Friday, February 25, 2011

Philanthropy is Delicious!

In January, the winter storage barn at Pete's Greens burned down. Soon after, Bid for the Barn, an online auction was put together to raise funds for the rebuilding effort. On the first day of the week-long auction, I boldly placed the opening bid on an amazing item: a crepe a week for a year from one of my favorite restaurants, The Skinny Pancake. I did the math, and knew it was a great deal, even if I missed a few weeks here and there. Besides, I was sure to be out-bid by the end of the week, right?

To my amazement, I won! I giddily mailed in my check, and this week received a batch of Skinny Pancake gift certificates in the mail. Rumor has it they're adding a button to their computer system for this, so these are just to get me started. (And unfortunately NO, they don't roll over from one week to the next, so I can't save them up and have a big party.)

I'm going to use this as an opportunity to stray from my tried and true favorites, and test some new ones I wouldn't normally select. My goal is to try all of the amazing offerings over the next year! In addition to seasonal specials, there are 35 different crepes--maybe more, if the salad in a crepe-bowl or the kidz menu items count!

Last night, T and I went out for the first of my 52 "free" crepes. The restaurant was packed, and I think our 30-min wait time stretched a bit beyond that. But once we were seated at the table tucked between the stairs and the window, we had our own cozy nook in the crowded room. I selected the "Chicken Cordon Blue Crepe," and it was amazing! It's one of the five Dinner Crepes, which are only available Thurs-Sat nights. T's first choice, The Cattle Rancher, was sold out for the night, but he was quite pleased with the runner-up, Lamb Fetatastic (both from the Savory Classics section).

Price: $12.95
Balance: $237.05
Average price per crepe so far: $250

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

In The Kitchen: Coffee Hazelnut Cookies

At Christmas time, I brought a box of Sugarsnap's Cookies for Good home to NH. The assortment I chose included Java Hazelnut cookies, and they were wonderful! I tracked down this recipe online, hoping to reproduce the yummy treat for my Gray Dog Media office-warming party. They were much crunchier than the original, and I usually prefer chewier cookies, but they were still delicious!


Unfortunately the office party was postponed due to a crazy snowstorm. Hopefully it can be rescheduled when the snowbanks recede a bit. The only problem? Cookies full of coffee really shouldn't be eaten too late in the day. Hmm...cookies for breakfast? Okay!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Wordless Wednesday: Snow Day

(Coffee Hazelnut Cookies--recipe coming soon)