summer Archives - Page 5 of 6 - Anali's Next Amendment

The Resurgence of the Ice Cream Sandwich

July 30, 2020July 17, 2016 by Lisa Johnson

The ice cream sandwich never totally disappeared from the dessert scene. Vanilla ice cream between a chocolate cakey wafer is a classic American childhood summer treat.

It was good, but not that exciting. We grew up and the novelty wore off. But things have changed. There’s been a lot of innovation since we were kids.

A few months ago, I tried Stop & Shop’s Limoncello flavor and became rather obsessed with them. They are so good! But they are around for a limited time only. Sadly, I couldn’t find them the last time that I looked.

Ciao Bella makes Gelato Squares in flavors like Key Lime Graham and Sea Salt Caramel. A cold, creamy treat for those of us who have not seen our teen years in a while. Actually, some teens and younger might like these too.

Now for those of us in Massachusetts especially, Hood ice cream takes us back to our childhoods. Hood has stepped up their game with some new limited time only flavors as well.

Pictured above is S’mores. Which I ate right after photographing. Because it was melting. I couldn’t be wasteful could I?! 😋

I also bought the Cookies ‘n Cream, but haven’t tried them yet. Looking forward to it! July is National Ice Cream Month and we are now in the heart of summer. I’m looking forward to trying out more variations. Especially since it’s in the food blogger job description — that I just made up!

Today is also National Ice Cream Day, so you can get going on your summer consumption too!

Summer Bliss: Maxwell in Concert

July 30, 2020July 10, 2016 by Lisa Johnson 4 Comments

Friday night, I had the best time seeing Maxwell perform live at Foxwoods in Connecticut. Maxwell has been a favorite artist of mine for decades and I had never seen him before.

It had been a while since I had been to a concert at all. After Prince died, I resolved to attend more live shows. I will never regret seeing Prince in concert on the spur of the moment. There is nothing like a live performance.

I had to save and budget for this little trip. This week money will be very tight, because of course unexpected things always come up at the worst time. But I am so glad that I went.

A friend invited me to attend with a couple of her friends and I did not hesitate agreeing to go. We decided to stay overnight at a nearby hotel, Hilton Garden Inn Preston Casino Area, so we wouldn’t have to worry about driving back to Massachusetts the same night and just enjoy ourselves.

The Hilton Garden Inn is a nice hotel and in great location. On my drive down, I passed Mystic Pizza 2. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to go in and try their famous pizza. Ever since I saw the movie, one of my all-time favorites, I’ve always wanted to try it and visit the Mystic area.

Also, since I wrote my Craving Boston article about modern Native American food, I wanted to try the food at the Pequot Museum in Mashantucket, which is just minutes away from the hotel. So I already have a return trip in mind.

Back to Maxwell. Before the show, we had a quick dinner at Fuddruckers, because we were running late. The show was a real treat for all of us. I forgot just how much I love Maxwell’s music. He and his band were incredible. And Maxwell is sexy as hell! Go and see him if you can.

You can tell that Maxwell was truly grateful when he thanked us for supporting him for 20 years. He kept mentioning how old he is at 43 and how much he has learned along the way. He knows and respects his audience and we all felt it.

He spoke about the racial tension in this country after the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and the police officers in Dallas. The show was a momentary escape, but all that is going on right now was still not far from our minds. Before he sang Lifetime, Maxwell let us know that all our lives matter and yes, Black Lives Matter too.

By the way, I’m listening to his music as I write. If you have Amazon Prime, it appears that all his albums are available in the music library for free.

After the show, we stayed nearby in the casino area, had drinks, listened to music and danced. None of us are gamblers, but we still had a blast.

The next morning we had brunch at the hotel. It was good, reasonably priced and I’d recommend staying there and eating there too. Then we left.

It was a quick trip and I combined some additional freelance writing work with it as well. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw that I stopped in Tiverton, Rhode Island on the way back home. Tiverton is quintessential quaint New England. Such a beautiful area!

