In a former life, this glass bottle did once hold a chocolaty and refreshing yoo-hoo. Now it has been re purposed for something far better (yes better than chocolate). Nope, those aren’t green beans. This bottle of filled with chilli peppers and inside is Hot Pepper Vinegar.

The Monday after Food Blog South, I headed with my agent, Mac, down to Mobile, AL, for a press conference he had with one of his other clients.  After the press conference we drove from Mobile back home to Charlotte. Like every road trip, you have top stop for gas. If you are like me and spend A LOT  of time in the car, you grow fond of stopping. I blame all the hours driving to college towns for tailgates, but I have developed a fondness for certain Truck Stops. Truck Stops are awesome! They are almost always open, have plenty of drinks and candy to eat while you drive, and can be a nice break from the road. I have developed my favorites on I-85 and I-77, but had never been on this part of I-65 before. Whether it was fate or coincidence, I will never know, but I couldn’t have been happier with Mac’s decision to stop and get gas in Greenville, AL. There we stopped at the coolest gas station I have ever been to. The Smokehouse. Part BBQ restaurant, part general store, and of course a place to get gas, I could have spent hours looking at all the treasures this place had inside. In the back of the store, past the wall of hanging autographed portraits of former Auburn and Alabama coaches, was a room lined with rows of canned goods. There was everything from home made hot sauce to pickled corn and carrots. After picking up a jar of Sweet Potato Butter, I came across an interesting array of vinegars. There were a dozen or so jars that in former lives had all contained something else. Now they contained a wide variety of hot pepper vinegar. If you have never had hot pepper vinegar, you are missing out. It is the perfect addition to anything that you need to add a little tang and spice. Most commonly seen with BBQ, it is also perfect for greens of all varieties, cornbread, and even fried chicken. The hotness and flavor will very depending on the bottle’s contents, so it is easy to make one that fits your taste buds.

Making the vinegar is quite easy. All you need are clean and sanitized glass containers, spices, chili peppers, and white distilled vinegar.

I don’t have an official recipe for you yet, more of guidelines of how you can experiment. You will need

- Clean glass containers with tops. I re purposed a soy sauce bottle, maple syrup bottle, and an empty bottle I had sitting around

- an assortment of chili peppers. Use whatever you like, for example Serranos, jalapenos or habaneros ( if you like it very hot)

- whole garlic cloves

- whole peppercorns

- white vinegar heated to just under boiling

How many peppers you will need and the amount of vinegar you be able to make depends on the size of your container. For my 3 containers, I used about 2 cups. To make your jars, add a teaspoon of peppercorns and a whole peeled garlic clove. Then add the combination of peppers you like. Cut the tops off of the peppers and stuff the jar full of them. If your jar’s opening is too small, you may have to cut the peppers into strips. Just remember, the more you cut the peppers, the more surface area you create for the vinegar to absorb the flavor. If you like your vinegar really hot, then include the pepper seeds. Otherwise cut the seeds out before putting the pepper in the jar.

Once your peppers and seasonings are in, its time to add the vinegar that has been brought to just under a boil. Using a funnel, carefully pour the vinegar into  the bottle. Pour slowly so the contents don’t overflow. Stop pouring just before the top. You want to leave a little bit of head space.

Now your vinegar is ready! Over the next couple days/weeks, the flavor will intensify. You can store it in your pantry or in the refrigerator. Here are the 3 that I made.

In a few weeks, I will tell you which I like best and show you some uses for the vinegar. Enjoy!

If you like eating great food, talking about food, meeting other people who like talking about food, taking pictures of the great food you are eating, oh and of course eating more food, then a food blogging conference is for you. If you like all of these activities and love Southern Food the Foodblog South is the conference for you.

Last year, was my first trip to Foodblog South. It was also my first experience at a food blogging conference as well as the inaugural Foodblog South. In year 1, I was slightly overwhelmed with the amount of food, and content learned while at a food conference. I also did a poor job in bringing enough cards with me.

This year I was more prepared.  I made sure that I had enough business cards, ate less, and worked out more to prepare for the food filled weekend.

In year 2 Foodblog South was even better than year 1. With a larger venue, more attendees, more food, and more speakers sharing an even wider range of topics, Jason and his team completely out did themselves. What they put together was a weekend that was absolutely amazing!

