Well, here's the first of my 3 vacation blogs:) I'll share these with you this week and save my week's worth of cooking for afterward since I'll be hittin the road AGAIN this weekend and don't want to leave you high and dry;)
So we'll start with Destination 1: VERMONT! Now, understand, I do NOT like to repeat destinations since I feel like I have a list a mile long of new places I want to go and see....so that will pretty much tell you how much I LOVEEEEEEEEE Vermont, esp. since I was skipping, dancing and looking over old pictures as soon as I knew we were going:) And OF COURSE we left our house in time so that we'd make it there by EXACTLY Lunchtime! :) And our first destination:
"The Skinny Pancake" in Montpelier was a TEENY TINY place with BARELY enough seating to hold the crowd. We actually had to snag the LAST table outside and counted our blessing that we were BUNDLED up, cause it was a LOT chillier in VT than NJ! :)
Buttttt....what a better way to warm us up than to start with some Frites...accompanied by some killer Honey Mustard sauce! You could tell the sauce and the ketchup were homemade...
Along with my fries, I had this local soda. I asked for a "Diet something" and the girl looked at me like I was...well, a tourist;) hahahahhaha....but I don't hate on her! I love that they only use local products:)
I had the Déjà Vu Crêpe which was stuffed with "Winding Brook Farms" Sweet Italian sausage, Champlain Orchard apples and Cabot cheddar cheese. Served with a sweet ole side of VT maple syrup...see, I love Local! :)
Scott's Crêpe of choice was The Johnny Crêpe: "Winding Brook Farms" pulled pork, braised in a sweet Rookie’s Root beer BBQ sauce (TANGY!) with caramelized onions and Cabot cheddar cheese folded into a corn meal crêpe. YUM!
A nice welcome to Vermont, if I do say so myself;)
However, an even NICER welcome was when we walked over to La Brioche bakery up the street. The bakers are from the New England Culinary Institute that is housed right in Montpelier...so we got to watch the students busy in the kitchen:
....while we got to taste their handy work in the form of a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting....
The cake was delicious, but the frosting was what set this baby apart from the pack. It just MELTED as soon as you tasted it...it was like a cream cheese/meringue hybrid. A++ in our books!
Seriously, one of the NICEST places we've ever stayed. Not only did we have near FULL run of the entire house (I mean log cabin!), but the owner's, Sue & Bill, were 2 of the nicest people you will ever meet! If you're ever in town: STAY THERE! You will NOT regret it! :) It was wonderful and we're still hoping they call to say they're adopting us;) hahahahhahaa....
Although we didn't hang around for too long, as we knew our first stop was going to be one of our favorites: Morse Farms! :) Andddddddd....we couldn't get inside the little shop quick enough to pick up their noted treats: Maple Creemies!
Named one of the top 75 Food Finds in the US by "Food & Wine" magazine, Morse Farms uses a GALLON of maple syrup for each batch of custard...ahem...creemies! They are seriously delicious! I had my small cone rolled with maple sugar...cause WHY mess around at that point?? :)
After we finished our cones and walked around the nice grounds, we headed back into the store for some serious business: Maple syrup tasting...
And we made sure to select the right one considering we were picking up a bottle of syrup the size of my head! (Grade A Dark...in case you were wondering:)
We don't mess around when it comes to Maple Syrup:) Obviously....
After Morse farms, we headed back to downtown Montpelier and walked all around for awhile aka. Just enough time to work up an appetite:) We decided to try "Positive Pie," which was just off the main street. And as soon as I saw Pumpkin Soup with Pumpkin seeds on the menu, I knew we picked a good place!....
And for dinner, I tried one of the night's specials: A flatbread with salmon, prosciutto, goat cheese, lemon & arugula. It was sooooooooooooo warm & tasty...which was exactly what I was looking for:)
After that, we headed on the DARK drive back to our B&B (no street lights, ya know?!) and called it a day:)
Now, did I say Sue & Bill were nice??? Can you imagine how much my love for them grew when I walked down the steps for breakfast and saw THIS sitting on the kitchen table:
A warm maple coffee cake!!! She must have knew I was coming & hearted all things cinnamon & maple;)
We also had cantaloupe, scrambled eggs (for Scott:) & ham and cheese crescent bites....which I didn't get a picture of because ya know, we had just met and all;) So all I have for you is the view from the breakfast table:
Not a bad way to start the day, right?? :)
After breakfast, we headed behind the house for a hike uphill where Bill & Sue told us the view was even BETTER. Can't argue with them:
After our hike, we headed to downtown Burlington and strolled around on Church Street which is FILLED with shops & restaurants. After 2 botched attempts at lunch (both of our #1 picks were CLOSED for lunch that day:( , we headed into The Vermont Pub & Brewery, and I was so glad we did. The place had a great menu and was super cozy (sorry, your going to hear that word a lot the next few days! I was obsessed with all things COZY on this trip:)
For lunch, I had a "Toad in the Hole," which was a Maple Sausage wrapped in puff pastry along with onions & cheddar, made complete with a little cup of apple chutney...LOVE! So Vermont:)
After lunch, we headed to one of our FAVORITE places: Shelburne Farms!! We had attempted to go to the farm on our last trip and, unbeknownst to us how MASSIVE the grounds were, we ended up at the Shelburne Museum which turned into one of my favorite surprises of the trip. However, this time we made it into the CORRECT entrance and took a 4 1/2 mile trek around the property (did I say MASSIVE grounds???) taking in the dairy barn (YES, this is a dairy barn at Shelburne...lucky animals;)....
