- Kettle Brand Chips - Maple Bacon Chips - These are deliciously tasty - the initial sweetness of the maple follows with a finish of bacon and the crunch of the chip. These are even more addictive than regular chips.
- Lemon Blueberry Oatmeal muffins - These are very healthy and nearly gluten-free, but because of that, they are a bit bland. A small bit of butter on them makes them much better.
- Grandma's Apple Carrot Cake - Megan made this for Brandy's birthday. It's filling and delicious and excellent with vanilla ice cream.
- Spanish Chicken Rice Bake - Megan made this for dinner over the weekend. This was really good - hearty, delicious, spicy but not hot spicy. This is going to be a great meal for cool fall or cold winter days.
- Nancy's - Butterscotch Fudge - Not normally a fan of butterscotch, this was actually pretty good.
- Nancy's - Chocolate Raspberry Fudge - This was very good with layers of chocolate and raspberry flavored fudges.
- Nancy's - Milk Chocolate-covered Sponge Candy
- Palmetto honey - This was at the Floyd Craft Festival
- Adirondack Beverages - Vanilla Cream Ale
We went to Villa Appalaccia as they had their All Things Olive event. They have a number of different olives, olive oils, and balsamic vinegars to taste, in addition their wine. We headed there after going to the Floyd Craft Festival and tried all of the above, plus a full tasting of their wines. Megan doesn't really like olives, so most of the comments below are from Brett. A note about the wine reviews - currently CellarTracker is down and so the list below is just the list of what we tasted. We'll udpate with formal reviews when CellarTracker is back online.
- Castelvetrano olives - These are a meaty bright green olive - one of Brett's favorites.
- Sicilian olives - These were pretty bitter.
- Provencal olives - These have been cured with herbs of provence and were too herby for Brett's taste.
- Nyon olives - These are a black olive and are more earthy tasting like most black olives.
- Morocco olives - These are a black olive and they are cured with rosemary.
- Cerignalo olives - These are a green olive and fairly meaty but not very bitter.
- Gaeta olives - These are a purplish olive and are buttery and rich. These were Brett's favorite olive.
- Calamata olives - Your standard run of the mill calamata.
- Alfonso olives - These are cured partially in red wine. The grape is apparent in the taste and very interesting and quite unusual for an olive. This was also quite good and one of Brett's favorites.
- Olive Garden Olive Oil - This was used as a reference oil for all of the others that would come after.
- Badia a Coltibuono - This is from Gaiole in Chianti and Brett has ridden his bike through this small picturesque town. This was quite good and typically Tuscan in flavor.
- Librandi - Another olive oil from Italy, this was a bit sharper with pepper flavor.
- Colli Etruschi - "Etruschi" is etruscan and this was also from Tuscany.
- Frantoio del Castello di Poppiano - Another Tuscan olive oil - probably Brett's favorite.
- Olio Beato Demarco
- A L'oviere - A French olive oil - more buttery than Italian olive oils.
- Dalla Terra Black Truffle oil - The olive oil here is pretty bland to allow the truffle to show through.
- Invecchiato 10 year old Balsamic - A bit older than a typical grocery store balsamic (usually 7 years). Still a typical vinegar bite, but mellower than your typical balsamic.
- Invecchiato 15 year old Balsamic - This is much less sour than 10 year old balsamic, being more rounded and fruit flavors present.
- Invecchiato 28 year old Balsamic - This is as little like regular balsamic vinegar as apple juice is to hard apple cider. Soft, supple, fruity with notes of raisins and fig. Smooth, round, and utterly delicious.
- 2011 - Villa Appalaccia - Vermentino
- 2010 - Villa Appalaccia - Rosa
- NV - Villa Appalaccia - Simpatico
- 2008 - Villa Appalaccia - Toscanello
- 2009 - Villa Appalaccia - Primitivo
- 2007 - Villa Appalaccia - Cabernet Franc
- 2011 - Villa Appalaccia - Aglianico
- 2009 - Villa Appalaccia - Corvina
- NV - Villa Appalaccia - Raspberry-Cab
We also had a dip for our picnic on the Parkway, but we've had it before. It is however very good, so we wanted to link the recipe here for others who might like to try it: Roasted Red Pepper and Cannellini Bean Dip.
We have tried a few beers this week as well. It's October so that means lots of märzen and pumpkin beers.
We have tried a few beers this week as well. It's October so that means lots of märzen and pumpkin beers.
- Breckenridge Brewery - Vanilla Porter - The bottle we had was flawed. We'll have to try this again with a bottle that's not bad.
- Devil's Backbone Brewing - O'Fest - This was an okay märzen, but hasn't been the best we've had this season.
- Ayinger - Oktober Fest-Märzen - This has been, by far, the best märzen of the season so far - highly recommended.
- Dogfish Head - Punkin Ale - This is one of our favorite pumpkin beers this season. It's close between this and the New Belgium Pumpkick we tried earlier.
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