The World According to Lee: Episode 2

This is part of "The World According to Lee" series.  Read Episode 1 here.


As you may recall, we were recently introduced to Ruby Snap for Pastry Wednesday.

You may have also concluded that we are fans--huge, huge fans of Ruby Snap.

Ruby Snap cookie box

The evening of Pastry Wednesday, Lee and I had to pick up The Ballerina and drop her off at practice, but she had a little bit of time before she needed to be to class.

We may or may not have gone to Ruby Snap during that time...

Okay, okay, you figured us out.  We went to Ruby Snap.

I had a free cookie card (you get one when you purchase four or more cookies!) and we wanted The Ballerina to try Ruby Snap.

We pulled up to Ruby Snap and entered the shop.  Lee was the last one through the door and happened to notice that the handle was really loose and the door wouldn't close unless it was pulled firmly shut.

Ruby Snap's front door

The Ballerina and I looked at the cookies.  Lee opened and closed the door and assessed the situation.

The Ballerina and I talked with the cookie girl about the cookies.  Lee hollered at the cookie girl and said, "I can fix this. I'll be right back."

The Ballerina and I shrugged our shoulders and nibbled our samples.  Lee returned with a Phillips screw driver, which he happens to always have in our car, and proceeded to fix the door.

The Ballerina and I started ordering our cookies.  Lee joined us and proudly proclaimed to us and the cookie girl, "I've fixed the door!"

The Ballerina and I finished ordering our cookies.  Lee dragged the cookie girl over to the door to show her how to fix it in the future if it loosens again.

The Ballerina and I were a little embarrassed that Lee has dragged the cookie girl to check out the door when she didn't seem too interested in how to fix the door, but was clearly grateful Lee had fixed it.  Lee is given all these extra samples from grateful cookie girl.

The Ballerina and I munched on all these extra cookie samples that cookie girl had given us because of Lee's two-minute handy job.  Lee is told by the cookie girl that no one has ever done anything like this before and is also given three free cookie cards!  THREE!

High-five for cookies!

So you see, Lee has a philosophy on life.  He believes that if everyone shares their talents unselfishly, the world would be a better place.  We all have different skills.

Some people don't know how to fix a door. He does.
Some people don't know how to make cookies.  Ruby Snap does.
The world is a better place!

He also believes he is a Help-O-Bot.  (Confused? Watch this:  http://www.sesamestreet.org/parents/theshow/episodes/the-help-o-bots)

Lastly, we learned that sometimes if you help people, you get a cookie.  Or three. And some samples. (Yay for cookies!)

Thanks, Ruby Snap!

Pastry Wednesday: Ruby Snap Cookies

I was in charge of Pastry Wednesday this time around, and it was causing me some concern.

You see, these people love their pastries.

You see, it's getting harder to find something that none of us have tried.

And you see, we love surprising each other with new and tasty goods. It's now a challenge.

So when my sister-in-law, the Prima Ballerina, suggested I try Ruby Snap, it went on my list of possible places to go since I was SURE no one had been there before.

Actually, I knew I had to go when she said,

"Have you ever tried a Ruby Snap cookie?  They are to DIE for!  They are the BEST cookies I have ever eaten!  Bad news for my waistline.  :)"

Tell us how you really feel about the cookies, Prima Ballerina!

So, Lee and I headed to Ruby Snap the night before to pick up the goods.

Ruby Snap in Salt Lake City

Two things before we get to the actual cookies:

1. You should stop by sometime, because they give out generous samples--everyone there wants to share the goodness!
2. I love, love the branding!  It's retro and kitschy and fun.  Just look at the box!  Polka dots!

I love the wink.

Okay, on to the cookies.  The next day, I brought in the box, just so excited to share these delicious treats to people who had never had Ruby Snap before.

When I presented that pretty little box to the PW group, Colonel Mustard reminded me that he has been there before and we had even had a quick conversation about it. In fact, he and his wife go there often and had some of the frozen cookie dough in their fridge for an occasional portion-controlled dessert!

[Sound of my bubble being burst.]

Darn it!  There is no surprising this group.

Oh well.  We still had cookies to taste--onward!

We had purchased seven different cookies to try:

Prior to the tasting

Our first cookie was the Trudy, Ruby Snap's traditional chocolate chip cookie.  (By the way, each cookie has a woman's name.  I can't remember which name belongs to which cookie, but I like the kitsch of it all!)

I didn't get a picture of it (I think we were too busy eating it before I realized I hadn't snapped a pic), but let me tell you that the cookie was thick, chewy, and soft with a nice crust on the outside.  This has got to be one of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had!

The next cookie we had was the Penelope, the chocolate-dipped peanut butter cookie.

