No Jacket Required

This past weekend was just so out of the ordinary for January in the northeast. I happened to see the weather report from New York City this past weekend. It was 72 degrees in Central Park on Saturday?!?! It was sunny and beautiful this weekend. The other thing that made this extremely odd was that Saturday was the first day of the Pennsylvania State Farm Show. What makes the weather that more bizarre is that anyone from the state of Pennsylvania knows that during Farm Show week, we are almost 100% guaranteed to have bad weather. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it's January, it has everything to do with the Farm Show. It's true! They teach you that in meteorology school.

This state wide agricultural expo event that happens every year at this time. I've gone to the Farm Show almost every year since I've been a little kid. My father would take me and I'd pet every single animal in the place. My hands would be black and I didn't care. Then, we'd go off and eat some of the fabulous food they have there. Now, when you leave the area where the animals are there are hand sanitizers containers to use before you leave the area. For the love?!?

The food is the best part for me as an adult. Because now I think too much about why the animals are there. Mainly as food. And, even though I don't eat them, the million other people that are there do. And I feel bad petting the cute little lambs and pigs thinking they'll be on someone's dinner plate. So, I'm going to focus on the giant baked potatoes (nope, they don't just come from Idaho!) that are smothered in butter, the fried mushrooms and yummy milk shakes. Mmmm!!!

According to an inside source, there's lots of wine tasting this year. We are so there!!

Sticking on the food theme...one of my favorites besides what I usually talk about...Paris. I was just taste testing a gift a cousin gave to NittanyBri for Xmas. They were a selection of chocolate bites. They are savory chocolate pieces. There are some that are Lavender, Rosemary, Cinnamon Espresso beans, and Cayenne Chocolate. When you eat these it's mmm, chocolatey, then BAM! HOT! Certainly this isn't the kind of chocolate you can "power eat," but it's fun to taste the different flavors. I'm not too fond of the Lavender. I have a Lavender plant just outside my back door and I love the smell, but I don't really want to eat it. There is one remaining chocolate bar we haven't tasted yet from Bri's Xmas gift. And that's the Venezuelan dark chocolate flavored with plums and Indian coriander. I'm kind of scared of it.