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A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

“A lifestyle blog with a focus on my food adventures”

November 27, 2024 New Gingerbread Houses at The Langham Hotel

Last year, we had so much fun making gingerbread houses at the Langham Hotel in Boston. Led by pastry chef Kerry Levesque, children design their own houses while also indulging in a candy and hot chocolate bar and maybe even get a chance to see the big man himself!

When you walk in you are greeted by a table filled with candy, but don’t worry, all the candy that you will need to decorate is already at your station inside the ballroom!

I love that the houses are assembled for you before you get to the event, so when you get there, all you have to worry about is decorating! Pastry chefs are walking around the entire time to help you with piping or float some design ideas your way! Need extra licorice, just ask! At $170 per house, this is not an inexpensive ticket, but the service is top notch, and it includes admission for two children as well as a limited edition Paddington diner set as a token of your special day. They have two seatings, one at 11am and one at 3pm. Children under the age of 2 are complimentary. If you are looking for a VIP experience, this is your best bet. We highly recommend! Tickets can be found on Eventbrite. More information can be found on the Langham Hotels website.

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November 25, 2024 4 Places to Eat in Salem

We have been driving past Ziggy and Sons Donuts for years now and the timing has never been right to stop in. So one day we figured we would make the trip to Salem just to try out the food. Salem might be a place harder to find parking than the city of Boston! We circled the block a few times before we grabbed a spot of the street and ran in just before they closed. They are a no frills, old school kind of place, which I kind of love. They are the longest running bakery/donut shop in Salem, a family run business, operating for the last 59 years!

Ziggy and Sons has donuts and a variety of other baked goods – we had to try out their turnovers, apple and raspberry. You can find them at 2 Essex St in Salem. Check out their Facebook page.

Next stop on our list, A&J King Artisan Bakers. This carb lovers dream serves the best breads in town along with sandwiches, handcrafted drinks and the most beautiful pastries you’ve ever seen. Brownie, pinwheel danish, sticky bun, sweet and savory, they have you covered. Just as a side note, try their Kouign Amann. There are very few bakeries that make these, so I try them where ever I see them. Pronounced “Queen Amahn”, it is dough, and butter with sugar…similar to a puff pastry. The sugar gets caramelized…it’s delicious. Sandwiches and drinks can be picked up from their cafe, located at 48 Central Street in downtown Salem. They have another location located at 139 Boston Street, but they do not serve sandwiches and drinks there. Check out their website here.

My next pick is Dairy Witch for ice cream sundaes. Open seasonally, they have drool worthy weekly sundae specials. You can get hard or soft ice cream, sherbet or sorbet. They’re open 7 days a week during the peak season – check them out at 117 Boston Street in Salem.

With multiple locations to choose from, Holy Cow ice cream gives you plenty of chances to try their award winning ice cream. They have catchy names like Corner Piece (Brown butter chocolate ice cream mixed with homemade crispy brownie corner pieces) and Easy Peazy (Lemon curd ice cream loaded with house made lemon bars, and fun flavors like cereal milk or brown butter cornbread. They even have vegan flavors such as vegan cookie butter or vegan pumpkin oreo. Check their website for the most current flavors. Check them out next to Salem Willows, 181 Fort Ave or just over the line in Peabody at 86 Andover Street.

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November 20, 2024 Basketball Team Mom – Fleece Around and Find Out

This fall we started on a new basketball team and had loads of fun! The season went by quickly, and winter basketball is already in pre season, but to end the season, we picked up these cute sports fleece blankets on clearance at Target (can you believe they were only $3!!). A quick customization at midnight before the last game, we just threw in the kid’s name and numbers and passed them out at the tournament. They were a big hit! The boys used them right away on the ride home during their well deserved naps!

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November 18, 2024 Pumpkin Bread – Spice, Spice Baby!

It’s getting to be that time of year, pumpkin spiced everything! Well, I think we actually may have just skipped right over that season actually, and we are now actually in the 40 something days until Christmas season…. but I do love making pumpkin bread. I love this recipe from Once Upon a Chef and the best part is that you can open the recipe and keep it in “cook mode”, which keeps your screen from going dark. Nothing worse than being elbow deep in mixing and having to swipe up your phone. I also love that this recipe makes two loaves, because I actually make one plain, and mix chocolate chips in the other one, because of course, my kids can never like the same things!

What is your favorite pumpkin recipe?

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November 15, 2024 Classroom Birthday Party

We decided not to do a big classroom birthday party this year. We opted for the big kids to come and read a story to the class and to give out these cute “party favors” instead. There is a small class, so we opted fot these Sun Squad chalk boxes with a cute home made tag saying “Thanks for making my birthday “chalk”-ful of fun! Big hit with the class, and something that the kids would go home and use! What are some of your go to goody bag ideas?

