Fluffy Fresh Donuts

What: Apple spice cake and chocolate frosted cake

Where: 5729 Johnson Drive, Mission KS

When: Sunday, December 28th, 2014

While on a quick vacation to Kansas City I got to drag my husband (did I tell you I got married? Because I did!) to the donut shop with the best name in town: Fluffy Fresh! And they were amazing.

We walked in at about 10:30 and they were down to one tray. Nothing maple. But the apple spice was amazing. So light and fluffy for a cake donut. Easily a 5/5.

The chocolate frosted was good, but not as amazing as the apple spice. The owner said they were known for their glazed donuts and cinnamon twists; they tend to run out of those first. Anyways, 4/5 for the chocolate frosted. Frosting was the best part of it. Reminded me of my mom's homemade fudge frosting. Yum!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have a super short week at school this week and got out a little early today so I figured I'd pick up some pastries from the Spanish bakery a couple blocks from my house. Today I picked out a donut w sprinkles, apple turnover thing and a blueberry muffin.

As you can see I couldn't wait on the donut. I'm not always a huge fan of non perils but the donut is delicious. It's glazed and then sprinkled so no over powering sugary frosting to contend with. The donut itself is moist with the glaze seeping in along some of the edges. 4/5 for the donut. Other pastries will be sampled later :-)

Fall is crazy!

I know fall technically just started, but ever since school started again life in Nebraska has just been insanely busy. My fiancé and I moved into our first place together. We had bed bugs. We had exterminators. We had family come visit. We had a funeral. We had a bridal shower. And soon we have a wedding.

I have been eating donuts for my reviews. I have not been writing reviews. But here is a quick one for today!

Pan Dulce Bakery, Lincoln

Chocolate frosted twist

I've been trying to walk more, especially to school in the mornings if I can get out of my apartment on time. This morning on my walk home I smelle donuts for the second time near this one intersection I go through. So I hunted down the bakery and got a donut. I don't think donuts are their specialty and next time I was to try some bread, but the donut wasn't awful. They had about four varieties, no maple though. The frosting was good but the donut tasted a touch stale. There was a dollop of raspberry jelly in the center, but it fell off on the bakery tissue.

I say 2/5. I'll let you know how the bread is later!

Russ's cinnamon rolls

So, not technically donuts, but they had maple and peanut butter frosting, so close enough. Also, they were on sale 2 for $1 which is a pretty sweet deal for cinnamon rolls!

We heated the maple one up in the microwave, perhaps a little too long so the frosting doesn't look super appetizing, but it was pretty yummy. I was having trouble eating it and working on my computer so my fiancé was nice enough to cut it up for me :-)

I'd say 3/5. Would definitely buy again for $0.50. 

Ambrosia Bakery

What: Jelly Filled

Where: 272 Naugatuck Ave, Milford CT

When: Saturday, July 19th, 2014

While back on the east coast in July I was the runner for two of my favorite coworkers' wedding. They were doing a dessert bar so I went to Costco, Whole Foods, and Ambrosia Bakery to pick stuff  up the morning of the wedding.

1. Costco on a Saturday morning is super busy.

2. Costcos apparently do not believe in labeling aisles.

3. Telling someone not to panic yet while they are waiting for a preorder at Whole Foods is somewhat panic inducing.

4. Count the orders before leaving in case they forgot a box of six dozen Cannolis.

But, silver lining, I got one of the best jelly donuts I've ever had. Like Frangelli's fresh-filled good.

I couldn't even tell you what flavor the jelly was, maybe some sort of blackberry? Delicious. The dough was awesome too, not too sweet to balance out the jelly. 5/5. Would definitely go back and try out some other flavors.

Olympic donuts

What: Chocolate frosted cake donut

Where: Milford, CT (First Connecticut review!!)

When: Friday, July 18th 2014

The 2nd wedding of my July wedding jaunt in the northeast was in Connecticut and I was luckily able to get a ride to and from it with my sister and brother in law. After normal NYC traffic and, annoyingly, normal Connecticut traffic we got to town around lunchtime. After some cheap sandwiches my sister found a donut place to check out on their way to dropping me off.

