Road Trip to Burlington, Vermont

Since my husband and I are not working right now (we took off a couple weeks to prepare for our upcoming big move), we're trying to squeeze in as many final adventures and visits with friends as we can manage before we leave. Last week, we took a beautiful drive up to the Burlington, Vermont area, including a pit stop in Waterbury for a factory tour at Ben and Jerry's! After learning the magic of ice cream making and enjoying a free sample, we bought a larger serving of ice cream and took a walk up the hill from the factory to stroll around their Flavor Graveyard and admired the view of rural Vermont.

We continued our drive in the countryside spotting old barns, covered bridges, vibrant green pastures, and even blooming lupines.

Finally in Burlington, a vibrant little college town right on Lake Champlain, we strolled through their darling downtown area lined with shops, restaurants, and musicians playing in the streets. We ducked into Das Bierhaus and grabbed a table out on their rooftop biergarten to enjoy German beer, pretzels, and the afternoon sun.

Next, we met up with two of our favorite people and fellow Texans in New England, Crystal and Troy, for dinner at The Farmhouse Tap and Grill. They have cheese plates featuring local Vermont cheeses, fantastic burgers, and a great selection of local beers on tap.

On our after dinner stroll, we just happened to walk past the Burlington Ben and Jerry's which just happens to be the location of the original Ben and Jerry's factory. So naturally, we HAD to stop in for another ice cream! Who can pass up a historical landmark like that?  It was a great way to end the evening!

The next morning, we had a hearty breakfast at the Penny Cluse Cafe before hitting the road, and I'm so glad we did. This was hands down the highlight of the trip. It's a cute spot, walls lined with funky art submitted by local patrons. And the food! I ordered a spinach, mushroom, and cheese omelette that was light and fluffy and perfect and was served alongside homemade biscuits and jam, crispy home fries, strong coffee, and a grapefruit spritz made with freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. My husband's biscuits with herb gravy were equally good. They can sure cook up a good breakfast in Vermont!

After driving along the shoreline of Lake Champlain, we headed south toward Boston. It's a pretty long trip in New England terms (3.5 hours), but it's well worth it. I'm so glad we were able to pay Burlington a visit before moving away from the area. Now if only I could afford a summer vacation home along the lake...a girl can dream!

Memorial Day in Vermont

How was everyone's Memorial Day weekend? We spent ours with our good friends and newlyweds, Crystal and Troy. They are fellow Longhorns who have also relocated to New England. We drove up to their home in New Hampshire on Saturday morning and kicked off the festivities with a feast of homemade pasta by Chef Crystal. There was pesto pasta salad, spinach angel hair pasta and fettuccine with bolognese sauce, cheese and mushroom stuffed ravioli, salad, sauteed shrimp, and a fruit and cheese spread. And wine of course! I think I'm going to write my own thank you note to whoever bought them a pasta maker for their wedding!

After lunch, we drove to Quechee, Vermont (home of the gorgeous Quechee Gorge) and shopped for Vermont-y wares like maple syrup, Cabot cheese, maple cream, local honey, Green Mountain Coffee, etc at the Cabot Quechee Store and homemade soaps and candles at Whisper Hill Bath and Body. If you pay them a visit, don't miss out on the Vermont Toy Museum located upstairs of the Cabot Quechee Store!

After driving through adorable Woodstock with its cute shops, restaurants, and Gillingham & Sons general store along Central Street, our next stop was for a beer flight at Long Trail Brewing in Bridgewater. We grabbed a table out on their back patio, alongside the swiftly flowing Ottauquechee River. We snacked on complimentary popcorn, sipped our beers (the favorite was the Berliner-Weisse, their newest Brown Bag Series), and enjoyed the view.

Us at Long Trail Brewing! Cheers!

For dinner that evening, we popped into Elixir Restaurant, a cute local spot in a renovated Freight House right off the train tracks in White River Junction. Small town Vermont prices are so much better than Boston prices, and even more importantly, the food was very good. We loved the coconut-red curry mussels, the truffle fries, and  the filet mignon! But even better than the food and drink was the company!