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November 14, 2024 How to Make Pumpkin Stacks Last All Season

If you are anything like me, you like to get out there and pick out your pumpkin stacks early – but you want to make those pumpkin stacks last all season because man, can they be expensive.

First, when you are picking out pumpkins, rotate to see if they will stack the way you want them to. Second, look and make sure that there are no soft spots or punctures in the skin.

I like to use this Rust-oleum clear coat, top coat. I put the pumpkins on some cardboard and give them a good even coating, stem and all, letting them dry completely between coats. Two or three coats usually does the trick, and they last all season long. It gives them a glossy finish, you can use a matte finish top coat if that is more your style. It protects your pumpkins and manages to keep the pests away as well (although some people swear by the hot chili oil for a more environmentally friendly route). Another option to keep those pumpkins from rotting is making sure that they are not sitting directly on the ground. Some people choose to put them up on grape leaf wreaths, but I find that that can get costly if you have a lot of pumpkins. How do you keep your pumpkins fresh and looking good all season long?

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November 9, 2024 Halloween Wrap Up 2024

This was a Halloween for the books! We must have boo’d every kid in town. The kids were so excited. Just seeing their faces and hearing them laugh made it all worth it. We were so busy that we managed to carve pumpkins the night before Halloween! EEK!

One of our favorite spots to get Halloween treats is Heirloom in Weston. How cute is their dirt cake?

With all the boo baskets we did, I almost forgot to boo my own kids 🙂 I like to reuse the baskets from year to year, so I kept the same pumpkin jelly baskets I bought from Target. For my oldest, I added Bonaparte Falls Apart, some spooky shost cookies from Rustic Bakery, assorted fancy treats from Sugarfina, some cute pumpkin and skeleton notepads, a “boo” straw, Meri Meri party crackers and a Tops Malibu sparkler wand.

For #3, we did Gustavo the Shy Ghost, a new trick or treat reusable bag from Target, fancy milk chocolate skeleton chocolates from Harbor Sweets, the only candy corn I like – in notepad form, a “boo straw”, some football cards, Meri Meri crackers, and some skeleton sticky notes. Not shown was the glow in the dark ghost NeeDoh.

I love all things mummy and anything that involves candy eyes. Do you prefer the cupcakes plain?….

…or frosted?

The Dollar Store coffins are such a cute way to dress up a little Halloween candy for a “boo”. We added a few fun treats like a “poison” bottle from the Bullseye playground and a Halloween bracelet to round out the fun!

Getting a boo is almost as fun as delivering one! Our neighbors dropped off this cutie pumpkin…while our animals of children raced out and “caught” them mid front lawn!

Another fun boo that we put together were these skeleton hand glasses we found at the Dollar Store, that we filled with some candy, vinyl ghost stickers for those water bottles, and a Meri Meri spider surprise ball!

I always like to try out one new recipe a season, and this holiday I did the Halloween M&M cookies from Cooking with Karli. Super easy to make, these dark chocolate cookies with Halloween colored M&M’s were a crowd favorite!

Another boo that we did were home made Rice Krispie treats, dressed up with Halloween colored sprinkles. Something a little special and different than those bags of candy!

I came across these super cute witch cauldron brownie bites on Instagram, and thought they would be so cute to make. Popped a few in a fun box and surprised a few friends with them one night!

Cupcakes are kind of my thing, so I was busy working on making different iterations – How fun are these orange frosted ones with skeleton and fang rings?

I’m not usually a cupcake topper kind of gal, but these Meri Meri ones and Day of the Dead ones are pretty fun!

Chocolate covered pretzels are so fun to make, and I love the Utz pretzel rods. There are so many combinations you can make, and I even made some that said “boo”.

Finding new uses for old things, I reused these old McDonald’s Happy Meal Boo Buckets to give cookies to friends and neighbors this year.

Cider Donuts are only my thing if they are hot and just out of the oven. These pumpkin donuts from Tougas Farm, however, weren’t too shabby! And how cute is this mini bottle brush Halloween tree from Migration Goods?

Rice Krispie Treats are even more fun when you get the orange Rice Krispies….

And last, but not least, how cute are these sugar cookies from Wilson Farm?

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October 22, 2024 Halloween 2024

We have been busy boo-ing since October 1st over at our house! Halloween 2024 has kicked off with a bang! Boo baskets, Halloween baked goods, you name it, we are ALL IN! I love these cute “oh snap” cupcake wrappers from Home Goods and Meri Meri witch cupcake toppers.