I had a chocolate frosted cake donut that had some decent frosting but was kind of dry. My sister had a chocolate cake donut that ended up having hints of cherry in it and my brother in law had a chocolate frosted cake donut like me, but his had coconut. The donuts where probably all about a 2/5.

The place was pretty cute with a large, U-shaped counter and a heavy focus on coffee products as we'll, but no one tried any of those.

The second CT review will be for a far yummier donut later this week. /teaser

I feel like I was just here

I mean Boston. This morning (6am!) I'm on my way out of Boston again. Got here Thursday for a wedding (bridesmaid, pink dress) and it's been a little crazy. The rehearsal was Thursday so as soon as I got in, it was wedding time! I stopped in the bus station for some fuel though, Honey Dew donuts. I has tried honey dew YEARS ago when I first came up here for college and hadn't been impressed but that was obviously predonut blog. So I got a breakfast sandwich and three donuts to take for the ride. I didn't eat any of them. Busy two days. So now I'm back at South Station and trying it again. But it's too early to eat said donut. So review to come!

Randy's Donuts!

What: Raised chocolate iced and blueberry cake (and bonus donuts later)

Where: Pump and Pantry, West O, Lincoln
When: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 and Thursday, June 19th, 2014

This is I think my 3rd and 4th time trying to go to Randy's. They're one of those bakeries only open till 10am, or when the sell out, and not on Sundays. Plus they are located in kind of an out of the way strip mall that doesn't have much else in it. But my fiance pointed out that for them to still be around and in business and selling out, they must have really good donuts.

Wednesday morning he suggested we try going because I had to be on the north side of town by 11, so he figured we could go before my meeting and his work day. We got there at 9:55. We aren't very good with giving donut places time. Sadly, they were already sold out for the day, but they did have a sign in the window saying that you could get their donuts at a couple of the gas stations in the area, including one right down the street. Off to Pump and Pantry.

Their case was about a quarter full, no maple left but I did see some maple frosting residue so I knew it was a possibility! We got a raised donut with chocolate frosting and a blueberry cake donut. The chocolate frosting was amazing and the raised donut was super airy. In fact, when we went to cut them apart to share, the raised donut was almost flattened by the butter knife.

The blueberry cake was good, but I'm still not a huge fan of blueberry cake. I'd give the chocolate one a 4/5 and the blueberry a 2.5/5. We split them with a Burger King sausage egg and cheese sandwich, which are still quite delicious if not getting more expensive. $2.99! When did fast food get so expensive? Probably in the time I wasn't really buying any.

Then Thursday morning, we got up REALLY early. My cousin is currently running part of the MS Run the US Relay and she will be basically running a marathon a day for a week. Today was her first day and she started in Lincoln at 5:30. And I wanted to be there. But we kind of missed it. We got to where I thought she was starting a minute after she was supposed to start, but we didn't see anyone. So we drove around for awhile trying to find her and eventually did around 6:15 or so. She was slightly lost as well, but had just called some of her support people and found her path again (the path she was taking through downtown and north Lincoln was kind of crazy, from street to bike path back to street, etc.). Anyways, after seeing her I told my fiance that for being such a sport about getting up so early, I would take him to breakfast. Or we could go back to sleep. He suggested Randy's Donuts! And about 2 seconds later was just like, I don't have my wallet, do you have cash. No, I gave you my cash yesterday. And the hunt began. We came up with about $2.35 in change between my purse and his car floor. That bought us three donuts! 

I was so excited to finally be inside Randy's since I had been trying for so long. Almost a year! The inside has a couple of tables and is decorated in red and black. There were two bakery display cases, but only one had donuts in it. I wonder if they were almost sold out already! We got a selection of cake donuts, including my maple frosted. And they were delicious! Lots of frosting and really moist cake donuts. I'd give the maple a 5/5 (might be my new favorite), the chocolate a 4.5/5 and the vanilla (my first every vanilla frosted donut) a 4/5. I highly recommend this place. Just get there early!

