Pumpkin Picking '14

Where did Fall go?  One second the leaves are changing and the next it's snowing and in the 30s!  I'm not a winter-hater by any means, but I Fall is by far my favorite season and it also seems to be the shortest one!  But let's talk about traditions, which seems appropriate since it's nearly Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here before you know it.

By far my favorite Fall tradition is pumpkin picking!  It started when my best friend, Amanda, and I were roommates in college.  We'd pack some bacon sandwiches and spend the day in Yellow Springs picking pumpkins, hiking, and eating ice cream.  When Antoine and I started dating he was more than happy to carry on the tradition with me, and I breathed a giant sigh of relief that pumpkin picking didn't fall to the wayside, because it makes me so freaking happy!  This year we planned to go to our usual spot, Peifer Orchards in Yellow Spring but as a bonus Amanda and Aaron (and their dog Gatsby) decided to trek down from Cleveland to meet up with us!  We arrived at Peifer a little before Amanda and Aaron (not surprising since it's much closer to YS from Cincinnati than from Cleveland!), but decided to make our way to the field since pumpkin picking for me tends to be a very intense and time-involved process.  The lovely people at Peifer warned us before we headed out to the field that they had had a lot of rain the previous week which flooded their fields, so there might not be any pumpkins to pick.  Still we remained optimistic that there'd be some pumpkins to pick.

 "Come on, guys!  To the pumpkins!"

Unfortunately, only a couple pumpkins survived the flooding of the field and I only found one pumpkin to pick...

Still, we wandered around for a while.  I snapped some photos while Cheese smelled everything imaginable!

 And then I spotted a couple ducks with a bunch of little ducklings trailing behind them...

 How cute is that?!

 Basset butt.

Next to Peifer there is a greenhouse/farm with a variety of different animals.  Shortly after we arrived at the fields we saw this guy.  He really wanted to be Cheese's friend...Cheese wasn't so sure he wanted to be his though! 

 Cheese would get close and then when the horse bent down to sniff his head Cheese would hurry off!

We were definitely bummed that there were no pumpkins to pick, but after Antoine did a little calling around he found that Young's Dairy (which was on our list of activities for the day anyway), just a half mile down the road, also had pumpkin picking.  So we told Amanda and Aaron there was a change of plans and to meet us at Young's.  As we were leaving the fields I spotted another duck with a big group of ducklings following her.

 

I've been to Young's Dairy many, many times (it's actually one of my most favorite ice creams!), but I've never actually been pumpkin picking at Young's.  Let me just say, it was awesome!  There were so many pumpkins and their field is so large!!  I really had a hard time narrowing down which pumpkins to actually take home, because I loved so many of them.

"Oh, mother."

Antoine and I (mainly it's me!) always pick way too many pumpkins to actually take home, so we always line up the candidates in a row to survey possibilities for the keepers in the bunch.  A year or two ago we started another tradition, we make Cheese pose with this assortment of pumpkins.  Because really, what's cuter than a basset hound posing in front a ton of pumpkins?! 

Oh wait, maybe this little family in front of a bunch of pumpkins!?  That's pretty adorable too!

Once we chose all our pumpkins, paid (thanks again, Amanda and Aaron, for the perfect wedding present!), and packed up trunks full of pumpkins we were all ready for a some delicious ice cream and fried cheese curds!

Mmm!  My personal favorite, chocolate peanut butter in a freshly made waffle cone.

Despite the little hiccup at Peifer, our pumpkin picking adventure turned out to be very successful and fun!  And we now have another place in Yellow Spring for pumpkin picking.  After Young's we did a little hiking before parting ways and heading home, but I'll share those photos later this week.  Until then, happy Tuesday!  Are you as ready for the long weekend as I am?!

On a little sidenote, Antoine and I have been married for exactly six months today!  Six years and six months ago today, he picked me up for a date, 45 minutes late, and we ate fondue together while I'll babbled on and he listened.  Now I can't imagine my life without him!  He's such a caring, funny man and I absolutely love the life and home we've created together.  Happy six-month-anniversary, Tran!

Life Lately (in Instagram)

 Okay, so remember when I promised to have a real post for you (part 2 of the Mansfield Reformatory) by the end of August?  Yeah, well...it's September now and that didn't happen.  And I'm really not sure when it's going to, to be honest.  We've just been so busy lately, but in the best way possible!  So here's a "life lately" via Instagram to hold you over:

Antoine and I celebrated three months of being married at the end of August, which is just crazy!  Seriously, where has the summer gone? [pretty flowers from Trader Joe's]

 Summertime-Jessica is a total lush, in case you didn't know!  I made a batch of strawberry simple syrup so I obviously needed to whip up some tasty alcoholic beverages: left- strawberry mojito, right- strawberry margarita.

