I bet Paloma hangs at Chiappinis.

Melrose has a little mom & pop bakery that sells sweet treats and loaves of bread.  There isn't a huge selection, but everything appears to be freshly made.  I think the owners have changed hands once or twice which has caused it to close shop and open back up a few times.  I stopped by recently on the hunt for hamburger buns, but they didn't have any.  They (they being the husband & wife owners) told me that they don't keep buns stocked since demand isn't high enough for them, but if I wanted to call ahead of time, they would gladly bake some for me.  I didn't end up calling them since the buns were only for Thad's lunches, and he has an affinity for potato rolls.  However, I did think it was a nice gesture, so I made a mental note to stop by the next time I needed a regular loaf of bread.  On Wednesday I stopped in--a little hesitant about what my choices would be--and ended up purchasing a loaf of stone ground wheat with flax seed.  I was giddy that they had such a healthy-ful option, but even giddier that it was only $2 since it was on the 'day old' shelf.  Local, healthy, cheap = winner, winner chicken dinner.

This is about 1/2 the loaf.

The verdict?  I say it needs some salt and Thad says it needs honey.  I think he'd put honey on everything given the opportunity.  It smells heavenly and the texture is just a touch hard--but it was from the day old shelf.  Thad has told me repeatedly that I need to make bread at home and how his mom used to make bread that was "sooo good".  I've heard it's pretty easy, I'm just kinda scared of yeast which is why I haven't made any yet.  I've never used yeast before (I'm not much of a baker), so it intimidates me a bit.  Maybe Janelle can give me some pointers on homemade bread making.

And for those of you from Melrose or are familiar with it, please look at this site which reviews the bakery.  I was looking for a picture of the front of the bakery to put on the blog and happened across those reviews.  Please look specifically at review #2 where the old owner of the bakery (who I hear is my neighbor) and some woman named Paloma get into a bit of an argument since Paloma ordered a wedding cake the day before the wedding, then proceeded to call and change the colors on the cake 4 times.  Good ol' Melrose...  I can't be sure and I don't plan on finding out, but I'd be willing to bet 5 loaves of bread that Paloma frequents Chiappinis.

Anywho, I've toasted the bread the past couple of mornings for breakfast...

Topped with peanut butter and bananas, naturally.  Peanut butter toast takes me back to the days of my youth when I would scarf some down before running out the door on the way to school.

Thaddeus, the dogs, and myself have had a guest the past couple of days: Aunt Sue!  We haven't seen Aunt Sue since Uncle Dave's funeral a few months ago.  It's been so great seeing her.  She's such a special person.  Not to mention a great cook.  She made dinner for us on Wednesday and it was definitely a meal with Shannon written all over it.  I believe she said it was a recipe she got from Gourmet or Food and Wine.  It featured slices of eggplant topped with pesto, onion, tomato and more pesto.  Right up my alley.  So much so that I've had it for lunch the past two days.

Not the most picturesque of meals, but delicious nonetheless.  Why do I feel like I'm always saying that?  I also had two hard boiled eggs on the side.  One reason I love this blog is that I can look up my own directions when I need to, which is exactly what I did when I went to make the hardboiled eggs.

With that, I'm off to wrap up the work day.  Hope you have a great weekend.  I'm taking a mini trip to Orlando tomorrow with my mom and grandma to visit this place (no, not Disney)!