The only down side of the conference was that they didn’t have a multiplier machine where you could be in two places at once. I would have loved to be able to see every presentation, but I had to choose. Throughout the day, I learned about food trends, adding video to your blog, optimizing your blog layout and design, recipe writing, making money through your blog, and how to figure out what your brand is. At the end, there was an inspiring keynote delivered by Kat Kinsman of CNN Eatocracy.  I am still digesting all the information that I learned over the weekend. I would like to think all the speakers for sharing your knowledge! I really appreciate it.

I am sorry that I don’t have more food pictures to share with you, but the food didn’t last long enough for me to take a picture (also my camera made it but the memory cards were left on my desk, so that is why there are only instagrams in this post). With this being a southern food conference, there was no shortage of great food. High Road Craft Ice Cream out of Atlanta had several of their best flavors to try.

Goo Goo Clusters from Nashville were there. Jim and Nick’s not only hosted a great dinner for us on Friday night to kick off the conference,

but at the conference they were there with dozens of cheese biscuits for you to try.

After the conference, there was a a beer and cheese tasting after party at Good People Brewery.

I realize that me giving you a brief recap of what I saw and ate at Foodblog South is by no means the same as experiencing the event for yourself. I do highly recommend that you make the trip in Birmingham in 2013.I enjoyed all of the food and great presentations, but the chance to connect with bloggers from all over is what I enjoyed the most!

With the blogging/twitter/facebook social media world that we live in, it is easy for a blogger to form friendships with other bloggers that they have never met. My favorite part of the entire conference was talking and meeting other bloggers! It is amazing how much more you can get to know about a person when you aren’t speaking in 140 character intervals! Thanks again Foodblog South! I can’t wait until next year.

2 years ago today, I started Taylor Takes a Taste! Wow the last 2 years have flown by! Here is a recap from year one, and now for a recap of year 2.

Year 1 was amazing, I thought it wasn’t possible, but year 2 was even better! Here are some of my favorite posts from the last 12 months.

January

In January, this double chocolate pie , experiments with beer bread, and my first Food Blog Conference!

In February, I celebrated a lot of National Food Days, gave my first food photography tutorial, and was ready for spring!

In March, I made funnel cakes, deep fried cookie dough, and had a little March Madness tournament of my own.

In April, I continued to celebrate National Food Days, went to a soft shell crab festival and shot and shot a book promo !

In May, I went Strawberry picking with the Charlotte Food Bloggers, had a crawfish boil, and checked out the Charlotte Food Truck scene.

June brought a month filled with cream pies, food photography tutorials, and National Food Day celebrations!

In July, I celebrated the 4th, taught my first food photography class, and did more food photography tutorials!

In August, I counted down towards tailgating season and celebrated a few more national food days.

September, October, November, and December, brought with it 15 weeks of traveling, tailgating, and 2 food photography workshops.

For this season’s tailgating tour, I moved the tailgating posts to a new site Taylor Tailgates, so if you haven’t seen them all please check it out. In the fall, I traveled to another 15 games, putting my total at 29 tailgates in the last two seasons.What I am doing with all this tailgating content is something that I can’t quite reveal yet. Hopefully in the next week, I will be able to tell you about a project that I spent all of 2011 working on and will spend a good part of 2012 working on as well.

This year has been amazing! I have eaten a lot, traveled a lot, and taken thousands of great pictures. In the Spring of 2011, Julie and I started the Charlotte Food Bloggers group. We are working on redoing our website now, and have a whole lot planned for 2012! If you live in Charlotte and have a food blog, of are interested in recipe writing, food photography, WordPress, and talking about/eating great food we would love to have you join us! We have a whole lot of great things planned for 2012, so I will be sure to share with you what we are up to.

So what should you expect in 2012? Right now, I am lining up several food photography workshops that will take place late spring/early summer, if you want me to come to your city send me an email! I would love to see if we can work something out.

At the end of this month, I will be going to Food Blog South in Birmingham, AL. I had a blast last year, so I am very excited to see old friends and meet new ones! Let me know if you will be there, I would love to meet you!

As far as other posts you will see,  I have a few more food photography tutorials, I will be finishing the largest project I have ever undertaken ( will be revealed soon), and will encounter a whole lot of other things that I haven’t even imagined yet!

2011 was an even better year than 2010! I can’t wait to see what 2012 holds!

Taylor Takes a Taste is turning 2 next week! With that, I am trying to post a few things from 2011 that I haven’t gotten to yet. This restaurant stop is from my October tailgating trip to Gainesville, FL. Here is what I found at Satchel’s Pizza.

