After enjoying a nice lunch, I decided to top it off with some ice cream. The temperature was in the upper 70s, so I thought it would be a nice and refreshing treat. I decided to go to Norwood Ice Cream in Sykesville, MD. This is a nice little store on Main Street. Downtown Sykesville really has a true old town feel to it and is what I enjoy about Small Town Living. There are plenty of ice cream options, and they also sell Wockenfuss chocolates, so you can get a sweet fix in a couple of different ways.
There were plenty of options, as you can hopefully see from the picture of the flavors. I tried the Pumpkin Spice (bonus flavor that wasn’t listed) and the Scout Mint. The pumpkin spice had a nice pumpkin flavor to it, but I was in the mood for some mint flavor. The Scout Mint had a nice creaminess to the ice cream. There were some tiny flecks of Thin Mint cookies, but every so often you would get a nice sized chunk of the cookie, which were the bites that I really enjoyed.
I had a bit of a bonus with the spoon. When I saw that it changed colors with the cold temperature, I had to smile,. I’m not sure why, since I don’t remember those being around when I was younger. But it was just one of those moments that made me feel young. I took the spoon home with me, by the way.
I liked this ice cream. I’ve enjoyed some of their other flavors as well. They make small batches in the store, which means there will almost always be something a little unique or different available. And it brings people like me coming back for more!
Smoky’s BBQ is another local place that I frequently visit. I went there today and decided to get the Pit Beef Sandwich with a side of Macaroni and Cheese. I added horseradish and barbecue sauce.
I enjoy all types of barbecue. When I came back to Maryland in 2015, it was the first time I really paid attention to Pit barbecue. It’s a big thing in the Baltimore area, which is probably the reason why I started noticing (I moved about 15 miles West of Baltimore). I’ve been to quite a few Pit barbecue places and will most likely be doing write ups of them at some point. Smoky’s BBQ is close to where I live now, which makes it easier to frequent. They have many different menu items that I’ve tried and enjoyed, so it will be fun to write about the different options. In the Pit barbecue places I’ve been, the meat is cooked over an open pit. With the beef, you have the option of doneness, which is nice. With ham and turkey, you get that nice smoky flavor with the meat.
As far as today’s meal, I decided to order the pit beef sandwich, medium rare, with horseradish and barbecue sauce. I went up to the counter, the asked me what I wanted and how I wanted the meat, and then took the meat off the pit and started slicing. This is a very fresh sandwich. The meat was cooked perfectly. The flavors of the meat and the toppings work perfectly for me. But the thing that makes this sandwich really enjoyable for me is the texture of the beef. I’ve had sliced beef before (pit beef, roast beef, or some variation) and it can be very tough and chewy. This was not the case with today’s sandwich. The meat was easy to bite through, so I didn’t have to pull huge chunks of meat in each bite, and I wasn’t hurting my teeth or jaw to actually chew through the meat. As far as the characteristics I would look for in a good pit beef sandwich, this sandwich met them all.
The macaroni and cheese was a nice side dish. Elbow macaroni with a cheese sauce that was the right consistency and amount. Sometimes you can get too much cheese sauce, where it’s just swimming. Sometimes you can get too little cheese sauce, where it is drier than it should be. Sometimes you can get a cheese sauce that has been cooked at too high a temperature and separated. There are things that can go wrong with macaroni and cheese, but that didn’t happen here. If I were to only order the macaroni and cheese, it would need something extra (tiger sauce, bbq meat, etc.), but as a side it worked well with the pit beef sandwich.
It was an overall pleasant experience and one that I look forward to duplicating again soon.
I decided to head over to Westminster this morning. The main goal was to visit Furnace Hills Coffee, but I also wanted to check out a place that I hadn’t visited before – Jeannie Bird Baking Company. I also had plans on going to the Downtown Westminster Farmer’s Market. I was able to visit all three, so I had a fun packed morning and was able to be on my way before the rain hit.
I started my morning at Jeannie Bird Baking Company. I had walked by it several times, but never took the time to step in. I read up on it and there were quite a few things about it that intrigued me. One thing that caught my eye was that they make their own English Muffins. I do enjoy a good English Muffin breakfast sandwich from time to time, so that was my main goal. When I got to the store, it was already pretty busy. I was waiting in line and could hear people behind me who knew some of the people in front of me. This was something that happened time and again, so it really had a nice, hometown type of feel to it. The employees seemed to know almost everyone as well, which added a comforting feeling to being there. I looked at all the different pastries and there were a few options that I was thinking about, but I wanted to stick with the breakfast sandwich. The English Muffins are not the same as what I’m used to from the grocery stores. They were a little smaller in diameter, but much thicker. So when I ate the sandwich, I was able to enjoy more of the muffin. I would normally order a meat as part of the sandwich, but I wanted to make sure I was able to taste the English Muffin, since meats sometimes become the primary flavor and minimize the other flavors in the muffin sandwiches. I was able to taste the English Muffin, and I enjoyed it. The outside was crispy, but the inside had that nice softness that you usually get. Since it was thicker than I am used to, I was able to really taste the bread and the enjoy the texture. By the time I was finished eating, the line was out the door. It is definitely a happening place. I will be going back, since they have so many other options that I plan on trying on future visits.
