T Stands for This, That and also Second on the Second

     Hi everyone. Happy new week and new month to you. Since today is March 2, I will share a second look for  Second on the Second. I will also share my T day post. Both of these link ups are over at  Bleuebard's and Elizabeth's blog.

   So what's new with me? Lately I've been in my February slump. I don't get it every year, but this winter has been long and tough. It's wearing me down for certain. 😒 I spent some of last week starting a bookshelf clean, mainly because I have/had a big pile of books that  were sitting for too long on the floor. I wanted to find some room on my shelves for them. That's when I noticed my shelves were getting disorganized, and the way to fix that was to do a bit of organizing. And OK, I may be weird, but I have fun going through my bookshelves. Grin.

   I also needed a change of scenery last week, so I decided to take a trip out to King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont.  I've mentioned this place before, but if you aren't familiar with them, they are the oldest baking flour producer in the US (they were founded in 1790 in Boston). They've changed a lot since 1790, and now they have a great facility in Vermont. They don't make the flour there, but they have a specialty bake-ware store with lots of hard to find ingredients and some interesting baking tools. There's also a restaurant, an actual bakery where they bake for their restaurant and  classrooms where you can take various baking classes. You can buy any of their flours or baking mixes there too. I'm glad I live  close enough (about 2 hours away) for a once or twice a year trip, but glad I don't live just down the road because I could spend a lot of money there. 😏

   I don't think I've ever shared a photo of inside their store before. It was mobbed when I arrived as there was a bus load of people shopping. When they cleared out it was easier to browse, and I even took this next photo.

Here's part of  their bread baking schedule on the wall outside the baking kitchen. 

You can  even buy bread from their daily baking in the store too.

   Earlier in the week I had asked my husband if he wanted to take a ride to  King Arthur Flour with me. I expected he'd say no. But instead, he decided he wanted to go so Friday morning off we went. After I shopped ( and even  my husband bought a couple of things even though he doesn't like to bake,  he does like to occasionally cook), we decided to go  down the road to the Norwich Inn for lunch. 

   The front view of the Inn is much more impressive than the back, but I didn't get a photo.  Here's their website if you want to see the front: Norwich Inn Website.

    They have a great pub area, but when we opened the door to go inside, there was a big sign that said they were not open for lunch. 😦  We got back in the car and drove  back to New Hampshire. We stopped in Lebanon (NH) which is not very far away since Norwich, Vermont and Lebanon, Ne Hampshire are right on the Connecticut River that divides New Hampshire from Vermont.

   Instead of a pub we went to an Italian restaurant called Lui-Lui. We had never eaten there. We split a large pizza that was quite tasty. I would definitely go back if I was in the area.

 I got a kick out of their brick oven as it had  this painted metal tomato top. 

   We each had a beer (a Switchback brew which is a favorite of ours and is made in Burlington, Vermont) with our pizza so here's drink #1 for T day. Plus when we sat down they served us some of these tasty homemade dinner rolls with some olive oil for dipping.

   Drink #2 is actually my link up for Second on the Second. Here's a tea inspired page I made back in March of 2022.

     Here's the original link up for my page: In Like a Lion.

   That's all for me. Wishing everyone a Happy T day and week ahead.

  postscript:

 Here's the recipe for the sour dough muffins I shared last week and which some of you asked for the recipe. The measurements are not in metric, except where I could change them.

 Sour Dough Discard Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup sourdough discard

1/2 cup sugar (I added a 1/3 cup)

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 Tablespoons of unflavored cooking oil

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup of flour (use the same type that your sourdough is made from) and note below*

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F/190 degrees C. Line a 12 cup standard muffin tin (or grease) or a 6 cup large sized muffin tin.

2. In a bowl, mix by hand the sourdough discard, sugars, eggs, oil and vanilla extract. 

3. Add dry ingredients (baking powder, salt and flour) to the wet ingredients.  Mix well.

4. Add whatever you would like to the muffins-blueberries, raspberries, chocolate chips, etc..  The recipe calls for 1 cup of the addition, but you can add whatever amount you like. I added the zest of 1 orange and also the juice from that orange. I also chopped up some dried dates (I didn't measure the amount) and added them. Gently mix them into the batter.

5. Fill your muffin tins to  the top of each well. Bake for 20-30 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

6. This recipe called for a drizzled frosting, but I chose not to use it. If you'd like to use it, the drizzle icing is made with 1/2 cup powdered sugar and  2 1/2 teaspoons milk. Once made and the muffins have cooled, drizzle over the top of each muffin.

* If using Einkorn or quinoa flour in your sourdough, you will need to change the amount of flour added to the recipe. For einkorn use  1 cup of flour and for quinoa use 1 1/4 cups of  flour.