Foodie Road Trip Through Jersey...

So in what is quickly becoming our Memorial Day weekend tradition, we hit the road yesterday to head for one of those foodie spots that we had been interested in trying for awhile.  And yesterday's destination led us up the turnpike to Ridgwood, NJ for a little stop at...

One glance at all of the awards, articles & Zagat ratings gracing the window and we knew we were in for a treat...

The Country Pancake House's speciality is obvious.  But the SURPRISE is in just how many pancake OPTIONS you get to choose from..

How many, you ask?? 

Yep...that is 9-0!!!J  Any combination of cakes and fillings, they had!   

Needless to say, it took awhile to narrow it downJ 

And along with the extensive pancake menu, they also had a pretty large JUICE menu... 

And in an attempt to try something completely different and out of the ordinary, I sampled the Cantaloupe & Carrot juice... 

What did it taste like??  Pretty much EXACTLY like what it sounds likeJ hahhahahhaha....different for sureJ

And while we waited for our pancakes to arrive, we got to sample a little of this beautiful basket that arrived at our table... 

OK, I normally wouldn't sample ANYTHING from a bread basket when PANCAKES were on the way...butttttt the combination of being starving while sitting in traffic on the turnpike ANDDD flipping over the cornbread and finding CHOCOLATE CHIPS melted on top...well, that's just too much temptation for a person to take!  SOLD!

However, the cornbread was a second thought once our main course arrived at the table = Pancakes as large as the pancake menu itself!!

And these were the four MEDIUM pancakes!  Can you believe that???  I don't even want to know what the LARGE ones look like!!!!!

Scott made the appropriate pick for him of the Coffee Lovers Cakes:  Cappuccino pancakes packed with chocolate chips... 

While I went the savory route with cornmeal pancakes filled with cheddar cheese, onions, corn, ham and green peppers.... 

And I mean FILLEDDDDDDDDDDD!

These were some of the FLUFFIEST pancakes I've ever tried.  Every forkful nearly burst open with fluffy pancake and textured fillings....oh my!

And the side of sour cream just somehow made these babies even better....although a few forkfuls of pancake did manage to find the maple syrup and I must say it was quite yummyJ  You know I love my sweet & savory mix!

2 thumbs up:)  I wouldn't say they were the best pancakes ever (that title still goes to either Clinton Street Baking Company in NYC or The Brownstone Diner in Newark, NJ...which I believe I need to pay another visit so I can blog about it.  Yeah, that needs to happenJ)  But Country Pancake scores big for originality, options, good prices and the "Pancakes the size of my head" award...

 Take home containers are a MUST!  Scott has breakfast for nearly a whole week nowJ

After our lunch/dinner we walked off our pancakes with a little stroll through cute Ridgewood... 

Where we just hadddddd to make one little stop: 

Cupcakes by Carousel has been featured on "The View", Oprah's "O List" and Runway magazine.  So yeah, we weren't skippin a trip hereJ 

Alas, I have no review for you at the moment as all of our selections went promptly in the freezer when we got home to enjoy later...but let's just say Carousel had a pretty awesome selection!  Cannoli, Smores, Key Lime??  Our eyes got bigger and bigger the more we stared at the caseJ  I'll be giving a full review soon since I know it wouldn't be long till we hit the DEFROST on these babiesJ

But back to yesterday...and the reason we weren't noshing on cupcakes was because we had ANOTHER dessert stop in mind for the day.  After a quick Google search of "Best desserts in Ridgewood"...one of the places that kept popping up (aside from Carousel) was Van Dyk's Homemade Ice Cream... 

This was a TRUE "local" experience.  A place slap dab in the middle of a neighborhood that serves both RC Cola AND Bosco Chocolate Soda on TAP, Van Dyk's has been around for over 100 years and makes it ice cream on the premises where the whole neighborhood sits around and noshes on ice cream on a hot day = Totally in loveJ

If I wasn't so stuffed from the pancakes, I would have loved to have tried their Bailey's Irish Cream or Peppermint with White Chocolate Chip ice cream.  But instead, I narrowed it down to one HUGE scoop of Milk Nestle Crunch... 

Oh man...the best way I could describe it was almost like a solid, ice cream version of a milkshake.  It was THAT light & airy, while still being super smooth and creamy.  This was some TRUE ice cream LOVE right there!!  Van Dyke's is a GEM!   

After we polished off our ice cream, we said farewell to Ridgewood and headed for home.  The rest of the day was spent "summer-izing" my whole house.  From decorations: 

 (weren't the Christmas ones up 4 seconds ago???)

...to my closet: 

And even my kitchen shelf stocked with magazines packed with summer recipesJ

So now were officially ready to get this season startedJ  Summer fruits/veggies, tank tops & flip flops = Me likes.  Excessive heat & humidity = Not so much....but I'm TRYIIING to embrace the season as best as I canJ  (but truth be told, I'm happiest that FALL is only THREE MONTHS AWAY!!!J)

So alright, I better get a move on to get my grilling on today AND do the one thing I said I was going to do ALL weekend = Finish my book... 

hahahahaha...almost there!!!!

Have a WONDERFUL holiday everyone and don't forget to be thankful and grateful to ALL of the people who allow us to celebrate today:  Our service men & women!  God Bless & Happy Memorial Day!