Tag: chocolate

What do women want? Valentine edition Part 1

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Holidays, italian, local fun, restaurants

Maybe you’ve been happily married for many years, and have successfully navigated several Valentine’s Day holidays. Maybe you’ve had some great successes with figuring out what your spouse might like, and then actually being able to deliver it.

One thing that you can do for your female significant other that will almost definitely be well received is to take her out to (read: spare her the chore of making and cleaning up from) dinner.

Varano’s in Wells will have a special Valentine’s Day menu (sorry, no prices included on the website). They open up at 4:30p and really, you can’t get a bad meal at Varano’s.

Duffy’s in Kennebunk (currently hidden behind all of the bridge construction) is offering a 3 course dinner for $29.99 for two that includes a shared appetizer and dessert and two main courses (choose from 3). This is available Saturday and Sunday as well as Monday, so if you are working on the actual day, or just an overachiever who wants to get a jump on things, this may be a good bet for you.

If you are not the most punctual sort of suitor, all is not lost: Angelina’s is having a special Winter Wine Dinner for $65 per person on February 24th at 6pm. Same sort of idea with a fixed menu from which to choose but with wine (hence the additional cost) added. They are also open on Valentine’s Day but no special menu is mentioned in their ad.

So, if going out to eat is your idea of a great date, there’s plenty of choices to entice you to venture out into the freezing, freezing cold dark to get some great food.

Whoopie!!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, books, family, quest for the best

Maybe you’ve heard this news already, but just in case you missed it: The Great State of Maine is considering making the Whoopie Pie its official state dessert.

It wasn’t already? There are lots of places to get a great wh0opie pie, including your very own kitchen. If you take this route, here are two excellent cookbooks to consult:

  1. Whoopie Pies By Sarah Billingsley, Amy Treadwell
  2. Making Whoopies by Nancy Griffin

Did you know that there’s a Maine Whoopie Pie Association? Me neither!(Although a Google search of this phrase got me zero hits). I read about it in a Portland Press Herald Article on 2/1/11.

Did you know that there’s a whoopie pie song? Me neither!  It’s by John Linscott (see link to above article, right side of the page for the lyrics).

Want to buy your whoopies?

  1. Cranberry Island Kitchen
  2. Two Fat Cats Bakery
  3. Wicked Whoopies

No decisions were made at the first meeting. They will reconvene on February 9th.

Here’s hoping the whoopies win!

🙂

Cupcake Bakery in Sanford

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, fitness, friends, local fun, quest for the best, tweens
Coconut Bunny cupcake (one of the "Groupies")

I was returning my books at the library this weekend, two of which happened to be about cake baking, when one of the staffers said, “Have you tried that new cupcake bakery in Sanford?” “There’s a new cupcake bakery in Sanford??” I asked (of course, she had me at “cupcake”). She did a little research for me and discovered Cupcake Fetish Bakery, 883 Main Street in Sanford.

An hour and a half later, we were there. It’s in a little group of stores next to Get Fired Up! The parking lot is just before the shops, and if you see St. Ignatius St. on your right, go back! You’ve just passed it.

When you enter the shop, the counter is on the right, but if you look to the left, you’ll see Amy the baker through the window, plying her craft. Jennifer will take your cupcake order, which you can get boxed up to go, or you might choose to sit at one of the cute little tables (as my daughter Izzy and her friend Madi did)  in the shop.

Our choices today were a Chocolate Dream Warrior cupcake with pink vanilla bean frosting, a MegaDough cupcake (complete with chocolate chip cookie on the top and cookie dough hidden inside!), and a red velvet whoopie pie. We took a Coconut Bunny cupcake and a traditional chocolate whoopie pie home with us. All were excellent.

There are different items every day, but not all of the menu items are available every day, so check out their Facebook Page to find out what they are offering the day that you are going. They categorize the cupcakes as “Groupies”  and “Rock Stars”… hmmm…wonder what that’s about?

Note: the menu states that they will close early if they sell out!

After the bakery? An hour of Wii Just Dance 2 to work off the goodies. 🙂

Verdict: worth the trip.

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Snow day top 10 fun things to do (Part 2)!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, fitness, local fun, tweens

Can you believe that we’re (possibly) getting (yet) another storm tomorrow? Just in case you exhausted your personal Top 10 list of things to do, here’s another bunch of ideas.

  1. Go sledding. By now, you (most likely) have piles of snow that are plenty big enough for the kids to sled on right in your yard.
  2. Go snowshoeing and/or  ice skating (if it’s possible to get to a rink).
  3. Have a snowball fight. Better yet, suggest it to the kids and you (mom or dad) stay safely in the house and watch from the window.
  4. Go swimming…if only to break up the monotony. Lots of hotels/inns offer off-season (read: cheap) passes you can buy to use their pool.
  5. Send them outside with their hula hoop. Really.
  6. Have a “P” picnic (not that kind of “P”! Been spending too much time with the pre-schoolers??). Pizza, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pancakes, popcorn, pretzels, pineapple chunks…have it INDOORS. Spread out an old quilt/blanket/sheet on the living room floor (move the coffee table, or whatever ou of the way) and have your picnic supper in front of the TV for a treat.
  7. Wii Just Dance 2…this is worth the effort for mom and/or dad to get up off the couch to play.
  8. Make cocoa. This make some planning to make sure you have some in the house before it snows. Swiss Miss is good enough (per Consumer Reports), especially if  you top it off with mini-marshmallows, whipped cream, cool whip (or all of the above)…Fluff will also do the job very nicely (careful that the volume of Fluff doesn’t outstrip the portion of cocoa. 🙂 )
  9. Pretend it’s still summer. Send the kids out to play with their sand pails and shovels (or kitchen utensils and plastic Tupperware bowls) to dig (or “cook”) in the snow.
  10. Make snow angels. Take pictures for the scrapbook.