Virginia's Travelers' Cafe

What: Chocolate glazed cake donut

Where: 3820 Cornhusker Highway, Lincolne

When: Monday, June 9th, 2014

This morning my fiance and I got up quite early so that he could go to the dentist. I promised a treat after the appointment, so we headed out to breakfast before he had to go back to work. We went to Virginia's Travelers' Cafe, which I had never been too. Very old school diner type place. 

They had tons of breakfasts for someone with a small stomach like myself! We split some eggs and pancakes and french toast, and a donut! The frosting was delicious, but the donut was pretty dry. I'd say 1/5.

The food was much better than the donut, which probably wasn't made there anyways, so I can't really fault them. The french toast was amazing, just the best straight up french toast. No fancy crap, just yumminess. I'd definitely go back for it.

Free donuts!

Happy National Donut Day!

13 Things You Didn't Know About Donuts

I didn't know most of these either!

* From Parade Magazine

National Donut Day deals

Nationwide:
Dunkin Donuts-free donut with any beverage purchase.
Krispy Kreme-get any donut for free, but not in CT. Sorry Connecticut.
Tim Horton's-free donut with any purchase.


Local:
Super Savers-free donut to the first 200 customers starting at 7am.
Hy-Vee-glazed donuts are 2/$1.
Russ's Market-glazed donuts are 4/$1 with five cents from each donut going to the Salvation Army, the creator of National Donut Day.
LaMar's Donuts-free holed-donut

Non Local favorite of mine:
Shipley's Do-Nuts-free donut and small coffee, 5am-12pm.

And for my NYC readers:
Doughnut Plant-free mini cake donut with any purchase.
Cumberland Farms-free donut with a beverage purchase.


Official Donut Day website, and some donut porn

Anyone find anything else on google? I don't know where I should start! Somewhere I can walk to, would be good.

Two week road trip!

So I am back from the trip, sorry for the lack of posting during the trip. I don't have one of those cool dodads for getting the internet anywhere and everywhere yet, and it was kind of hard to find a signal when I had time to use said signal. :-(

The trip consisted of a weekend at High Point State Park in New Jersey, sharing a three bedroom cabin with the whole family, then some time driving around southern Pennsylvania to see the other side of the family and Philadelphia (briefly, not really for touristy reasons, but we did hit the Wawa! And the Target my family always seems to stop at on any trip to Philly. Someone always needs something!)

Then a weekend in Boston to show off my favorite city ever and help host a bridal shower.

And, of course, a slight delay in the trip due to the ridiculous storms in the midwest yesterday. I heard that they were referred to as a land based hurricane somewhere? I didn't see anything particularly bad myself besides tons of lightning, but we stopped our westward progress before they really reached us and then they went slightly south of us in Des Moines, so it was a quiet night with the tv on and some snacks in one of the few hotels we found that still had a room last night.

Now I'm home, three loads of laundry in, trying to get everything put back and reorganized and get life started back up again. Just in time for National Donut Day on Friday! Look for a post tomorrow of deals and coupons and ways to celebrate this most amazing holiday, which also happens to be my One Year Blog-iversary!

Just in time for a trip to Boston!

Boston Magazine has listed some of the best donuts in the Boston area (according to them of course, I may have to check these out...)

Boston is Having a Full Blown Doughnut Moment

The warm caramel apple sounds the best to me, I may have to figure out how far Milton is from Boston....and I will definitely be checking out Union Square Donuts, as that is right by my old stomping grounds so I will be hanging out there at some point on my trip. More reviews to come!

Road Trip Planning!

There are a ton of steps in planning a road trip in my family.

1. Dream big. Get a plan going. Rough out the timeline. Google docs is your friend. Use the spreadsheet feature to make a calendar, and then share it with pertinent people so that everyone can update it as needed and have a visual for the cross-country planning conference calls.

2. Convince Dad it's a good idea. This may take a couple of weeks, so give yourself plenty of time!

3. Retackle the timeline. Plan out days based on mileage and end goals. Hit up google maps until you dream about routes in your sleep.

4. Configure as many friend and family visits as possible along the route. When else are you going to be in State College, PA? Better see those friends now!

5. Scour HotelCoupons.com for deals. You can't make reservations, so print out a couple for each likely stopping point on your trip to be prepared. (Always have a backup plan!)

