Last night we snapped a few photos of the rabbits. I bribed them with raisins for the close up shots.
Sorry for the title pun. I just could not resist. 🙂
All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel
This past Saturday Emily and I, along with our boyfriends Peter and Price, went to the first annual Boston Bacon and Beer Festival hosted by eatBoston. The idea was genius. I admit to being more attracted to the idea of the bacon based things more than the beer. I just don’t really like beer. I know, I know, you have to try it until you find something you like. Sure but when I am at a bar up here I am not about to plunk down $5-8 on a beer I might not like so I stick with the few I know I do like or just get water. Well I figured that going to this would give me the chance to try a few beers. If I did not like I could always pass it on to Price or just toss it out.
Besides the event being cool for being about bacon and beer it was held in this really cool open air building. The vacant building was built in 1891 as the Central Power Station for the West End Street Railway Company, the precursor to the MBTA. It was the world’s largest electrical power station at the time. Later on the building became a trolley barn. Now it is used by SOWA’s residents business owners for events, such as antique shows. The building is a mixture of The Romanesque and Gothic Revival styles.
So back to the food and drink…. There were 25 restaurants and 16 breweries. So there was a great selection of beer and bacon samples to try. I tried a few breweries and the one that I liked the best was a beer called Brown Angel from Clown Shoes Brewing. I thought it was a nice rich dark color (so pretty!) and really refreshing. It was a beer that I could get to relax in the backyard or just drink any time. I stuck with wondering around and trying the bacon things. There were bacon caramel sauces that were served with vanilla ice cream, savory cheesecakes with bacon, beer and bacon cupcakes, and so many things that we did not even get to try. One of the most unusual was the bacon and chocolate shakes served by b.good. hands down favorite was the salad and portobello mushroom served with a bacon based dressing. This was from Henrietta’s Table, which is my favorite place in Cambridge, so I was really excited to try what they had to offer and not surprised that I loved it. There were crazy lines since the event was popular but mainly because it was not laid out well, hoping they fix that for next year.
Lastly, I got 3 things while there. 1) The bacon hot sauce we saw. That was kinda obvious since it’s a great combination of bacon and hot sauce!! The bacon flavor added a slight smokiness to the hot sauce. 2) I got a necklace from Black Sheep Designs. It was a pretty cool necklace since it had an old T token. I miss the T tokens and I know this will be a great thing to have around after we move. 3) Whenever I go out I’m on the look out for cute rabbit themed things. Well Price spotted this hilarious letterpress card from Ferdinand’s booth. He got it for us so I just need to get it framed now. Love it.
I think that scrapbooking is a great way to be creative and to document events like birthdays, holidays, and vacations. These special events often involve a tradition. We have a tradition to open Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve. A tradition that Price and I have is that we make pizza on my birthday. This past January was the 5th year together so 5th time. It really would not seem like my birthday without it.
I wanted this layout to be more about our tradition for my birthday than just saying what we did for my 25th birthday. I felt that documenting that this was the 5th year of our pizza dinner better told the story about my birthday and how meaningful those pizzas area. While I hate olives I used the stamp with the olive because I love the message and Price’s pizza always has olives on it.
All supplies are from Stampin’ Up! (contact me at nicole@spasiano.com if you are interested in their products)
Price is not all too excited about my new pet idea.
I went to the 23rd annual Sheep Shearing Festival with Emily and her boyfriend on Saturday morning. We saw hand and electric sheep shearing, historical reinactments, sheep hearding, apacas, chickens… and best of all Nigerian Dwarf Goats. Umm I’m in love. They were so tiny!! And not tiny like baby goat that will grow into a huge goat but tiny adult goat.
I think that I need a few acres for my chickens and Nigerian Dwarf Goats. Yep, that’s the plan.
