Cartwright's Maple Tree Inn's 15 minutes of Fame!

I was just on the PBS site and I saw...Cartwright's Maple Tree Inn! For those who haven't been out there yet, it's open about 2 months of the year (late Jan-late March, I think) and it is in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE near Angelica, NY. It's a bit of a drive from Rochester, but well worth it. Anyway, it is featured on PBS's special on great breakfast places around the US (it's the first one in the special). Check it out!

Watch the full episode. See more Breakfast Special.

Peter's Sweet Shop

We're moving from the Highland Park neighborhood in a couple of weeks (to U of R housing). We've become very attached to the neighborhood--in case you were wondering, it's the best one in the city! I could go on for a long time.

Of all the sweet things in the HP neighborhood, the sweetest is Peter's Sweet Shop. It's right here on Clinton. Every day, Peter hand-makes chocolates while his wife mans (womans...) the counter. Even the little cards labeling the chocolates are hand-written. In my opinion, their best chocolates are the caramels, the butter-creams, and their specialty "sponge candy" (the inside is crunchy with little air bubbles). If you take a child in with you, there is a distinct possibility that they will leave with a complimentary chocolate-on-a-stick (and if you go in twice in one day, you can kiss your child's dinner-appetite goodbye, as we found out).

Are you looking for a gift for someone? Do you have an intense chocolate craving? Go to Peter's Sweet Shop! You will be very happy you did. (Photo credit: Peter's website, who borrowed it from the Democrat & Chronicle).

Abundance Co-op

I can't believe I didn't know about the Abundance Co-op until a few weeks ago, especially since it's the closest grocery store to my house (located on Marshall Street, a stone's throw from the Museum of Play).

Abundance Co-op is a "natural products retail grocer" that has organic produce, bulk food and spice bins, and even an organic deli. Organic food stores are usually more (sometimes a lot more) expensive than, say, Price Rite, and Abundance Co-op isn't an exception to this, but they do have some great deals as advertised in their monthly flier.

One of their continuous deals is natural/organic "mystery butter" for 1.99/lb in the bulk foods section--depending on the day you stop by, it could be almond butter, peanut butter, or cashew butter (I'm not sure why they call it mystery butter since you can lift up the bucket and check what it is before you buy it). They also have all-natural honey (no runny bear stuff for them!) for 2.99/lb. Today I bought some steel-cut oats for 89 cents/lb. on a special sale. I've noticed that their organic produce is well priced, as organic produce goes.

Next time you're downtown, you should check them out. As you pull up, it looks like there is only street parking, but the parking lot is actually behind the wooden fence.

Sauder's Store

 Sauder's is a Mennonite-owned dry-goods/meat/lots of other things store outside of Seneca Falls, about a 55-minute drive from Rochester.  The variety of products is incredible--every kind of flour you can think of, spices, grains, home-style candies, baking necessities (soda, yeast, cocoa, brown sugar, etc.)--all neatly bagged in different sizes and on the shelf. They also have a deli (I'm not a meat connoisseur, but apparently you can get German specialty meat that is hard to find), inexpensive cheeses, fruit preserves, home-made syrups...the list goes on! 

Here's my best price summary: their big bulk items (50 lb bags of sugar, beans, etc) can generally be found for less at other places (Aldi, LDS Storehouse),  but Sauder's prices for baking supplies are hard to beat (and they sell them in hard-to-find quantities). 

Even aside from all practical matters, Sauder's is a very fun place to visit.  The distance is a drawback, but it's one exit away from the Waterloo Factory Outlet Stores, so you could definitely make a day of it (the flour picture is just a random one I found online, but Sauder's is so great I thought it deserved a graphic). 

Jim Dalberth's Sporting Goods

I'm conflicted about "buying local"--I love the idea of putting money back into the community, but our student budget usually doesn't go very far in mom & pop specialty stores.  That's why I was so happy to find Jim Dalberth's Sporting Goods.  I bought a pair of running shoes there, and we found out that anytime you buy shoes, all apparel (they have all brands of shoes; most of their apparel is Asics) is 50% off, so we bought some pants and shorts for my husband.  

The store is right across the Elmwood bridge from the U of R River Campus.  When I walked in I was surprised--it's twice as tall as it is wide, and it looked a little disorganized.  The real benefit of the store, though, is the salespeople.  They don't hover, but they're incredibly efficient and they know everything about running.  Basically, they sell all of their shoes for 15% off the ticket price. 

So--if you are already planning to spend the money on some nice running shoes, you should consider Jim Dalberth's.  You'll end up with good shoes as well as a good feeling about buying locally.  

Buffalo Wild Wings!

For Jordon's birthday we went to BUFFALO WILD WINGS. It's on the corner of Clay Road and Jefferson in Henrietta, in the same parking lot as Buy Buy Baby. We pass it all the time, and finally decided to try it. Our dinner was PRETTY good (although Jord says the ribs are a no-go), but the wings were REALLY good. Jordon loved their buffalo wing sauce. I don't do well with spicy food so I tried the honey BBQ wing sauce and it was very good. The atmosphere is laid back with lots of TV's showing sports. Similar to Applebee's or Chili's in setup and price. So, if you are in the mood for wings, check it out!

Master Coupon Blog

At the RS retreat up at Seneca Lake, a lady from Pittsford (I think) came to teach a class about food storage.  I never really knew it was possible to store the variety of food that she does (she cans chicken, butter, and M&M's, and knows how to make eggs last a year).

The most intriguing thing about her presentation, though, was that she kept saying things like, "of course, I got them for free with coupons," or "after the rebate it was only 5 cents".  Rebates?  Coupons?  

Well, last night I finally visited her blog: kerricodi.wordpress.com.  It's very impressive, and since she's local, she has a lot of local deals.  I'm adding it to the links on this blog's sidebar.