6. Check Groupon for deals in cities you'll be visiting. Especially cheap restaurant deals.

7. Find the donut shop you are going to visit and review while on the trip. Make sure you write down the hours and phone number, just in case.

8. Get the car ready. Clear out the stuff you don't need (like the snow shovel during a Memorial Day Weekend trek). Put in the stuff you might (see road trip necessities for the complete list)

9. Start making ice for the cooler a couple days before. Giant blocks of ice (one or two) will stay frozen longer and can be supplemented with ice from a hotel. Don't rely just one ice from a hotel though, often their ice has more surface area and therefore melts in the cooler faster (when did this become a math lesson? You guys know I used to teach high school math right? Well, now you do).

10. Get the clothes ready. Do you need to bring laundry soap for the laundry mat stop halfway through? Layers are the only way I dress while traveling, so lots of leggings and cardigans for me.

11. Get the maps and paperwork ready. Make sure someone who isn't traveling with you has a copy of your itinerary and pertinent info about the route and your car.

12. Get the food ready. Turkey sandwiches carefully re-stacked in the empty bread bag? Yes, please.

13. Get on the road! Have fun! And remember, some schedules were meant to be ignored :-)

Nebraska Autism Society Puzzle Walk, 5k, and donut give away

We only got one donut this year. There were vouchers.
Here is a photo of my voucher:

I didn't use the soft drink portion of it.
I forgot to ask where the donuts were from. Maybe hyvee? I had a chocolate frosted cake donut.
Here's a picture of that too:
















So if anyone was wondering what the Nebraska Autism Society Puzzle Walk is, it's a fundraiser for the Nebraska Autism Society in the form of a 5k and a carnival/fair type thing. This year it was held at the Ralston Arena and started off with the 5k at 8:30am around downtown Ralston. If you are confused as to where Ralston is, as most people probably should be, it's a small town basically in Omaha and its downtown is SUPER HILLY. I did not run the 5k this year. I ran it last year when it was at the University of Nebraska at Omaha's campus. Maybe next year I'll be ready for the hills. My cousin ran it though and came in first in her class. She got a medal. She's pretty amazing.

Anyways, after the 5k you can hang out in the arena and there are bounce houses for the kids and a bunch of stands set up around the arena. Some are carnival games. There's face painting. There are some informational tables for services catering to families affected by autism. TD Bank was handing out tons of stuff with their logo on it, including a super spiffy post it note set. I'm not sure what it had to do with autism, but I like post it notes organized into a small box with a pen and ruler included.

After you hang out in the fair part for a while, there is a fun walk that is super short and doesn't go very far, but all the kids who do the fun walk get medals too! There's are pretty cool, laser cut pieces of plastic in the shape of a puzzle piece.

And then we all went out to Chili's where my cousins' son ordered possibly the most expensive thing on the menu. No biggie.It was salmon and ribs. He's got good taste. I should have asked him what he thought of the donuts earlier.

Everybody aboard the donut train!

Buzzfeed's take on the NYC donut tour.

My sister and I called foul on the donut connoisseur taking cabs between bakeries. You gotta let your body at least start to digest all the donuty goodness between stops!

I've got another review in the works, but I've been gone the last three weekends in a row with another outing for this weekend in honor of Mother's Day, so it's been a little crazy. Here's your teaser: I got a donut ticket. You know, like a drink ticket? At a function. My kind of function. :-)

Gypsy Donut and Espresso Bar (sort of a Guest Review)

What: A little of everything

Where: 18 N. Franklin St. Nyack, NY 10960

When: Wednesday, March 19th, 2014
Website

After my grand NYC donut tour with my sister, my brother was excited to get in on some donut tasting as well. He stopped by this place a couple days later and got an assortment to try with his family. 

(CW from top left) Samoa, Funfetti Cake (2),
Salted Caramel, Chocolate Mousse filled
, 

I'm not sure what they thought of them though....So this is really just a post with some pretty pictures and a bookmark to hopefully come back to Gypsy Donut. I want to try the samoa one!

Monday is Hero Day?

Not the sandwich, apparently human heroes. This is a new one. Although, I guess if you can have a National Donut Day (first Friday in June, fyi) let's honor our heroes!

