A Few Of My Favorite Things {This Week}…

{A few of my favorite things this week that I either just discovered or already know I couldn’t do without}

{Mint Chocolate Chip with Rainbow Sprinkles from The Towne Scoop, Verona, NJ}

1.     Pesto Pasta Salad – A few weeks ago, I did a party that had catered their food from a cafe and grill now located in the town where I grew up.  All of the food was delicious, but the one dish I kept going back to was the pesto angel hair pasta salad with greens, chickpeas and tomatoes.  This was a light, fresh, tasty side I knew I could make into a meal.  I have visited the restaurant a few times since to grab this pasta salad that is only served at lunch.

{Sweet Basil’s Cafe & Grill, Livingston, NJ}

2.     The Towne Scoop –  It’s funny how you can suddenly discover a place that’s been there all along.  We visited this cute old-fashioned ice cream shop for the first time recently.  It has a simple menu of home-made flavors, low prices and short lines.  The perfect way to cool down on a summer night.

3.     Picnics in the Park –  The other day, on our way to the pool, the sky got increasingly cloudy, so Emma and I made a detour.  We stopped to grab lunch and ate it out of brown paper bags outside at a picnic table.  She ran around the lawn, stepping carefully in between flower beds and I watched her wondering why we didn’t do this more often.  We never made it to the pool, but it was a pretty great afternoon.

4.     The Gladstone Tavern –  We drive about 30 minutes to grab a table at this place, but we love the route that we take to get there and the way back as the sun sets.  The meals are always great and their desserts are equally as special, like the sea salt caramel campfire s’mores.

Enjoy!