Ruby Snap's Penelope

The Penelope was soft and rich with a good amount of peanut butter flavor. There are a couple members of PW who are not big fans of peanut butter cookies, but they both said they loved this one.

We then moved on to the Suzie, cherries and chocolate chips in a vanilla cookie dough drizzled with chocolate and sprinkled with pink bling!

Ruby Snap's Suzie

It was so pretty and girly-looking.  The dough was delicious, but I am not the biggest fan of maraschino cherries, so it wasn't my favorite cookie.  I wonder if they've done it with other cherries before.  Something to consider, dear Ruby Snap!

We tried the Maris next, a chocolate chocolate chip cookie with a caramel center.

Ruby Snap's Maris

When I think of the name Maris, I'm reminded of Niles Crane's high maintenance wife on the TV show Frasier.  This is a decadent, high maintenance type of cookie.  Rich, simply rich!

Adnohr requested that we move on to the Lilly, a lemon cookie with crushed up lemonheads and covered with a lemon icing.

Ruby Snap's Lilly

I was skeptical that I'd pucker up if I bit into a lemonhead, but oh, the Lilly was so light and lovely and not overly tart. You can sort of see in the picture that the lemonheads had started to melt and became gooey--it was a nice touch.

We continued on with more chocolate--the Frida.

Ruby Snap's Frida

This was not your typical chocolate cookie though.  It is a chocolate mole cookie, wilder and earthier. It also had a chocolate ganache center with some heat.  It wasn't too hot; just a nice warmth in your mouth after you had finished your bite.  I loved it--it was my second favorite cookie.

We ate my favorite cookie last. I didn't know it would be my favorite. In fact, I was rather skeptical about the Vivianna, a dark chocolate mango cookie. I was worried because of the mango part of the cookie.  It might be too fruity or fake-tasting or just wrong in a cookie--there are so many ways it could go wrong.

Ruby Snap's Vivianna

But no!  It was divine. As I took my first bite, I was immediately and happily reminded of orange sticks--yeah, the ones you get at Christmas time. The mango was soft and chewy and reminiscent of something citrus.  Just add the dark chocolate chunks and there you have it--my favorite cookie!

I am seriously impressed by all the original, brilliant recipes that owner Tami Cromar dreamed up. We all agreed that we would be visiting the Ruby Snap again...very soon.  Seriously, these cookies are amazing!


Ruby Snap
770 South 300 West
Salt Lake City, UT


In The Store in Midway
42 West Main Street
Midway, UT 

Our Two-Year Blog Anniversary Winner!

Can we just say that we are so grateful for all you, our very cool and lovely readers, who happen to be interested in all the crazy things we do?

Well, we are.

Thank you--and we just love you!

Anyway, our winner for the Two-Year Blog Anniversary Contest is...

Dimples!

When asked what were her favorite posts, she answered:

I would have to say that any Lars related post tickles my fancy. :) Go Lars & Co!!!

The broken gnome incident

We have to agree. We sure do like that Lars.  He's pretty much a member of the family.

Congrats, Dimples!  Contact us and we'll hook you up with your prize!

Happy Two-Year Blog Anniversary and a Giveaway!

Today is our two year blog anniversary. Yay! It all started with a post about Bountiful deer eating all our tulips.

(Update: The deer nibble our tulips, until they taste the cayenne pepper/paprika/chili powder combo!)

Lee with our anti-deer concoction

It's been fun to look back on the last couple of years--we thought we'd share our favorites posts for our two-year blog anniversary:

Lee's Favorites:

3.  The two-part series of one of our crazy weekends and chocolate dipping

2.  Games we play: Name the band and the winner

1.  Lee's craft project before and after

Lee's corvette!

Winter's Favorites:

3.  The three part series about "proposing" to Lee here, here and here

2.  Photobomb

1.  Claussen Pickle photo contest entries

Pickles and a bear

We just want to say thanks to all of you for reading and for making comments and being in our lives so that we've had fun stuff to write about the last two years!  We love you!

And now for Our Two-Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway!  Woot woot!

To enter, answer the following question:

"What is one of your favorites from our blog in the last couple of years and why?" (we're curious!)

Enter by commenting on the blog before Friday, March 16 at 11:59 pm.  A winner will be drawn from all eligible comments and will receive a $10.00 gift card to Gourmandise Bakery so you can buy some birthday cake (or whatever sweet treat) to celebrate!  (For those of you out-of-staters, we've got something else in mind for you if you win, so feel free to enter and comment!)

Take luck!  And we love your guts!

A nice Friday to-do list

It's Friday!

Here's a to-do list for your Friday.

A to-do list?  On a Friday?!?

You'll like it--promise!

 

To Do List from Yaniv Fridman on Vimeo.