New Thing #162: Back To The Farm Share

After a year off, we're back to having a farm share. We had one for a few years - maybe five - and took last summer off...because they're expensive.

But we got back on the wagon this year.

And Monday was our first pickup of the year.

It's a farm in Sudbury called 'Siena Farms', and it's not more than 20 minutes away. (That means it's within bike riding distance for future pickups.) We pick up on Mondays, and the boxes are kept in a little corner under an overhang. Once you convince yourself no little animals are going to jump out at you, there's really nothing to picking up the vegetables.

You check off your name, grab your box, and you're on your way.

Monday afternoon we enjoyed some fresh lettuce in a side salad with our dinner. It just feels healthy when you eat it. It's amazing how you can even tell the difference between the quality of this lettuce versus something from the store.

The pickups continue through November, and this time, unlike two years ago, in August and September fruit and corn will come with our regular vegetable box.

There's another change at the farm compared to two years ago - you used to pull up to a lot that faced a pasture with a calf. Now that pasture is totally fenced off and you can't see any animals.

I'm looking forward to a non-rainy day to pick up the vegetables - that's when the farm workers are all out cleaning the vegetables and there are different farm machines set up to sort and clean them - I like checking that out.

And it occurs to me I'd better get over there with my bike in the next few weeks, before they start giving us two boxes in August. Because I'm not even sure I can pedal back home with one box...let alone two.

New Thing #159: Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich

You've probably heard by now that Dunkin' Donuts debuted a new sandwich this week. It's a glazed donut breakfast sandwich - a pepper fried egg and strips of bacon sandwiched between a glazed donut.

I have to admit - as much as I love all things Dunkin' Donuts, this did not sound appealing to me.

But I had to try it.

And today I did.

Here's the story of when I first heard about the new sandwich:

My wife told me about it. I said that does not sound very good. She said, "Kevin will love that!" I clarified, "I think you mean that he will like that I don't like a New Thing [he's been trying to get me to write about a week of New Things I don't like, because apparently I like most things], but you should also know he'll probably also like the sandwich." (Kevin likes Dunkin' Donuts sandwiches. For some reason I thought he'd like this.)

When I texted Kevin to tell him of this exchange he wrote, "I think that sounds amazing!"

I understand the appeal - what's not to like about a glazed donut (love glazed donuts!) and a bacon and egg sandwich (love bacon and egg sandwiches!)?

Well, I'll be honest - to me, they're not the best mix.

The sandwich was fine - it's not that I didn't enjoy it. I liked it well enough. But if I'm getting a bacon and egg sandwich, I'll get it on a bagel. And if I'm getting a glazed donut, well, I'll get it without the bacon and egg in the middle.

The most amazing thing about this sandwich to me is that I'm told it has less calories than the turkey sausage sandwich, which I wrote about in January. My wife suggests that's partly because this one doesn't have cheese.

There's some more new stuff to try at Dunkin' Donuts this summer - they have a new line of chicken sandwiches out. I enjoyed their chicken salad sandwich, so I'm  looking forward to trying one of the breaded chicken sandwiches.

I've mentioned this before, but all things being equal I prefer Dunkin' to Starbucks. (Here's why 'all things being equal' makes sense as a saying there: Starbucks has the hazelnut macchiato I like. Dunkin' has the sandwiches I like. But if it came down to plain coffee - all things being equal - I give the edge to Dunkin'.) So I like that Dunkin' Donuts keeps adding options - they're working to keep themselves fresh, and I like that. And I like living in an area where there are plenty of options to get Dunkin' Donuts.

Last Sunday in the Boston Globe, they mapped out in Massachusetts a town-by-town breakdown of Starbucks versus Dunkin' Donuts. And on Boston.com they lit up the United States with orange dots and green dots to show where the two shops are located.

Which leads me to believe that if I was President of the United States, one of my first priorities would be getting some more Dunkin' Donuts down in the D.C. area.

But it wouldn't necessarily be because they have a glazed donut breakfast sandwich.

New Thing #156: Brooklyn Water Bagels

A new bagel place opened up in town. We knew it was coming for a little while, and I for one was pretty excited about it.

I don't like to be a New York snob all that much (OK, yes I do), but you really can't find good bagels in Massachusetts.

