I made a few weeks ago.

yummy

Girls' Wine Weekend Part 1

This past weekend, all of my girlfriends from Delaware came to visit us in NY.  We had long since planned to have a "Girl's Weekend" and Abby's recent engagement gave us a chance to give her a little bachelorette party as well.  It was so nice to see everyone, and we had a pretty fantastic time as well.  Kylee, Juliana, Lauren and Christine were able to come up Thursday night so they were there for the whole day on Friday too!  I had Sangria and snacks waiting for them when they arrived:

 

On Friday we went for a hike on the west side of Skaneateles Lake, it was about 2.2 miles round trip and took us from Carpenter's Falls to the lake itself.  Kevin was able to come with us because he didn't have to work until the afternoon (see how nice ER schedules are!)  The weather was a little chilly, but beautiful and fall-ish.  The path to Carpenter's Falls was a little treacherous, so if you go on this hike, be careful!  Kevin made the correct decision not to bring the dogs after reading about the risky trail.  It was worth the risk though, look how pretty ....   (Oh yeah, most of these photos are courtesy of Kylee and her awesome camera)

 

See? a little risky

Us girls

Kevin and I

We also wanted to investigate the top of the Falls, so we walked around the path and onto the road for a little ways.  Kevin is very afraid of heights, so we were making him nervous at the top, we were able to get a few good shots though:

Juls missed the memo

 

The rest of the hike to the lake was much more "safe" and pretty much down hill the whole way and we were rewarded with some pretty spectacular views of the lake.  We all decided we would love to have a lake house some day...  maybe one for us all to share.

We took the "road" option for the way back to the car which was pretty much up hill the entire way.  Still, we got to enjoy some more beautiful scenery, I keep saying it but it is so nice here! (again thanks to Kylee for some awesome pictures.)

 After all the hiking we decided we needed some "refreshment" so we made a stop at the only winery on Skaneateles Lake, "Anyelas".  We, (Kevin and I) have been here a few times and really like it, it has a fantastic view and is a really nice place to spend an afternoon and enjoy friends.

 

Kevin left for work after this, and the girls and I stopped in the town of Skaneateles to have a quick picnic.  The park in town is a favorite of ours and a great spot to picnic, except for the pesky ducks!  They are really bold and actually come peck your legs ... so Don't Feed the Ducks People!  I think we enjoyed ourselves regardless, even if Kylee is a little afraid of birds.

After our picnic, we headed back to the house for some more wine, a lovely lasagna dinner and to wait for the other girls to arrive.  Thanks for a great day guys!

More Hikes

We are continuing to enjoy Kevin's abundant time off during his ER rotation, so we have been on several hikes this past week.  I know it might be kind-of redundant to read about multiple hikes, but I am going to write about them anyway because it is nice for us to look back and remember what we did and which ones we enjoyed.  We were really happy to discover Morgan Hill State Forest, which is about twenty minutes south of us near Tully, NY; the area is very beautiful, it's not too far from us, it's not crowded, the dogs can be off-leash and so far we've loved the hikes.  The first time we came to this area we did a loop that took us to Spruce Pond, and included part of the Finger Lakes Trail.  The past two times we have parked at Spruce Pond and done quick loops from there.

1. Hang-Glider Overlook and Labrador Pond:  This hike started at Spruce Pond and went straight uphill from there ... I got a little beat up by the first hill so I was lagging behind, Emily was the only one that kept checking on me:

 

After the first hill, the hike was very pleasant and really pretty. 

 

The view at the top was worth the hard work .... according to the trail info. this place is used as a launching point for hang gliders.  The pond below is Labrador Pond, we haven't made it down there but that area is another place that we want to go explore.

 Kevin was too nervous to go near the edge ...

 

We turned around at this point because it was getting dark, but approximately 1.5 miles further was a waterfall which would have made our round trip about 6 miles.  Maybe some weekend-day we will be able to do the whole thing.  When we made it back to Spruce Pond we let the dogs swim some before heading home.  I think this pond is one of the prettiest places we have found since moving here, Kevin wants to try fishing some here, so it might be fun to come and just hang out for an evening soon.

Fall Colors are so pretty

My handsome husband

Baxter fishing

Miss Emily

 2. Morgan Hill: we did this hike yesterday, and again, it started at Spruce Pond.  It was actually not my favorite, and I don't think we'll do it again unless it is part of a larger loop.  The paths were a little overgrown, and it was just plain boring.  It took us to the top of Morgan Hill, which is supposed to be the second tallest point in Onondaga County, however it was not very impressive and there wasn't a view, which is what I was expecting.  Even so, the dogs did enjoy some swimming time at Spruce Pond, and we met another hiker that had graduated from UD in '07 like us.  She was even a civil engineering major and knew Adam!  Just goes to show you that you can't escape the DE small state-ness no matter where you go.

This is for Harley ... a Geological Survey Marker at the top of the hill.  I am sure he will know what it means/is for

Kevin's "Blue hen" shirt gave us away to the other blue hen