Chocolate covered Oreos can either be hand dipped or made in a silicone mold. Add some candy eyes and pipe with chocolate to make them look like mummies.

I picked up these cute cat cups at the Bullseye playground a while back thinking I was going to use them as birthday party favors, but they ended up being even better for Halloween. I used my Cricut to personalize each cup with friends’ names and filled them with fun things like Meri Meri surprise balls, flashing rings, vampire teeth, vinyl ghost stickers and of course, a little bit of candy! Big hit with the third grade girl gang!

Orang Rice Krispie treats were a big hit for boo-ing this year and so easy to make in big batches. We covered with fun colored spinkles and put in Halloween themed cellophane bags.

Using those same sprinkles, we also made chocolate covered pretzels. They travel really well and make for excellent boo-ing. They usually fit about 5 to a bag.

Some of our friends with littles got boo baskets this year from us filled paint your own pumpkin supplies: mini pumpkins, mondo llama paint from Target, pumpkin surprise balls, and a small bag of candy. A fun idea to keep the kids busy for five minutes and when you don’t want to go overboard on the sweets.

For some of the bigger families, we did larger baskets with skeleton coffins from the Dollar Store, filled with candy, light up rings and popper toys, Meri Meri spider surprise balls, glow bracelets from the Dollar Store, a fun honeycomb spider card from Papyrus, Halloween stickers from the Paper Source and the wooden tokens got friends one free Italian ice from Ye Olde Farmstand in Sudbury. They serve Richie’s Italian Ice and have over 20 flavors. You can mix and match, and in my opinion, the best part is that they ask you which flavor you want on top!! New flavors for next season are black cherry and key lime – we can’t wait!! Hurry in, the close November 1st for the season, but will open back up again in the spring.

What’s in your “Boo Basket?”

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October 21, 2024 Halloween Treats and Eats

Minus the dressing up, Halloween might be my favorite holiday – I mean all the treats and eats make my heart go pitter patter. I put together this eight pack of cupcakes for friends: the pink reminded me of brains, a classic jelly pumpkin, Butterfinger skull, candy eyeballs, black and orange non pareil sprinkles, a Halloween orange colored cream Oreo, Halloween colored crystal sugar sprinkles, and pastel fall pumpkin spinkles.

I whipped up some classic chocolate chip cookies and then topped them with these Pillsbury ready to bake ghost sugar cookies to make a “best of both worls’d” cookie. The kids gobbled these up in seconds flat.

A Halloween favorite is always the spider donuts from Dunkin.

Another cupcake set with cute cupcake wrappers and fun Meri Meri toppers.

Rice Krispie treats are always more fun when you use orange Rice Krispies….and when you top them with fun Halloween themed sprinkles.

And if you’re looking for a little bit of an elevated treat, for your sophisticated adult palate, head over to Heirloom in Weston for these cute homemade Oreo sandwich cookies. Drop a note in the comments about what your favorite holiday is!

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October 7, 2024 6 Must Do Things in Falmouth, Cape Cod

One of our favorite places to be in the summer is Falmouth, in Cape Cod Massachusetts. The first of six must do things in Falmouth is catch a Falmouth Commodores baseball game. Grab a blanket or a lawn chair and head down to Guv Fuller Field with the whole family. There are no tickets, just a suggested donation at the gates. You can bring your own food or purchase something from the snack shack. They always have some fun events for the kids (from t shirt toss to running the bases after the game) – they even run a baseball clinic for kids ages 5-14 during the day.

The second must do is stop in to Duke’s Donut Worx in Mashpee Commons. These are hand cut donuts made fresh on site throughout the day. They have both cake and yeast donuts – super tasty. Pre-order is available.

Or third must try is new on the scene cookie company Hatchville Baking Co, also in Mashpee Commons. This mother-daughter baking team has lines waiting around the block to get their baked goods.They run six monthly flavors, and if you can’t make it to Mashpee Commons, they can also be found at the Falmouth Farmer’s Market on Thursdays.

It isn’t a Cape Cod vacation without some fried food. Our fourth must try is Seafood Sam’s, open through 11/30, with the exception of Thanksgiving Day. It is always packed, and what we like is the ability to call ahead or order online. You can order mixed fried plates and there is something for everyone, whether you’re a seafood lover or not.

A family favorite is our fifth must do on the list, a visit to the Carousel of Light, for a spin on Patriot, Butterscotch, or Pearl. $4 a ride or pick up a punch ticket, $25 for 10 rides.

A trip to Cape Cod wouldn’t be complete without mini golf, so our sixth must do is a visit to Cataumet Crossing. They have mini golf, ice cream, bumper boats, penny candy and batting cages – a little something for everyone.

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