10 Favorite Places to Eat‏

Now this is an easy list...

1. Ruth's Chris Steak House (New York, NY; Chicago, IL; Rocky Hill, CT; Garden City, NY...) --Hands down my favorite restaurant(s)
2. Italian Bistro (Philadelphia, PA) --Great food, great service
3. Brandon Inn (Brandon, VT) -- Chef/Owner Louis Pattis serves up consistently wonderful meals
4. The Creemee Stand (Wilmington, VT) -- Best creemee anywhere!
5. Dot's (Wilmington and West Dover, VT) -- Best breakfast (and chili) in Vermont
6. Outback Steakhouse -- Always a great meal, and I love their bread
7. Fogo de Chão (Atlanta, GA) -- I was part of a group taken here by a vendor--amazingly bountiful and delicious food
8. Annapolis Ice Cream Company (Annapolis, MD) Best hard ice cream anywhere!
9. J. Alexander's -- Northbrook, IL) One of my favorites when I'd travel to Chicagoland for business
10. Lillian's (Saratoga Springs, NY) -- Many fond memories of my Saratoga summers

I could easily go on and on, but this will have to serve as an appetizer for ya...

Am I blue?

Maybe a little, but not as blue as this bagel--


This was being sold at my favorite bagel shop this morning. Yikes! And I thought that the green ones for Saint Patty's Day were a little scary.

And another find this morning--

Free t-shirts being given out by the local classic rock radio station at the train station this morning.

Cool!

Now, I know I've got some good friends who are of the "New England" persuation, but in the interests of full disclosure, I have to state that:

1. I am a New York Giant fan. Have been for 20+ years.
2. I am a New York Met fan. Have been since I was a child.
3. I am a New York Ranger fan. Islanders? Those fans leave early to get out of the parking lot. Feh!
4. I am not a New York Yankee fan, although I did think they were a better team during the Joe Torre years. Still not a fan, though.

And if you've still with me (and I hope you are--can't we all just get along???), some real live knitting for you!

Dashing, for Jim. Just needs a thumb.

See--the midterms didn't entirely break my spirit. There's been a little knitting going on...

Crispy Treats

One of my favorite snacks are crispy treats. Lately you can find them in places like Starbucks, and even Kelloggs makes packaged ones. Unfortunately, for the most part they're just not that fresh. (And the Kelloggs ones are just taste like they've got chemicals in them--eeeeee-yuck!) My favorite soup place has been selling them and they're pretty good. Recently they started selling chocolate ones. I figured they were being made with Cocoa Krispies, but when I looked on the ingredient label I discovered that they were using dutch processed cocoa with the regular crispies. So I thought they might be pretty good, so I tried them.

Oh. My. God! They were soooooo good. So much better than the Cocoa Krispies ones.

But it got me to thinking--I should try making these myself. So I poked around the internet looking for recipes, did a little tweaking, and came up with these.


So fresh, so chocolately, sooooooo yummy! And so easy to make!

Cocoa Crispy Treats

1/4 cup butter
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 10.5 oz bag of miniature marshmallows
4 tbsp cocoa powder
5 cups crispy rice cereal

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add vanilla extract and cocoa powder and mix well. Add marshmallows and stir constantly until completely melted. Remove from heat. Add crisp rice cereal and stir until well coated.

Line a 13" x 9" pan with parchment paper. (If you don't have parchment paper, be sure to grease pan.) Using a buttered spatula or the back of a large spoon, press mixture into the pan. Cut into squares when completely cool. Will make between 24 to 36 squares, depending on size of squares.

Mmmmmmmmm...