Dunkin' Donuts bagels are kind of like fast food bagels. (But the bacon and eggs and steak and eggs and stuff they put in them make up for the sub-par bagels.)

Other bagels? There's always some kind of flaw.

*Sigh* Not like the bagels I used to have at home.

But that's why this new place was so encouraging to me - it's called "Brooklyn Water Bagels". Brooklyn! That's New York! They make great bagels there!

And I've heard this before - but what supposedly makes New York bagels better than elsewhere is the water.

So, it's no surprise that Brooklyn Water Bagels goes by the slogan, "It's All About The Water!"

Whatever they do, it works. These bagels were pretty close to the good bagels from back home.

But while we're on the subject, let me tell you about a similarly named place back home that has the best bagels you'll ever have in your life. It's called "Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee Company". (But we people in the know just call it 'Brooklyn Bagel'.) If you're ever in Astoria - it's worth checking out. (Hm. I just now realized that the only locations of Brooklyn Bagel that I know about are in Queens and Manhattan. Not Brooklyn.)

My brother reported recently that they just opened a new location in midtown Manhattan, near his work. So you have some options. And if you're reading this in New York, appreciate what you have.

Good bagels are truly hard to find.

New Thing #155: Orange Coolatta

It was so hot on Sunday. We were at an outdoor event from noon to 2pm or so - the hottest part of the day.

We were parched.

On the way to our next event, we stopped by Dunkin' Donuts for a quick drink - we needed something cool and refreshing.

I was all set to get an iced coffee when I pulled into the lot and came face-to-face with the sign you see at left.

And boy am I glad I made that decision.

I'm pretty sure I've had a coolatta before - but I think I've only ever had a coffee coolatta.

This one was an orange coolatta - although my wife tells me that the proper name is a 'Minute Maid Orange Coolatta'.

And after Sunday, I'll call it whatever the heck they want me to call it.

It was so refreshing. So refreshing. I can not stress this enough. Look at this thing - tell me it doesn't just look refreshing:

It hit the spot.

The only drawback?

A little bit of brainfreeze.

But that's because I just couldn't get enough and downed the thing.

I can't wait for the next really hot day.

'Minute Maid Orange Coolatta' for me.

New Thing #148: A Shake For Breakfast

I did something pretty healthy Monday morning. After I went for a run (they're getting shorter, though I'm trying to build up some stamina...but that's a story for another day), I had a shake for breakfast.

I've thought about having shakes for a long time, but I knew I needed to set aside the proper time to think about it, execute it, and then decide whether it was filling enough.

That couldn't be a school day.

So Monday - a day off - was the perfect day to give it a shot.

My wife's been doing these lately, so she guided me through the process:

-one yogurt

-some frozen strawberries (we had some fresh ones, but she encouraged me to use the frozen ones to make it taste a little colder)

-a banana (we had an old one that was turning brown and mushy sitting around that was one impetus for me to make a shake - I figured I could just throw it into the blender)

-a little bit of milk

-one scoop of protein powder

I should say, I've come to appreciate the value of a good breakfast in the past couple of years. (Forgive me if I'm repeating myself - I feel like I must have written about this before. But maybe not.) For a variety of reasons, my lunch period at school isn't until 1:15pm. We know it's late - we always tell the students they need to eat a good breakfast to help them get through the day.

But I never used to follow my own advice. I had to hit the road in the morning and I didn't take the time to fix myself something healthy.

The past couple of years, though, I've driven to school with my daughter - and that forces me to leave later, and that forces me to eat breakfast before we leave. So for two years I've been eating a good breakfast every morning consisting of eggs and English muffins. (OK, sometimes I'll still hit Dunkin' Donuts on the way in - but far, far less frequently than I used to.)

So I recognize the importance of the protein in the eggs helping me make it through a long day. I no longer feel starved between 11am and noon - I actually make it through 1pm (with the snack provided by the school in late morning). And if I don't have my good breakfast, I get a headache mid-day that I just can't shake.

So all this is to say I know the difference between a good breakfast and a bad breakfast. And this shake was pretty good.

It was my wife who suggested the protein scoop - and I bought in 100% because of my eggs experience. (See how I resisted writing eggs-perience there? I'm maturing.)

Bonus great thing about the shake? Well, besides the cool blending of all of the ingredients? The souvenir cups I collect from my ballpark visits are the perfect size for what comes out of the blender. I used my Nationals Park one for this test run.

