February 7, 2017 5 Candy Ideas for Valentine’s Day
When I was a kid, all I ever wanted to get for Valentine’s Day was that heart shaped box of Russell Stover chocolates, the bigger the better. Now that I’m an adult, I’ve moved on from those chocolates and wanted to share some heart shaped boxed chocolate alternatives for that someone special in your life.
First up, Neuhaus, fine Belgian chocolates that I was introduced to years ago in New York. Don’t worry, if you still want they heart shaped box, they sell them for Valentine’s Day! An 8 piece 1/4lb box will run you $16, a 14 piece box is $32, and a 27 piece heart shaped box will cost you $64 (many other sizes and options available). The chocolates are smooth and creamy and just melt in your mouth. They offer dark, white and milk chocolate in pralines, caramels, ganaches and more. The fillings are by far my favorite, and there isn’t one chocolate in this box that I wouldn’t eat. Visit their boutique in Faneuil Hall Marketplace (1 South Market Street in Boston) or order online.
In 1881, Louis Sherry introduced the French chocolate making tradition to New York. Every chocolate selection is packaged in the traditional Sherry’s tin, which is a recast of the original. There are 12 chocolates in the collection and they are available in 2, 12 and 24 piece tins. The flavors are Coconut Almond, Strawberry Romanoff, Coffee Costa D’Oro, Jamaican Rum, Fleur De Sel Caramel, Mexican Vanilla, Piedmont Hazelnut, Pistachop Di Bronte, Raspberry, Sicilian Orange, Pomegranate, and Toffee Creme. 2 piece tins are $8.50, 12 piece tins are $35-$40 depending on the tin you choose and the 24 piece tin is $65. The tin above is by designed Harrison Howard and is the “China Sea” pattern. The fruit fillings generally aren’t my thing, but these chocolates are made with the finest ingredients, and the ones without the fruit are delicious enough to make me overlook the ones with fruit. These chocolates can be found at Saks Fifth Avenue, Henri Bendel, Dean and Deluca or you can order them online.
Lolli and Pops is the Willy Wonka candy shop of suburbia. Located in the Natick Mall, this shop has every kind of candy you can dream of. From delicious truffles you can buy by the piece in their display case, to specialty chocolates from Mexico or Asia. If you can’t make it out to suburbia, you can order pre-designed gift boxes on their website with things like champagne truffles, chocolate covered potato chips, astronaut ice cream, gummy bears, rock candy and pop rocks just to name a few.
I think of Sugarfina as the Tiffany’s of candy stores. The shop sells candy in clear plastic cubes, stacked in perfect rows with their signature blue labels tying things all together. It’s a gourmet candy bar, selling candy for grown ups with items like: champagne gummy bears, rosé all day bears, birthday cake caramels, pumpkin pie caramels, and milk chocolate milkshake balls. Each cube will run you about $8. Visit the store in the Prudential Center or order online. If you buy online you can order in a few different sizes: the taster packet size for $2.50, the small cube for around $8, a large cube for $18 or a 2.5lb size for about $40. Their gift packaging is adorable, they sell “bento boxes” that can hold 3-8 cubes.
And I had to throw in one old time candy shop just for nostalgia: The Wayside Country Store. You can buy prearranged boxes in the store or make your own from the large selection in the display case. They have a nice selection of nut free chocolates and candy as well as some penny candy that will bring you back to your childhood. They’re located at 1015 Boston Post Road in Marlborough or you can purchase online.
Where do you get your favorite chocolate from?
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February 6, 2017 Morning Salute
I am always on the hunt for a GREAT breakfast sandwich. We went to the Maynard Farmers’ Market this past fall and had brunch at the Morning Salute food truck. The farmers’ market is located on Main Street next to Mill Pond. It runs every Saturday from 9am – 1pm beginning the last Sat in June and running through the first weekend in October.
The food truck is owned by Billerica native, Rob Whitten, who is also an Army vet. The menu is pretty straight forward with about 8 items. All of the breakfast sandwiches are served on a Portuguese roll, which are my favorite.
I order “the captain” which is a pork breakfast sausage, muenster cheese and two fried eggs on a Portuguese roll. The sandwich is $6 and will definitely keep you full until your next meal. Super simple ingredients, really great flavor profile. Check out their website and follow them on social media to find out where they will be next!
Morning Salute
Tags: breakfast, casual dining, food truck
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February 2, 2017 Super Bowl Snacks with Willow Tree Farm
With Super Bowl 51 just around the corner I thought I would do a post on easy to make snacks for the game. My friends at Willow Tree Farm sent me over some of their chicken dips to get the party started. So no matter which team you are cheering for (ahem, the Patriots), you’re sure to be stuffed by the end of the game!