Milk & Honey is the cutest little store that I found. It has all sorts of local food products. I enjoyed the lemon Yacht Club soda. Delicious! Did you know that their brand is Rhode Island’s Official Soda? It is! I’m also looking forward to trying the Summertime Garden Honey that I bought. It’s from Sakonnet Seaside Bees at Hollygate Farm also in Tiverton. I could not find a website to link to for them unfortunately.

Anyway, while I was there I took many more pictures and did an interview for my next Craving Boston article. Stay tuned!

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Summer Solstice Strawberry Moon

July 30, 2020June 20, 2016 by Lisa Johnson

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I love taking pictures of the tops of trees touching the sky. Especially at dusk as the moon rises. It might be my favorite time of day. Maybe because I was born at night.

This past week I watched the moon becoming more full and tonight it’s the full strawberry moon.

It’s also summer solstice. The longest day of the year and the first day of summer! The first time that the two have coincided since 1967, the Summer of Love. Back then it was a time filled with chaos and change.

Based on the horrific and tragic event last week at Pulse and the looming Democratic and Republican conventions, it looks like we might be in for another long hot summer. I hope that as a nation we can do better than 1967 — heal and move towards light and love.

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Can your inner child come out and play?

July 30, 2020July 26, 2015 by Lisa Johnson 2 Comments

Remember when you were a kid and your friends would randomly stop by your house and ask if you could come out and play? And you would. Just go out and play.

At least I did. It was such a simple thing. No coordinating schedules. We’d let our parents know and off we’d go.

Riding our bikes. Swinging on the swings. Climbing on the jungle gym. Running around. Playing hopscotch. Jumping rope. Sliding down the slide. Swimming in the pool. And so much more.

It was just fun and simple and I must admit that my inner child misses being able to go play. I’m not the only one, because it seems that more of us adults are taking time out to feed that playful and creative side of ourselves.

After a tough day at work, a co-worker and I were talking about plans for the evening. She was going to buy some art supplies and paint with her boyfriend at home. Not painting the house or the walls. But painting on a canvas just for the heck of it. To unwind at the end of the day with some creativity.

The next day I was so curious about how it went. They had a lot of fun and she took some pictures on her phone that she shared with me. They looked great!

Many businesses now offer places where you can go and paint and craft in groups, as I wrote about a few years ago. But you have to pay and that can be a luxury that some of us cannot afford too often. I thought it was brilliant to just set up paints and have fun painting at home. I used to love doing that at school and at home after school when I was a kid. I plan to do this myself and maybe try it with some friends.

Apparently now adult coloring books are the rage. They are flying off the shelves and becoming best sellers. Jacksonville.com reported on the trend recently.

“We cannot print them fast enough,” said Amy Yodanis, Quarto’s head of marketing. “We are getting orders of 60,000 at one time from some of our biggest retailers.”

There are coloring clubs and coloring contests. Parade magazine devoted a Sunday cover to the trend. Dover plans a national coloring book day on Aug. 2.

“People are stressed and anxious all the time,” said Jeannine Dillon, Quarto’s publisher. “Coloring is a way to calm down and unwind at the end of the day.”

The coloring books sound pretty fun to me and I wonder how many people will be coloring on August 2nd to celebrate national coloring book day.

Not everyone is into coloring or painting. Just like when we were kids. Different people like different things. Some friends of mine went to tennis camp this past weekend, as they have done each year for several years. There are cooking camps and writing vacations. There are yoga summer camps too.

In light of this new back to childhood trend, it makes sense that a new long-lost Dr. Seuss book is being released.

What Pet Should I Get goes on sale this Tuesday, July 28th. I’m sure lots of grown-ups will be reading along to find out the answer to the question.

Have A Ducky Week!

April 10, 2021July 6, 2015 by Lisa Johnson

This duck (goose??) is a poser. Yup! It walked right up to me, apparently expecting to be fed. I didn’t have any food, so it just looked me in the eye and posed for this picture. So cute!

If you follow me on Instagram, you can see all the pictures that I took. G and I were in Watertown, walking around the park to burn off some calories from our meal. I don’t know the name of the park that we were in. It was my first time visiting, but there were some beautiful scenes. Here are some more sights for you to enjoy.