I ordered the Duck Jambonette for my entree and the dessert I ordered Creme Brulee, but the photo is of the Panna Cotta.

Pancake Month is a time-honoured tradition in my heart. I like to associate Clinton St. Baking Company‘s February Pancake Month with Shrove Tuesday, the day before Mardi Gras.

Many people call Shrove Tuesday, “Pancake Day,” and eat pancakes to celebrate. Others call it “Pączki Day” (pronounced poonch-key in the Midwest) and eat pączkis, which are like deep fried dough – similar to donuts – with fillings such as fruit filling, custard and creams.

I’m from the Metro-Detroit area and we celebrate Pączki Day – due to the large local Polish population – but because pączkis are hard to find in New York (unless you go out of your way), I’ve switched over to the much easier to celebrate Pancake Day. I’m very excited about this menu and I’m looking forward to going many times to celebrate my pancake obsession!

In May 2010, I went to a fundraiser for the earthquake victims in Haiti. My friend’s boyfriend was one of the organizers and as a friend, I bought $20 worth of raffle tickets. Well, 3 of those raffle tickets went on to win 2 bags of photography books and then the grand prize, this Nespresso Le Cube, milk frother, and an assortment of Nespresso coffee capsules and hot chocolate mixes.

I decided as a reward for when I had a new job, I would open it. Finally I got an offer and I opened the box!

I’m eating this as I write and it’s tough to stop a second to type versus stuff gelato into my mouth. In my article about Rome a few weeks back, I wrote about how much I love gelato, and well, I have found a product that’s going to be my downfall.

Talenti Gelato e Sorbetto is based in Dallas, Texas and probably one of the best gelatos I’ve tasted out of a container (sorry, but you can’t just beat real fresh gelato in Italy!). My mom and I bought 4 pints today – I’m seen eating the Belgian MIlk Chocolate (which I had to put away just now before I ate the whole container). We also got the Black Cherry, Sonoma Strawberry and Caribbean Coconut. Other flavors I want to try include Toasted Almond, Malaysian Mango and White Chocolate Raspberry.

The containers are very attractive, and I might actually end up keeping the container to store other things (so cute!).