Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Diners, Drive-ins and Dinner


A few weeks ago I was watching reruns of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with that slightly wacky but always entertaining Food Network star Guy Fieri.  Back in 2008, he and his pretty red camaro went to a place known for their seafood specialties (Baltimorons call this a crab joint) not far from where I live called the Stoney Creek Inn.  Well, I figured if this place was good enough to be on Guy's TV show, it had to be something special so one recent evening a friend and I decided to try it.  Puzzled as to how I had missed this when it first came on as I watch it a lot.

From the outside, this place definitely fits into the dive category.  It sits off the main road right next to a marina on Stoney Creek, not far from the Chesapeake Bay.  Looks like a little dumpy bar with neon beer signs in the window and at first glance, really not much better on the inside.  It was pretty small and where they seated us obviously used to be some kind of porch, now closed in with cinder block and formstone on the walls.  But, after looking around, even though it was small it was clean and homey looking.  They had a large outside area with picnic tables that is probably used for steamed crab eating that had a nice view of the marina.

We had a wonderful appetizer called shrimp and crab toast, which was lump crab and shrimp on a sub roll with cheddar cheese on top.  Then I had a crab cake, baked potato and corn on the cob.  Great crab cake, nicely seasoned and big pieces of lump crab.  It was an excellent dinner, a little expensive, but seafood always is and it was large enough to bring home some leftovers.  Wish I had room for dessert because they had some homemade ice cream on the menu that really sounded good.  So I have to agree with Guy, what might look like a dive on the outside could really be quite the gem.  You just have to go in and find out for yourself.





Monday, July 16, 2012

Bucket Lists and Fallingwater

One of the things on my bucket list was a visit to Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece in Mill Run PA on the Youghiogheny River.  So on July 5 I finally visited after trying once a few years ago and being turned away because we had no reservation.  It appears at that time we got bad information at the gate because for $8.00 and no reservation you can do a self-guided grounds tour.  You can actually walk right up to the house, you just can't go in!  Wish I had known this 4 years ago.  I really would like to go back someday and see the inside of the house.  I think this would probably have to be in the Fall because as spectacular as it looked in summer, I can imagine that seeing it in the Fall would be awesome.






Wikipedia has a nice write-up all about the design and building of Fallingwater.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Finding This Great Bakery Was No Accident


On my recent vacation to Deep Creek Lake, I found this lovely little bakery named the Mountain Flour Baking Co. in the town of Accident, Maryland.  Accident is a small town in Garrett County which, according to Wikipedia, has a population of 353 as of the 2000 census.  Wiki also says that residents of the town are called "Accidentals" which I didn't know.  I have traveled through this town many times as a kid visiting my Mom's hometown of Kitzmiller and it's name always made me giggle but I knew when we got to Accident we weren't far from Grandma's. 

Anyway, back to the bakery.  I stopped by this place because I had a craving for some sweets.  You definitely can't miss it since it is right on Main Street, has a large "OPEN" sign and is flying a large flag outside.  So everytime we drove up Rt 219 going somewhere we would pass it and my cravings were getting stronger each time. 

The bakery is small inside but offered some large temptations.  I pulled out my camera and began to photograph some yummy looking cookies.  People look at me funny sometimes, but hey, I take my camera everywhere especially when there is food involved.  I was greeted by a nice lady behind the counter named Bird.  She told me the bakery is under new ownership and gave me a flyer with all their items on it.  I was quite surprised to find out that they even have artisan breads which are right up my alley but I never expected to find this far west of Whole Foods or Wegmans territory.  They offer a ton of different cakes, cupcakes, brownies, bagels, donuts, cheesecakes, bread pudding and much more, Oh My!  She even brought out a fabulous fresh-baked cherry pie while I was there which looked so heavenly.  Their website also says that they feature beautiful wedding cakes made by owner Christine Cornish Lewis.

I tried a few things, one of which was this fantastic peanut butter ball covered in chocolate (better than Reese's), some nice soft chewy chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles and an apple fritter so good like the ones at the Amish farmers markets in Lancaster PA.  I was there a little late in the day and sadly the cupcakes and a lot of the pastries were almost sold out and I do regret that I didn't have a chance to stop there again before leaving Deep Creek.

I wish the Mountain Flour Baking Co. a whole lot of success with their business because I sure do want to stop in there again and try some of those cupcakes that I missed and get a big box of those peanut butter balls to take home because I haven't seen anything like them around Baltimore.  Keep up the great baking and I will see you on my next trip to the mountains!

http://www.mountainflourbakery.com/