Winchell's

What: Maple frosted old fashioned, Chocolate frosted raised
Where: 2905 S. 120th St, Omaha NE 68144
When: Monday, July 6th 2015
website


I have gotten a couple Winchell's donuts before at Amigo's, the fast food chain in Nebraska that has quite the variety of food. I had never been to an actual Winchell's store before, and this may be the last one still out there. We went on a Monday afternoon, and while the selection was good, the freshness may have been lacking slightly.

I wanted to try an old fashioned because I had never had one, so I got a maple frosted one while my husband stuck to a traditional raised donut with chocolate frosting. The old fashioned seemed harder than a raised donut, but because of the significant increase in surface area from it's shape, maybe that's normal? It was not my favorite. The maple icing was dull and the donut just tasted old. The chocolate frosted was better, but nothing amazing. Honestly, the fresh one's I've gotten at Amigo's have been better. Maybe earlier in the day is good, but I would  not recommend a late afternoon stop at Winchell's.

Maple old fashioned: 1/5
Chocolate glazed: 2.5/5

Donut Stationary!

While in Barnes and Nobel recently I saw a pretty amazing card set. Donuts, with bakery paper envelopes! How amazing are these? They do require extra postage, and I hope the paper doesn't rip on the machines, but totally worth it. I used my first one as a thank you for my aunt. Hope she likes it!

I also picked up these scented stickers, but totally forgot to use one on the thank you note. So I will have to update ya'll on these later. Can't wait to see how they smell!

Tom + Chee

What: Summer Sensation (so this isn't the actual name, but I keep forgetting the actual name because I didn't go inside to order, I may have to slip in soon to verify the name and description)

Where: 263 N. 13th St, Lincoln NE 68508

When: Thursday, July 9th, 2015

website

I recently started a new summer job that has been fairly slow. But whenever I have different plans, it seems to get busy. One Thursday, my husband was going to meet me for lunch and we were going to try some of Tom + Chee's grilled cheese donuts. But right before he was supposed to meet me, we got swamped and I didn't get a chance to pre-order our donuts. So he had to go to Tom + Chee on his own and try to figure out which donut I had wanted him to order. He ended up getting a seasonal one that wasn't even on my the menu I had been reading, but it was delicious. It had blackberrys and a lemon compote, along with a slice of cheese. The donut was sliced in the middle like a bagel, but then turned almost inside out so that the cut edges were what went on the griddle.

It was delicious. I figured it would be, but my husband was pretty skeptical. Even he liked it. We ate it with a plastic fork, but a knife would have made it easier. The soft cheese in the middle oozed a little, but we were able to use it as a dip for our bits of toasty donut. I would easily give it a 5/5 and look forward to trying some more flavors soon. For research purposes of course.

(Also, I'll try to bring my real camera next time and not use the tiny camera on my old flip phone, sorry for the not super clear photos!)

What would your mom do? Part 2

On our way out of our campsite on Memorial Day, we realized the interstate may not be our friend. After all, everyone else in Minnesota was heading south after a long weekend up north. So I pulled out our atlas (tip: always bring an atlas, no matter how many electronic gadgets you have) and checked for an alternate route. And then we had a decision, try the interstate or check out the side highway?

My husband had one question for me: What would your mom do?

That was our answer: the side roads.

And the decision was made. So next time you're in a tight spot, ask yourself what my mother would do. You may not know her, but you may know the answer!

Doughnuttery - Guest Review

On the Westside of Manhattan, across 9th Avenue from the Google office, is Chelsea Market, a building that is part offices and part food wonderland. The ground floor is stuffed full of wholesale markets, specialty food vendors, and quick-stop lunch spots. Tucked in between a Mexican-inspired Thai food counter and a savory yogurt stand is the Doughnuttery, where you can get tiny donuts by the half dozen topped with traditional glazes as well as 18 artisanal sugar combinations.  