And with donuts of course:

http://www.krispykreme.com/HeroDay

Pettit's Pastry

What: a lot...
Where: 502 N. 16th St, Omaha
When: Saturday, March 22nd, 2014


I bought a Groupon for Pettit's way back when I started my blog and of course, I let it expire. Although I hope you all know they never expire completely. The value you paid for the Groupon still works at the store, just not the promotional value. So instead of getting $20 worth of donuts for my $10 from last year, I just got $10 worth of donuts. That was ok, I probably didn't actually need $20 worth of donuts in one weekend.

This wasn't my first time at Pettit's and I've had their maple offerings before. This time we went with anything random! There was an oreo donut, a pecan nut roll, a danish, etc. The oreo donut was especially yummy with butter cream frosting on a chocolate cake donut and then crumbled cookies on top. 4.5/5.

The cheese danish was also delicious, and the other donuts were perfect home made not by a national chain donuts. I didn't try the pecan roll, and if you know me in real life, you aren't surprised. I hear it was good. It was a little dry, perhaps from going late in the day? Who knows.

Bagel Station, Port Jervis

What: Jelly filled powder sugar, cinnamon and sugar raised
Where: 1 West Main St, Port Jervis NY 12771
When: Saturday, March 15, 2014

We got here later in the day so the selection was pretty sparse. The donuts were light and fluffy and I liked the jelly filling in the powdered sugar one.

My brother put it best by saying that they just made the donuts, they didn't specialize in them. You could tell eating them. This was also after the entire NYC donut tour, so they seemed pretty nondescript and I was a little donuted out.
I would give the filled one a 3/5 and the raised one a 2.5/5.

The cafe itself was pretty nice and had salads and sandwiches and even still had my sister's purse an hour or so later when she realized she had forgotten it there. Close call!

Another fun pic

Saw it on Reddit

Cocoon Grid-It Organizer Review

With my birthday money this year, I bought myself something I've been looking at for awhile...a Cocoon Grid-It organizer. I love organizers and traveling and I have a lot of portable electronics that need homes in my carry on. Sometimes I just use a ziplock. But this looked so much cooler, I had to buy it.
I got it at the Container Store for $19.99 plus tax. I choose the medium size, 12" x 8". I put it to use immediately on my trip.

Electronics/accessories I've used it for:
Digital camera battery charger
Digital camera cord
I-pod
I-pod cord
Phone charger
Headphones
Minispeaker


Pros: Holds the cords in place, variety of sized bands and openings for different things, loops for hanging organizer, zipper pocket in back for little stuff.

Cons: Moderately expensive for a "maybe I'll use it sometime" purchase, takes some finaggeling to get everything in its place and make the most use of space.

So far I'm very happy with my purchase, even at home I'm not searching for cords in my cord box so much. I like having it visable so I know where my chargers and speaker are at all times. For security, I put my netbook cords in it so that I didn't have to take my netbook out of its neoprene case. I definitely recommend it for people who travel frequently (3-4 times per year) and/or people who have a lot of gadgets.

Frangelli's Bakery

What: Italian Creme filled and Jelly Filled, raised glazed
Where: 847 W. Ritner St, Philadelphia 19148
When: Sunday, March 16th, 2014
website: Facebook

A couple days after the 2014 NYC Donut Tour, my sister and I were ready to eat another donut. We went to a bakery in South Philly (where we were not born and raised) that I had been to previously with my other sister. The awesome thing about this bakery is that they fill the shells right then and there for you.

We got three donuts in all, one standard glazed, one filled with Italian Creme and one filled with jelly. The Italian cream was a buttercream with a medium to strong amaretto flavoring. The jelly was a delicious blend of berries. The glazed was good, but I think I preferred the filled ones. The dough was really good and fresh tasting. I wish I had asked if they could mix the fillings, like half creme and half jelly. Or if they'd add chocolate frosting once they filled it...maybe next time.