There were a couple of things my wife suggested that I didn't include: one was some chia seeds. My wife uses those...I might include them next time, but I wanted to keep things simple this time around. She claims they add some protein and fat too. Same with the frozen blueberries and raspberries - I only had strawberries in my mind this time, so that's what I did.

But there will be other opportunities for other ingredients, because this will be something I do again.

It certainly won't replace my eggs as an everyday breakfast...but with summer vacation coming up I can see a breakfast shake coming into play once or twice a week.

(Note: Is this technically a smoothie? Should I have said smoothie instead of shake? Is this a regional thing like frappe and shake? Are those even the same things? I don't remember. I think I'm saying shake because of the old Ultra Slim-Fast commercials. OK. End of note.)

New Thing #146: Orange Leaf

One of the new places in the Wayland Town Center is a frozen yogurt place named Orange Leaf. I had never heard of it - my wife told me they were opening one up there and it meant nothing to me.

But maybe it should have.

According to their website, Orange Leaf is 'America's Frozen Yogurt'.

And there are more than 250 stores open across the country, with 130 more coming soon.

One of those 'coming soon' locations is Belmont, where I work, so there's something to look forward to.

The frozen yogurt is fine - I think I'm coming to the conclusion that frozen yogurt is frozen yogurt.

Two things, though, in my early findings, set Orange Leaf apart.

First, and I haven't noticed this at other frozen yogurt places, but I'll sure start looking for it: they have brownie bits as a topping. That's not something I've seen before. Fudge brownie ice cream is my favorite, hands down. And it's not something you see automatically at every ice cream spot. (I have a couple of go-to spots where I know they have it on the menu.) But if I can get some chocolate frozen yogurt and mix in some brownie bits...watch out.

The other thing is the spoons. I don't really like the Orange Leaf spoons. The interior of the store has all of this odd-looking (modern-ish) furniture. It's like they're going out of their way to make things look different - even if it's not in their best interests.

I think the spoons fall into that category. Different for the sake of different. They're shaped in such a way that it makes it harder to eat.

I don't know that anyone has ever said, "You know, this frozen yogurt is OK, but this spoon is giving me too much of a bite at a time. I really need a spoon shaped like a guitar so that I don't get as much frozen yogurt with each scoop."

I do not like the spoons.

But if there are brownie bits on that spoon...well, I'm willing to make a sacrifice.

New Thing #141: Beer At John Harvard's

Historically I haven't been much for the places that brew their own beer. But on Saturday evening we went out to dinner at one of them - John Harvard's.

There are a few John Harvard's locations - it looks like a couple are in upstate (?) New York - but there's one here in Framingham and another in Harvard Square.

We eat there (or, more accurately, get takeout from there) quite a bit, but I haven't had a beer there in years.

I don't think I liked it.

But on Saturday I did.

I had what they call a Bushwacker IPA (pictured). My wife had the Pale Ale. Both were really good.

I think my taste in beer has changed over the years. Matured, maybe. Or maybe I just have a better idea of what I like in a beer so I'm ordering more wisely.

I love Belgian whites. I don't know if I know exactly what that means...but I think I can pick something off a menu that seems like a Belgian white.

I'm not even sure the Bushwacker is the closest thing to a Belgian white they have - but I think I also like IPAs. (I don't even know what IPA stands for.) But I wanted to try it...and then I was glad my wife was trying the Pale Ale so I could have a taste of that too.

It was such a good experience I'm kind of looking forward to going back and trying some of their other brews - they have a nice page on their website showing the types of beer they offer. (I like the looks of the Kolsch.)

They also have jugs - primarily of the Pale Ale, but I wonder if there are other choices - to take home. I'm willing to explore that as well.

It's also opened my eyes to the possibility that I'll enjoy other breweries' selections. For a long time I didn't really like the beers at Boston Beer Works. Apparently, that's a chain. And there's a brand new location opening here - Framingham Beer Works.

Stay tuned for that New Thing...because I will be trying it out.

New Thing #132: Gratin

Before there were the beet burgers, there was beet greens and rice gratin. This was another of those healthy New York Times recipes that my wife cooked up, shortly before the beet burgers, that was met with much more success than the beet burgers.

I liked this dish a lot.