 I stopped in on a blazing hot Saturday, curious about these mini confections, and opted for 3 with vanilla glaze and 3 with Speckled Strawberry sugar (strawberry, lemon thyme, sprinkles). Doughnuttery's donuts are similar in taste and feel to funnel cakes -- crispy on the outside, giving way to a soft sweet inside. Their size is to their advantage, as they would be overwhelming if they were the size of a Dunkin Donut, and you can try different flavors without feeling an immediate need to hit the gym. 

The vanilla glaze was light and lovely, set well enough to not smear off the warm donut. The Speckled Strawberry sugar, however, ended up mostly in the bag with only a light dusting clinging to the donut. The strawberry and lemon thyme flavors were nicely balanced, not too sweet, and what was left on the donut was enough. 

If I were in Chelsea Market and had a sugar craving, I would definitely stop in, but I wouldn't make a special trip through those crowded halls. Luckily they are positioned near a side entrance. 

What would your mom do?

My mother is a character. She raised me to be quite a character myself, but she still wins. Last July my friends got the chance to see her in her "natural habitat" of Omaha, NE. You haven't seen my mom till you've seen Omaha Mom.

One of her things is stopping at Russell Stover stores. Did you even know that Russel Stover has it's own stores? And some of them are outlets. Good outlets, not like clothing outlets where they make special lower quality crap to sell. Where they actually sell "Oopsies" in bags you can't see through. Sometimes you know what's in the bag, like the Mint Patties we bought. But sometimes it's just marked obtusely, like "nut clusters". What kind of nuts? Cashews? Pecans? What kind of clusters? Caramel? Nougat? And you thought the normal mixed boxes were a surprise every time. The bags are where it's at.

At the beginning of the latest road trip my husband and I took, he told me that if we saw a Russel Stover, we would stop in honor of my mom. Because that's what she would do. I didn't know of any in Minnesota (yes, this does imply that I know the general location of other stores on the east coast...) so I wasn't optimistic that we would stop. We were almost out of Minnesota, in a torrential downpour, and he sees a billboard on the other side of the road as we go by it. I check our GPS, brand new technology when I got it in 2007, but lacking some crucial information 8 years later. The Russel Stover was listed, with an address, that directed us to a farm about 2 miles off the interstate. The phone number was still good though, so we were able to call and find them. Crisis averted.

This was my husband's first visit to a Russel Stover store and I hope it was everything he imagined. There were free samples, 50% off Easter candy, and bags of "Oopsie" chocolates in the back. It was magical. After much debate, we selected a bag of "Candy Kitchen Values" Mint Patties. We paid, using my mom's frequent shopper account. When the cashier saw the Florida address, she asked if we had been to the Wildwood, FL store. I haven't been recently, but that may have been the store that started the tradition. If you're ever in the area, you must go. Or if you're ever in the area of any store, check one out!

Happy Birthday, Krispy Kreme!

Apologies for the late notice, but Krispy Kreme has a deal today on donuts, so head over if you need a ton! Sadly, I do not live in a city with a Krispy Kreme so I cannot partake, but one of my good friends got some donuts for his tailgate for the Orlando City soccer game tonight. Maybe he'll share some pictures!

Glam Doll Donuts

What: The Misfit, The Showgirl, The Scream Queen, The Daddy Dearest

Where: Glam Doll Donuts, 2605 Nicolet Ave, St. Paul MN

When: Tuesday, May 26th 2015

This was our last stop on the Minnesota Donut tour for Memorial Day Weekend. And it was everything you expect from a place called Glam Doll. There were 50's era decorations, lots of hot pink, and original artwork of pin up girls with donuts. The donuts also all had cutesy names so you really had to read the descriptions. They had a couple donuts that used Surly Brewing Company beers, including the Daddy Dearest.

Their display case was perfectly done and my husband and I had a really hard time deciding which one(s) to try. Four was being picky for us!