In October, I made my first trip to Gainesville, FL. I was there to check out the Florida Gator’s tailgating scene as they hosted the Alabama Crimson Tide. You can read more about what I found while tailgating here. Friday evening before the game, I took decided to check out a place I had heard an awful lot about. I have several friends that are UF Alums and upon hearing that I was making a trip to Gainesville, they insisted that I make a stop at Satchel’s. Let’s just say, I have some pretty smart friends.

The outside of the restaurant is an eclectic mix of windows, screens, colors, and mis matching chairs. The coolest part was the VW van turned table. Yes you can eat in it! From first glance I could tell Satchel’s was unique, then I received the menu.

You can tell a whole lot about a restaurant by what they have on their menu. Any menu that has both lightning bolts and the American flag on it is an automatic winner in my book. Looking beyond the obvious awesome color scheme, I noticed two great things. 1. They only accept cash. (some of the best meals I have ever eaten are at places that only take cash) and 2 They tell you that you may have to wait up to 50 minutes for your food. Some would be turned off by that , but I take it as a good thing. I will gladly wait for great food.

I decided to have the small (yes that is a small) Satch Salad and a Mama Slice of pizza.

The Satch Salad is a bowl filled to the brim with red and green leaf lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, apples, red onion, secret house vinaigrette, romano cheese, diced tomatoes, and then sprinkled with almonds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts. Prior to the trip, I had heard that after eating the salad you would be tempted to just order some dressing to drink. That rumor is now confirmed.

The Mama Pizza is a slice or a whole pie with 4 toppings of your choosing. After a long deliberation, I decided to have spicy sausage, spinach, sun dried tomato, and roasted red pepper. All that is loaded onto a slice with cheese and a delicious tomato sauce. With this mountain of toppings, a fork was needed to finish it all.

After eating I took a look at Lightnin’ Salvage Enterprises. This store/junk museum/ music venue is just as eclectic as Satchels. With great food and plenty to look at, Satchel’s Pizza is definitely worth the trip. Next time that I am in Gainesville, I will definitely be returning.

Have a great weekend and Monday, I will have a Taylor Takes a Taste 2nd Birthday and 2011 Year in review.

- Taylor

For those of you who don’t know, I AM A HUGE COLLEGE FOOTBALL FAN! Unfortunately, on Monday, I suffered another heart wrenching loss.

Last New Year’s Day, I spent the day cooking food and watching my Wisconsin Badgers lose by 2 points to TCU.

This year, my Badgers were once again Big Ten Champs and made the trip again to Pasadena. On the slate were the Oregon Ducks. While this game was played on January 2nd, I spent the day doing the same thing I did last season.

On the menu for this game were pimento cheese brats, Candied Bacon Muffins, Pineapple Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin and Toasted Cheddar and herb beer bread. Sorry no recipes in this post, these are for a special project that I will hopefully be able to share with you soon!

Despite the loss, I have a lot to  be thankful for. While most blogs do a year end review (mine will happen on Taylor Takes a Taste’s 2nd Birthday which is 1/16/12) I thought I would share with you a summary of my 2nd tailgating tour! This year, I posted all my tailgating adventures on Taylor Tailgates, so if you missed them here is a recap. I went to 15 different games this season all over the South (and back to Madison). Here is a quick visual recap of what I saw.

9/3 Atlanta for Georgia vs Boise St.

9/10 Oregon St. at Wisconsin

9/17 Auburn at Clemson

9/24 LSU at West Virginia

10/1 Alabama at Florida

10/8 Central Michigan at N.C State

10/15 Hampden-Sydney at Emory & Henry

10/22 Samford at Appalachian State

10/29 Miss St. at Kentucky

11/12 Auburn at UGA

11/19 UCF at ECU

11/26 Clemson at USC

12/3 App State Playoff and ACC Championship Game

12/10 SWAC Championship Game

Phew…. What a fall. Even though my Badgers weren’t able to pull out a win I would still call it a successful football season.

If you are interested in knowing more about what I saw while tailgating this fall, check out Taylor Tailgates

By the way, I didn’t go to Pasadena this year. The picture at the top was from a 2010 Cross Country Trip from Wisconsin to California

I had originally intended to post this a few days ago, but the weather and traveling toll of tailgating caught up to me. I have had pretty bad cold for the last few days that has left me sleeping more than working. I don’t really have much of a voice right now, but luckily this is a written blog and not a video blog. Anyway, here is a little piece from my Thanksgiving.

