Hello hello, again, Foodie Friends 🙂 Hope you had a fantastic weekend! In this edition of Foodie Adventures, I visited my family this weekend, checked out a food truck, and stopped by a brand new donut shop around the corner!
Adventures with family 💜
Lake Norman, NC
I spent some great quality time with family, as work will take me away for the next month, so I may not see them until the next holiday that rolls around. It was a weekend full of shopping, relaxing, and working on recipes for the blog, so not a ton of adventures got done 🤷🏻♀️ The fun ones we did have, I’m sharing with you!
I got home on Friday to almost a full Thanksgiving meal – ham with oven roasted potatoes, sauteed seasonal summer squash and zucchini, and a new side dish for us, riced cauliflower Au gratin (with non-dairy bechamel and manchego [sheep’s] cheese – recipe to come soon)! I loved that the bite from the sheep’s cheese paired really well with the creaminess of the bechamel, Dad couldn’t even tell it was non-dairy 😋
The little cute cakes in the next photo over were rainbow petit fours, and reminded me of this family deli that we used to go to after church on Sundays. Santoni’s had a fantastic deli and bakery, they used to make the most amazing cakes and these glazed cinnamon scones that were to die for!
Our evening consisted of catching up on Halloween Baking Championship episodes with Mom and Dad, and kisses & cuddles from Waylon.
The main episode revolved around making normal sized treats into monster sized versions, with two examples below. Lyndsy made a monster donut with raspberry “blood” vials, and Steven made a literal Pumpkin Pie, but filled instead with peaches and mixed berries. Love a good fun pun/play on words 😂
For brunch the next morning, we turned the leftover potatoes into hash browns with sauteed onions and roasted red peppers, bacon (because hello, why not 💁🏻♀️🥓), scrambled eggs w/manchego cheese, fruit, and tea with local honey.
After that, we took a long walk with Waylon and went shopping! I had to get a new bag for my travels and some more long sleeve work shirts as the first day of autumn was today (as I write this post on Monday) 🍁🍂 Soo looking forward to when it stops being 90*F here and I can break out the flannel and sweaters!! 💜
You all know my love of food trucks. Sometimes I dream a little dream about owning my own food truck someday, a mix between the favorites I grew up eating as a kid paired with some of the new non-dairy recipes I’ve begun creating on my own. One can dream, maybe once I retire or hit the lottery 😂
My parents were lucky enough to be invited to an end of summer party in a neighborhood close by, which meant yours truly got to tag along of course (I refused to let any food truck-ing go on without me 😁).
We got to speak to one of the “two chicks” from the truck who said they’d been running this out of Charlotte for the last 5-6 years. They’re known for their Philly cheese steaks, but have an amazing menu otherwise!
Because it was our first time encountering this truck, of course we got one of everything (minus the kids menu)! We were the first in line so didn’t have to wait forever for food.
I’m usually never in front of the camera but my parents insisted I have a picture with the food truck since I said we should check out this party!
Last time I tried to take them to a food truck rally, we were waiting hours in line and ended up at a tapas restaurant instead, so they were very happy I redeemed myself with this one 🤣
Let me tell you, the food did not disappoint. The Philly cheese steak (bottom right, left picture) was the bomb; the buffalo chicken tacos (middle, left picture) were the perfect mix of savory, spicy, and fresh; the spinach and artichoke quesadillas (bottom and top left, left picture) were awesome, and the BBQ chicken quesadilla (top, left picture) with pineapple reminded me of a crock pot recipe I tried out a couple months back, really tasty (see that here).
We ended up bringing all the food back for us to share, since the crowd was a little too much for my grandma to handle.
We shared everything and got to pick out favorites, I definitely think the two quesadillas were the best, followed by the cheese steak and the tacos.
It was a lot of fun getting to share something I loved doing with my family, my parents even took a couple pictures of the truck and food and sent them my way to use on the blog this week. My favorite part is getting the ones I love involved with something that means so much to me, because food really does bring people together 💜
I know I’ve told you all Mom is starting to go gluten free, so when we heard there was a new donut shop in town that opened up with Gluten Free donuts we had to check them out (spoiler alert, they have to be custom ordered so they didn’t have any yesterday unfortunately). In the name of donut love though, we marched onward!
Can I just start by squealing and saying how much I love this carpet?? 💜
Also how much do you think it costs to custom logo a carpet I wonder? 🤔
The owner, Keith Rene Cottrell (seen here with a customer), took the building over from a ramen restaurant that used to be here last year, adding some cool donut motifs and splashes of purple decor along the way.
See more from their head baker’s interview with WBTV here to hear more on how these West Coast natives are bringing awesome donuts to the Southeast!
Their menu was awesome and the donuts looked amazing 🤤😍
We ended up going home with almost a dozen and tried to get one of every kind! 🍩
From the top left going clockwise, we got:
- Maple Bacon bar
- Cinnamon crumble
- Chocolate donut bar
- Sourdough chocolate donut (bottom right)
- Strawberry and cream cheese pastry
- Banana Nutella Cronut (middle left)
- Jelly-filled
- Sourdough cinnamon crumble donut (second row middle)
- & Coconut glazed donut
The folks from the video above weren’t kidding when they said eating one of these donuts was like biting into a cloud ☁ These were some of the lightest, fluffiest, best donuts I’ve had in a long time. The cronut and bacon bar were the best by far, really crispy, high quality bacon balanced out salty with the sweet of the glaze, and the cronut was unlike anything I’ve had before. I felt like the cronut is something we might’ve found on a menu like Amelie’s French Bakery in Charlotte, NC.
Kudos to Rene’s, we loved it and will definitely be back!! 🍩💜
So how was your weekend Foodie Friends? Have you had a trendy cronut before? What’s your favorite donut flavor? Sound out in the comments below or let me know your suggestions of what dishes or places we should visit next. As always, feel free to like, comment, & share 🤗
Love the food truck pic. My blood sugar went up just looking at those sweets!
I made Greek Lemon potatoes for the first time!
My Greek Green Beans and grilled marinated chicken along with a Feta and fresh tomato and toasted roll topped off the meal. It was Gre
Fincastle Festival Sat. And Fri. Night JRHS Homecoming.
Then I got sick. Boooo!
When do your travels begin?
That sounds delish! Aww I’m sorry, are you feeling any better? I’ll be leaving the first weekend in October and back before Halloween
Sounds exciting. Talking about a foodie op! Take loads of pics!
Oh you know I will 😁 I have a friend taking over the blog and socials in October so you’ll still have stuff to look at in my absence!
Love the food truck pic. My blood sugar went up just looking at those sweets!
I made Greek Lemon potatoes for the first time!
My Greek Green Beans and grilled marinated chicken along with a Feta and fresh tomato and toasted roll topped off the meal. Good stuff!
Fincastle Festival Sat. And Fri. Night JRHS Homecoming.
Then I got sick. Boooo!
When do your travels begin?
Those sounds delicious I’m hungry!! Hope you feel better! I’ll be leaving next weekend.
The food truck looks AMAZING!
It was really yummy 😁