Glazed: 3/5
Italian Creme filled: 4/5
Jelly Filled: 4.5/5

Donut Pub, Manhattan

What: Boston Creme Pie, Chocolate-Vanilla donut holes, Mini cake donuts
Where: 203 W 14th St, Manhattan 10011
When: Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
website: http://www.donutpub.com/

I was most excited for this donut location because I loved the name. Imagine, a bar that serves donuts? I figured it wasn't ACTUALLY a bar, but just the thought got my excited. It was the last stop on our 2014 Donut Tour, and sadly, it was not a good one. The donuts tasted just eh and they didn't have any exciting flavors. The Boston Creme Pie reminded me a lot of Dunkin Donuts, which is yummy, but not something I'd make a special trip for. The smaller donuts (donut holes and mini donuts) tasted a little stale. Maybe we were donuted out by this time.

The store is open 24/7 though, and has donut workshops (I didn't ask about it, but perhaps you could have a donut making birthday party? Ok, maybe not you, maybe I could have a donut making birthday party? Hmmm...), so they definitely have that going for them. I wouldn't be opposed to trying them again, maybe earlier in the day?

Boston Creme Pie: 3/5
Donut holes and mini donuts: 1.5/5

Doughnut Plant, Manhattan

What: Creme Brule, Lemon Poppy Seed, Blackberry, Cashew Orange Blossom
Where: 379 Grand St, Manhattan 10002
When: Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
website

Doughnut Plant is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year. FYI. They have a couple locations and we went to the one right on the other side of the Williamsburg Bridge during our 2014 Donut Tour. Sorry, Doughnut Tour. Gotta match the location. The set up was very industrial and polished. They had four main kinds of doughnuts: yeast, cake, square filled, and seeds. The seeds are smaller filled donuts with about a 3in diameter. We chose four of those; this was our 3rd stop of the day.

CW from top left: Blackberry, Cashew
Orange Blossom, Lemon Poppy Seed,
Creme Brule

The creme brule was well done with a great burnt sugar glaze and delicious filling. The lemon poppy seed was also excellent, great lemon flavoring. The blackberry was good with a strong filling, but almost seemed boring compared to the other flavors. The cashew orange blossom had good citrus flavor and reminded my sister and I of Apple Jacks for some weird reason. It also had some crushed nuts sprinkled on top. My sister's favorites were the cashew orange blossom and lemon poppy seed, my favorites were the creme brule and lemon poppy seed. In fact, in my notes for the review (what, you don't take notes about doughnuts you're eating???) I simply said: "Lemon is awesome."

The store's design scheme revolved
around these stylized representations of
their styles of doughnuts. This was the
bench seat.

The seeds ranged in price from $2.50-3.50, making this our most expensive stop of the day. They had a large (6in square) special doughnut for St. Patrick's Day that was $5.50 and had mint frosting, but we didn't try it. No bathrooms.

Blackberry: 3.5/5
Cashew Orange Blossom: 2/5
Creme Brule: 4.5/5
Lemon Poppy Seed: 4.5/5

Bonus pic

From The Worst-Case Scenario daily survival calendar 2014 by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht

(Chronicle Books San Francisco)

Planning a Tour

I'm pretty good at planning things. Trips. Weekly meals. Geometry lessons. It's one of my strong suits. (Maintaining a clean room, however, is not). So are my mom and sister. We like spreadsheets and notebooks and lists. My other sister likes spreadsheets and lists too, but her trips are a little more "fly by the seat of your pants" than my mom and oldest sister.

Anyways, point of this post: how to plan a tour.

Q: What do I mean by tour?
A: The tours I'm talking about aren't the guided tours with someone walking backwards in front of you with a mic telling you about the history of the buildings you pass while you wonder when you get to eat next. I'm talking about self-guided tours where you go where YOU want to go and eat when YOU want to eat. And geek out about something. This is your chance to pick something you're interested in, and focus just on that and have fun.

Q: Do I have to go somewhere to plan a tour?
A: No! You can take one of your hometown! See places you've never seen. Or revisit places you have seen all in one day!

And on to planning.

Step 1: Pick a focus.
What will your tour be of? What are you interested in? Do you want it to be food related? History related? Book related?
Ideas for focus:
Food - Donuts (duh), Pizza, Coffee
History - 5 oldest buildings in town, Original houses, abandoned buildings
Book - Did a book take place in the town? Can you follow in the character's footsteps for a day?
Places - Libraries, Parks

Step 2: Decide on a time frame.
Will your tour be a full day? Half day? How long will you spend at each place? How long will it take to get from place to place?