I am sure you and your family have their own traditions for Thanksgiving. In my family, we do a do Thanksgiving twice. We have lunch with my Dad’s side of the family and then dinner with my Mom’s side. There was no shortage of great food and I decided that I would eat rather than take pictures of what I was eating this year. What I do have is something that I left the farm with.

These are my grandparents. Daddy Don and Grandmama (I have no idea how we started calling them that, but that is what I have referred to them as my whole life). They live on a farm in North Wilkesboro, NC. I have showed your their farm and garden in the spring and in the summer. In the fall/winter there are still vegetables growing. It wouldn’t be a trip to the farm with out Daddy Don giving me some produce to take back with me. On this Thanksgiving trip, I returned with cabbage, broccoli, and…

a very very large turnip. I am sure I have probably had turnips in other dishes at some point in my life, but a turnip is not a vegetable that I usually pick out. I had never cooked one before, so I went with my go to strategy for root vegetables. ROAST THEM! I roast potatoes, carrots, onions, and beets, so I figured that a turnip would be pretty tasty roasted as well! Like all my roasted vegetables, I like to bathe them in olive oil and balsamic vinegar before putting into the oven.

Roasted Turnips

1 large or 2 medium sized turnips (peeled)

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 415F. Cut your peeled turnip(s) into about 1 inch or bite sized rectangles. Place cut turnips into a large bowl. Pour olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a dash of salt and several turns of a pepper mill into the bowl. Mix turnips with other ingredients, so they are well coated. Spread turnips onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Roast in the over for 25-30 minutes until fork tender.

Enjoy!

While at my grandparents, I also did some of my Christmas shopping. (Mom and Dad, this is a spoiler alert to what you are getting for Christmas)  Being a photographer, I have found that pictures of me and my siblings are what my parents and grandparents like best!

I am the oldest child in my family and for a while I was the tallest. I have a sister who is 2 years younger than me, and I didn’t have to worry about her passing me in height.  A few years ago, my middle brother surpassed me. I am four years older than him, so I saw that one coming.

I never wanted to admit it, but I secretly new that one day my baby brother would be taller than me. In 2009, when he was 13, I started taking a picture of me, my middle brother and I. I took one as well in 2010m but couldn’t find a copy of that one to show you.

In the last year though, my youngest brother has now surpassed me. We were pretty close for a while, and being around him made me stand up straight, but now I am waving the white flag. Clifton, I admit it, you are taller than me.

But keep in mind, Harrison and I will always be older (I am 26 Harrison is 22, Clifton is 15)…

Earlier in the week, I brought you what I found at the Dane County Farmers Market. While in Madison, the farmers market wasn’t the only place that I was able to see and taste a variety of cheeses.

Remember this picture from the market?

Well this delicious array of bandaged cheddar and cheese curds were made by Willi Lehner of Bleu Mont Dairy. The day before, I had the chance to visit Willi at Bleu Mont Dairy and see how his bandaged cheddar is created.

Meet Willi. He is a Swiss American, a second generation cheese maker, and has been referred to as a mad scientist of cheese. He has earned this nickname for some amazing “experiments” he has made with a variety of cheeses. He pushes the envelope of what is possible and creates a wide variety of complex and full bodied cheese that are made and aged in small batches.He is passionate about cheese and like every Wisconsin Cheesemaker. He loves his job.

Every Mad Scientist needs a lab. Willi is no different, he has a one of a kind lab specifically built for him. He uses other dairy facilities to physically make the cheese, but it is in his lab that his aging process begins. With cheese, the aging process is just as important as the ingredients that go into it. It is where the cheese develops its body and its complex flavors mature. When aging cheese, you want to have a constant humidity and constant temperature. Very similar to the environment that you would find inside of a cave.

Since the FDA probably would have issues with you aging and selling cheese in a natural cave, Willi decided to construct his own! It took about a year to build, but the final result is the perfect way to age cheese.

I had heard that we would be visiting a cheese cave, and really had no idea what to expect. Hearing that someone has constructed a cheese cave is not an every day thought. I pictured a small room with a lot of cheese in it? I was speechless when I saw what Willi had created. Coming out if a hill side, this massive rock structure is not what I expected.

Inside it has domed ceilings that are 12 ft tall and is cylindrical in shape. Inside are two rooms that each have a slightly different humidity. With the structure being buried under tons of dirt and rock, the room is almost impervious to temperature fluctuations. Over the course of a year the temperature will fluctuate 10 degrees. In March, at the end of Winter, the below freezing temperatures will bring the room to around 48 degrees. Then over the next few months the room will slowly climb to around 58 degrees in September. The process will then repeat as all winter the temperature will slowly go back down to 48 degrees in March. This very slow and gradual temperature change takes a few months to occur. If one night is -30 in the winter or a summer day reaches to over 100 it will have little to no effect on the temperature inside.