Okay it’s been just about 2 years since I took this photo but I just can’t belive how much that time has flown by. For several years we went to Montauk for a boating rendezvous. This was the last year going there. We always had fun lounging around the boat, going into town for shopping, talking the bartenders into giving me more than the allocated drinks, and then dancing around buzzed off the tequilla sunrises.
I took an online scrapbooking class about using sketches to create layouts. I created this LO based upon one of the class sketches. I like getting to apply what I learn in the classes and use new scrapbooking stuff I just got. I had just received some Stampin’ Up! supplies so those things in the layout, including the cloud paper, shimmer paint, and the star and border punches. I was so excited to get the shimmer paint! I got it in Platinum and Frost White, which would work well for the color pallets I typically use. I used the platinum one for this layout when I painted the chipboard letters for the title and the accent stars (that I cut using my new punch!).
Supplies: Solid and Patterned Papers, punches, shimmer paint, chip board letters are all from Stampin’ Up! and the rub-on is from Martha Stewart Crafts. (All SU! products can be purchased through me.)
I made mini pineapple upside down cakes in a cupcake pan. I like turning full cakes into cupcakes, since they are fun to give out, it’s a perfect portion, and really cute. Well making a pineapple upside down cake into cupcake pan is really easy. So make them and you will happily enjoy some cake, as well as easily share with a friend.
I have this thing for pineapple. Love it. I put pineapple on my pizza. Love pineapple in fried rice. I always cook pineapple chunks with baby carrots. ( I learned it from my aunt and have done it like that since). Sliced pineapple is pure tart, sugary joy. Pineapple juice is great to start a mixed drink. My only beef with pineapple is how if I consume too much I quickly get canker sores. Damn you! Well, one of the standards is pineapple upside down cake; which I have never had before. How you ask? No idea but I decided I would need to have it before National Pineapple Upside Down Cake (today-April 20th) to understand the fuss. I now get it. Pineapple upside down cake is moist, sweet, sugary, and delightfully sticky. Sure you can avoid the stickiness of eating the cupcake by using a fork but then you don’t get to lick the carmely brown sugar from your fingers.
Now the standard is making this in 1 pan so you might be wondering about getting these cupcakes out. Well, don’t freight about getting them out of their cups- not really different than the standard cake. Instead of putting a plate on top of your pan and then flipping it, you use a cutting board and in 1 swift move flip it over. Ta-da, done. Don’t wimp out now. Give it a try and you will be happy you did.
I used the pineapple upside down cake recipe from Ree Dummond’s cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Since getting this cookbook there have been quite a few nights sitting on the sofa while I flip through it and think how great it would be to make buttermilk biscuits, sunriser eggs, meatloaf, etc but I have finally made the jump and made her pineapple upside down cake. I divided the recipe in half to make the cupcakes, which perfectly equaled 12 cupcake, plus a tiny bit of extra batter to lick off the spoon. The only reason I made half the recipe is because I only had 1 egg in the house and I did not feel like going out for more eggs- ha! So feel free to make 24 cupcakes by doubling the recipe below. Ree has such a great book full of mouth-watering recipes. Can’t wait to try another thing in there.
To make the batter, cream the 2 tablespoon portion of butter and shortening with the granulated sugar. Once they have been combined add the eggs and vanilla. Alternate the addition of the flour with the milk. Mix until all are gently combined.
In a small pan melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter. Once the butter has melted divided it into the 12 nonstick cupcake cups. Add a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar to each cupcake cup. Add 2 pieces of pineapple* and cheery half (optional) to each cup. Divide the batter evenly, fill each cup just under the top of the edge. These don’t rise much but don’t do over the edge since they will rise a bit and make removal difficult.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until your toothpick is inserted and is removed clean. Run a knife around each cupcake to allow for easy removal. Take a cutting board and place over the cupcake pan. In one swift motion flip the pan over to invert the pan for cupcake release. The cupcake generally invert easily, if you have any problems gently tap the tin for release. It is best to serve these warm, but don’t rush it and burn your mouth!!
