Hello hello! Brrr. . . we are just in from a walk around Castle Island, and it is very chilly here in Boston. We have officially closed all of the windows, and the Tupperware containers of winter clothes are making their way up from the basement. I hope you all had great weekends! Mine was good, filled with a lot of driving and sitting in traffic but also lots of family, fun, and of course food!
We were definitely in weekend mode by Thursday evening, so we decided to meet in the South End at The Upper Crust for pizza. We decided to sit outside to enjoy the waning good weather, and we ordered The Harvard Street on whole wheat crust, a classic combo of fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, mozzarella, and garlic.
As always, the pizza at The Upper Crust was delicious and made for an inexpensive weeknight out.
The following day, after a never-ending nine hours at work, we hit the road for what turned out to be a seven hour drive to see my family in NJ. Car food was a mix of healthy, Fresh City wraps, and not so much, a big bag of Doritos.
Saturday was the big “sprinkle” at my sister’s house. Apparently a sprinkle is the same thing as a baby shower. Food, wine, gifts, and a small group of friends, and family.
The hubs and I picked up the wine (and a Starbucks iced cinnamon dolce latte, yum!) for the party and stuck to a California theme as we are definitely much more interested in California wine after our last trip and getting ready for our next one. Included in the wine mix was a favorite of mine, Valley of the Moon Zinfandel. You may remember that Valley of the Moon was the first Sonoma winery we visited, so it holds a special place in our hearts <3
The menu at the sprinkle was fantastic! It included lemon chicken, salad made with greens, carrots, olives, cranberries, and lemon/olive oil dressing, meatballs, penne with vodka sauce, spinach artichoke dip, and tacos. I filled my plate with salad and penne with vodka sauce (SO yum!) and then had several helpings of “taco salad”, beds of lettuce topped with tomatoes, cheese, jalapenos, and hot sauce.
Dessert included these: 
Along with caramel apples from Melick Family Farm.
My sister did a fantastic job setting the mood for a lovely fall afternoon.
As the mommy to be is having twins, guests also received Doublemint gum 🙂
On Sunday, after I visited my soon to be 95 year old nana, the family went apple picking at Melick Family Farm in Tewksbury, NJ. It was a perfect fall day, and as always it was fun to pick and sample the apples. I ate a fuji, a winesap, and a gala apple while picking 🙂
After apple picking, we picked up a few things at the farm store including cider donuts, cider, fresh chocolate milk, and mulling spices for making hot spiced cider or mulled wine. Tired from being outside all day, we headed home and ate leftovers from Saturday’s party while watching The Worst Witch with my niece. Halloween is definitely in the air!
This week I will return to a fall-ish breakfast, Greek yogurt with canned pumpkin, cinnamon, and some of the fabulous samples of Blue Diamond almond butter I received last week! I will also be posting about the amazingness of amaranth and a couple of other warm and cozy fall meals. I am also working on a “Wine for the Holidays” buying guide and starting my food writing class next week! AND I am also excited to say that I purchased a domain name and will eventually start migrating this bloggy over to traveleatlove.com! Enjoy the rest of the evening/long weekend, and have a great Tuesday!
P.S. I have lots of travel coming up in November and am starting to collect guest posts. I will need about 10 posts, so if you are interested in posting please email me at traveleatlove2009@hotmail.com.
