Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the VanDerlofske's!

And thanks to Sarah and Travis for hosting a party so we got to dress up this year, we had a great time!

and thanks to mother nature for giving us such a great day on Sunday so I could go out and play around with the camera!

What do Hannacrotians do when the power goes out?

Why go down to the park with the dog of course! Couldn't resist bringing the camera too... It was a great morning, the sun was shining and it wasn't too hot or cold, just a beautiful fall day in upstate NY!

As many times as we have been to this park we are still discovering new parts! Never knew this bridge was back in there...


One of the best parts of fall...the leaves!


With our Sirius, who loves to pose (no cookies required).


Some pictures of our rings, just for some fun...


And the last one I took on the way home over looking the Alcove, I totally fell off the back of the truck after taking this one, got a nice black bruise for the sake of taking a picture...

Pumpkin Picking in New Paltz

In order to work off the fabulous feast we had at The Melting Pot on Friday night (in celebration of my birthday!) we decided to go pumpkin picking.

Wanted to take full advantage of the gorgeous weather so we took a ride down to New Paltz and picked some pumpkins at Country Charm Farm it was a beautiful little farm over looking the mountains...



After we picked out our two perfect pumpkins, we made our way out of the farm picking up some corn stalks on the way (it looks like we are going to decorate for some holiday/season other than Christmas this year!).

Since we had never been to New Paltz before, we decided to do some site seeing, and found Huguenot Street. It was such a beautiful day and I got so many great pictures! I wont bore you with them all, but here are a few...

Apples, apples, apples!

So in late September Matt and I went apple picking for the first time since we have been together!

We went to Indian Ladder Farms in Altamont, NY and while the weather kept threatening to storm, it held until we got a bag full of sweet juicy apples...






So what do two people do with way to many local grown apples? Why bake of course! I found the wonderful joys of AllRecipes.com

Apple Bread

Came out great, next time though I think I would add a bit of cinnamon to the bread recipe.

Apple Crisp

So easy and so tasty!

Apple Sauce

Surprisingly easy to make! I would not put in as much sugar next time (or cinimmon, but that was just an accident...) the apples were quite sweet enough.

I used the crock pot method and the entire house smelled wonderful!


Apple Cookies

Sweet, Spicy and moist, just perfect!

I didn't have any 1/2 & 1/2 so I substituted buttermilk, everything still came out tasty


Apple Pancakes

These were actually kind of bland, I think with a bit more apples and some more cinnamon they might be pretty good