If you happen to prefer, or have it and don’t feel like going to the store for anything else, crushed pineapple over chunks then use a bit of that. Just do what makes you happy.
I have always wanted to make chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. The idea of using that much garlic had me so interested, like the time price ordered Garlic soup and it was AMAZING! I had seen several recipes for chicken with 40 cloves are garlic but to be honest they seemed like more work than what I wanted to deal with, like chopping up a chicken, dredging it, boiling the garlic, etc. So I opted for creating an easy version by using a whole chicken and roasting it along with the garlic. So this is my reworked version, simple, easy, and delightfully garlicy!
This recipe is more like a complete meal. I think it is essential to cook potatoes, maybe other root vegetables also, with the chicken. The potatoes take on the flavor from the chicken, wine, and, of course, the garlic. So just add a side vegetable or a salad and your meal is complete.
Preheat your oven to 375.
Rinse and clean chicken. Dry chicken- very important! (A dry chicken equals a crispy skin) Put chicken into a pan and season with salt and pepper. Lift up the skin of the chicken and place several small cloves of garlic between skin and breast.
Clean and cut, if necessary, the potatoes. Combine potatoes and remaining garlic in a bowl to lightly dress with oil and season with salt and pepper.
distribute potatoes and garlic around chicken.
After chicken has been cooking for 30 minutes, toss potatoes and garlic, preventing burning. Add wine to pan.
Cook chicken until it is done, approximately another 45 minutes. You can use a pop up or a manual thermometer test chicken’s doneness. Let chicken rest for 15 minutes before carving to serve. When slicing keep skin intact to show the softened garlic layered between the chicken breast and skin.
Enjoy, and feel free to finish off the wine you opened for the chicken!
“hunny let’s go to Someplace Special….”
Like a moth to a flame…. Emily and I are drawn to the Quiet Corner of CT. This got started last year when she had to renew her licence and we went to the Putnam DMV outlet. The DMV location is basically a permanent construction trailer plopped into a parking lot… so sad. We spend that wintery morning driving around Putnam and Pomfret, enjoying a good breakfast at The Vanilla Bean Cafe, doing some xmas shopping at small stores and galleries, and laughing our asses off at the DMV since they put her really old Washington DC address on the new licence… smmmart.
Well our fascination with the Quiet Corner has reached a new level. I wanted to go to Logee’s Greenhouse to get a little lime tree so that became a good enough reason to head down there. Some may think that driving an hour and fifteen minutes each way just to get a lime tree that I can order on-line is insanity but that is the type of thing that makes for our Quiet Corner Adventures.
Our first stop in the QC was Bill’s Bread and Breakfast. A breakfast place known for their muffins and english muffins. I brought Pricer back some muffins and english muffins, which really are not like english muffins but are damn good anyway. Then we headed back to Martha’s Herbary, just a town over in Pomfret. I could do some serious damage here because everything is so damn cute. I restrained myself from getting a lamp since Price would have killed me and instead got his mom her birthday present. (see you next week Elaine!)
Logee’s looked unimpressive when we pulled up. I as hoping that we did not just drive this far for no reason. Well, once inside the place opened up into several connected greenhouses. Row after row and aisle after aisle were loaded with flowering plants, ferns, cacti, and fruiting trees. I went with the goal of getting some citrus trees so I stuck with that but it was hard at times with beautiful begonias and hibiscus all over the place.
I purchased a key lime tree and a Meyer lemon tree. These guys are just little planting in 2.5″ pots. I’m hoping they will be big enough in a few years to product real fruit until then I will just enjoy them growing and producing tiny flowers.
