SHN Eats: Minnesota Food

I have a whole day’s worth of eats for you today. That hasn’t happened since…who knows!

I actually try not to do a whole day’s worth of eats anymore but rather a round-up of foods I’ve eaten recently. That way there is less comparing and food judging in my humble opinion. Plus any given day’s food isn’t ever the normal for me since every day seems to be different. I like to eat and drink as intuitively as is possible so some days I am much more hungry than others.

Nevertheless, I am going to share all of Saturday’s eats that I can recall since it was a fun day eating a lot of local Minnesota foodie items. 

If you’ve read the past two posts, you may know that I got together with a group of Minnesota Bloggers for some socializing, learning a lot about social media, Biercycling and of course…eating in the historic town of Stillwater!

Breakfast:

PB+J toast. (One thing that pretty much stays the same each day aside from variations on the components.) I had breakfast at home since it’s habit and I wasn’t quite sure what would be provided.

Second Breakfast:

A thick slice of asiago cheese bread from Great Harvest with honey butter and jam with a bit of fruit. I just could not resist.

Along with this I tried my very first macaroon from Amy’s Cupcake Shoppe.

 

I know I have nothing to compare it to…but it was melt-in-your-mouth delightful. The pink one I chose was berry flavored and I savored it as I was listening to some social media talk.

It’s 5 o’ clock somewhere beer:

What else do you call the beer you have on a Biercycle ride? I tried a Shocktop lemon shandy that wasn’t too bad. I’m not a beer girl though so that’s basically a compliment. 😉 I’m glad Alice shared one with me!

 I’m also glad I got to hang out with this lady.

 

Lunch:

Chicken tacos at a new Stillwater restaurant called Lolo’s American Kitchen. Mellissa and I hung out with our new friend Lizzy the rest of the afternoon, which basically meant we followed Mellissa around because Stillwater is where she lives. And Mellissa knows what’s good in Stillwater.

Lolo’s had a cool vibe and the server told us immediately everything was made fresh–nothing boxed or frozen. The tacos did taste very fresh but had a kick! I ended up chugging my water and watermelon beer.

I know. I tried another beer! Hell or High Watermelon. Clever, eh? Honestly I only had about half of it though because….

Wine Tasting:

For 5 bucks we were able to taste 10 different wines at Northern Vineyards. I think I’m growing to enjoy wines other than the sickeningly sweet ones, which I think means I’m refining my wine palate. Or maybe wine starts to taste better the more alcohol you have in your system? This is possible because we had the white wines first and THEN the red. Plus the bartender was a charmer and started to call me Nebraska and tell me I needed more wine to deal with being in a city. Because obviously there aren’t cities in Nebraska…?

My favorite from this wine tasting was Laura’s Laughter which had a back story of some sort that this wine was a bit of an accident.

There was also a back tasting room where you could bring a private party and a rooftop area. It seemed like a fun place to do a bachelorette party.

Dessert + Coffee:

For the Minnesota Bloggers event, we got a coupon for a free coffee and cookie at Mara Mi. (I saved the cookie for the next day and it was pretty good. Kind of between chewy and crunchy and not terribly sweet.)

 

I had no idea from the coupon that there would be stationary! We didn’t get much of a chance to look around since we all had to meet up by the river for some prizes and MORE treats, but I definitely want to go back! 

More Dessert:

I don’t know if I would have made it home without getting sick if I ate all of the treats that were provided. There were so many! Floats and candy and cupcakes were provided and we all sat down picnic style. I think we were all fairly tuckered out…I know I was about ready for a nap after all of that biking and walking (and wine!).

I finally caved and grabbed this beauty of a cupcake from Amy’s Cupcake Shoppe. Chocolate with cream filling and marshmallow deliciousness on top. Amy is a veritable dessert genius.

After a group photo shop, we all headed our separate ways. The plan was to meet back for dinner at 7, but everyone just ended up heading home since that was in about 3 hours.

Dinner:

Since Dave and I had already planned on going out for dinner, we decided to find somewhere else to go together. I was getting pretty hangry by about 7:30 when Dave got home and couldn’t decide where to go based off of Urban Spoon, so I made him pick a burger place.

Hanger made me dig into my Blue Diamond Almonds when I planned to save all of them for the trip to Nebraska this weekend.

My only stipulations were that it had to be a. not a chain and b. a new-to-me place. Apparently I wasn’t hangry enough to settle for any old burger. Dave suggested Obbs since he has been there a couple of times with his employees. It’s a VERY laid back burger and fries joint with amazingly greasy food. 

I can’t find the name of the burger I got but I know it had jalepeno cheese, chipotle bacon, carmelized onions, special sauce and was served on toast (which was a bit of a surprise since I don’t recall seeing that in the description). I ended up putting some of the lettuce from my side salad on the burger because it needed just a little something fresh, but really it hit the spot.

Afterwards Dave and I headed out to take a little walk to try to see how high the river was. 

We could hardly see it with how overgrown all the plants and trees are…lots of rain in the twin cities lately!

We even did some exploring of Indian Mounds Park which is an Indian burial ground that’s been partly preserved by the city.

[Tweet “Tasty eats in Stillwater and St Paul Minnesota! #mnblogmeet”]

I loved exploring this weekend in Minnesota! Although I didn’t technically cross off anything on my Minnesota Bucket List, I learned a little more about the area I now call home. 

 

 

Tell me….

When was the last time you explored where you live?

What’s the best local restaurant in your area?

 

Linking up to:

What I Ate Wednesdays with Jenn at Peas and Crayons

Treat Yourself Tuesday with Becky at Olives n Wine

 

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Disclaimer: I was given almonds from Blue Diamond to taste and share my honest opinion.