It's kind of like a quiche. And, actually, I'm not really sure what the difference is between a gratin and a quiche. Maybe the gratin is thicker.

As it says in that link, it's a Mediterranean gratin, bound by rice and eggs.

What intrigues me the most about it is the fact that the article says it is just as good cold as it is hot.

I had it hot - but I'm looking forward to having it again and trying it cold.

And that's about the extent of what I can write about gratin. Although now that I think about it, I was going to say I had never heard of gratin. But isn't there a thing like potatoes au gratin? I wonder what the connection is there. I don't know that there's any relation to what I've written about here.

New Thing #114: La Cabane A Sucre

When I was in Quebec I had food like croissants and poutine - typical fare. But the most authentic cuisine I think I had on our trip came on Saturday night - at La Cabane a Pierre...a log cabin-type building in the middle of the woods about an hour from our hotel.

I was only a bus passenger, but I got the impression it was in the middle of nowhere.

It's an establishment with long wooden picnic tables, lots of meat, and lots of maple syrup.

This is one of those two-fer New Things, though, because in addition to the food at La Cabane Pierre, I also got my first look at a Cabane a Sucre: A Sugar Shack.

I hate to say it, but the Sugar Shack was the first time in 2013 where I had an opportunity to try a New Thing and I passed on it.

See - in the shack they boil the sap in a big vat to get maple syrup. (At right you can see buckets on trees to gather the sap.) At least, that's what I think - the guy who told us about it spoke only in French. So pardon me if it wasn't even a sugar shack at all. I don't know what he was talking about.

But at the end of our visit inside, he allowed everyone to stick a finger into the vat and taste the raw syrup. I'm sorry. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Who knows what can get into that vat. I wasn't going to put my finger in there and then in my mouth.

Afterwards, we went into the cabin for dinner. They had a guy on a violin playing songs throughout the dinner:

They sold maple syrup and maple butter (I got a little bit of each), and they served ham, sausages, a vegetable soup, and for dessert a pancake. (Maybe it was called something else. I don't know. It was essentially a pancake.)

The catch, though - you're encouraged to put the syrup on everything. It was like in "Elf". "Try some syrup in your soup!" "Put some syrup on your ham!" I did. And, I figured, what the heck - I put some syrup in my coffee. WWBTED? What would Buddy the Elf do?

It's a mild type of syrup. Not very sweet. So it wasn't gross when I put it in those things. You didn't quite notice the syrup. What you did notice - especially taking off my coat and clothes that night - was the smell of meat permeating your clothing.

It was a nice night. It ended with a long journey from the middle of nowhere back to the city and civilization.

Not unlike "Elf".

New Thing #108: Poutine

Until about a week ago I had never heard of poutine. But as I got ready for the trip to Quebec someone at school mentioned it.

And then on the way up on the first day, we stopped at a mall food court on the other side of the Canadian border.

It was my first genuine French-speaking experience - the mall was not a tourist stop, so people were not catering to English speakers.

I was thrown  - I felt uncomfortable, I didn't know what to do or what to say.

I recognized the signs for poutine at the A&W shop.

And that's when I remembered that I was going to try at least one new food on the trip.

I did not have poutine at A&W. (There were a couple of fast food-type places I was hoping to try in Canada, but didn't have the chance. Prime among them was Tim Horton's - I at least wanted to try a coffee there, but no dice. A&W [you know, like the root beer] looks like a kind of Woolworth's, or Friendly's...a burger-in-a-booth-type place. I don't know if there are any of those in the U.S. None around here anyway.)

But our first dinner in Quebec, at a place called 'Les Trois Garcons' on Saturday night, is where I had poutine for the first (and only, actually) time on the trip.

Wikipedia says poutine is "a typical Canadian dish (originally from Quebec) made with french fries, topped with brown gravy and curd cheese."

'Les Trois Garcons' is kind of a slightly upscale burger place, so I have a feeling their version of poutine is intentionally a little different.

The picture I saw at the A&W had fries slathered in gravy and cheese. As you can see in my picture above, there's some, but not a lot of, gravy in the poutine I had, as well as some cubes of cheese. It's a neater form of what I guess I expected - less sloppy.

It was very good...but I think I'll withhold final judgment on poutine until I have it from a few different places.

As for that mall experience? I had an excellent steak and cheese wrap at some sandwich place. I had to take a leap into my discomfort and communicate with someone who spoke a different language than me...and I was in the minority.