Let’s start with the Layered Buffalo Chicken Dip using Willow Tree Farm’s Buffalo Chicken Dip. This was super easy to make and you can serve it in the dish you baked it in. I added in extra bacon, the original recipe had 4 slices, but I bumped it to 6 because you know if you’re the 4th person to get to the dip, there’s not going to be any bacon left… You can serve it with tortilla chips (make sure they are the sturdy ones) or veggies.
Ingredients:
- Willow Tree Buffalo Chicken Dip
- 1 can of refried beans
- ¼ cup of hot sauce
- ¾ cup of crumbled blue cheese
- 1 block of cream cheese
- 6 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled
- 3 scallions
- Tortilla chips
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- In a small bowl mix refried beans with ¼ cup of hot sauce and then spread into baking dish as first layer
- Spread the cream cheese on top of the beans
- Spread Willow Tree Buffalo Chicken Dip on top of cream cheese layer
- Top with blue cheese
- Bake for 20-25 minutes
- Remove from the oven and top with scallions and bacon bits
- Serve with celery and tortilla chips!
Next up , the Chicken Caesar Dip Artichoke and Spinach Pizza using the Willow Tree Farm Caesar Chicken Dip.
Ingredients:
- Store-bought pizza crust
- Willow Tree Farm Caesar Chicken Dip
- Chopped spinach (I used 3/4 of a frozen container)
- Chopped artichoke hearts (I used about 4)
- Parmesan cheese to taste
- Olive oil
- 4 Garlic cloves
Directions:
- Let pizza crust sit out on the counter and come up to room temperature. Dust store bought crust with flour and spread into pizza pan.
- Mix the olive oil and chopped garlic and spread on pizza crust
- Spread Willow Tree Farm Cesar Chicken Dip on top of the olive oil and garlic
- Top with the artichoke hearts and spinach
- Top with grated Parmesan cheese
- Bake in oven (according to crust directions). I baked mine at 450 for 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool
I might have even added some mozzarella cheese to this pizza – but it was delicious. You can cut the pizza into small squares or slices and have your guests serve themselves (that way you can enjoy the game!)
And finally, the Chicken Salad with Cranberry & Apple. The original recipe called for this to be on a rustic white bread. I decided to make these with a baguette, they are so cute when they are bite sized and this way people can help themselves (read: less work for you). I added the apple slices first because it was easier to balance the chicken salad on top rather than vice versa. I loved the flavors here, a little sweet, a little tart from the Granny Smith apples, creamy chicken salad and crunch from the toast.
Ingredients:
- Rustic white bread or baguette
- 1 tablespoon Willow Tree White Meat Chicken Salad
- 1 teaspoon dried cranberries
- ¼ apple, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon Vermont sharp cheddar, shredded
Directions:
- Lightly toast the bread so that it is crisp but not overly crunchy.
- Mix the cranberries into the Willow Tree White Meat Chicken Salad, then spread over the toast slice.
- Arrange the apple slices over the Willow Tree White Meat Chicken Salad and top with sharp Vermont cheddar.
- Place under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese has melted and is bubbling, golden brown.
Disclaimer: Willow Tree Farm sent me complimentary samples of their dips and chicken salad to use for these recipes. All opinions are my own.
For more information on Willow Tree Farm, check out their website.
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January 31, 2017 Friendly Toast – Back Bay
The Friendly Toast moved into the Back Bay into the former Zocalo space. You have to walk down Stanhope Street and resist popping into Flour Bakery or Red Lantern before reaching the restaurant.
The space has a similar look and feel to the Cambridge location with its kitschy decor, but the space is much smaller. This family friendly restaurant offers almost as many items on the menu as the Cheesecake Factory and the best part is that they serve breakfast all day!
This is a great place to go if you have a group: Sarah wants a pancake as big as a dinner plate, Bob wants an egg sandwich, John feels like a cottage pie, Amy is a vegetarian and gets the avocado burger and you’re vegan so you get the vegan nachos (or do you get the vegan pancakes?).
We were there for a late breakfast/early lunch and it wasn’t super crowded (we got in and out before the lunch rush). Our waiter was super friendly and even put this fun face on our pancake!
Don’t feel like trekking out in the cold for a meal? Don’t worry, you can order from the Cambridge and Back Bay location and have it delivered right to your door with Dashed!
Friendly Toast
35 Stanhope Street, Boston, MA
https://www.thefriendlytoast.com
Tags: back bay, breakfast, casual dining, gluten free, restaurant, vegan
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January 26, 2017 Osteria Nino
It wasn’t quite outdoor patio weather, but pretty cool to check out the pizza oven at Osteria Nino in Burlington. I hadn’t visited Burlington in quite some time, so it was nice to see how many new restaurants and shops have popped up. Osteria Nino is pretty convenient to get to, it’s right off the highway and just minutes away from the Burlington Mall. There’s plenty of parking available and you should stop in to Wegmans while you’re there!
