Monkey Makes Whoopie

Flying Monkey is one of the latest bakeries to enter into the whoopie pie running. The cupcakes are pretty good, so we figured the pies may be just as good.

I hadn't had a whoopie pie before trying the chocolate-chocolate from Whole Foods - it had a good moistness and the filling was marshmallowy without being stingingly sweet.

Flying Monkey has pies in two sizes and had a few flavors to offer...vanilla, chocolate and SnickerDoodle.

We bought a chocolate and a vanilla;
the chocolates pie was a little on the dry side and the filling, while decently flavored, was a bit too soft and tended to run. The vanilla was much better...larger pie made for a moist cake and the filling was more marshmallowy.

At 2.50 each, vs. 4 for $6 at Whole Foods, the pies are a bit short on value.

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Chioggia Beet & Spinach Salad - Fair Food Farmstand

Shopping in the new & improved Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market Saturday I came across these Chioggia beets. I picked up some local organic curly spinach for a winter salad.

After roasting them at 350 for 30 minutes in a tightly covered pan with some water, we sliced them up into quarters and had a pleasant surprise. The Chioggia is also known and the Candystripe or Bulls Eye beet, shown here.

We also put some walnuts in the oven to roast while the beets were doing their thing - a perfect bit of crunch to go with the salad.

We had some standard chevre, which I formed into cherry-sized balls and rolled in smoked paprika. I placed them in a microwave for about 30-40 seconds to just loosen up a bit before placing them atop the salad.

The spinach was simply dressed in a sherry vinaigrette, while the beets were left naked so that we could appreciate their sweet, earth chew - why mess with perfection. The sweet beets, tangy dressing, smoky heat of the paprika and the warm, cheesy goat cheese crumbles ended up being a balanced winter salad...all the better that many of the ingredients were locally sourced thanks to Fair Food Farmstand.