OhMyGosh! Cookie Dough Buckeyes!

Some people's passion are just so strong and infectious, you couldn't help but subscribe to their cause. Enter The Great Dane's love affair with the Ohio State Buckeyes. I however, have no affiliations with any of the Big 10 teams. Coming from a small private university gives me a lot of wiggle room to root for the team of whoever was throwing a party. Go Meat!

Ok, maybe TGD has infected me with a little bit of enthusiasm. I mean, look at this mascot! It's just waiting for a hug!

Scrolling through my Pinterest board of things to do, I came across Something Swanky's   Cookie Dough Buckeyes recipe! The traditional buckeye is made out of  peanut butter and chocolate. Call me crazy, but I'm not crazy over peanut butter and chocolate combinations. Wait! Don't get me wrong, if you present me with a peanut butter cup, I will gladly eat it!


So with the OSU kickoff extravaganza that TGD has planned, it was only appropriate to make some buckeyes...for breakfast! Oh the joy of before-noon games.

 Let the kitchen adventure begin! 

My personal twist on this adventure calls for the following ingredients:

-1/2 cup butter
-3/4 cup brown sugar
-1/2 tsp salt. I decided to be fancy, and used Cabernet salt
-1 1/4 cup flour
-1/4 cup milk. WHOLE milk is preferred. I just feel that it's how mother nature intended it.
-Approximately 1 cup of chocolate chips. It will help if you have a bag of it. Need I convince you?
-Splash of vanilla. I wish I had an actual vanilla bean.

Candy Melts for dipping.

This is how you do it...

Cream the brown sugar and softened butter together, then dump the rest of the ingredients in! Oh, if you need explicit instructions, don't dump the Candy Melts in!

I used my 70's style hand mixer to mix everything. It makes it so much more civilized than wrestling with the bowl and a spatula...just be careful about cranking the mixer up too high too soon. It's snowing...flour!

When everything is well combined,  go wash you hands and sing your ABC's, and start forming them into balls. I used a melon baller to get them as close to uniform sized as possible, and shaped them with my impeccably clean hands.

For the Candy Melt, since it's just chocolate colored and fake flavored, I added a few handfuls of the chocolate chips to give it a chocolatey kick. Approximately 2:1 Candy Melt to chocolate chip ratio. I used a toothpick as a dipping utensil, and then just smoothed out the toothpick holes after the chocolate has hardened.

O.H. I. O! Ready for kickoff! 

TGD was impressed by this arrangement.

Great success! OSU beat the Navy  37-17...and that this did not make it in the Pinterest fail club. So shocked! My addition of the Cabarnet salt balanced out the sweetness of everything. Sometimes, you get a flake of the salt, which was a welcomed depth of flavor. Adding the chocolate chips to the Candy Melt made the chocolate coating taste like I slaved over tempering chocolate.  It was a sweet pre-game treat...and post game celebration gorge fest. 

Time to scroll through Pinterest for more things to do in the kitchen that does not require fire.

                                   

                                               

Ohio! Put-in-Bay: Cowabunga Dude @ Frostys Bar

For your hypin' pleasure: Vanilla Ice's Go Ninja Go

From the moment we docked in Put-in-Bay, The Great Dane (TGD) pointed to this unassuming, neighborhood looking bar, and mentioned that they have pretty awesome pizza. Frostys Bar.

Courtesy of Frostys

Ha ha! Funny TGD. I was willing to bet that it's frozen pizza he was trying to trick me in to eating. With our week long vacay coming to an end, it was time to try this pizza! With an excited grin, TGD brings this box over to our table. I on the other hand, glared at it with overpowering skepticism.  

Open sesame! Still sort of unimpressed...but really hungry, and ok, I was salivating at the sight of all that cheese!

Little did I know that the cheese to crust ratio is 5:1 ( I made up this math)!!! Yes my fellow Noshers, this was not a thick crust pizza. It's just simply cheese overload, but in the best way possible. I'm always on the hunt for ooey,gooey,cheesy pizza. Most pizza's I've encountered that claimed to be cheesy, disappoints by only having one layer of cheese that has partially hardened by the time it hits my chompers. Frostys pizza puts all those pizzas to shame! Frostys pizza is not for the folks that are looking for frou frou specialty pizza. It's your good old American, hangover cure, and most likely Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles approved pizza. Go pizza, go pizza, go!

Just look at the cheese stretch! Most of the time, you only see this in perfectly produced pizza commercials or food shows. I think I heard the 3 tenors sing Hallelujah as I wrestled this piece of pizza into my plate. I never thought I would ever get to witness the "cheese stretch" in real life.

As perfect as this pizza is, there is one bone I have to pick with it...WHY ARE YOU 5 HOURS AWAY?! Do you ship? Delivery? Ahhhhh! I guess I'll have to settle with having to arm myself with a thermal bag and drive out to Grand Stand Pizza in Franklin Park, or get my delivery from Peqouds Pizza.

Comment below if you have a pizza place that you think would cure my Frostys blues.

Ohio! Put-in-Bay:Name Game @ The Old Forge Cafe and Creperie

The song that played in my head that day:  Lana Del Rey Moi Je Joue (A little play on Bridget Bardot's version)

When The Great Dane (TGD) is away, this mousketeer will play...play "how to get lost in a 2 mile island." This game starts out with a run. I need to sweat out some of this salt that's making me feel like I'm trapped in a sausage casing!