It was a great tone-setter for the trip for me. And it came at the perfect time for me - because a new cultural experience is the perfect thing for someone trying his hand at some new things.

New Thing #104: Butter Cake

On Friday my family and I went to California Pizza Kitchen...or CPK, as it seems to have been rebranded. We were at the mall taking care of another New Thing, and sometimes we like to hit CPK while we're there.

And I'm always a little disappointed by the lack of menu options there - I always expect there to be more.

But there were a couple of new items being offered this time around - one of them being this dessert: Butter Cake.

First of all, I am just so glad there was a dessert I had never had before, otherwise this would be a boring entry about the new bread the restaurant has.

(Not that this is all that much more exciting...but there was really nothing about the bread that set it apart. And while we're going parenthetical let me state that I have nothing against CPK - I understand their bread and butter [no pun intended] is their pizza, but I'm just not into their brand of flat pizza. And not considering that really limits the menu.)

So let's talk about Butter Cake. It sure is buttery. And I don't think butter is the only ingredient...because there is a ton of sugar in that thing. It got really sweet really fast. It should be Sugar Cake.

Our server recommended it with ice cream on top. I'm glad I had that to offset the taste. It was good cake, but it was a little much with the sweetness. It was very much like the shortcake part of strawberry shortcake.

Except much sweeter.

New Thing #97: University Pizza

There's a little shopping center a couple of miles from where I live. It has a liquor store, an ice cream shop, a bagel shop, and a pizza place.

I think there are other storefronts, but to be honest, we don't spend a lot of time over there.

Which is probably fine by them - it's located across from Framingham State University, so I don't think my family is their target audience.

My point, though, is that the pizza place recently moved...and in its place, another - University Pizza -  opened.

We got a menu in the mail this week...and on Saturday, I decided to check it out.

Due to circumstances not worth mentioning here, it was me and my youngest daughter together for dinner Saturday evening.

I decided to call in an order for pickup - one of my go-tos: A bacon cheeseburger.

The first thing I noticed when I got there to pick up was the interior - it looked great. The former pizza shop at that site was kind of dingy. It seemed old. It wasn't exactly dirty...but it felt small and crowded.

University Pizza seems to have expanded the location. I don't know if they took over something next door and knocked down a wall or what...I didn't spend enough time in the other place to know how much bigger this one is. But there are new tables, a new table layout - It definitely seems like it was designed to try to become more of a hangout for the college kids.

I was there a little before 6pm on a Saturday, and there were only a couple of college-aged girls and a family with young kids besides the young staff (who I also imagine come from the college). I'm not sure how long it's been open, but I do know it's open late...so maybe it draws a later crowd.

As for my burger:

That's a pretty big burger. It was a good price (again, catering to the college crowd, which works for me too), and as you can probably tell by looking at it, it was plenty filling. The fries were a touch seasoned, but not overwhelmingly so, which I liked.

So the burger passed my test. When I go to a pizza shop, though, my usual order is a chicken or eggplant parm sub...so that will be next. (I went with the burger this time because I was sold on it in their menu.)

Then it'll be time to test the pizza. There's a thing about New England pizza - it's really thin and greasy. I like thick and doughy pizza. (It's a point of contention between me and my wife, who grew up with the imitation pizza and mistakenly thinks it's superior.) Right now I have one shop nearby that has the pizza I like - everywhere else's is bad.

I'm almost nervous to try University Pizza's pie...because that will be the tell-tale sign of whether we'll be joining the Framingham State kids at University Pizza more often than just for the occasional sub or burger.

New Thing #92: 1716 Eggs Benedict

For the past couple of years on Easter we've gone to brunch at an inn in Concord, Massachusetts that dates back to 1716. There's an all-you-can eat brunch buffet, and it hasn't exactly featured a ton of variety.

In other words, it's the usual brunch fare - omelet station, meat carving station, breakfast foods, some desserts.

This year, though, there was something different.

Among the offerings was something called '1716 Eggs Benedict.'

Instead of poached eggs on an english muffin, they were on top of a pancake...with some bacon mixed in there.

It was a new twist on a dish I love - I'll always order Eggs Benedict if it's being offered...and whether it's a different topping or something different with the sauce, different places have different minor variations.