 I had been craving a cobb salad so Antoine and I got all the fixings, including some Amish eggs and tasty Ashland-raised bacon.  It totally hit the spot!

 On the weekends Antoine almost always makes a delicious breakfast for us...but I decided to sneakily make him breakfast on Labor day!  I used this recipe; it was really tasty, but next time I would scramble the eggs firs before putting them in the nests.  

 So many pretty skies lately, these are just two that I happened to capture.

 Work has been pretty busy lately!  Recently I photographed a bunch of items from the Winkler Center that will be going to New York for exhibit.  All the pieces are from the Albert B. Sabin archives and are pretty cool.  The photo to the right is a box of Polio slides; Sabin developed the oral polio vaccine in the 1950s.

 On Friday Antoine and I left work early to drive up to Columbus for a Black Keys concert.  For our pre-concert dinner we got some tasty hot dogs at Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace.  It was my first time there and it was so good!  I got a bacon-wrapped "Classy Lady" (cheese sauce and crushed potato chips) and Antoine got the "Slappy Pappy's Super Sloppy" (bacon, coney sauce, cheddar, sour cream, topped with french fries).  We also shared a side of fried leeks, which were awesome!  It was all so good and so cheap (and they have a lot of vegetarian and vegan options!).  If you find yourself in Columbus I would seriously recommend you check it out!  After Dirty Frank's we still had time to kill so we headed over to Grandview so I could pick up some coffee and we could get some ice cream at Jeni's.  Always so good!

Antoine's brother (my new brother-in-law) got us Black Keys tickets for our wedding present.  Awesome gift, right?!  We had a great time, I particularly liked the leader singer from Cage the Elephant's dancing.  It was hilarious and mesmerizing!

The whole auditorium lit up by cell phone light before the encore. Craziness! 

We're going camping with my sister, brother-in-law, bestest friend, and her boyfriend in two weeks so I got this basic but large pour over (since Antoine doesn't drink coffee so we didn't have anything to make coffee with for camping, except a small French press).  Also, delicious coffee from Stauf's, one of my favorite Ohio roasters!

The prince on his pillows and some of Antoine's clothes.

This weekend and last Antoine and I did a fair amount of antiquing and walked away with some goodies I'm very excited about!  [this photo is from one of my favorite booths at Heart of Ohio Antique Center]  

That's all for now.  I'm going to try my hardest to get my photos edited sometime soon (i.e. this week or next).  I haven't really taken any photos since Mansfield, but I know I'll take a ton when we go camping!

Weekend in Instagram

It's beginning to look a lot like summer!  The weather was gorgeous this weekend and we had a very summery weekend, with a lot of time spent outside.

Lately we've been trying to eat healthier/diet.  It's usually pretty easy going during the week, but weekends can be a bit of a struggle, but then we just try to compensate with some outdoor activities like long walks with Cheese or yard work.  Friday night started out right with a little grilling out...

We made homemade "burrito bowls" though they were more like fajita bowls.  Cilantro-lime quinoa with sauteed and seasoned onions and peppers, and seasoned and grilled chicken breast.  It was pretty easy and very tasty, I mean, I didn't even really miss the cheese, black beans, or salsa I usually get on my Chipotle burrito bowls.  I marinaded the onions and peppers overnight in lime juice and fajita seasoning and they turned out really well, even though I overcooked them a bit.

Cheese thought Antoine's burrito bowl looked/smelled so delicious that he need to try it.  He failed! 

Saturday morning started with me trapped under this guy on the couch while Antoine whipped us up a killer breakfast!  He really is the king of breakfast!

Voila, a delicious hash; home fried potatoes and onions with garlic, thick cut bacon, eggs overhard (because that's how I like 'em), a little Parmesan cheese and some ketchup.  Yum!  So good and so filling!  It held us over until about 4pm!  Afterwards we took Cheese for a 5-mile walk and the weather was so beautiful!  Then we ran to Crafty Supermarket (where we picked up this kick-ass pillow) and ran some errands!

Ahh, and here's where the weekends turn bad...ice cream!  I love ice cream so much and it really is just the epitome of summer to me!  This happened to be our first trip to Hold the Nuts, our favorite soft serve spot, of the season.  I got a twist cone dipped in peanut butter and Antoine got vanilla with krunch kote!  

Sunday was an equally beautiful day, I couldn't resist taking another photo of the insanely pretty dogwood across the street.  We started the day off by sleeping in and then ran some errands and did a bunch of yard work, although it feels like we didn't even make a dent since we've got so much to do.

