Ohio Food Tour Summer 2022

Come along as I take an Ohio food tour on our road trip & visit to Ohio to meet our new granddaughter for the first time.

Part 1 Ohio Food Tour: Backstory

I didn’t intend for this visit home to meet my granddaughter to become the food tour that it did. It just happened and once it began it was like a snowball barreling down a mountain.

June 24th, 2022 my son Nick and his wife Amanda welcomed a beautiful baby girl to the world. Little Charleigh Bella.

They live in Ohio and we live in Florida. It took us 6 weeks after she was born before we could meet her for the first time. I had to finish a summer nursing supervisor assignment for Broward County schools.

August 5th finally arrived and Terry and I set out on our 18 hour road trip. Yes, we drove. My reasoning was thinking back to the hellish nightmare of flying to Charlotte, NC for my daughter’s wedding week in early June.

Our flight was a disaster and we almost didn’t make it. They left us sitting on the tarmac for over 2 hours. They blamed it on a storm but other planes were taking off. They finally took us back to the gate because our pilot’s flight time had expired. The whole crew abandoned us and we had no idea if our flight was leaving or grounded.

A miracle occurred and they found another crew but we didn’t arrive in Charlotte until 1:30 am and we were supposed to arrive at 6:30 pm the evening before. I’m just glad we made it (we really only lost an evening and dinner with the kids.) The wedding was gorgeous and magical.

Driving was also an added bonus because that meant we didn’t have to rent a car once we arrived to Ohio. Our family is spread out between Akron Canton and the Youngstown/Niles area and we would be doing a lot of driving between the two.

We also had planned to visit Terry’s mother for a couple of days in Pleasant Gap, PA by State College on our drive back home.

The first days drive we left Fort Lauderdale and drove 10 hours to my daughter and son in law’s house in Charlotte and spent the night there. It was a nice half way-ish point to stop, rest, and refuel the mind, body, spirit.

We arrived in late afternoon and had time to get a lovely dinner and night cap before a good night’s rest and resuming our drive the next morning.

Ok, if I’m being totally honest here, I woke up later than I wanted, with a bit of a hang over, and wasn’t feeling my personal best. I should have stopped at one night cap but we were having such a great time. And yes, we walked to and from the pub.

I absolutely love Charlotte and we always eat at a new restaurant every visit. My daughter and her husband have great taste in restaurants and they are always trying something new. I’m glad my daughter has such a diverse palate. I look forward to each visit.

We got back on the road by late morning and had an 8 hour drive from Charlotte to Ohio. Maria and Dale were both driving to Ohio that weekend to meet their niece Charleigh, as well.

We arrived at my son’s early Sunday evening and I finally got to hold my granddaughter for the first time. I’m smitten I tell you. I just love her to pieces. I’m excited and blessed to be her Nana!

Part 2 Ohio Food Tour: How it all began

The first couple of days we stayed at my son’s house and really got to know the baby. It was so heartwarming to see my son and his wife interact with their baby. My cup runneth over.

Terry even held a baby for the first time ever. He did really well with her and she just loved hearing him talk to her. It was the sweetest thing.

One particular day everyone was gone and I was home alone with the baby. Terry ran to the Giant Eagle grocery store to get a few items. He walked in the door, took one look at me, and saw I had tears streaming down my face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

I look up from the baby in my arms and replied, “I don’t know!” I said wailing. I literally was consumed with so much emotion for this beautiful precious baby. It hit me and it was hard to contain.

“Well maybe this will cheer you up.” as he pulls out a Long John donut from his grocery bag.

My eye’s lit up like a Christmas tree as I grabbed it. A Long Jonh is a bar shaped donut filled with a cream icing and topped with a chocolate or maple frosting. We can’t get them here in Florida. They are definitely a regional donut in the midwest.

I did find something similar here in Florida at Krispy Kreme but it’s round not bar shaped. Close enough to hold me over until I get back home for the real McCoy.

So began the whole food tour.

That same night my son, his wife, the baby, Terry and I went to a restaurant called Station Square. It’s an Italian restaurant but you wouldn’t know it by the name. I used to go there a lot when I lived in Ohio. We had a really nice meal and time there.

The first thing I ordered was the hot peppers in oil. They served them with warm bread and was heavenly. Peppers in oil is a huge thing in that part of Ohio.

There’s a lot of Italian’s in the area and they love canning their hot Hungarian wax peppers grown in their gardens. I used to look forward to my neighbor’s giving me a jar of their canned peppers in oil every summer. I can make a meal just out of bread and peppers!

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The following Tuesday was the day before my son and DIL’s 3rd anniversary and we were all driving to Canton to Gervasi Winery for a celebratory dinner and were meeting up with the rest of my family members. It would be their first time meeting the new baby as well.

