Between being at the right place, right time and some careful pre-planning, you can do pretty well for yourself in the freebies department, eating up the road from Maryland. New Hope, Pennsylvania and its sister city across the Delaware River is just an hour and 45 minutes from Elkton, Maryland. George Washington would have wished he had it so good, crossing the Delaware right there.
Some Fridays -- really, by chance and serendipity -- the Lambertville Public Library gives away free bread and desserts. They insisted I take a loaf of Italian bread home, which I later made into a panzerella salad like they do in Charlestown, West Virginia. Take the bread, cube it. Mix in a bowl with bite-sized pieces of torn Romaine lettuce, a huge pack of feta cheese broken in generous pieces or 2 small containers, black olives, green olives, finely sliced red onion, diced tomatoes, spears of cucumber and creamy Italian dressing. Delicioso!
The Blue Tortilla in New Hope sets out a whole selection of their salsas with tortilla chips to sample, right outside.
Back over the bridge in Lambertville, Lambertville Station has a lot of deals. It's in a great restored train station right at the Delaware River. It's a great place to park for the day and the $10 fee is refunded when you dine there. Lambertville Station is known for their wild game dishes and when you click on their link above, you can get a free "wild" (game) or "mild" (other) appetizer with dinner. They give out for free the recipe to their truly scrumptious coconut bread, too.