Cheese was our yard work supervisor.  The job duties include eating cat poop, whining, chewing on sticks, rolling around like a crazy dog, and playing with a tennis ball.  It's a pretty exhausting job though.

That was our weekend!  Today I'm extremely sore and very tired, I'm so ready for a vacation.  The end of May can't come soon enough!

Weekend in Instagram

This should really be "Saturday in Instagram" because I posted a little too much on Saturday.  But it was such a great day I couldn't help myself!  It started with breakfast by Antoine. 

 His breakfasts are always the best!

Cheese proceeded to watch his dad like a hawk, in case he decided to share any of this breakfast with him!  But note the basset hound laziness, even with the smell of frying bacon in the air he doesn't leave the comfort of his bed!

Then we went on a family walk down our favorite street in Pleasant Ridge, which also happens to have a basset hound that lives there...

 I think Cheesy has a new girlfriend.  She was a little nervous and skittish at first, but she quickly warmed up to him!

A little video of our walk down Grand Vista!

After our walk we got ready and ran all around town getting groceries and whatnot (yes, shopping with us usually involves a trip to at least two, if not three, grocery stores).  Then we went to Bellevue Park while we waited for our Indian carryout from Deep India.  Once we had out takeout in hand we headed over to Alms Park to eat and take pictures.  And then we rounded out the evening with a stroll around Ault Park's gardens, followed by a trip to Yagoot for some frozen yogurt!

 Sunday was a great combination of cooking, baking and Cheese snuggling.  It obviously started off with snuggling...

"Mom! Quit being weird!"

 

I spent most of the day baking a carrot cake for my coworker's birthday, making creamy potato leek soup and trying to clean up the mess I made from doing the aforementioned.  Sunday was an all around exhausting yet satisfying and fulfilling day!  I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I spend the day cooking and baking...well, unless I mess something up, which thankfully I didn't!  Oh, and I did some major picture taking and photo editing this weekend, so brace yourself for a bombardment of posts.  You have been warned!

So, how was your weekend?!

Weekend in Instagram

What a great weekend!  The weather was gorgeous, if a little sizzling; so much better than last weekend.  My weekend began with a little detour to Lunken Airport (my first time there).  My sis and I had plans to go blueberry picking, but she had a work thing come up at Lunken so I sat in the car while she did her thing.  Unfortunately it wasn't open yet, so I couldn't see the inside...maybe some other time.

My sister and I headed to Rouster's to pick some blueberries.  Yes, it was my second time going this summer, but I couldn't help myself!  And boy oh boy, was it the perfect day for it.  Since picking got canceled last weekend because of the rain, there were tons of enormous, sweet berries on the bushes.  We picked until they closed and I walked away with another 9lbs of blueberries! 

When I got home from blueberry picking Antoine's nephew, Kayeson, was over.  Kayeson adores Guillermo and Cheese so he begged to come over to our house so he could play with them.  Cheesy love Kayeson (well, any human really), but Gui isn't too fond of how loud he is and hid behind the washer and dryer most of the time. 

 Kayeson had fun throwing the ball and making Cheese fetch it...though Cheese was exhausted after a couple hours of this!

After we took Kayeson home (with a brief stop at Hold the Nuts for some soft serve), we ran to the mall where I purchased a couple pairs of new jeans in a size smaller than I had been wearing!!  Yay!!  Despite cake-making and pie-making, Antoine and I have been doing really good lately with our calorie counting and last week we started getting up very early and going to the gym before work, two to three times a week.  It's been really great for us!  Anyway, I was in a ridiculously good mood after finding out I went down a pant size, so Antoine and I decided to celebrate with Fusian!

 I got my usual tuna roll (which is only 383 calories!) and tried their seasonal special strawberries...so good!  Also, a little heads up to you central/east siders, Fusian will be opening a second Cincinnati store in Hyde Park Plaza!  They are expected to open their doors in October and I can't wait!

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day...or should I say, I homebody kind of day. 

 This guy took his ball with him everywhere.

 I washed, dried and froze about 3/4 of the blueberries I had picked with my sister.

 This might have been the biggest one I picked!  It was so ridiculously sweet and delicious!

I spent a good part of the day in the kitchen washing berries, making tasty strawberry balsamic vinaigrette, and lemon curd (for something later this week).  Then Antoine grilled up some ribs and corn for dinner...seriously so good!  I couldn't even pick up the ribs because the meat just fell right off the bone.

Then Antoine and I watched Star Wars (the real ones...not the newer ones) and I whipped up some baked blueberry oatmeal for Antoine to take to work for breakfast this week.  He said it turned out great, but I didn't try any because I was too stuffed from dinner!

So, how was your weekend?