Sunday morning, we made the beautiful drive to Norwich, Vermont for their Memorial Day Parade. Crystal and Troy are both members of the Upper Valley Community Band and were esteemed parade participants! While they warmed up with the band, my husband and I explored the tiny, adorable town. From swinging in front of the elementary school to walking along the shaded streets to exploring Dan and Whit's General Store, we loved this little community.

Eventually, we plopped down our chairs along Main Street with the local folks and families and waited for the parade to go by. Children were eating popsicles and waving American flags. Parents were chatting and waving at friends. Puppies played in the grass. Eventually the parade began, local military service members, boy scouts, the band, all trailed by the local fire truck. Small town life at its best!

After the parade, we headed over to Jasper Murdoch's Alehouse at the Norwich Inn for lunch. It's such a pretty inn, and Jasper Murdoch's offers some pretty good brews and food. If you stop in for a meal, give the eggplant fries a shot. Delicious!

After lunch, we made our final stop in Vermont: King Arthur Flour. Located right outside Norwich, this is truly a baker's paradise. On site, they have their own bakery and cafe, they offer all kinds of baking classes, and they have a kitchen store that I practically had to be dragged out of. There are more baking ingredients than you could imagine and a ridiculous amount of cute kitchen accessories: pie pans, kitchen towels, aprons, spatulas, cupcake liners, you name it. What I wouldn't give to have this store around the corner from me, though it's probably better for my wallet that it's not. It was a real treat to pay them a visit.

Sunday afternoon we bid Crystal and Troy farewell and made the trek back down to Boston, the back of the car noticeably more full with all of the spoils from our trip. Now to put everything to good use!

It's Maple Syrup Season!

It's that time of year again! As temperatures begin to creep above freezing, the maple tree sap begins to flow. It's maple syrup season in New England! 

My mom was in town this weekend to keep me company while my husband gallivanted around Dublin for St Patrick's Day. We had a great time cooking, bidding in an antique auction, eating as much seafood as we could manage (there's not much fresh seafood in northeast Texas), watching girly movies, exploring Cape Cod, and visiting a sugar shack in New Hampshire: Sammy's Sugar Shack!

March is "Maple Month" in New Hampshire, and as a part of the festivities, many syrup producers open their doors for tours and free samples. We made the drive up to Milford and had a great time at Sammy's. The sugar shack is in a beautifully renovated barn located on their family farm (complete with beef cattle grazing out back).  This is only their second year of operation, and as we toured the cozy facility, their evaporator was running with a fresh batch of sap for the first time this season. Shelves were lined with bottles of syrup, maple cream, maple candies made by Sammy's wife, and maple sugar -- we brought home a little bit of everything!

Another I would recommend is Parker's Maple Barn in Mason, NH.  We toured their sugar shack last year when our friends Jimmy and Laura visited from LA, and we loved it. It's a larger, well-established (yet still rustic) facility with an in-depth guided tour. Their roaring wood-fired evaporator is a sight to behold.

If you want to make a morning of it, they also have a restaurant serving up breakfast (including pancakes and their own maple syrup). Sadly, we had to skip out on breakfast as there was a 2 hour wait by the time we arrived later in the morning.

Last but not least, if you want to make the trek to Vermont, the maple syrup motherland, you might want to pay Mom and Pop's a visit in Rochester.  It's an adorable little family-run operation, and we're big fans of their syrup and their maple cream. About 20 minutes down the road, you can also find beautiful handmade maple wood bowls at The Bowl Mill. In between the two is the cutest little shop called Sandy's Books and Bakery (formerly Seasoned Books), a perfect pit-stop for a freshly-baked pastry with coffee, a sandwich for lunch, or a little book browsing.

There are dozens of producers in the area that we have yet to visit, so let me know if there are others I need to try! Here's to celebrating maple syrup season!