Food Tour of Waterbury

The second half of our winter getaway weekend was just as good as the first. After skiing all day Saturday, I was glad to come home to a cozy house full of friends and happy that no one was in the mood to go out. Sweatpants and "family dinner" at the house sounded great to me! I have to admit I didn't really feel like cooking though, so I was content sitting at the kitchen island eating cheese & crackers, sipping on coffee with Bailey's and watching Lindsay work her magic on eggplant and chicken parmesan.

Sticky breadcrumb fingers! ;-) I can't vouch for her chicken (although I hear it's awesome), Lindsay makes a seriously delicious eggplant parm.

The eggplant is crispy and the sauce and cheese are perfectly gooey. Can't think of anything much better on a frigid winter's night.

I had a plate full of spaghetti covered in eggplant and a few pieces of homemade garlic bread.

We spent the rest of the night playing college card games (so fun) and Left, Right, Center (I won 20 bucks!), enjoying grapefruit vodka cocktails and generally laughing our butts off. Great night indeed. :)

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On Sunday morning we slept in late and enjoyed homemade cheesy omelet breakfast sandwiches & coffee at home before traipsing around town for a few hours. The best part about staying in the Waterbury/Stowe area of Vermont is definitely the road of foodie finds, all of which are generous with the samples - the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, the glass blowing studio (ok, no samples here), Lake Champlain Chocolates, the Cabot Cheese Annex, and of course, Ben & Jerry's.

I stocked up on a few of my favorite goodies, including maple syrup, Cabot cheddar, and cheddar shake, which tastes like Smartfood powdered cheese but is waaaay better. After tasting all the savory samples, we moved on to the sweet.

I usually do pick out a few chocolates at the chocolate factory, but I resisted the temptation this time since I knew ice cream was on the agenda. I tried a bite of Matt's chocolate covered apricot and toffee, though, and it was rich and decadent.

Up next was Ben & Jerry's!

I've done the tour a million times, but it's always fun to go with new people so I hopped on the train. The tour ended with a sample of a new flavor B&J's is testing out, Molten Lava. It's a strawberry ice cream with chocolate cookie chunks.

All 15 of us agreed this may be one of the best flavors we've ever had, and it was such a treat to taste it before it goes to market. I really hope this one makes it to store shelves...but kind of not, since then I'll have to buy it and become addicted. And let's be serious, that little sample up there didn't satisfy my ice cream-lovin' self, so I ordered a cone of Late Night Snack from the scoop shop. It was ok, but didn't come close to the Molten Lava.

Our food tour of Waterbury finally ended around 3:00, when we headed a little further up north to Burlington to hit the shops and watch the football games at Ri Ra, an Irish pub on Church Street.

Ri Ra had a decent menu of craft beers and a special whiskey room with amazing cocktails like a Salted Caramel Appletini. 

Around dinnertime everyone decided to order some food, and while I was still fairly full from all the mid-day snacking, I figured I should eat a little something. Rather than ordering a full meal, I ordered two sides - the sweet potato puffs and the roasted Brussels sprouts.

I ended up only eating a few bites before giving the rest away, but they were both pretty good.

Unfortunately my beloved Pats lost the game which was a major bummer, but we had fun nonetheless. Great times with a great bunch!

We all said this trip felt like an annual one, so we're already planning next year's voyage. Maybe Lake Tahoe is in our future? :)

Matt and I left early yesterday morning to pick up Riker and make the long drive home. We dropped everything in its tracks when we arrived home last night, collapsing on the couch for a DVR'd episode of Top Chef before crawling into bed, so now I'm staring down a pile of suitcases that are calling out to be unpacked. Not my favorite part of traveling, to be sure. Off to clean this place up!