M: Old Village Post House and the Best Snickerdoodle Recipe

How was everyone’s weekend? Any fun holiday parties or get-togethers? Any baking? Our weekend was busy, as usual. But, I am happy that I got in some crazy baking time yesterday!

One really awesome thing we did was go to a fancy shmancy dinner on Friday night. We’ve had a pretty stressful holiday season this year and we just decided we really needed a nice dinner together. Now, this is actually my first personal restaurant review – mainly because since I’ve been blogging I haven’t really felt anything extraordinary (good or bad) about any places we’ve been to.

That is, until Friday =) Old Village Post House is probably my favorite restaurant in Charleston…yes, I said it…Charleston is chock-full of award winning restaurants and don’t get me wrong, we have some AMAZING places downtown. But, each time we go to Old Village Post House it’s always better than the last - it has so much character and just really fits my tastes (literally!)

Needless to say, the place is beautiful – inside of a restored 19^th century building – the dining room is small and quaint with whimsical works of art on the walls and lit by candles and a completely open kitchen. The service is amazing and can we please talk about the food?! First, we started with a “grown up” hot spiced apple cider. So warm and tasty (please excuse my dark and grainy pictures)!

I got the lump crab cake with sautéed spinach and yellow squash and goat cheese casserole. Now I usually don’t go with crab cakes here in Charleston because I’ve experienced them in Maryland, but this crab cake rivaled any of the crab cakes I’ve had up north. No filler…sweet crab meat. And the casserole with the goat cheese? So good.

Bryan went with the shrimp and grits and loved every bite. It isn’t thick and creamy like some can be, which was good for Bryan. He likes his shrimp and grits more tomato-ey and spicy.

Seriously, if you live in the area or are coming to visit at any point in time, make it a point to go here. You won’t be disappointed!

Before I go, I must share with you my mother-in-law’s recipe for the best snickerdoodle in the world (well at least in my opinion) =) I’ve used this recipe several times and each time they turn out great.

I actually ended up putting these into a bunch of goodie boxes I put together for friends at work, and I will clue you in on all the other baked goods that went into these boxes of heaven tomorrow =)

Let’s do this…

The best snickerdoodle recipe

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp cream of tartar

1 egg

½ tsp vanilla

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

3 TB sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl beat butter, sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar until light and fluffy. Beat in your egg and vanilla until well combined. Gradually add the flour to the butter mixture until well mixed. Note: if your mixer starts to give out on you (because this dough gets pretty thick), then just finish up mixing in all of the flour using a good old wooden spoon!

Cover and chill dough for about 1-2 hours.

Mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Shape your dough into about 1 inch balls and roll in the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on a non-greased baking sheet. Bake 9-10 minutes (I bake mine for 9 minutes – it makes them sort of crispy/buttery on the outside but slightly chewy on the inside). Allow to cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!