After I finished my breakfast, I walked over to Furnace Hills Coffee. They won’t be starting on the pumpkin drinks until October, so I decided to go with a Peanut Brittle blended coffee drink. The drink has caramel and peanut butter flavors. The first sip had a strong peanut brittle flavor, which was pretty neat. The consistency was good and the staff is great. Here is a not so great picture I took of their specialty drink menu.
I walked over to the Downtown Westminster Farmer’s Market while drinking my coffee drink. It was a small Farmer’s Market, but there were some good options there, which I will look into more the next time I visit there.
I bought two bags of coffee at Furnace Hills Coffee for my sister. One is called “Buddy Walk” and for every pound of coffee they sell, they donate $5 to the National Down Syndrome Society’s Buddy Walk. That is reason enough for me to get it, but the flavor of it is also good. I also got Erin’s Blend, named for their Chief Roaster.
Although my sister won’t get to enjoy these for a while, I will get to enjoy the aromas that are emanating from these bags. Even though I don’t enjoy straight coffee, but instead prefer the ice blended Frappuccino type drinks, I still like the smell of fresh coffee. Go figure on that one. I like and appreciate what Furnace Hills Coffee does. They not only make good coffee drinks and good roasted beans, but they do things for what I think is a good and honorable cause. You can’t get much better than that on a Saturday morning…
I first found Fresh Bakery when I was driving around during lunch when I was working up in the Owings Mills area. I enjoyed the different products (cakes, cookies, cupcakes, brownies), so it was only a matter of time before I would head back up there. A bit more of a drive than it used to be, but it was still worth it.
I started with the Banana Cake. They make their cakes square, and I think it works for these slices. I enjoy a traditional cake, but when eating a slice over multiple days, this one at least gives a better chance of having equal portions. Something that I do when making a cake is adding a thin layer of frosting on the bottom of the container. They do the same thing with theirs, so you get a slight layer of frosting on the bottom. The cake itself was nice and moist, but did not have a strong banana flavor. The buttercream frosting was portioned properly, so there wasn’t too much of one or the other in the bites. I enjoyed this cake, but would have preferred a little more of a banana flavor.
The next dessert I got was their Decadent Chocolate Mousse. This was a very large portion (more than one serving, even for me). The chocolate mousse had a nice flavor to it. It wasn’t an overly indulgent chocolate and it wasn’t too heavy on the sweet. The chocolate crumb was layered throughout the mousse, which I thought worked better with this than traditional layers. Some bites were more heavy on mousse than on the chocolate crumb, others were the opposite. The whipped topping was a nice final touch. The bites with all three were the kind of things you would expect from a special mousse dessert. I will be getting this again, but might have to try their banana pudding first.
It took me some time to finish both, so this wasn’t one big dessert for me. When I was younger, I might have been able to do it, but not anymore. Since I have a big sweet tooth, I like to try different bakeries here and there. If they are a small, local bakery, even better. I’ve still got plenty more to visit, but will still take the time to have my return visits here.
I decided to go to Krispy Kreme to try some of their pumpkin offerings. I was unfortunately a few days late to the pumpkin spice stuffed donuts party (it ran from 9/2-9/8), but I was still able to get their Pumpkin Spice Cake Donut and their Pumpkin Spice Frozen Latte. I added in an original glazed donut just because I could.
I started off with the original and devoured it in three bites, which is easy to do when it’s nice and warm (having a big mouth helps as well). I then went on to the pumpkin spice cake donut. The glaze was on the top but not on the bottom of the donut, but that didn’t really matter. The donut had a nice texture to it and the flavor of the spices were not overwhelming. It was a very good cake donut. The coffee drink was an interesting one for me. It was a bit too thick to start and very heavy on the pumpkin flavor. I was not a fan of my first few sips. After I gave it a couple of minutes, the consistency got better, and I was able to stir in some of the cinnamon that was sprinkled on top of the whipped cream. Once this happened, the drink was the perfect thickness and the cinnamon perfectly complemented the pumpkin flavor. This ended up being a very good frozen coffee drink, much to my pleasant surprise.
