Wordless Wednesday- Butter Parsley Roasted Chicken with Duchess Potato Tartlets

Vacation Finds and The Unexpected Dentist Visit

Hey there foodie friends! It feels like I have not blogged in forever! It's great to be back, but the vacation was desperately needed!
First of all, I wanted to share with you all an incredible store that I found over the last week. I was up in Long Grove, IL in the little historical town they have there, and noticed a new shop there called the Olive Tap. As it obviously a foodie shop, I decided to take a look. I will tell you this now people...this is my new favorite store!
They have every kind of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegars you could imagine. The entire store is filled with gorgeous silver tap kegs each filled with a new and intoxicating oil or vinegar. And everything is available to taste testing...yes, really!
I ended up choosing to fill a bottle 275ml bottle with 18 year old traditional from Modena, Italy and another bottle of Cinnamon Pear Balsamic from Modena.
I have two words for you guys...
Balsamic Bacon.
Yes, balsamic bacon.
I made some thick sliced bacon, and just tossed some of the super sweet Cinnamon Pear in and let it caramelize in the bacon fat with some fresh green grapes. It was beyond fantastic.
So yes...if you get a chance, visit the Olive Tap. It's a dream come true if you love to cook and/or eat!
It was fantastic to just relax on this vacation. Not to worry about work, or house chores or anything else...until I chipped a tooth over the weekend, on an unassuming Cheese Nip.
Thanks Murphy...that was super cool of you!
The high point, I got to extend my vacation for another day.
The low point, I spent the beginning of that day in the Dentist's office. Just for clarification's sake..I'll let you guys in on a little secret.

I. HATE. THE. DENTIST.

I don't know if I can stress this point enough. We are talking cold sweats, heart palpitations and dizzy spells at the mere mention of shots of Novocaine and a drill.
But then I grew a proverbial pair and decided, hey since I'm going to face this assured hell, I may as well knock out all of those other little cavities that were brought to light when I had my wisdom teeth extracted.
Great idea Nikki! Instead of having just one tooth drilled, filled and billed...let's do five!
Friggen Sweet!
I see now I can't always trust my own judgment...silly girl.
They say the things you fear the most are the things that have already happened to you.
I guess that only applies to sane people, cause that totally was not the case with me.
I told the dentist I was pretty terrified, and would probably need to be sedated. Gassed, smacked upside the head with a frying pan...I was willing to negotiate.
I then had to explain that this was all theoretical terror as I had never experienced this before and had no concrete reason to be afraid.
My dentist laughed at me for a good five minutes after the phrase "theoretical terror".
I should have bitten him for that.
But I hear dentist tastes bad...
and I didn't want to go to jail and have to explain why I wasn't in the office again.
But I'm back now, and shortly I will be posting some fantastic images from before vacation!
Happy eating foodies :)