In addition to the temperature controls, the caves humidity stays constant. Commercial refrigerators can have humidity fluctuations and are incredibly expensive to run. The cave doesn’t require any energy to control its temperature and humidity.

While Willi produces a range of cheeses, my favorite were his bandage cheddars.

These are cheddar cheeses that are aged for 2 and a half to 3 years. They get their name “bandage” because of the muslin wrapping they have around them. The cheeses are wrapped in muslin and then smeared with lard. This muslin casing grows mold on it that helps develop flavor as the cheese ages and protects from cheese mites eating their way into the cheese. Here is what the cheese looks like while aging.

And here is the finished product.

Mmmm delicious. This cheddar is creamy, rich, and definitely has that distinctive sharp bit that all cheddar lovers crave! It is hard to describe, but the sharpness of this cheddar is more complex than the one note stuff you find in vacuum sealed packaging at the grocery store. This cheddar is best in smaller doses. I purchased some at the farmers market to bring home with me and throughout the week I have been trying it on different foods. I have discovered that it works amazingly on anything I would usually put cheddar on. Whether it be on apple slices or a turkey sandwich in an egg omelet. This cheddar works for all of them. The most common way that I have been consuming it has been eating small individual pieces all by themselves. The only downside is that I will soon be done with these piece. Don’t worry, I have more cheeses that made the trip back to NC with me. I will be sharing them with you next week.

Disclosure: The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board hosted me and covered my expenses while in Madison. They have not provided me with any financial compensation for the content on Taylor Takes a Taste. The recaps and posts about the trip are my own views and opinions.

Wisconsin’s license plates say “America’s Dairy Land”. With more than 12,000 dairy farms producing over 600 varieties of cheese that account for 26% of all cheese produced in the country, I would say the nickname is appropriate.  The presence of cheese in Wisconsin is more than just facts and figures, it is tied into the culture of the residents who live there. If you have never been to Wisconsin, I am sure you have seen the cheese head hats worn at Packer’s games? When I was in Arizona, I didn’t see anyone carrying around models of the grand canyon. It is a known fact that Wisconsin produces some of the best, if not the best cheese cheese in the country.  With such a great product, it only makes sense to me that your should wear your cheese head with pride!

This past weekend, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing board invited me along with several other members of the media to take part in a tour of Wisconsin Creameries and attend the Wisconsin Cheese Originals festival. During the three days that I was there, I learned more about cheese than I thought possible! I met many master cheese makers and sampled an endless number of different cheeses. I even developed a few new favorites! There was so much that I saw and learned during those three days that there is no way that I can put it into one post. Instead, I am splitting it up into 4 different posts. So to start, I am going to begin at the end of the trip and a trip to the Dane County Farmers Market.

I am from North Carolina, but spent my college years in Madison. During those four years, I fell in love with the Dane County Farmers Market. Here is a post showing what the market looks like in the spring

This is the largest producer only farmers market in the country. So what does that mean? Well it means that every stand has the person who produced the product there for you to meet. So say, you want to know who grew these potatoes.

Well the person you are buying from is the same person who grew them! You can ask them where they were grown, how they were grown and any suggestions they might have for cooking them. Really, you can ask them anything that you would want to know about the product! The market in the  fall is filled with beautiful fall colors. Here is a visual tour of what you will see as you walk around the square.

The market is filled with beautiful fall colors and unique food items. Like the color orange? You would love these beautiful golden beets and pumpkins!

Like reds and yellows? These apples are perfect!

I am sure you are familiar with Brussels Sprouts, but have you ever purchased them by the stalk?

What about this beautiful arrangement?

Forget flowers, how about a beautiful Kale bouquet!

The market has much more than beautiful fall produce.

There is a wide range of baked goods and canned goods. Most importantly, there is a wide range of….

Cheese!

The Farmer’s market is where I was first exposed to the Wide World of Wisconsin cheeses. Throughout the market,  there are about a dozen or so cheese makers who bring with them a wide range of cheeses. From 12 year cheddars to squeaky cheese curds, the wide range of Wisconsin’s cheese is on display! On Staurdays as a student, I would make it to the market and walk away with a small block to use throughout the next week. A week filled with an aged cheddar on my sandwich or a smoky gouda mixed in with my eggs. Those were good weeks.

