A (Non) Traditional Thanksgiving Feast.

        For the first time ever, we decided to host a small gathering at our house for Thanksgiving, (as opposed to the 30+ usually at my parents house). Since this was our first time hosting, we went with a pretty much pre-cooked meal. All from Costco's except for the rolls, (more on them later) . For the star of the show, we went with a Niman Ranch ham from Costco's . For those of you who have never heard of Niman ranch, they produce sustainably raised meats, that have never been fed antibiotics or hormones. Yes, they are a bit more expensive but the flavor is incredible. And since they buy from 650 US farms and ranches, the money stays in the USA.

       To go with the ham, scalloped potatoes. We could of course have made some homemade, (this was the wife's wish), but I decided to try another one of Costco's offerings and went instead with frozen cheddar potatoes. Both the wife and Kris thought this was strange, as their mom's homemade did NOT include cheese. But Mike and I thought they were quite good, never having had the originals. Here are a couple of pics of the ham and potatoes;

      Now for rolls to go with this feast, we decide to try and replicate the Lamson Family tradition. And this is where things get a bit weird. The Lamson family rolls are actually cinnamon rolls. And NO they were not eaten for breakfast or dessert but rather with the meal like regular dinner rolls. Other than getting past the fact you are eating a cinnamon roll, they really went well with the meal. The glaze on the ham included brown sugar and cloves and the cinnamon in the rolls complimented it perfectly. Of course, when you are trying to recreate a childhood memory, things never seem as good. But for Mike and I, who had never had the originals, we thought they were GREAT. I will write a separate post with the exact recipe, as it is pretty involved. For now here is a pic;

      We tasked Kris with the vegetables and she came up with two great dishes of carrots and squash (or so I was told, as I don't do vegetables so much). A great meal was had by all and for dessert, another Costco's original;

      For our official Costco's ratings;

Niman Ranch Ham  A+
Main St Bistro potatoes B
Dessert Assortment  A-

      And there you go, a rather simple, but elegant Costco's Thanksgiving.

Madeleine's Bakery Review

      We have a new bakery in Milton, Madeleine's. Located in the same building as the new Ace Hardware on Route 7. At first glance its hard to get a feel for this bakery, the outside door and storefront are very plain, looking like nothing more than another entrance to Ace. But step inside and be prepared to be amazed. As you step in, you see cases of goodies right in front of you, but what's even more amazing is look past the cases though an open window and see the actual working part of the bakery, and it is HUGE. it stretches back what must be 50-60 feet and filled with all kinds of cool equipment, (I love baking equipment).

      As I mentioned earlier, the first thing you see is two nice cases devoted to "normal" bakery type items. Doughnuts, bearclaws, cookies, croissants and many other items of the same ilk. To the left against the wall is another rack devoted to breads and rolls. This rack was rather sparse on the day I was there but I was assured many more bread items were coming. I did buy a loaf of white sandwich bread and it was good. There was a very good selection of dinner rolls.

      Off to the right hand side were two other cases, these are filled with more elegant desserts. napoleons, cakes, pies, really yummy looking stuff.  I will make one suggestion, DO NOT enter here on a hungry stomach. In the interest of a proper review, I felt I needed to test a number of products. HA, if you believe that I have some swamp land to sell you. Anyways here is what I ended up going home with;

      Let's go over the goodies one at a time. First plate, (starting at the top and in a clockwise rotation), cinnamon roll, nice and sweet, great cinnamon flavor, strawberries and cream croissant, point for using whole strawberries, point off for not enough cream cheese, maple walnut scone, only clunker of the bunch, dry with not alot of maple flavor in the scone, frosting was good, and finally bearclaw, great flavor but a little on the small side, must of been a baby bear.

      Second plate, cookies were both very good, chocolate chip and ginger. Donuts we ate the next day so they were a bit dry, but great flavors on the frosting, not cloyingly sweet. and finally the bread, not extraordinary but then again nothing bad. just a good old white bread. All in all a great addition to our little town.

On a scale of 1 to 5;
Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.
Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing

 Price,                And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     4      Really good , fresh made goodies. Scones are dry.
Beer and Wine,    no   Its a bakery people, though I did just read about a dessert and wine bar (next business idea).
Service,                 4.5    Excellent, I was waited on right away and the person was very helpful.

Ambiance,             no    Strictly take out, no tables inside.
Price,                     3.5  A bit pricey but excellent selection and overall everything tasted great.

Overall                  4.0  This is great addition to Milton. now if we could only get a DECENT restaurant we would be in heaven !!.