adventurous living for a holiday weekend

For the first time in several years I had Memorial Monday off with Matthew and although I did spend most of the day cleaning, we did take the time to try out a few new treats.

This is caramelized rock sugar from the Japanese market, Nijiya, where we do a lot of our shopping. I've wanted to buy it for a while now(maybe a year?) and on Sunday we decided to make the splurge. It really is delicious and makes for a much richer cup of tea, although the packaging says it's for coffee. To be completely honest, I think it's perfect fine crunched up as a snack, since it has such a wonderful, caramel flavor all on it's own. There are few things I wouldn't use this large crystal sugar on, with it's fancy pantsness and pretty crystalline look.

Buying fancy sugar isn't the only adventurous step we took this weekend; this afternoon, in a fit of courage we went to a new and unusual(for us) grocery store, Fresh and Easy. I know, I know, this may not seem like a big step for most people, but Matthew and I tend to stick to the tried and true, the places that are familiar and where we know for certain that the cashiers won't just take a bite out of us.

We were, of course, rewarded for our daring and bravery with a delicious jar of vanilla curd. This stuff is pretty much divine. It tastes like really, really yummy vanilla ice cream but just not cold and painful to the tiny toofs. I think I'm going to like it, if I can figure out some other ways to eat it, other than simply dipping a spoon into the jar and then licking off said spoon. Yum!