cider

Saturday's day trip took us to Brown's Berry Patch (http://www.brownsberrypatch.com/). Our objective was apple cider, but came home with so much more.

Brown's offers samples. We tried EVERYTHING!!!! I don't think either of us realized how many samples we consumed until we stopped f for lunch. We both ended up bringing most of our lunch home in a take out box.

The best find, for me, was apple cinnamon jelly. It was a must have. We also tasted an apple salsa loaded with heat. I loved it, he found it too hot (can you say WIMP?). On the other hand, he loved the pickled garlic and I didn't (okay, so can you say WIMP again?)

We both agreed that the sweet pickles were out of this world. Remember the bright green, sweet icicle pickles that Grandma used to make? If you do, then you will know why we had a hard time walking away from that sample table.

They had five samples of apples. I loved the Crispin apple. It is an apple that can be used for many different recipes as well as standing alone as an eating apple.

The horseradish cheese and the extra sharp cheddar cheese were delicious. While standing at the check out counter I realized that something was missing. Would you believe that we almost forgot to get the cider? We picked up cider; apple cinnamon jelly; apples and a bag of dried pineapple slices then headed to The Village House Restaurant in Albion for lunch.

The Village House Restaurant is an Orlean's County gem. It is clean, the service is excellent, and the food reasonable and darn good. I couldn't resist the Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese soup and the supreme burger. He opted for the chicken tortellini salad. I can spend hours raving about the soup. It was creamy, you could taste the cheddar, and texture came from small elbow macaroni. I'd get it again.

The chicken salad was HUGE. He has a good appetite and normally can finish anything placed in front of him, but not this time. The romaine lettuce was crisp; there were large pieces of chicken; the tortellini filled with cheese and chilled to perfection. He finished half the salad and brought the rest home and had it while waiting for the rain to stop in Philadelphia so we could watch the game.

Snow is in the forecast for early in the week. I can't wait to mimic Phillip and have a mulled cider evening.