One of our favorite weekend rituals is to load the kids into the car, stop at a bakery/cafe, go for a nice long drive through the countryside while we sip our coffee, and end up someplace for the kids to play and eat a bakery treat. If we time it so that the nice long drive coincides with nap, Dave and I get to talk - with no interruptions (other than the unavoidable "I need to pee! She's touching me! I'm thirsty! Mom, she's putting her feet in Alexandra's face again!") It is an outing we look forward to all week.

We have our favorite bakeries, but we've noticed many others while driving around... so we've decided it would be a very good idea to try them all. A tour of Vermont bakeries. And so I introduce this new series:

I thought I'd kick off with an outing to our favorite bakery: Birchgrove Baking.

What I love most about Birchgrove is that everything they make is beautiful and they always have a selection that includes the basics (like almond croissants, savory scones, and chocolate chip cookies) as well gourmet pastries and desserts (like banana caramel tart and cherry pistachio orange cookies). You never know exactly what will be there and I love asking what everything is - if for no other reason than to hear about the ingredients and flavors they put together. Also, best lattes in town.

The kids love the cookies - chocolate chip is the favorite, but this week we were tempted by their sugar cookie.