 I can't remember the last time I ran without music blasting in my ears, but since my cell service has me roaming in Canada (I'm in Ohio!), it left me running to the rhythm of the wind, while forcing me to listen to my huffing and puffing. Wow! I don't sound that miserable...well at least when I run past people. Red alert! People on coming! Smile and nod. After I know they're far enough away, GAAAAASP!!! Need. Air. Lungs. Work! 

I met a few friendly faces along the way that I smiled and nodded to, like this "sleeping" raccoon. Wake up raccoon! The bugs are eating your face!  I also saw a man that looked like Santa cruising along in a jeep, who asked me if I know where the synagogue is... or that's what I thought I heard him say. Synagogue? Santa? Clearly, this is not the jolly old man I know.  The stranger danger alarm in my head screamed " RUN! this is it...you're going to get kidnapped by Santa and be locked up in his cabin worthy of an 80's horror movie...AHHHHH." So with a nervous smile I hurriedly said no, and ran a 2 minute/mile pace. That's it! Call me a quitter, but Im done trying to get lost. Not to mention that there's signs all over telling people to be nice to the water snakes. Snakes?! Ok, really time to bust out of these woods. Time to hunt for some iced coffee.

After I washed the smell of nature and salt off of me, I was mortified to find that one of my little tootsies is missing it's coat of nail polish. Did santa make me run that hard, it blew the paint off of it? As luck would have it, the ONLY spa in this island was able to fit me in for a polish change. Phew! Crisis averted! After she fixed up my tootsies, the lady at the salon directed me to the place across the street for some good iced coffee. The Old Forge Cafe and  Creperie. Coffee and Crepe? Sold! So I waddled on over with my wet toes!

Presenting, the crepe that shall remain nameless! 

I totally spaced out and got way too excited to have iced coffee, and just inhaled this french fluffery, without thinking about my Noshers! 

Nosher challenge! Find me the name of this dish. Your clue is that this thing is stuffed with chicken, bathed in pesto. The pesto had a good balance of an earthy, nutty flavor and tang. I've had greasy pesto before. This one was not. To add to the heartiness of the crepe stuffing, some sort of cheese joined the party. I believe it was Feta. Need I mention the crumbles of bacon atop this crepe? The overall bite was cheesy and satisfying. It definitely did not trick me in to thinking that I was not canceling out  my run, but it was oh so worth it!  With my plate licked clean, and my tooties dried, it was time to walk back home to hydrate and reclaim the sausage casing feeling. Ha!

Comment below if you know what I ate!

Ohio! Put-in-Bay:Proving That There's Squid in Lake Erie @ The Keys Put in Bay

To help transport you in to vacay mode: Beach Boys

Kokomo

What is summer without a week long vacation to get some sun damage? This sun damage was brought to you by the wonderful state of Ohio. Yes! You read that right. O.H.I.O! I decided to tag along with The Great Dane for a trip to Put-in-Bay, OH. It's an island on it's own, needing a quick hop on a ferry to get to it. Think of it as the  smaller version of Lake Geneva, or for you East Coast folks, the smaller version of the Hamptons with a splash of Jersey Shore. It's about a 2 mile stretch from end to end, and according to the census, population 138! Ok, enough with the faqs, and on to the fun! 

Arriving late in the afternoon, it was clear that we had to catch up on some fun and hydration. Fast forward to the dehydration of the morning after. I think the first words out of my mouth was "water," followed by "ice cream." Armed with my sunglasses, we started our foot journey in the direction of ice cream. A long the way I spotted this... The Keys

It's kinda hard to pass up a waterside restaurant bursting with colorful umbrellas. Brunch before ice cream it is!

Unsure of my capacity to ingest real food, and knowing that the next meal time is just around the corner, we decided to split the nosh.

Island Calamari: I wasn't expecting much from this, since I was well aware that I'm floating on Lake Erie, and not the ocean. To my surprise, the calamari was fresh, not chewy, perfectly seasoned coating, and not greasy at all! It was flavorful enough that the pineapple chili sauce was just an added bonus. My mouth is craving the crunch as I write this! How come this calamari tasted 200x fresher than the calamari I had in Seattle, when the ocean is right there?! I guess there's squid in Lake Erie. Ha!

                       

Grouper Reuben: Laying in between grilled marbled rye was the sweet symphony of the grilled grouper, coleslaw, swiss cheese, swiss chili tartar, and GUACAMOLE! My ailment was screaming for the health benefits of guac. The combination was nice and hearty, that I almost forgot I was eating fish. Another fresh catch! Oh and the fries... TGD vetoed sweet potato fries,  so we kept it normy. I'm not one to finish off fries, but they were seasoned so well, I could not help myself. The seasoning had great balance of salty and a hint of pepper spice? Now I'm wondering how epic the sweet potato fries would have been.

The tropical themed meal was complimented by this view. I said I wanted water, and water was what I got.  How come I'm still so thirsty? Well done Ohio! I actually felt like I was in Florida.

Ok, on to my next request...ICE CREAM!!!