Pizza and Donuts (Doughnuts?) (Don’t mention Cracker Barrel.)

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to return to my home land of Indiana. I live in Florida, but my heart is in the North. I spent 15 happy years living there. It was glorious. My reason for my most recent visit was less happy. My grandmother passed away. She was 102 years old. For real. She was a Christian and loved the Lord. I look forward to seeing her in Heaven one day.

Well, there are many wonderful foody places that I enjoy from Indiana. One is a place in my home town of Columbus, Indiana called Arni’s. Arni’s is a pizza shop. (See previous post of my obsession with pizza. No joke.) Arni’s is pretty much an Indiana thing and more specifically a southern Indiana thing. Their pizza is to die for. They use a relatively thin crust as the base. The toppings are chopped very fine. I opted for a simple pepperoni pizza, and they always chop the pieces very small. I think it makes them taste better. I really think I could eat at Arni’s most every day and not get tired of it. Outside of Disney, it truly is the happiest place on earth. And those bread sticks……..be still my beating cholesterol. Magical!

Ok, that was all in my home town. We spent most of our time in New Castle, Indiana. New Castle also has a magical pizza place called Pizza King. The original plan was to go to Pizza King after the funeral. I cannot tell you the level of excitement in my soul. PIZZA KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then the unthinkable happened. My aunt and uncle and their family had already eaten at Pizza King the day before. They “didn’t want to eat pizza two days in a row. Who eats pizza every day?” I DO!!!!!! THAT’S WHO!!!!!!! Sadly my pleading was not acknowledged. We did not go to Pizza King. Instead we went to another restaurant that can only be experienced in every county, state, and road trip: Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel!!!!! Did you just say CRACKER BARREL?!?!?!?! I KNOW! CRACKER BARREL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don’t get me wrong. I love some fake home cooking as much as the next guy, but when you dangle Pizza King in front of me and  then snatch it away………a man can only endure so much. I think I had chicken something. I was unimpressed. I couldn’t even beat the peg game at the table. Stupid Cracker Barrel.

New Castle does have another redeeming quality: Jack’s Donuts. Doughnuts? Whatever. I don’t know who Jack was, but that man knows how to make an amazing doughnut……donut…..pastry. Now, if I had my druthers we would have started on one side of the case and eaten our way to the other end. Wait. We kind of did that. Here’s who was there: my parents, my brother, his wife, their three kids, and me. We were a small army of hungry, pastry (doughnut/donut) loving people. We might have ordered more than we could finish. But we do love a good challenge. Pretty much we ordered enough……items…..to feed a group twice our size. (And by “size” I do mean I gained a few.) Jack doesn’t disappoint. We ate our way through two baskets of donuts (sp?) and had a really great time. Long live Jack. Long live awkwardly spelled pastry/donut/doughnut.

And fyi, it was cold. Thus the coat and scarf. I was rockin’ that scarf. Just sayin. 

And yes, my nephew is a kid after my own heart. It’s really all about food……mostly.