Cracker Barrel

As a pre-dinner snack, we stopped off at Dunkin' donuts. I was so psyched because I was completely in the mood for a jelly donut. Powdered. It was great. Only thing is, half of it landed on my fleece and on my jeans. Yes, the danger with eating jelly donuts is the possible gob factor messing you up. And it did me. I still have a very visible stain on my jeans. I think it was strawberry jelly. Anyway, I saw Hunt's ketchup packages for the first time there. I thought it was cool. I hope Hunt's makes a bigger name for itself in ketchup. I want to see Heinz' sweat a little. And, for no reason.

Cracker Barrel. We were starving. It was past 9p. I flipped through the menu and nothing was popping out at me. So when it came time to order, I just asked Steve to order me what he was having. He had one of their combination meals. Breakfast meal. Chicken fried steak with white gravy, biscuits, hash browns (shredded), over easy eggs, and grits. Steve also had a side of mac n cheese, I passed.

The meal was sufficient. Didn't win any culinary awards, but it was good. I decided that I don't love chicken fried steak. Steve does. That's why I started ordering them. But maybe it's just Cracker Barrel's that I don't love. It's very crunchy on the outside with tender'ish meat on the inside. It's like a cube steak texture. And the gravy. Too much but too little. Meaning. They give you a lot of it but it's like missing necessary flavor. There's a little smokiness to it from I suppose bacon but it's not a well, developed flavor. It's a little pasty. The hash brown potatoes weren't too bad. They were eh. I gave one of my eggs to Steve. And the rest of my hash browns. I was eating my grits plain whereas Steve makes his like his dad used to - butter, salt & pepper. It's good. He's made it for me at home that way before. But last night, I was needing at least one thing on my plate not to be heavily seasoned. The iced tea, unsweetened, was refreshing but could've been colder and with more ice.

We were too full for dessert. We usually split a short stack. And they give you warmed syrup and stuff. Yum. I like their pancakes cause they're literally fried. You can see and taste the diffference. When I first started out making pancakes, I used a little butter in the pan and produced a similar product. I started doing it dry after my grandmother gave me a mini lesson on how to flip pancakes. I love watching the bubbles forming along the edges and that immediate rise that hits when it's flipped over with some gusto. I think most diners prep it dry so when I get Cracker Barrel pancakes, they're extra yummy and good.

We hit the candy store afterwards. They have a great little shop. We went to the one in Fishkill, NY. In the spirit of halloween, we got tons of candy. We split this thing called a Pecan roll. Nougat rolled in pecans. It's light and sweet and pretty darn good. Steve was psyched cause we found him baked beans. Boston baked beans. I've had them before but I didn't think it was anything special. I found BB Bats. They updated the packaging but I always have trouble believing that they still exist whenever I stumble across some. I remember pulling my teeth out with these things. They are so sticky and so chewy. I split one with Sid last night. I know I shouldn't be giving him this junk. But as I say to Steve when he complains. I tell him, just as I expand his culinary horizons, I want to do the same for Sid. So he gets a taste of what I'm having. A little taste. Even if it's bad. Except for obvious things like chocolate and onions. Alrighty. I'm rambling! Oh we also had those orange jelly candies rolled in granulated sugar. (The ones that look like an orange segment.) And jelly belly jelly beans. I didn't love those. Too many different flavors combining weirdly in my mouth. Treat yourself right, Happy Halloween and Eat Something Good!

Cracker Barrel
4 Merritt Blvd
Fishkill, NY 12524