I am going to start with a disclaimer. I really enjoy Big Belly Deli. I will sometimes go there multiple times a week. Sometimes I will get food. Other times I will just go in to see if there are any special desserts that look good. This is a local place in Sykesville, MD and it is not visible from a major road, but gets quite a few visitors, including regulars. The staff is really nice and friendly. There aren’t long wait times. And you get a lot of food for the price you pay.
I check in the mornings and lunch time to see if there are any specials for breakfast or lunch. I’ve gone through most of the sandwich items on the menu and will most likely go through them again, so there will be multiple posts from Big Belly Deli on my site.
Tuesday morning, they posted that the special was going to be Sloppy Joe’s. My taste buds let me know that I had to go and get it for lunch. It also turned out to be dinner, since the portions were so huge. The bread was a homemade bread. It was very light and fluffy, and had a slight sweetness to it. The sweetness was a good balance for the meat mixture. This was not a canned mixture or a pre-packaged mixture. There were some good sized peppers and onions in there with the meat, and the sauce had a nice flavor as well. Not too spicy, but the seasoning worked well and made this a very good sandwich. To be fair, I was not able to eat this with my hands, but it was worth every bite.
I didn’t just stop with lunch. I also checked out the sweets they had, and there was a chocolate peanut butter cake that was calling my name. The cake itself was very moist. There was a nice layer of frosting in between the layers. The glaze that was surrounding the cake on top and two of the sides added an additional sweetness and the Reese’s pieces toppings completed the assemblage of a culinary piece of art. I apologize that my picture won’t do it justice, but it was a two dessert slice of cake that was worth every bite.
Big Belly Deli really does homemade food well. Their sandwiches are exceptional, and having daily specials and special desserts and treats really take it to another level. This is a place I’ve gone to again and again and will continue to do so. I still haven’t had a bad experience there, so this is definitely one of those happy places for me.
On September 8th, I drove South, which included driving on the New Jersey Turnpike, crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge and driving on the 95 and 695 in Maryland. The scenery was once again great. I took a few stops along the way, and wanted to highlight just a couple of them.
The first stop I made was while I was on the New Jersey Turnpike. I stopped at the Thomas Edison Travel Plaza (Woodbridge, NJ). This had been closed for quite awhile, but was now re-opened. After having been there in the past and seeing it now, I must admit that I am very impressed. They have completely redone the interior and it is much cleaner and open than it was before. If they continue to make over the other Travel Plaza’s along the New Jersey Turnpike, I will look forward to making extra stops to see the differences. While I was at the Travel Plaza, I decided to stop in Pret a Manger. They had little brownie bites, so I purchased one with the expectation that I would be eating it later on after lunch. I did wait on it, and the wait was worth it. I have had these brownie bites before, and they still taste really good. It’s a two bite brownie for me (maybe four bites for some people), and it is a nice little treat.
I already knew where I was going to be eating lunch. When I got into Maryland, I stopped at the Chesapeake House Travel Plaza (North East, MD). I went to Earl of Sandwich and got the Original 1762. Roast Beef, Cheddar and Horseradish sauce on their special bread. The roast beef was nice and easy to bite through, the cheddar was the perfect amount and the horseradish sauce was not overpowering and the combination of flavors made for a delicious sandwich. I look forward to going back around Thanksgiving time, when they will have their Holiday Sandwich.
I also went to Peet’s coffee to get a seasonal coffee drink. Their specialty drink was billed as pumpkin chai, and so I ordered the Pumpkin Chai Ice Blended Javiva. Unfortunately for me, I had Pumpkin Spice in my head, so the first couple of sips were a bit too much. When it clicked that I was getting a pumpkin chai instead of pumpkin spice, I focused on the flavors that I ordered. It was a good drink. The flavors for the pumpkin and the chai seasonings work well together. If you were expecting chai, you would think there was too much pumpkin. If you were expecting pumpkin, you would think there was too much chai flavor. But as a pumpkin chai drink, the flavors worked well. They have some other specialty drinks that I might try instead the next time, but I definitely didn’t mind giving it a try.
I ended up having a very nice drive. It took about 6 hours, but I had my playlist and the weather was pretty nice most of the way. It was only the last hour or so where the weather creeped into the mid to upper 80s. I’ve definitely been a road warrior these last 10 months or so, and I’m happy to share some of my experiences with you moving forward as I continue on the road.