Osteria Nino is a great little casual Italian restaurant that serves lunch, brunch and dinner. We headed over for an early lunch before the rush, but the bar would be a great place to meet up for drinks after work.
They have a great patio outside for when the weather gets warmer (looking forward to visiting this spring/summer). We sat in the room to the right where tons of natural light poured in the windows (a food bloggers dream).
The lunch menu features fried appetizers (calamari, mozzarella, toasted raviolis), salads, sandwiches with hand cut truffle fries, pizza and pasta. The dinner menu is fleshed out a bit more with steaks and seafood.
We wondered if the pastas were made in house. The gnocchi was served in a light tomato sauce with melted cheese over top. Certainly a stick to your ribs kind of lunch – perfect for these cold temps.
The pizzas are wood fired and have a crisp, yet still chewy crust – thin but not too thin of a crust. Service was friendly and attentive.
They have some interesting looking wine dinners set up from now until May up on their website. They also have two spaces available for private events. Head to their website to see a 3D tour of their space.
Osteria Nino
19 Third Ave., Burlington, MA
Tags: burlington, casual dining, italian, restaurant
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January 24, 2017 Whipped Urban Cupcake Co.
Just before the holidays, I stopped over to the Boston Public Market to check out Whipped Urban Cupcake Co. and their delicious bite sized cupcakes. The only bad part about the cupcakes was that they were gone in two (ok one) bites.
Left: Nuttin Betta (from the Bougie collection), a dark chocolate cupcake with rich peanut butter frosting, topped with French chocolate sauce
Middle: Get Hyped (from the OG collection, a coffee cupcake infused with fair trade organic coffee grounds and topped with coffee frosting and an espresso bean
Right: Bite Me (from the Bougie collection), an apple spice cupcake topped with tart apple molasses, vanilla frosting, and a fresh apple slice
Cupcakes can be ordered (and hand delivered in Boston) by the two dozen and will run you $43.
Each cupcake was fresh and frankly downright adorable. I’d say too cute to eat, but let’s get real, I’m totally eating those cupcakes! The flavors are bold and you can tell that they only use high quality ingredients. Their products never contain any preservatives, additives or artificial colors (even their sprinkles are colored with vegetable and fruit juice!)
These would be great for a birthday party or a baby shower, or maybe just a night in with you, your couch, Netflix and two dozen cupcakes all to yourself.
Check out their website here.
Tags: cupcakes, dessert, shop small
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January 19, 2017 Boston Public Market Seasonal Cookbook
When I mentioned to my friend Leah that I got a copy of the Boston Public Market Seasonal Cookbook and I was going to make a recipe from it for a blog post she responded with, “I’ll be right over”. Whether it is because I have little ones at home, the fact that I can’t cook all that well or that she just knows that I don’t know where the produce section is in the market, she’s a good friend to come to my rescue. But to be honest, there are recipes in the cookbook that even I could make, by myself no less! This one for “Decadent Brussels Sprouts” has 5 ingredients and takes about 10 minutes to make. Easy right?
So basically Leah came over and cooked and I watched (ok, I did the sausage and peeled the apples too) and ate the final product. So here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 lb of Brussels Sprouts
1 lb of sausage
2 large apples
1 small white onion
1 head of garlic
Instructions:
Finely chop Brussels sprouts, onion, apples and garlic. Sauté Brussels sprouts over medium heat in a slightly greased pan. After 2-3 minutes, add onion. After onion appears translucent, add apples garlic and sausage. Remove from heat once sausage is no longer pink.
We modified the recipe slightly. We cooked the sprouts, onions, apple and garlic in one pan and then cooked the sausage up separately – combining them after the sausage was fully cooked. We also added salt and pepper to the mix. The recipe turned out FANTASTIC. We ate it for lunch, two helpings (hey its veggies right?!?). It had all the right things going on: sweet fro the apples, salty from the sausage – I thought that if you wanted to kick it up a notch you could add some red pepper flake, and Leah thought it might be nice to add a little acid to it… next time!
Boston Public Market is a year round farmer’s market in Government Center. The cookbook showcases ingredients that you can find at the market, and is broken down by season, which I think is brilliant. The recipes range from the simple: salads, pestos, grilled cheese sandwiches and Brussels sprouts to things that are a little more complex like: kandy spice pumpkin pie, Shepherd’s Pie, Honey Glazed Hake with Roasted Local Parsnips and mulled darkened turkey. You can purchase a copy of the cookbook at the info desk at the Boston Public Market for $20.
Disclaimer: I was provided a complimentary copy of the Boston Public Market Seasonal Cookbook for a review. All opinions are my own.
