Fall Series, Part1: So how do you like them Apples?

We picked this apple for you...

Like with all great life, and cooking experiences, we'll start with our ingredients.  By now you've seen how ingredients in their simplest form inspire me.  Life is basically the same.  

As I live, I surround myself with good people who have strong values and believe in kindness and hard work.  That's so important because like all human beings, I expect to have my weak and sullen moments sometimes.

It's only been by the grace of God, my loved ones, and having always surrounded myself with truly good people that I've continued to live a life that I feel blessed for having, and proud of living.  

 As any mother, I have high expectations for my children.  In doing so, I've equally committed myself to setting an example for them.  There's one lesson in particular that is always tough to teach.  I always ask my kids to "stay on the narrow path, difficult as it may be, so true and wise...".  The narrow path will always lead us to the Most High...

...Looking up toward the Most High...

This is the lesson that even I struggle to learn as I teach it.  Sometimes it would seem so much easier not to do the right thing, or to give up but in the end I think of not only what I owe my kids, myself, but also my parents and grandparents who've struggled and sacrificed so much so that we could have a chance. My mother always asked me to look at myself in her mirror, and benefit from her mistakes.  I teach my kids the same.

I've learned that when I feel lost, I need to take a step back and look at the world with a new set of eyes.  Sometimes that set of eyes is my camera lens, sometimes it's my pen when I write, and other times it's my conscience when I sleep.

Always looking at life from a different angle, in order to understand it better...

That's usually how I come across the ingredients that truly add value to my life; Love, Virtue, Honor, Family, Friendship, Sacrifice, Truth, Faith, Magic... Art.  None of these have been easy to find, but sometimes when I close my eyes and remember the lesson, or the mistake, that brought me to finding one of these virtues, I suddenly understand the meaning of life. 

This weekend, my family and friends went on our Fall apple-picking trip.  We're fortunate to live in Upstate, NY, surrounded by so many lovely and majestic orchards!  For the years that I've been doing this, this year I felt it to be the most magical, for two reasons.

First, my son who is now a man, and I did not expect would want to come apple-picking with his family anymore, made it a point to make time in his busy schedule with college and theater rehearsals.  That meant to me that the traditions that we pass on as parents truly stick with our kids.  And that as adults, they still long to continue those journeys that we begin for them...and the families that they will have one day.

My boy & I

 The second confirmation of how meaningful this has become for my family after so many years of apple-picking in the Fall was when my daughter, with so much excitement, looked forward not only to the trip but to all of the things that we always cook with the apples we bring home.  In her own words, using the apples that we bring home in so many different ways makes us "feel connected to the Earth".

She's truly the apple of my eye...

In this Fall Series, my family, my friends and I invite you to join us as with our own hands we pick the ingredients to begin one of our favorite times of the year, together.  Watch as we try to make the most not only of the apples, but also our time together and the experiences that we share...

SD, my little one, my cousin Aisa and my best friend Lisette

Me & Lisette, walking on the narrow path...

Just about the cutest guy that I've seen up here in a long time...

I'm excited about the Pumpkin Seeds already!

I still hold her hand when we walk together

...because innocence makes life so worthwhile.

 
Grab a basket, Reader...  join us in the orchard...

*Special thanks to Aisa for the lovely photos!