Easter, party of 2

Good Monday morning to you!  How was your Easter weekend?

Rice Krispy treats scream Easter, no?

Mine was very UN-holiday-ish.  I miss being a kid!  The excitement of waking up and running through the house to find the hidden basket full of sweet treats (and if you’re me, you probably got a pair of shoes or two over the years )

But alas, I’m old.  And no Easter basket awaited me this morning.  Just a wet snout urging me to get up to feed her.

I saw this on last week on Fashion Fitness Foodie and had to repost — What does your candy say about you?

Jelly Beans:  You are a kid at heart.  You have to dig deep thru an Easter basket to get them, you big kid!!

Peeps:  You always hope for the best.  A never say die optimism.

Chocolate Bunny:   Fans of these guys, maternal feelings run very high.

Cream Eggs: You are a deep thinker, maybe because you have to dig in there to scoop out the cream.  YUM!

Seeings how they obviously missed the best chocolate candy of all:

Alyssa agrees, just check out her post!

My go to would then be jelly beans.  I’m somewhat of a jelly bean hoarder if you will.  Once the bunny decorations hit the shelves, I’m scoping out my beloved beans.  As I have to do with candy corn candy hearts, I limit how many bags I allow myself to eat per season.  This year it was 3: 2 Brach’s traditional jelly bird eggs and 1 bag Starburst.  But back to the above, yeah I guess I am a kid at heart, hence my immediate thoughts yesterday AM

Though this weekend didn’t include a family get together (boo!), I did get a bit in the baking mood and made something I’ve never made before: Rice Krispy Treats.  Can you believe I’ve never made the simplest of all desserts?  I suppose it was never high on my radar because admittedly I’m not a huge fan of rice krispy treats.  Does that not make me a kid at heart then???

I decided to jazz ‘em up.

Fixins

Cranberry White Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats:

• 6 cups Rice Krispies
• 4 heaping cups mini-marshmallows
• 1+ cup  white chocolate chips
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp salt

1. Heat butter on low, gradually add in marshmallows and continue to stir until all is incorporated and melted
2. Remove from heat and fold in cereal and salt (I mixed my salt into the 6 cups of cereal in a separate bowl)
3. Fold in dried cranberries and then white chocolate trying not to let the chocolate get too melted
4. Spread into a greased 9×13″ pan and let cool for a few hours at room temp

Easter-y treat

The verdict?  My hubby thinks they’re great.  I’m not a converted rice krispy lover quite yet, but maybe some day

What of the above candies are you?  Is it accurate?

Rice Krispy treats, yay or nay?

Best thing about Easter for you?  I must admit my Bikram class was a great zen way to start the day!  And the chocolate Reeses PB Egg was the best way to end it!

Bestie eats her way around Boston

Hello again bestie blogger friends!  I’m back to blog for S about the wondrous eats in Boston.  Before I get started, I’ll put the disclaimer out there that I’ve only been in Boston 4 months or so now, so I have not by any means done a complete survey of all the yummy places Boston has to offer.  I’m just here to give you a few wins, so you have more info if you ever end up here with an empty stomach.

Let’s start where I started… which would be the suburbs of Boston since that’s where I now live.  When I first moved here I was alone, except for my girls Lacie and Lola.  That meant if I wanted to go out, I had to dine alone, since most restaurants wouldn’t allow springer spaniel and border collie patrons sitting at the table.   So instead of trekking all the way to downtown to eat by myself, I just explored the places near home base (which also meant I wasn’t far from the girls for too long).

The first place I went was the Flatbread Pizza Company in Bedford, MA.  And can I just say, DANG that was good pizza!  I’ve had many a pizza in my day (deep dish from Chicago, thin authentic style in Italy, crappy generic pizza in a moment of weakness), but this place had just enough uniqueness and fantastic taste to put it near the top of my list.  I loved the layout and decor of the restaurant, built around a giant wood burning pizza oven.  My husband would describe it as a Berkeley/forest feel (kinda hippie, free love style, but more rustic than city), and I would say that’s probably what locals would call Vermont.  If you’re from Vermont and I’m mistaken, I apologize.  Clearly from my previous post, I nurture and coddle my stereotypes and learning I’m wrong about them clearly does not make me any more cultured.  The food at Flatbread is clearly the best part though.  All the ingredients are organic…although I still don’t know exactly what that means aside from: “we didn’t use chemicals we know to be cancer-causing on these veggies, but watch out for the bug poop.”  Anyway, the variety of veggie combos on the pizzas was spectacular, and totally made my taste buds sing.  And I can also say the salads and desserts are just as delicious.  Even if you only pop in for a drink, the blueberry beer is a fantastic find!

Gingerbread dessert at Flatbread

Next, I’ll move on down to Cambridge.  Once the hubby moved out to join me, I became much more adventurous, which is good because Cambridge has a slew of restaurant options.  The first place we went was Hana Sushi.  I don’t have any pics from Hana because I mostly inhaled the food.  But I can say, the fish was super fresh, and the rolls were craftily made.  If you know me, you’d know I’m a bit of a sushi snob, so when I say this place is good, I mean it’s really really good.

But the food love didn’t stop with sushi in Cambridge, because off a tip from a friend of Shanna’s, I managed to stumble upon Ole.  I mentioned in my last post that I was a sucker for Mexican food.  And by that I mean, the way to my heart is through a burrito.  So what better day to visit Ole?  You guessed it… Valentine’s Day!  It was actually not the best idea because the restaurant was packed (it’s not only pretty small, but apparently also very popular).  The only seats available the whole night were at the bar.  But I was there to eat, and eat I did!  And it turned out the bar was the best seat in the house because the bartender was very talkative and steered us in the right direction with our meal.  He suggested a bunch of small plates instead of entrees, and we were not disappointed.  Ole is my new, all time favorite sit-down mexi place.  Serious win!

Ole: Cheese covered corn on the cob (oh yeah!)

The last places I’ll let you in on are in Boston’s North End – the furthest trek from my new suburban home.  The North End is known for its Italian cuisine, and the few times I’ve been, that’s what we’ve had.  It’s pretty hard to screw up Italian food, but that also makes it really hard to wow someone with Italian food.  But both restaurants I’m going to point out really had that wow factor.  The first restaurant on my North End “win list,” Taranta, we visited to make use of a gift certificate from my bestie S.  Super yummy food (I had a maple-glazed pork and delicious salad with beets and goat cheese), great organic red wines from Chile, and interesting décor made Taranta a clear winner on my hubby date night.  But the prices were also a bit high, so if I hadn’t had a gift certificate I’d probably have placed it lower on my list.  It was a romantic place and made for a great night though, and I’m very grateful bestie got us such a thoughtful gift!  The second place in the North End I’ll give a shout out to is called Pomodoro.  When I say Pomodoro is small, I mean really really small.  Like 15 people max.  But it made the meal seem that much more like authentic Italy.  The dish I got was a pasta with white beans, that was very rustic and unique, and super delicious.  And the people watching at Mike’s Pastry across the street made it a super fun meal.  I love people watching!

A very European setting at Pomodoro

Ok blogger buddiess… that’s all the food recollection I have in me today.  If I write anymore I’ll either bore you, or possibly start salivating on my keyboard.  Or both.  J

But since I know Shanna always ends with a question, so here’s mine to you:

Is the way to your heart through a certain cuisine?

And do you plan romantic holidays around filling your belly?  Or is that just me?