But the constant is usually the bread - english muffin, or portuguese muffin (I think that's what it's called...and I suppose those should be proper nouns, but I'm not really sure) - but I'd never seen a pancake before.

It struck me as soon as I saw it on someone else's plate. My sister-in-law sat down with it and I asked her if they had the poached eggs at the buffet already poached - you don't usually see that. And she said, "It comes like this." She meant it came poached atop the pancake, but I thought she just meant poached.

I guess it makes sense: If they're re-creating a dish from 1716 - I suppose you'd have a pancake under the egg and not much fancier bread.

But it's 2013 now. The pancake is a novelty for my Eggs Benedict.

Given the choice, I'll take my english muffin.

English muffin. Yeah, it should be capitalized.

New Thing #89: Scoreboard Sports Bar & Grill

Last week I told you that I was going out to watch the first night of the NCAA Tournament. That was new, and as it turned out, we went to a place I had never been to before to watch the games.

It's called Scoreboard Sports Bar & Grill, and it's in Woburn, Massachusetts.

Unfortunately, that's a hike from where I live - but that was about all that was inconvenient about it.

The set-up is great - there are tables throughout the dining room that are surrounded by TVs.

The friend I was going with said it was a great place for the basketball, since they would have all of the games on multiple TVs...it was indeed a great place to watch the Tournament.

(Except for some inexcusable reason, they had a couple of TVs tuned to ESPN and ESPN2 for the majority of the evening - one was showing NFL Live and the other a cheerleading competition. That's bush league stuff for the opening days of the Tournament. I will say, though, that the hostesses were great about coming around and turning the TVs to whatever channel was requested. While we're on the subject of other sports during the Tournament, I guess this is a big place to gather and watch the Bruins, because they were featured prominently, competing with the basketball. The place seems to do a lot of cross promotion with the Bruins, but you'd think for the opening night of the Tournament they might have held off on the hockey.)

I'm not sure how great of a spot this would be to watch other sports...and the food wasn't the greatest I've ever had. I don't even know if they have the Sunday Ticket, but it's out of season so I guess there wouldn't be signage anyway. But the layout of the place was such that it might be worth the trip to watch the Jets the occasional Sunday I felt like taking a ride for some football.

The staff was nice - I was the first of my friends to arrive and I occupied a booth for more than one person for longer than I should have been allowed to. But they didn't hassle me. That's a big score in my book.

Woburn is too far of a trip for me to make this place a regular hangout. I left earlier than I would have liked because I had a long drive home ahead.

But it might be worth going back to the Scoreboard for the NCAA Tournament, in part because of an important fact I haven't mentioned yet: It's located on the ground floor of a Crowne Plaza Hotel.

So the next time I go to watch some basketball...I might just get a room and save myself the drive home.

New Thing #86: Chicken Salad On A Croissant

It's time for a little Dunkin' Donuts love. For a little over a year now (I think) they've had some lunch sandwiches to go along with their breakfast sandwiches.

I think at some point I had the ham and cheese and the grilled cheese.

I figured those weren't such a huge leap for a breakfast place that offers similar sandwiches on the breakfast menu.

I love chicken salad, though, and I was always curious how it would be at Dunkin' Donuts.

So on Saturday, I tried it.

Unless otherwise specified, the chicken salad comes on a croissant.

So there's two levels here of what I enjoyed - first of all, the chicken salad was great. It was the right consistency - not too thin, not too thick.

Then, the combo with the croissant was really tasty.

I never really think of croissants as bread for sandwiches - now, I've decided, it's worth considering.

Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast is a once-a-week deal at my house. (It used to be much more often for me, but I've really come to value getting up early enough to have my eggs in the morning...it really sets me up to have a good day. If I don't, I get a headache and start to lose steam earlier in the day than the days I do have a good breakfast.)

Dunkin' Donuts for lunch is definitely not going to get the once-a-week treatment.

But it is nice to know that when I'm in a bind, which happens sometimes in the summer, I have an alternative to pizza for a quick lunch that I'll enjoy.

And I can get a coffee to boot.

New Thing #82: Reusable Starbucks Cup

I was in Starbucks not too long ago to get a(nother) hazelnut macchiato. At this point you might be thinking that I am a huge Starbucks drinker.

The truth is, I'm not.

I'm just addicted to this hazelnut macchiato right now.