During my cheese filled trip in Madison, I visited three different cheesemakers. Each with a different style and story to tell. Between the three of them, they tell a story of what cheese making means to the state of Wisconsin. Over the next three posts, I will be introducing them to you as well as sharing with you a little about their cheese (I couldn’t leave WI without bring a little cheese back with me).

Disclosure: The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board hosted me and covered my expenses while in Madison. They have not provided me with any financial compensation for the content on Taylor Takes a Taste. The recaps and posts about the trip are my own views and opinions.

Halloween is that special time of the year where as an adult, you can wear a skin tight orange spandex suit, or walk around with a cape, or pretend to be a super hero, and no one will look twice. Well these activities are seen in the tailgating world every Saturday!

Anyway, back to Halloween. I know that Halloween is on Monday, but I am sure that many of you will be celebrating this weekend. Today, I am going to share with you some of the best costumes that I have seen while tailgating! Keep in mind, it wasn’t Halloween. These are just the normal costumes you will see on a College Football Saturday!

The Spandex Morph suit is an incredibly popular choice for both Halloween and tailgating.

With a suit available in every school’s color, it should be no surprise that they are a tailgating costume staple.

While the Spandex suit will draw some attention, it isn’t the most impressive nor creative gameday costume out there.

This fan from Appalachian State took his spandex suit to another level by making it into a superhero outfit!

This isn’t the only super hero you will see tailgating. Captain Husky in Washington is there every Gameday to cheer his Huskies to a victory!

This Alabama Fan got very creative in his gameday costume.

Where there are super heroes, there are sure to be villains. This Virginia Tech fan drew his inspiration from the “Joker” in the Batman comics.

If I had to pick a school with the best gameday costumes, it would have to be Ohio State. I saw not one, but two awesome costumes!

This fan took hundreds of pom poms and turned them into one elaborate suit! Pretty impressive. While all the costumes that I have seen at tailgates across the country have been impressive, my favorite has to be the “War Nut” from Ohio State.

Inspired by War Machine from the Iron Man movie, this costume was amazing!

Everything down to the helmet was thought of! Ohio State’s Football team has silver helmets with a red and white stripe. When a player does something note worthy, they earn a buckeye sticker! Very impressive detail to include into the costume!

With tailgating costumes like these, you can see how every Saturday is Halloween for tailgaters!

On a separate note, due to changes in my tailgating schedule, I have had to cancel my food photography workshop on December 10th and 11th.

I will now be offering two 1 day workshops. One on December 17th and one on December 18th. If you have enjoyed my food photography tutorials, then you will love this workshop! It will be a day filled of learning! I will cover everything I have talked about in the tutorials as well as a wide range of new content I have yet to cover. Registration is limited to 6 people per class so sign up today if you are interested!

I apologize for the lack of posts recently. With tailgating season in full swing and a few very exciting other things going on (I can’t reveal them yet, but will very soon) I haven’t had the time to post on Taylor Takes A Taste as much as I would like to. In December, when I am not traveling to a different game every weekend, I will be back to regular posting! I have a lot of post ideas that I can’t wait to share with you.

Have a great Halloween!

With Memorial Day Weekend this weekend and this being the 3rd day of 90 degree weather in Charlotte, I would say Summer is here! With summer comes the heat…

I feel that the days of high 60 and low 70s are quickly fading. With the summer heat of the South, you need a cool treat or drink to cool off. In mentally preparing for summer, I was looking back through my travels at some delicious summer treats I experienced last year. First up is some of the best ice cream I have had in the country. From California to Pennsylvania, these are some of the best ice cream dishes you can find. If you want to know more about the dish click on the picture and it will take you to the post.

2 Spoons Boulder, CO

Berkey Creamery, State College, PA

Ici, Berkeley, CA

Luv It Frozen Custard, Las Vegas, NV

Memorial Union, Madison, WI

During a hot day, ice cream sometime won’t do the trick. This is when a cold beverage is a must. If you are in the mood for a stiff drink then head to Trudy’s in Austin, TX. If a beer is more up your alley, then check out my trip to the Long Trail Brewery in VT.

Trudy’s, Austin, TX

Long Trail Brewery, Bridgewater Cors, VT

If you can’t escape the heat and are at home then I suggest making these delicious drinks. Nothing cures the summer heat like an Orangeade or Raspberry Limeade.

A recipe for Orangeade

A recipe for Raspberry Limeade

I hope these get you in the mood for summer! What are you favorite ways to stay cool in the summer heat?