My favorite was the Misfit. The glaze had the perfect flavor. I was not a fan of the Daddy Dearest

because I didn't care for the beer flavored crumbles on the top. The Showgirl and the Scream Queen were good, but nothing super unique about bacon donuts anymore. I would give the Misfit a 4.4/5, Daddy Dearest a 2/5 and the Showgirl and Scream Queens 3.5/5.

Bonus pics of the awesome decor:

Camping menu planning

I'm a planner. I like lists and I like organization and I like to be prepared. So about a week before my husband and I left on a 4 night camping trip, I sat down to plan our menu and work on a grocery list. And quickly realized that four days of cold turkey sandwiches for lunch just wouldn't do. After a quick google search, I found Happy Money Saver and 10 great recipes to try!

    

So, in order, my thoughts and results!

1. Pancake Batter in a bag: definitely will do this again. I froze mine flat, but should have frozen it in a block because we weren't going to eat it right away. The more spread out whatever it is when frozen, the faster it will defrost.

2. Egg sandwiches and 3. Omelettes in a bag were skipped on this trip.

4. Campfire pizza log: got soggy because it was too big for a ziplock. For our next trip I will try to make it into two smaller pizzas so that I can properly wrap it. Also, mine looked nothing like that.

Pizza toppings cooking: fresh spinach, tomato, garlic

Ready to be rolled up. Sadly, no
"rolled up" picture, but I'll just tell
you it wasn't pretty.

5. Taco soup: excellent! I really liked the recipe because I could mix it up a bit (I used a can of rotel instead of the second can of stewed tomatoes, because that's what was in my pantry when I went to make it). Again though, like with the pancakes, I would freeze it more compactly and not flat if we weren't going to eat it in the first two days camping.

Soup ingredients, plus the ground turkey.

Cooking everything up.

We may have eaten this at a hotel. It was
a weird camping trip.

6. Campfire sandwiches: this was a life saver with the rain that just wouldn't stop, we ate them cold in the tent. Next time I would cut the bread into thinner slices. Perhaps my french bread was just much bigger, but the 6 sandwiches ended up with way too much bread to them.

7. Curly dogs: didn't try, but it sounds super yummy.

8. Campfire roasted apples: I was totally pumped to try this, brought my apple corer along and everything, but the rain just didn't let it happen. Very sad.

9. Campfire eclairs: Tried these at a cookout with some friends and they failed pretty miserably. The crescent roll dough was too floppy to stay as an open tube on our marshmallow sticks. We ended up spreading the dough out on some foil, cooking it, and then melting some chocolate on top. Or adding cherry pie filling. It tasted good, but I was sad we couldn't shape them correctly. Maybe they need to be wrapped around something bigger for the cooking phase.

Left: crescent roll dough with cherry
pie filling and chocolate on top.
Right: flattened crescent roll dough
with chocolate on top.

10. Cake in an orange: This may be something I never try, mostly because getting all the flesh out of an orange doesn't sound fun to me.

Mojo Monkey Donuts

What: Maple cake, Blueberry Pancake cake, Cinnamon and Sugar donut holes

Where: 1169 7th St. West, St. Paul, MN 55102

When: Tuesday, May 26th, 2015

website

This place may have had my favorite donut shop decorations yet, check out this tile mosaic from their front wall!

It was a small store, but you could tell the baking was done right there on site. We arrived around 11am and there were still a lot of options for donuts, mostly cake.







At first I thought they were slightly overpriced, but that was before I tasted our selections. They were so well flavored it was amazing. The blueberry pancake one had some drizzles of maple frosting and the blueberries in it tasted like you just picked them in Maine. The maple cake donut had the best flavoring for a cake donut that I have ever had. Possible a hint of cinnamon? Or real vanilla from the pod, not the liquid stuff McCormick's sells. They also had a cake stand of sample donut holes. I can't tell you the last time I walked into a donut shop that was giving away samples that wasn't my neighborhood grocery store. The samples definitely sucked in the hubby. We bought 7. I'd give everything a 5/5. This is what good baking tastes like.