But while I was there, I saw these reusable hot coffee cups.

And I figured, if I'm going to be be constantly drinking hazelnut macchiatos, I can at least be kind to the environment.

First, let's address the line between Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts.

Given the choice, I'd probably go Dunkin' french vanilla, or iced dark roast, over anything from Starbucks. (Even the hazelnut macchiato.)

Starbucks is a dessert drink. It's an afternoon pick-me-up type drink, not a first-thing-in-the-morning drink for me. Dunkin' is for long car trips. Starbucks is for sitting around the house on a lazy afternoon.

Such was the case Friday evening - after a long week, needing a bit of a kick to make it through the Friday night basketball games...it was the perfect recipe for a hazelnut macchiato from Starbucks.

And it was the first opportunity to use the reusable cup.

It cost just a dollar - I bought it last weekend on one of my hazelnut macchiato runs. It's not like that dollar investment is saving us money. Using the cup gets you 10 cents off the coffee purchase - you'd need to get 10 cups of coffee just to get your money back on the cup...there's no way it lasts for 400 cups of coffee to earn you a free cup of coffee. (It's a thin cup too - I wonder if it even lasts 10 uses.)

So it's definitely a purchase made to have an environmental impact...not an economic one.

Another problem - with iced coffee season fast approaching (I think...who knows really with the weather we've been having), it's not a cup from which I would drink an iced coffee (or hazelnut macchiato, as the case may be). The only reusable iced coffee cup they sell at Starbucks runs about $10...though the counter lady (barista?..also, I engaged her in conversation - that, too, is a New Thing!) says they're probably going to put out a similarly cheap reusable iced coffee cup.

The biggest problem right now is that on Friday evening my wife went to Starbucks with the cups to get the coffees. So I'm not even sure how to do the reusable cup thing. Do I have to approach the counter holding the cups high (chest-level maybe?) so they see them? Do I have to declare I have them when I walk in the door so they don't think I picked them off the counter then and there? And what do I say when it's time to order?

I'm thinking, "2 hazelnut macchiatos. And put it in them there cups. Please."

New Thing #76: Knowing What's For Dinner For The Next Week

I found this notebook on Saturday afternoon. It's not like I was snooping - it was sitting out, open to this page, on the kitchen counter.

It seems like my wife has plotted out our dinner for the week.

That's new - I'm sure she hasn't done that before.

And I'll say this - it sounds like a tasty week. (Click on the picture to enlarge...I think.)

My wife does the heavy majority of the cooking in our house. I do a little more in the summer when I'm not working, but even then, she's planning what we're eating.

Sometimes, she has a plan far in advance. Sometimes it's the old, "What would you like for dinner?" "I don't know, what would you like?" You know. I'm sure it's not all that different from what goes on in your house, no matter what your familial status.

Rarely has it been plotted out a week in advance.

I asked her what was up.

She told me it was just so she wasn't putting meals together at the last minute. I asked her what the stars next to certain parts of the meal meant. She said those were items she needed to buy at the store.

I'm pretty impressed. Sometimes with three kids it can be hard to get ahead of anything - cleaning, cooking, and personal hygiene are a few examples. Even if this lasts for only this week...it'll make for a good week.

But even with this extra step - it's not a flawless system.

We forgot about the potato salad on Saturday night.

New Thing #71: Hazelnut Macchiato

My wife and I have a deal - When I make the purchase at Starbucks, she needs to tell me exactly what her order is, how to say it, and the conversation always ends with me asking her, "Is there anything else that they're going to ask me that I need to know?" I don't like standing at the counter looking dumb because I don't understand how to order at Starbucks.

So when I offered to pick up a couple of coffees Saturday evening, I was tentative when she said, "I think I saw a sign at Starbucks that they have something called a hazelnut macchiato. I'll have one of those with whipped cream."

I made sure she gave me an alternative if there was no such thing.

Right from the moment I walked in, though, there were multiple signs touting this New Thing. (That's a terrible picture of one of the signs at left...I kind of snuck the shot and the sun was in the wrong spot - what a disaster.)

I knew then that I had to get one too.

Here's the thing about hazelnut: I've always loved the smell of it. Really loved it. It smells delicious.

But I can't recall whether I've ever had it.

