tah - rah - RAH!

Today was a perfect day for apple-picking. So, what do Karen and I decide to do? Well, go apple-picking, of course. We headed out to this Virginia winery out near Leesburg called Tarara, which has wine tasting and seasonal fruit-picking. Unfortunately, when we arrived there, we saw signs telling us that there was no fruit to pick. The trees were BARE! Oh noes!

Actually, the trees weren't bare, but there weren't enough good apples left on the trees for people to want to go pick them (plus, you'd need a small ladder). Luckily for us, the nice lady who worked there said that we were welcome to walk around the orchard and pick whatever apples we wanted (for FREE!) so long as we didn't damage the branches. So, after wine tasting (for only $5) and a brief tour of their wine "cave", we walked around a bit and picked some apples. There were actually a lot of apples still left on the trees, but they were all small, and many of them were not good anymore. We brought home about ten or so. I ate one, and it tasted like an apple (surprise, surprise!). The wine that we had from Tarara was good, and the Lucille (the lady in charge of our wine tasting) gave us a good tip on how to make awesome brownies. Just replace the water in the recipe with a good dessert wine (Wild River Red, from their winery) when mixing the batter. The alcohol will cook off in the oven, and you're left with these amazing brownies. Definitely something that Karen and I are going to try. Soon. Before I leave for CA on Monday.

We got a nice buzz from the wine tasting. Now, we await a big pile of meat from Cafe Divan, and then off to Dr. Dremo's. Oh, Dr. Dremo's, you better not disappoint me. This is the last time I'll ever grace your doors.

Love,
Tran