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By Emily, August 1, 2010 1:59 pm

I can’t believe it’s August already.  It seems like school just got out and I had the whole summer ahead of me.   I have 2 choices: I can lament the fact that school is starting in less than a month (with the assumption that I actually have a job; it’s not official yet) OR I can get really, really, really excited about the fact that I’m headed to Chicago in 10 days to hang out with my best friend from college and attend the Healthy Living Summit.  And tomorrow’s the last day I’m teaching summer school (for this year, at least).  I’m choosing to focus on the latter.

Of course, I’m not the only blogger thinking about vacations.

The Kitchn wants to know about people’s favorite food travel experiences and memories.    Mine would include these 5 Food Experiences (a list which needs serious updating), crepes in Quebec with my sister, and all the food we ate on our honeymoon.

Simple Dollar has some great ideas for planning an inexpensive vacation.  I’m not sure Chicago is going to meet all of those criteria, but you only live once :)

Love Farmer’s Markets?  I do! CNN lists America’s best farmer’s markets.  Not staying in the states?   Travel and Leisure has a slideshow of the world’s best food markets.

I’m flying out to Chicago, and I’m glad it’s only a couple hour flight and I won’t have to worry much about real food.  Serious Eats is wondering: “Have You Ever Had Airline Food You Actually Liked?”  I guess I’ve never hated the airplane food I’ve had, but its not something I go looking for either.

Even though my flights don’t correspond with meal times, I’m still trying to think of airport-friendly snacks to bring.  And hotel friendly, for that matter.  The Kitchn’s got some hints on snacks for car rides that I may steal.

I also won’t have to think about entertainment on the plane too much (unlike last time I went to go visit this particular friend in Northern Ireland).  Still, I think I may put an audiobook on my iPod.  Free Technology for Teachers tipped me off to a great collection free audiobooks.

My biggest “concern” at the moment is figuring out what to pack and making it all fit in a carry-on sized bag. (Well, that and finding a dress for the cocktail party.)  Silly airline is charging $25 to check a bag.  Chances are I’ll have to check on the way home, so if I can avoid it on the first trip, that’d be awesome.   Any tips?

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By Emily, May 24, 2010 9:02 pm

You can tell it’s time for school to be out and/or that maybe you’re just a little too into some of the blogs you read when you dream about meeting Ree Drummond.  Yes, I think Ree is so awesome that I think about her in my sleep.  Perhaps I should seek professional help?

Oh well, even if I can’t meet Ree anytime soon (or invite myself to live on the ranch with her), I am going to meet a whole bunch of fantastic bloggers at the Healthy Living Summit in Chicago in August.  I am so so so excited.

Also, it’s really hot here and I’m way overtired from a combination of Friday night Dungeons and Dragons and Sunday night Lost.  And that’s my excuse for this extremely random blog post.

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By Emily, April 21, 2010 3:45 pm

Brian and I are on a much needed break from school this week.  We decided to stick close to home and do some day trips, instead of spending our whole vacation traveling.  Ever since I discovered how close Brian lived to the Vermont border, I’ve had plans to go to Ben and Jerry’s.  Granted, Ben and Jerry’s isn’t really near the Vermont-Massachusetts border, but Brian and I decided to take the opportunity yesterday to go explore central Vermont–and get some ice cream.

The drive to Waterbury, VT was lovely.  I could drive through mountains, valleys and small towns all day.  We arrived at Ben and Jerry’s without any problems and proceeded to go on the factory tour.  The half hour tour was interesting (there’s something so mesmerizing about production lines), and the sample of Cowcolate Chip ice cream was delicious–why do I never get vanilla Ben and Jerry’s?  It’s amazing.

After the tour, Brian and I headed to the Scoop Shop (ignore the fact that, at this point, we hadn’t really had lunch).  I got a cup of Coconut Seven Layer Bar (Coconut Ice Cream with Coconut & Fudge Flakes, Walnuts and Swirls of Graham Cracker & Butterscotch) and Brian got the new Boston Cream Pie (Boston Cream Pie Ice Cream with Yellow Cake Pieces, Fudge Flakes & Swirls of Pastry Cream).  I really need to find a scoop shop near here, because the Coconut Seven Layer Bar was amazing.

After wandering up to the Flavor Graveyard and enjoying the lovely weather, we decided we needed some real food for lunch.  We headed in the general direction of Waterbury Center and stumbled upon The Center Bakery and General Store, which was exactly what we were looking for.  While munching on our sandwiches, I picked up a “Waterbury Dining and Shopping Guide” (the plan was to randomly check out other VT attractions as we stumbled upon them).  Imagine my delight when I discovered The Cabot Annex Store, Lake Champlain Chocolates and the Green Mountain Coffee Visitors Center and Cafe are all in Waterbury.  So, we checked out all of them.  Samples of cheese and chocolate were enjoyed, coffee was bought and then we headed in the direction of home.

Following the suggestion in 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die, we headed south via Route 100.  Beautiful.  In Weston we stopped at the Vermont Country Store (also in the book), which was gigantic and had so much cool stuff (and more food samples!).  I’ll definitely go back there at some point.

In short: I’m about ready to move to Waterbury.  It was beautiful and I love small towns.  Plus I love ice cream…and cheese…and chocolate…and coffee.  Despite the fact that initial searches made it look like there wasn’t much in the area besides Ben and Jerry’s, there’s actually a lot to do.  Well worth the six hours we spent in the car yesterday.

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By Emily, August 19, 2009 1:19 pm

Sorry that this series of blog posts is taking so long to get done.  Yes, we’ve been back from our honeymoon for 10 days…We moved into our new apartment last weekend and it’s been really busy around here. Maybe next trip won’t be “technology free” and these posts will be more timely.  Or not.