....I milked a cow....check one off the bucket list for THIS city gal...
...visited all of the animals: sheep, pigs, alpacas, donkeys, goats, cows, etc....
...enjoyed the beautiful views of Lake Champlain...
...and LOTS of foliage!...
...and the lookouts from not 1, but TWO hills overlooking the lake & mountains. Just STUNNING!!!
Shelburne is just JAW DROPPING! We walked all that way and still only saw a PART of the area. It was JUST gorgeous (and peaceful....we saw only a handful of people on our entire walk!) LOVE Shelburne! Next time, maybe we'll get to actually stay at the INN...maybe;)
After Shelburne, we headed BACK to Burlington and walked along the lake to catch the sunset. They even had couples swings to lounge on to enjoy the views, which are...welll.....I'll let this speak for itself;)
I LOVE SUNSETS! :)
After walking around a bit more, we realized we were still pretty full from lunch. So instead of sitting down to dinner, we decided some fun snacks might be a better option...in the form of a couple treats from Lake Champlain Chocolates (aka-the best chocolate you will EVER have...for real! It's SO GOOD! So is their ice cream!!)
And, of course, what would a trip to Vermont be without a stop at the quintessential VT food:
I had Coconut Seven-layer bar & Maple Blondie, while Scott got Triple Caramel Chunk & Coffee Malt Toffee...they were all SOOOOOOOO good, especially the Maple! (yes, maple beat out coconut this time;)
After that, we headed back to the B&B and CRASHEDDDDDDDDDDD!
Only to be awoken to another fantastic breakfast!! How cute is Sue with these skewers???
And for our main dish, she made us some Cracked Wheat waffles (which gave them a nice texture and CRUNCH!) and some sausage links...
We ended up talking to Sue for about 2 hours, before packing up our stuff and heading onto our next destination....We loved Country Bumpkin!!
However, notttttttt before making ONE last stop in Vermont. Scott had read about this place in Food Network Magazine as having the best burgers in Vermont. Now mind you, this was the afternoon of our ACTUAL Anniversary, so I wasn't exactly THRILLED when we pulled up to the address and found ourselves here:
OK...I think I can rank this as our first OFFICIAL "Dive" food experience;) "The Shopping Bag" was just a tiny little grab & go store. I thought we had totally missed the mark, until I saw a menu behind a tiny counter & grill. We figured "how bad could it be"? Ordered up 2 "Scibeck Sizzlers" (having NO CLUE even what those WERE!) and had our romantic anniversary meal...IN THE CAR:)
We opened up the packages and were met with this:
The thing was HUGE...HUGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! Even Scott needed 2 hands for this one:
And I was still feeling a little "Eh" about this whole "eating in the car for our anniversary" situation...until I took a bite. OMG...my mouth just watered remembering this thing...it was UNBELIEVABLE! They apparently use Montreal chop steak for the burger and you could TELL, because the meat was just...smooooooth (There's no other way to describe it!:) Not to mention, it was PACKED with onions, pickles, tomato, cheese, lettuce, bacon, mayo & mustard...and POSSIBLY some kind of sauce. I STILL can't believe THAT BURGER came from THAT TINY STORE! I guess it goes to show: YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE YOU'LL GET A GOOD MEAL! :) hahahahhahaha...
Even the onion rings were good...not that we needed them after that monster of a burger;)
So, long story even longer: I did NOT regret having burgers for our big A-dinner...anddddd as I was eating, I remember that we went to Bobby Flay's Burger Palace for our LAST anniversary. So I think burgers shall be the meal of choice from here on out:) Hmmm....I wonder if there are good burgers in Australia... ;)
Hahahahhahaha...JUST KIDDING, SCOTT! (sorta;)....well, I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of our trip:) I'll be back tomorrow with our Montreal Re-cap! Have a good Tuesday:)
No comments:
Post a Comment