At Dunkin' Donuts I'm a plain, french vanilla, or dark roast kind of guy. But I'm always tempted by that hazelnut smell. And at Starbucks I stay pretty routine (see the lead-in to this entry for evidence as to why) - usually a mocha of some sort.

But for some reason (OK, we all know it's because of the New Things) on Saturday I decided to try the hazelnut macchiato - I got mine iced.

It was great - I think it was better than an iced mocha. Tasted more like an iced coffee rather than a chocolate drink, which I liked.

My wife thought it was good. She says she would get it again. Unprompted by me, when I asked her to describe it, she said it was better than a mocha.

So there you have it. Hazelnut macchiatos are better than a mocha.

I liked it so much I got another one Sunday. I have a feeling I'll be having many more this spring.

New Thing #51: T-wisted Frozen Yogurt

A new frozen yogurt place opened up nearby recently. Three weeks ago, to be precise.

We knew that we'd be checking it out on February vacation, and that's where we went late Wednesday morning.

It's called "Twisted", I think, though the branding has that little hyphen in between the "T" and the "wisted".

I may not know exactly what they're called - but I know I liked the frozen yogurt.

I know what you're thinking. "After all that health-conscious stuff you've been writing about the past few days, now you're having frozen yogurt before lunch?!"

Well, first of all, I have three kids, so before lunch is prime time for certain things. Secondly, according to the Lose It! app, 5 ounces of frozen yogurt (you weigh when you pay - and if that's not their slogan, it should be) is not all that high in calories.

So here's how it works: You walk in, grab a cup (there were cones available too, though I didn't see them until later), and then face a wall with about 20 frozen yogurt dispensers:

It's self-serve, then you walk over to the toppings and go to town. Everything is available, from chocolate chips and sprinkles to blueberries and other fruits that I didn't stop to look at very much.

Then you go to the register, there's a scale there, and "you weigh when you pay." (I'm telling you. I hope they thought of that.) It's something like $0.49/ounce. It's actually probably the cheapest thing in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Sudbury is where it's located, right on Route 20 - as you can tell by that top picture, it's kind of tucked away in the back of a little shopping center. It's not going to get much foot traffic, but once word-of-mouth catches on, I think this place will do all right. We were there right when it opened on Wednesday (I told you - three kids), and it's February break. I think, come summertime, or even the spring, the place is going to be packed. Actually, for some reason I got a little anxious thinking about how packed it might get, being not all that far from the high school. I want to go on a hot summer evening, but I'm nervous about how busy it might be. I'll have to get over that.

As for the frozen yogurt itself - it was great. I had cookies and cream - figured I'd keep it simple and go more exotic on future visits. Because there will be future visits. As long as  it doesn't get too crowded.

New Thing #38: Brownie Batter Donut

I'll try most new sandwiches at Dunkin' Donuts - they're usually appealing to me. The donuts, though? Not all of them.

I don't have the biggest sweet tooth, so something like strawberry frosting just doesn't do it for me.

But brownie batter filling? Yes please.

I saw the Brownie Batter Donut for the first time last week, on a stop-at-Dunkin'-on-the-way-to-school Dunkin' Donuts appearance with my daughter.

I try to set a good example on these (rare) mid-week Dunkin' stops. I try to convince her a bagel is a better option before school than a chocolatey donut, and I model for her by getting a bagel myself.

But when I saw that there was such a thing as a Brownie Batter Donut, believe me when I tell you that it took every ounce of self-restraint not just to settle on a bagel that morning, but to not sell Dunkin' Donuts my first-born right then and there for lifetime access to these donuts. (OK, don't believe me. It's not really true.)

I just love brownie batter. The literal brownie batter, in the bowl after you put the brownies in the oven? I'll lick that bowl clean. Any variation of fudge brownie ice cream? I'm all over it - it's a somewhat rare offering around here but I know the ice cream shops that carry it. And now a brownie batter donut - and it tastes as good as you'd expect.

It's like a chocolate frosted on the outside, and then in the middle (though not enough for me) there's brownie batter filling.

I'm sure it's so unhealthy. But I don't care. It's so good.

As you can tell by the picture above, it's shaped like a heart. Part of me dreads that's because it's a limited-time offering only through Valentine's Day, meaning there's only a couple of weeks to enjoy this delicious donut.

But the part of me that cares about my health is grateful that at least I know I'll have to stop eating them when they take them off the shelves somewhere around February 14th.