After Philly, Brian and I headed to Delaware to check out the Winterthur Museum and Country Estate, Longwood Gardens and the Brandywine River Museum.  We stopped in Wilmington with the hopes of finding something to do and somewhere to eat.  Frankly, there didn’t seem to be much going on in downtown Wilmington, but the folks at the visitors center mentioned something about a brewery.  Brian, beer lover that he is, decided that was where we should have dinner and, after getting lost driving around the city, we found Iron Hill Brewery located on the riverfront.

He hasn’t stopped talking about it since.

We started our meal with a sampler of 8 types of beer, the 6 house beers and two seasonals of our (Brian’s) choosing:

My husband, who is far more knowledgable about these things than I, thought the beer was really great. I actually liked most of them too, and only having to have a little of each was definitely the way to go for me.   Sampling all the different kinds was a lot of fun.  It’s possible I’m starting to like beer. Who woulda thought?

We also ordered an appetizer of sweet potato fries.   Sweet potato fries aren’t usually on my radar, but they might be in the future. I think the picture speaks for itself.  Amazing.  I would’ve been content to skip the main course and just eat more fries.

For our entrees, Brian had a pulled pork sandwich:

He really liked it:

I had a “healthy selection” crab cake with tomatoes, avocado, baby arugula, and roasted tomato-jalapeño vinaigrette:

You know you’d had a lifestyle change when you order things off the “healthy selections” menu not because it’s healthy but because it sounds more appetizing than the “normal selections”.

The food was really delicious, the portions sufficient and the atmosphere was fun. Brian suggested, before the meal was even over, that we forgo looking for other restaurants and just come back to Iron Hill for the remaining evenings of our trip. I declined, but it wouldn’t have been the worst thing ever. Iron Hill Brewery has several locations in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

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By Emily, August 13, 2009 10:23 am

Brian and I spent most of our time in Philly in the Old City.  We did a ton of walking in that area alone.  However, I couldn’t quite resist making the hike to Center City to see Reading Terminal Market.  How could I forgo checking out “the best, freshest and liveliest public market since 1893″?

In short, it was everything I hoped it would be.  Tons of vendors, amazing looking fresh food, variety, ethnic cuisine.  I very nearly decided to move to Philadelphia for the market alone.  It was a good thing we didn’t have a cooler with us or a fridge in our hotel because I would’ve spent a fortune on food.  I’ll stop rambling and just get to the photos, because they express my feelings much better:

Reading Terminal Market: definitely a Philadelphia foodie must see.

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By Emily, May 27, 2009 9:30 pm

Posting’s been thin lately, but I have a good excuse (I think).  My sister and I were on vacation in Quebec City.

If you’ve never been (and we hadn’t), I highly suggest you go.  We had a wonderful time shopping, going to the Musée National des Beaux Arts du Québec, walking through The National Battlefields Park, and, of course, eating.

I’m sure Quebec isn’t the end all, be all of fine cusine, but I took my mini-vacation seriously and ate whatever I wanted, not necesarily in terms of quanity-we stuck to 3 meals a day, and relatively cheap ones because we’re like that- but I ordered whatever I felt like off the menu, vegetarian or not.  We were only there for 3 days and it was vacation after all.  Everything we ate was delicious (who doesn’t love crepes?), and despite our lack of ability to speak French, the waitstaff in all the restaurants we tried were accomodating and helpful.

We finished up our wonderful trip to Canada by stopping at the Empire Grill in Skowhegan, Maine on our way home.  For those unfamiliar with the novel Empire Falls by Richard Russo, the Empire Grill is the restaurant owned by the main character.  The Empire Grill in Skowhegan was used as the site for the filming of the HBO miniseries based on the book which starred Ed Harris, Helen Hunt, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Newman, after which time the restaurant kept the Empire Grill name.  Empire Falls is one of my absolute favorite books of all time, so stopping at the Grill was a “must do”.  The restaurant far exceeded my expectations.  The portions were huge (I think they served my sister an entire fish with her fish and chips), the prices reasonable and the food delicious.  Even if you don’t care about Empire Falls (though you really, really should!), the Empire Grill is the perfect place to eat if you ever find yourself in Skowhegan.

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By Emily, January 5, 2009 10:57 pm

So, I had a brief debate with myself this evening about whether or not it was worth staying up to watch the season premiere of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations on the Travel Channel.   I made the right choice.

I began to fall in love with Anthony Bourdain over the past few weeks (apologies to my Man), as Travel Channel was showing about every episode in succession to prepare for the new season.  Well, I’m hooked.  Who can resist a show that refers to matadors as “teen idols…Zac Efron with a sword” or features oyster flavored alcohol that’s apparently “like baby food that gets you slowly drunk”?  Moreover, it was worth giving up an hour of my usual sleep schedule to watch Tony thrown onto a mat by a professional wrestler.  Even more so, this episode made me want to go to Mexico, mostly to eat.  Everything looked tasty (except maybe the oyster-y alcohol) and I’m always impressed by Bourdain’s seemingly genuine surprise at liking everything he tries.  One might think that at this point he’d realize he likes everything, but he always tries it and he’s always impressed.

Despite his frequent digs at my favorite Food Network shows and stars, I love Bourdain’s perspective and the places the show goes.  I love the people he meets, I always learn something worth knowing and now I can add Mexico to my list of places I want to visit.

Now, I just have to decide if I’m going to watch No Reservations or Chopped on Monday evenings and if I can really afford to stay awake until 11 on school nights.

Next week No Reservations goes to Venice.  How can I say no?

I really must start reading Kitchen Confidential.