Step 3: Logistics - plan your route
Will you be walking, biking, or driving? Is there a particular place you need to start or finish (time wise or food wise)? If it's a food related tour, is there enough time between stops for digestion? Mark the locations you want to visit on a map (paper or online) and then connect the dots to plan your route.

Step 4: Prep work.
Do you need to research any of the buildings or locations? What hours are the food places open? Do you need to bring anything with you (camera, water bottle, money, bike lock).

Step 5: Enjoy your tour!
Grab a buddy and immerse yourself in something different for the day! Take pictures, write notes, or just enjoy your tour. Make sure you have a list of your stops and a good map to guide you!

Step 6: (Optional) Create a record of your tour.
Do you want to make a scrapbook? Write some online reviews? Make a slideshow to force family members to look at?

Besides my most recent donut tour of NYC (that one was all planned by my sister, I just got to go along for the ride, or walk) we also went on a Fangirl tour of Lincoln. Fangirl is a young adult book written by Rainbow Rowell that is about a freshman at UNL. My sister and I had a free afternoon in Lincoln and had both recently finished the book so we decided to follow in Cath's footsteps and visit places she went to throughout the book. It was great because I had only moved to Lincoln earlier that year so I got to see a lot of places I hadn't seen yet, and we got to get lost in the story again. This tour combined history, architecture, and food. Oh, and ridiculous photo ops:

Pies and Thighs, Brooklyn

What: Drunken, Coffee Cream, bonus chicken sandwich
Where: 166 S. 4th St, Brooklyn, 11211
When: Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
website

The second stop on our grand donut tour of NYC was a chicken/bakery place. Awesome combo. My sister and BIL had been raving about the honey butter, and it was about lunch time, so I said we might as well get some protein in. We ordered two donuts and the chicken on a biscuit sandwich. The honey butter was as advertised.

The donuts were awesome. The Drunken donut was there special for March and St. Patrick's Day and was made with some stout beer. It was huge, very dark in color, and had a very rich flavor. It was a cake donut and may have been my favorite from the tour. It almost tasted more savory than sweet.

The coffee cream donut was a raised, filled donut, that was possibly the tallest donut I have ever seen. I mean, besides the large novelty ones. It was almost spherical and the dough was quite spongy. Almost like an angel food or sponge cake. The filling was delicious and it was frosted with chocolate and had crushed up nuts as a sprinkle on top.

5/5 for the Drunken, 4/5 for the Coffee Cream

Peter Pan Bakery, Brooklyn NYC

What: Raised honey dip, red velvet cake, autumn spice cake, whole wheat cake
Where: 727 Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint 11222
When: Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
website


We started off Donut Tour 2014 in Brooklyn at Peter Pan Bakery. It was what I think of as an old school luncheonette counter. It seemed like everyone there knew each other and came in every day for a cup of coffee and some socialization. They had an impressive window display plus all the donuts in side. I know the picture looks less than impressive, but we didn't start our tour till around 11am. So I can only imagine how full the window is at 7am!

We selected four to try: honey dip, whole wheat cake, red velvet cake, and autumn spice cake. Donuts were $1.10 each and in the summer they make donut ice cream sandwiches (which I've just remembered, I've had before! In Somerville. If only I had pictures...). Anyways, back to this weeks' donuts. The honey dip was the only raised one of the bunch and you could definitely taste the honey tang in the glaze on it. Very airy, one of those ones that smooshes down when you try to cut it. The red velvet was dark on the outside, bright red on the inside. The whole wheat almost tasted more like a bagel or something than a donut and the autumn spice was ok. Not my favorite. The whole wheat tasted a little over fried, but the crunch almost added to the flavor. I was also informed by my tour guide (ie, sister) that their egg sandwiches are really good. But who has room for that on a four-stop donut tour?

We finished off the honey dip, but saved about half of the other three for my brother-in-law before moving on to our next stop, a chicken and pie place with fancy donuts.