Finally: avoid keeping the TV on those news programs that just spew an endless loop of doom and gloom and have some fun instead!

The best yoga class ever!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, fitness, friends, quest for the best, yoga
Kathy, Alexis, Kristen (our teacher!), Janna, Me, Jeannie
Last night was a special yoga class at Windsong Yoga Studio in South Berwick. My friend Kristen (right in the center) is the instructor, and she teaches nice blend of many different styles of yoga. She has studied with some of the top teachers in the United States,  including Doug Keller, Desiree Rumbaugh, Sianna Sherman, and Judith Lasater, to name just a few. A bonus: she teaches women (no men allowed!). 🙂
She planned a special class to celebrate the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year).
After this excellent class, we were treated to an excellent meal, prepared for us by Kristen. A Tempeh Wreath was the main course, accompanied by a side salad of mixed greens, lightly dressed. Dessert was partially by way of Whole Foods  (and may I just say, OMG! Especially the chocolate covered figs? Unbelievable!). There were also some delicious Christmas cookies made for us by Janna, because, after all, what is Christmas without the cut outs? I ask  you.
Now, if you are someone who practices yoga, and midway through most classes you start thinking about pizza and/or assorted baked goods, this was like a class made in heaven. Thank you, Kristen! Put that Tempeh Wreath recipe in your cookbook!
What holiday celebrations are you participating in this year?

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Five foods for which I am thankful this year

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food
Cranberry Kitchen Pumpkin Whoopie Pie

In this month’s issue, Cooking Light magazine’s editor asks, “What in the food world are you thankful for?” This got me thinking about how I would answer this question.

I had heard in the past that people’s tastes change as they get older, but I had never believed it. In reflecting on this question, however, I realized that my tastes actually have changed in the past couple of years or so.  Is this true for any of you?

So, here’s my top 5 foods for which I am very thankful this year.

  1. Bread. Specifically, the Micucci’s baker Stephen Lanzalotta’s Lunar bread. I have the recipe now and I make it almost every week. It’s a little more labor intensive than the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, but not much.
  2. Whoopie Pies. Prior to this year, I didn’t even like whoopie pies that much. I could take them or leave them. Now, however, I find myself happily walking a mile round trip to buy a whoopie pie from the masters at Two Fat Cats Bakery in Portland. I also have the Making Whoopies cookbook and have baked a couple of the recipes from it. And I just discovered that whoopies freeze like a dream!
  3. Eggs. Farm fresh eggs: blue, brown, speckled, pink…the eggs from my chickens look like the ones Martha Stewart used to keep in a bowl on her TV show kitchen counter (does she still do this??) but they are so much better. Lately I love to make quick omelets from them, but a breakfast sandwich is also great for any meal.
  4. Sausages. I never liked sausages, and now I love them. My new favorite pizza is Italian sausage pizza, but I also love them grilled with peppers and onions, in soup, whatever.
  5. Fish. The only fish that I could bring myself to eat was canned tuna and on occasion, fried clam strips. Then I moved to Maine. A Mainer that doesn’t eat fish? Not wanting to be a human oxymoron, I started off slowly, but now I love many kinds of fish, prepared in ways other than fried. (Okay, fried clams are still my favorite, but I’ll eat the whole clam now, instead of picking off the bellies and making my husband eat those).

Okay, so this is my short list. What’s in your top five “grateful” foods this year?

It’s all good

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, health, italian, local fun, restaurants, tweens

I was annoyed the other night, thinking that even though I was lucky to have had an extra day off from work this week, it had been all used up with medical appointments. Deciding to make them, scheduling them, dealing with insurance company in advance to try to make sure they didn’t weasel out of paying for them, transporting to and from them, waiting to be seen after arrival, waiting for test results…

The ocean

That evening, as I was telling my husband how annoyed I was, I decided to stop and change course. Why? As I was talking, I noticed that he was quickly becoming tense and seemed to be losing his good mood. I decided to change course and instead started listing what had been good about the day.

  1. I did not talk myself out of exercising in the morning!
  2. I had time to finish reading book that I was loving while I waited for my husband at his appointment
  3. My daughter told me things about her day that she probably wouldn’t have otherwise while we waited for doctor at her appointment (“Guess what! I’m an alto in the chorus this year!”).
  4. Lunch (Chinese lunch specials from Maple Leaves!) and dinner (Quattro Formaggi pizza from Pizza Napoli!) and dessert (Mocha Mousse Torte and a chocolate chip cookie as big as your head from Bread and Roses in Ogunquit!) dates with spouse.
  5. Drove down to say “Hi” the ocean for a few minutes. 🙂
  6. Appreciated having my son around the house more, now that college has started back up again.

After reviewing list, noticed that yoga was missing, and immediately jumped to the floor into “down dog” so I could include it on my list, and in my day.

I realized that my day had actually included many of my favorite things, but if I hadn’t noticed my husband’s reaction to my complaining, I may not have taken the time to stop and appreciate that it had, in fact, been a really great day!

Sometimes, when you try to do something nice for someone else, you are actually doing something really nice for yourself!

catholic death by chocolate

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food

i found out today that my friend gave up chocolate for lent.  being a lapsed catholic, my guilt began gnawing at the edges of my psyche. it’s lent already?  in a burst of solidarity i say, “i’ll give it up too!”. having acted in haste, i then began repenting in haste. WHAT was i THINKING? I certainly was NOT thinking about my lower left desk drawer, which is currently happily housing a large bag of peanut m+m’s, hershey’s kisses, dove caramel promises, raisinets(which are all dark chocolate! virtuous!) …and a box of godiva chocolates i’d had big plans for not sharing since i’d received them for christmas. what should i do? what would YOU do?