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Today our building had a holiday party for the tenants. It was such a pretty display that I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures.
Jules Catering put together the festive event and arranged everything so beautifully. What a wonderful treat! I enjoyed some eggnog and carrot cake. Delicious!
Not only do I love the board game, but over the past few years, I’ve found my love for apples increasing.
Back in 2009, I blogged an apple taste test, Macoun v. Braebern. They were both good, but I chose the Braebern and it was my apple of choice for several years, even though I ate, cooked and baked with other apples too.
A couple of years later, I attended TECHmunch in Boston and heard Amy Traverso speaking as part of a panel discussion. This may have been the first time that I learned about her book,The Apple Lover’s Cookbook. I planned to get it right away, but didn’t and now find myself thinking that this book is becoming a necessity.
There are so many different types of apples and this is supposed to be a very good season here in New England. I want to learn more about apples and of course eat them too. Chronicle, a local lifestyle television program, recently had a wonderful show all about apples.
They mentioned some urban orchards that allow apple picking and talked about the Roxbury Russett, which originated in the Roxbury section of Boston, where I was born. My parents, who grew up in Roxbury, talk about how when they were young, they could just randomly pick apples and other fruits on trees that were around the city.
When my brother and I were little, my parents would take us apple picking in the fall. By then we had moved out of the city to the suburbs. My father loved taking us on long drives and we’d go all over New England. We’d get fresh apple cider and my mom would make apple sauce, apple pie and buckwheat pancakes with apples. Just the memory of the scent of apples cooking, usually with cinnamon, makes me smile.
When I was at the farmers market at Dewey Square last week, I saw so many new to me varieties of apples. I decided to try the Spencer and Mutsu. Below are descriptions of both from the New England Apple Association’s blog.
Ripening in mid- to late September, Spencer is a conical apple, nearly solid red-pink in color, with green highlights. Its flesh is crisp, juicy, and more sweet than tart, though less sweet than its Golden Delicious parent (Spencer’s other parent — surprise! — is McIntosh). Spencer is an all-purpose apple, especially good in pies and sauce. It does not have a lengthy storage life.
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They make outstanding sauce and cider. Also known as Crispin, Mutsus have a sweet, light flavor when cooked, and hold their shape well. An excellent dessert apple, they are also especially good in salads.
Mutsus are a late-season apple ranging in color from greenish to yellow, with an orange blush. Their firm, juicy flesh is creamy white to pale yellow. They can grow quite large (a pie made with Mutsus may require as few as three apples).
Mutsu has its origins in Japan, from a Golden Delicious crossed with an Indo, a Japanese seedling, in 1930. It was introduced in the United States in 1948.
I ate these apples raw and loved them both. There was no side-by-side comparison, so I can’t describe them that way, but they were sweet enough for me and super juicy.
The plan is to make Apples 2 Apples a continuing series of posts about apples, so we’ll see how it plays out. Plus, there may be a surprise announcement to come!
It’s impossible for me to write too many posts about chocolate chip cookies. When you’re gathering the good things, they should be included on the list.
The current place where I am working is undergoing construction. I read a sign in the cafe saying that there would be cookies at 3pm every Wednesday. That made me glad.
It’s a new space for me and my co-workers, so I told them. We were all giddy like kids as the time approached yesterday. Then 3:00 came and went. No cookies. I investigated the situation and found that there would be none because of the construction in the kitchen. That made me sad. The promise of something, but then having none is far worse than just going without.
Then today, there were cookies! Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. Which I had not heard about in a long time. But they are still around! 
What a perfect idea for an office! I remember hearing about Otis Spunkmeyer years ago and wondering about the name.
The founder, Ken Rawlings, let his 12-year-old daughter come up with it. It’s certainly a name that you never forget!
They were warm, gooey and delicious. They were even delivered to us in our office.
All is forgiven.
Soooo, this taste test. It wasn’t planned. But I found myself trying several flavors of So Delicious Dairy Free frozen desserts over the weekend and decided to blog it. Because why not?
I visited a few stores and kept noticing an ever expanding array of So Delicious Dairy Free products. I had no idea this brand included so many varieties of frozen treats! I definitely plan to try more. Especially with the weather heating up over the past few days. It hit 90 degrees in the Boston area for the first time this summer!
A few years ago, I had eliminated a great deal of dairy from my diet. First eliminating milk, then trying dairy free cheeses and making my own dairy free ice cream.
Since yesterday was National Ice Cream Day, I had ice cream on my mind. But recently I’ve realized that I’ve added a lot of dairy back into my diet. I love it, but feel like I need to dial it back a bit.
Since I don’t eat most meat, much of my protein comes from cheese and yogurt. I bought some dairy free cultured, but haven’t tried it yet. So let’s get to the taste test.
The first of the frozen desserts that I tried was the Creamy Cashew Cashew Milk. Hands down it was my favorite. Cashews are one of my favorite nuts. The texture and taste were perfect. I will definitely buy this again and try more of the cashew milk products.
Next up, the Vanilla Bean Coconut Milk. The texture wasn’t as creamy as I would like and the flavor was kind of bland. It wasn’t bad, but I don’t think I’ll buy it again.
The last that I tried was the Vanilla Almond Milk. The texture was very good, but again, the flavor was kind of bland. I think I’d try this product line again, but in a different flavor. The butter pecan looks like a good one.
So there you have it! If you’re looking for some dairy free frozen treats, you can definitely find one that you like. Just sample a few.
Happy Monday to you and stay cool!