Terry and I left a bit earlier to check into our air bnb. We had rented an old farm house called the Corbel House for the night close to the winery and as luck would have it, it was located right near my nieces house as well.

We arrived right around lunch time and had to wait a bit to meet up with the owner to get the key. While we waited, we ordered a pizza at Gionino’s in North Canton. Naturally, an award winning pizza in Canton and one of my favorites when I go there.

While we waited for our pizza we hit up a pharmacy next door in the strip plaza for a few toiletries. I happened upon the chip aisle, you know accidentally, and spotted my favorite potato chips of all time.

Another regional favorite of the midwest, and the best BBQ chips ever, that I just can’t get in Florida. Now that I know Amazon has them, I’ll be ordering them regularly.

On our way to the check out they had a little cooler kiosk and I spotted some beet pickled eggs. If you’ve never eaten a beet pickled egg you don’t know what you’re missing. Terry wouldn’t touch them with a 10 foot pole, but I sure gobbled them up.

We all had a wonderful time at the winery and everyone took turns holding Charleigh Bella. It was a really tender moment to see my mom hold her 7th great grandchild.

I hope I live to see that stage in my life where I hold my great grandchild. God willing.

The next day we picked up with my mom and my cousin who was visiting my mom. We met my sister Debbie, her daughter Kristin, and Kristin’s 2 year old son for lunch. We ate at a restaurant called Grinders. At lunch I ordered the wedding soup because when you’re in Ohio, you NEED to eat a cup of wedding soup.

I posted a recipe for wedding soup but instead of the egg croutons which I usually add to my soup, I made an egg dumpling called Rivels and dropped that in the soup and it was so delicious.

My niece Kristin ended up inviting us to dinner that evening and somehow the whole family kinda just ended up there at her house. Her father in law lives with them and he made us all homemade enchiladas. They were delicious! A good time was had by all.

We spent one more night in our Air BNB then headed back to my son’s Wednesday morning.

Wednesday afternoon we took a walk then decided to hit up the DQ for one of our favorite treats. The Dairy Queen chocolate crunch cone. A crunch cone is a coating of sprinkles and peanut brittle nougats on the soft serve. It really is the best! We can’t get the crunch coating here at our Dairy Queen in our local area.

My sister told me she found a knock off crunch coating on Amazon and I tried it, and it was a dead ringer. It was kind of expensive but the bag was 1 lb and it’s lasted a long time. So well worth it I think.

Maria got into town Thursday afternoon and came over to meet the baby. Again, another really sweet moment and I’m glad I got it on video. I made a video of many parts of the trip and so glad I did. It’s at the bottom of the post.

Friday early afternoon was reserved for Whitehouse Farm in Canfield Ohio per my daughter’s request. They have the best blueberry donuts I’ve ever eaten. I kinda went a little nuts in that place. I think we all did. They have the cutest little market with fresh fruit, produce, pies, candles, candy. Pretty much anything you can think of.

In the freezer section I located some frozen DiRusso’s Italian sausages. DiRusso is a local sausage company out of Youngstown Ohio. Best hot Italian sausages ever. My niece was raving about their mini meatballs for wedding soup when I ordered the wedding soup at lunch.

I didn’t purchase the meatballs though, just the sausages. We lugged those sausages around the rest of our trip and they must have seen everyone’s freezer aside from our cooler by the time we made it back home. But they made it and we enjoyed the heck out of them.

After we bought everything we wanted inside the market we made our way back outside to a Pierogi stand. Of course, we had to order the pierogi. They were so delicious. Another food item checked off the list!

Later that evening we all met up at Salvatore’s Italian Grill in Howland, OH. That again, was my daughter’s request. While there, of course I ordered all my old favorites from back in the day and also got a cup of pasta e Fagioli. Or what we called “pasta fazool” when I lived in Ohio. One of my favorites.

Now, there’s 2 versions of pasta Fagioli. Red and white. I like them both, but my favorite is the white. I have recipes for both the red and white versions that I’ll be sharing soon on the blog so stick around.

We stayed the weekend and had to say our goodbyes before we headed east to Pleasant Gap, PA to visit Terry’s mother for a couple of days.

It was a nice visit with her as I really don’t get to see her that much. While I’m there I always make sure to cook a meal for her because she waits on us hand and foot. I made her my famous hot peppers in oil with a fresh baked loaf of crusty bread.

It was the first time she had ever had hot peppers in oil and she absolutely loved it. I’ll be posting that quick recipe in the near future as well.

It definitely was a great trip and I look forward to all the trips back to see my granddaughter and family.