September 7th was a day of many goodies and sweets, and my sweet tooth (more like teeth in my case) was very happy. I started the day by picking up some treats at La Bonne Boulangerie in East Norwich. I got some Chocolate Rugelach for breakfast and a chocolate iced brownie for later on. This bakery is a go-to place for me when I’m in the area. I get their Chocolate Rugelach most often, but they also have other assorted pastries, cakes, cookies and treats that are also good. This day was no different. It started with some fantastic Chocolate Rugelach and ended with a delicious brownie. What I enjoy most about the rugelach is how soft and moist it is. Some rugelach can be a bit dry or overly flaky, but theirs is always really good.
We went over to Roosevelt Field in Garden City later on. My main reason was to go to the Nordstrom Ebar. I go to the Ebar from time to time, but wanted to make this stop since it is time for the pumpkin flavors. I ordered myself a medium Pumpkin Spice Ice Storm and it did not disappoint. One thing that stands out with their pumpkin drink is that they use a scoop of pumpkin pie mix. This not only helps with the flavor, but it also helps with the consistency of the Ice Storm. This is one of the places where I will get a pumpkin frappe multiple times while it’s available.
We also took a stop over at Carvel in Syosset for some ice cream. I know that we went on a Saturday, which is contrary to the Wednesday is Sundae, but I had a craving, so we went. Carvel is another place that brings up fond family memories. There used to be a shop right across the street from my dentist’s office. So we would go to the dentist and then walk to Carvel afterwards for a treat. When family is in town, we tend to go on Wednesdays, since that is when Carvel has their buy one, get one free promotion for soft serve sundaes. Carvel does soft serve ice cream really well. When we got there on the 7th, I decided to order their special flavor: Kit Kat. I had it topped with hot fudge and whipped cream, and it made for a very tasty sundae. The Kit Kat soft serve has a chocolaty base with some finely ground pieces of cookie in there.
I did actually eat real food in between all the sweets, but these sugary treats were definitely the highlight of the day!
We went to Friendly’s in Syosset, NY on September 6, 2019. Since there were only three of us, there were no appetizers. I had the Philly Steak and Cheese Super Melt. I’ve had this before and like this sandwich. It might be better with some more gooey cheese, but it’s still good as it is. I ended the meal with a large Reese’s Pieces Sundae. Three scoops of ice cream (I chose Vienna Mocha Chunk, Brownie Batter, and Forbidden Chocolate), Peanut Butter Sauce, Marshmallow Sauce, Hot Fudge Sauce, Whipped Cream, Reese’s Pieces, Cherry, and Chocolate Sprinkles. I took a picture (the Reese’s Pieces are under the whipped cream), but it doesn’t properly reflect the enormity of the sundae. It was still a fantastic way to finish off my meal. Even though we went there for lunch, it filled me up so much that I wasn’t hungry enough for dinner.
When I was younger, my family went there quite a bit. I remember having a much bigger metabolism than I do now. We’d start with Mozzarella sticks, then I’d have a Big Beef Bacon Cheeseburger with a side of Chili, and finish it off with the large Reese’s Pieces Sundae, which had 5 scoops back then. We used to have a favorite one and I had a friend, Dudley G., who worked there. But that one closed, and a couple of others closed (Jericho and Westbury). But I try to make it back there a couple of times a year, if possible. When my sisters and their families come out, we try to get over there as well. So an old family tradition continues with the new generation. The food may be slightly different and there may not be as many locations as there used to be. But what doesn’t change is what it means to be there with family and to remember all the times we were there together over the years.
I took a drive up on September 5, 2019. I drove up the 95, over the Delaware Memorial Bridge and on the New Jersey Turnpike and beyond. I had created a new playlist for my car, so it kept me entertained for the 5+ hours. When I take these drives, I enjoy taking in the scenery. Right now, there is a lot of green with little bits of yellow coming through on some of the trees on the New Jersey Turnpike. I look forward to another month or so when the leaves are in the middle of changing colors and I’ll be able to see some green, yellow, orange, red, etc. on the way.
I stopped at China Palace in Glen Cove, NY to pick up some lunch. I ordered two sides – Wontons in Spicy Sesame Peanut Butter Sauce (without the sauce) and Hot Noodles in Sesame Peanut Butter Sauce (with the sauce). I really enjoy the noodles and have gotten them both hot and cold. I prefer them cold, but getting them hot makes it easier to incorporate the sauce. The wontons are really good. One of my sisters and I went there one day and saw them making the wontons fresh, and we’ve gotten them every time since. It made for a nice meal with the family.
I took a scenic route home after picking up the food and got to see some horses and some swans, so it made for a very productive drive.
Noninsightfulness 