For more information on the Boston Public Market, check out their website here.
Tags: government center, market, recipe, vegetables
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- Posted under Recipes
January 17, 2017 Za
It was a dark and rainy afternoon and we had just been to a memorial service. For a gloomy day that meant we definitely needed carbs on carbs. We were in need of some serious comfort food, so we stopped into Za for a bite to eat. They have a location in Cambridge that I had been to years ago and really liked and they have a sister restaurant, EVOO. Za is a neighborhood pizza spot that uses farm fresh ingredients to make unique pizza combinations. Leah goes for something with salad on top…which I can’t even comprehend. At least there’s pepperoni on it, so I guess we can still be friends.
I get the mac and cheese pizza ($10.50), the definition of carb on carb comfort food. It has elbow macaroni, caramelized onion, cream sauce, four cheeses and toasted bread crumbs on top. Surprisingly not heavy and while the pizzas are 10″, on a bad day, you could certainly polish one of these off in one sitting. They have a number of specialty pizzas but you can also make your own with toppings like: black forest ham, kalamata olives, house made bread n’ butter pickled jalapeños, housemade Niman Ranch sausage, NH smokehouse bacon and pickled hot cherry peppers.
We didn’t have room for dessert, but they have some yummy sounding options: flourless hazelnut brown butter brownies, chocolate goat cheesecake, lemon tart with raspberries, chai tea creme brûlée, bourbon pedal pie, and a buttermilk wanna cotta with raspberry crush.
We were there at an in-between meals hour, so it wasn’t all that crowded. For peak times, they do offer call ahead seating or you can grab a pizza for take out. Service was excellent, our server was friendly and a little bit sassy (in a good way).
There is street parking available.
Za
138 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington, MA
http://zarestaurant.com/arlington
Tags: arlington, casual dining, pizza, restaurant, take out
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January 12, 2017 Tom’s Bao Bao
Leah and I met for lunch in Harvard Square to try out Tom’s Bao Bao. I love me some dumplings so I was in heaven. We walked in and spent a good ten minutes just staring awkwardly at the people behind the glass making the dumplings (and taking videos of them). All of the buns are made by hand and each employee is trained to steam and fold them. The restaurant has limited seating in the back by the register, but don’t worry, you can always do take out. They had 6 bao on the menu with one additional seasonal special.
So of course we tried one of each:
Juicy Pork ($3.25): pork, scallion, ginger, shaoxing wine
Curry Beef ($3.75): beef, potato, carrot, mild curry
Chicken ($3.50): chicken, cabbage, carrot, bean sauce
Seasonal Lobster (market)
Vegetarian ($3.50): bok choy, shiitake, smoked tofu
Sweet Potato ($3): sweet potato, orange zest
Seasonal Braised Pork and Apple ($4)
The buns are a bit doughy but we liked every one that we tried. My favorites were the juicy pork (the meat was so flavorful) and the sweet potato (it tasted like dessert – although I think I missed the orange zest flavor in there). The steam buns are reasonably priced for their size, you could definitely make a meal out of one or two (we were definitely pushing it with 3.5 buns each).
Tom’s Bao Bao
84 Winthrop Street, Cambridge
Tags: asian, casual dining, dumplings, harvard square, takeout
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January 10, 2017 Luke’s Lobster
Three of us headed over to Luke’s Lobster for lunch before our little field trip to Eataly. We showed up right before the lunch rush and boy did it fill up fast. I had first been introduced to Luke’s Lobster when I was in New York. (See another post here.) They have two locations in Boston, one in Back Bay near the BPL, where we went, and one in DTX. You order at the register and they call out your number when your order is ready – service is pretty speedy. They have their own blueberry lemonade (tastes heavy on the honey flavor) and chocolate chip cookies from the South End Buttery.
We decided to get the Noah’s Ark for 2 ($46) which includes two 1/2 lobster rolls, two 1/2 crab rolls, two 1/2 shrimp rolls, four crab claws, two drinks and two chips or 2 slaws and pickles. We order the lobster bisque and the clam chowder as well. Let’s start with the good: the soups. LOVED the clam chowder and the bisque, creamy but not too thick, and packed with flavor. We gobbled these up quickly! Great on one of these cool winter days we have been having. Now the not so good: we may have just caught them on a bad day. The rolls were seasoned, but they were watery (you couldn’t really get the flavor of the actual seafood). The buns were soggy under the meat so it was hard to enjoy them. I remember the rolls being a bit better when I was in NYC. For $46 I had hoped for a little more for my money. Willing to try them out again though at some point in the future to see if we indeed just caught them at a down moment.
Luke’s Lobster
75 Exeter Street, Boston, MA
Tags: back bay, casual dining, clam chowder, lobster roll, restaurant, seafood
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