Now one of the best moments of the day was getting ice cream for lunch from creamery I got too excited about as we passed by it. Quiet Corner Creamery is actually located in a landscaping supply store. We picked out flavors and asked about sizes. Why do we ask about sizes? We live in Boston where a small is teeny tiny and costs like $3. So the girl helpfully explained that smalls are huge and that would be more than enough. Okay great. Well, she when the total came to $4 we figured they were going to be decent smalls and to see what we get. Holy Hell. We ended up with 3/4 of a pint of ice cream. Of course this is hilarious to us. Emily lobbed off half of her ice cream in the trash while I was getting gas and I mine melted since I was driving. Still the half of a small we had was more than enough. Good ice cream at a cheap price… I sense a trip to the Quiet Corner Creamery on a hot summer day. ha
“Emily! You just threw out 75 cents of ice cream!!!”
This Sweet Pea and Mint Soup is a soup that welcomes Spring with open arms. It’s vibrant green hue is on par with the rich, fresh flavors in this vegetable soup.
Post Contains Affiliate Links. Read my full disclosure HERE
Post originally from 4/16/10, Pictures updated 2/8/19
Spring has sprung!!!! I love the freshness of spring. I love the new beginnings of it all. It is hard not to feel happy in spring with everything waking up from a long winter. Maybe you don’t love it, if you have allergies, but I love everything in bloom. It just makes me happy.
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I took Bunny out Saturday late afternoon. She loved it. I wish I had better photos of her but she was moving around and running on the lawn so all the shots were blurry. It was dusk so the shots I took with the flash were weird looking plus she gets some crazy zombie looking eyes with the flash. Blurry photos aside, I have a feeling she will be out a lot this summer.
Jack did not like the harness when they went out in the snow before so I let him be and just took her. I’ll have to try it another time with him. I was joking that when she was back in the cage he would smell where she was and would be a little ‘arguement’ about it. “Don’t lie to me! I know where you were. I can smell it on you. Grass! It’s all over you!”
I love how one simple google search will allow you to stumble upon something cool. That has been happening to me lately so I have been going along to see where this will take me.
too cool for school messenger bag
Morning After Mermaid Print
such a cute hung over mermaid
I actually saw this at Urban Outfitters, but I have been looking into Holga more because I love the look of the cameras and what they do
It’s always amusing when I bring cake or other goodies into work or school and I watch people attract to it like a swarm of bees. Buzzing around getting their sugar fix and asking how I made it. I was once carrying around some cake to class and someone stopped me and asked about it. Well I shared some slices with him and a friend and as he ran away with his ‘dinner’ he yelled back to me “Thanks Sugar Fairy!!” (new favorite nickname) Well, this happened again yesterday since we had our monthly staff meeting and I brought in Muddy Buddies.
Not familiar with Muddy Buddies? Maybe you’ve heard of Puppy Chow? Still no? Well, imagine a simple piece of Chex cereal becoming host to a chocolate, peanut butter, and butter mixture, and then covered in powered sugar. This simple had just taking a drastic turn into the realm of high addictive pop in your mouth foods.
Simple to make with just a few ingredients. Some melting, stirring and then shaking. Plus if you do it right (not like me) you won’t have many dishes involved in there. A bowl for melting, a big bowl for mixing, a spoon for mixing. Use a BIG ziploc bag and things are really easy then. If you are making a few batches, or like me using 3 boxes of Chex cereal, then be prepared with a few ziploc baggies. Trust me, it makes it a lot easier to use a few than try to resue them a few times. The recipe said to let the Chex cool down after the bounce in the bag but I felt that mine was not too hot and did not need to be laid out on a parchment paper coated cookie sheet.
1) In a large bowl, measure cereal, set aside.
2) In a microwave safe bowl, put the chocolate, peanut butter, and butter together. Microwave on High for 1 minute. Stir mixture. Continue to microwave and stir in 30 second intervals until the mixture is smooth. Add the vanilla extract.
3) Evenly pour the mixture of the Chex cereal and mix together until cereal is evenly covered.
4) Transfer to a large (2 gal) resealable plastic bag. Add the powdered sugar, seal, and gently shake until covered.
5) Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.
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