Snippet - Bynto Box

     Recently I got August a new vessel to carry his lunch in, a Goodbyn Bynto Lunchbox, basically it is a bento box for kids. It has three compartments and the middle one has a cute little thermos for juice or milk, the top has a handle and each kit comes with a bunch of stickers for your child to decorate it by his or herself or you can if your little one is too little. I decorated it for August and I will admit I got a little sticker crazy! Haha. Usually I don’t send him to daycare with the juice container, I remove it for more food space; he gets his sandwich space, dry snack area and then a frit area. It does have some snapping closed issues, and takes a little time. But it’s super cute and he loves carrying it by himself, or dragging it around, yeah it’s durable too.

Snippet - Dansko Clogs

 you will be missed    I love my Dansko clogs, made in Denmark. We started our worn out journey together over 10 years ago in San Francisco, I was attending film school in the city and needed shoes to wear that would work for the amount of walking I did, and not sneakers. My Mom was in town so we went shoe shopping and I found them, my black Dansko clogs. They would serve two purposes they would be my walking to school and around the city shoes, and then they would join me in the kitchen, I worked cooking when not at school for a while. The shoes were great; I could wear them all day in classes and walking to and from school and then on shift at the restaurant. After I left the cooking business they stayed with me and could easily be wiped off with a damp towel and be good as new. They are so comfortable, like slippers, they have a nice platform style heel and sole with good arch support and the design is simple and can be worn with everything. Now there are a million patterns, colors and versions of the shoe and oh yeah they are no longer made in Denmark. The other morning it was cold and I needed a shoe to wear with jeans that could be functional and warm, I reached for my clogs. I slipped them on and was heart broken when I took a step and the heel buckled, both heels were falling apart and the main sole under the ball of my feet were cracking. No idea how or when this happened, maybe something happened to them in the move. After a few days I looked on zappos.com and Amazon at the versions of my favorite everyday shoe and found a similar version, I ordered. Sadly they are not made in Denmark anymore so the inner sole is different, the design outside is the same but they are not quite the same, my originals had a soft lip where the shoe hit the top of your foot, this new one is a little rough, maybe it just needs breaking in. I love these shoes, I wonder how many miles I clocked on them, throwing them out was hard, but I did it. I am breaking in some new ones, my Mom said they have the Denmark versions out there, but first I will try these ones. Fall is here and winter is fast approaching so I will need shoes that serve as functional and more fashionable than winter boots and less dressy than my high boots. Wish me luck breaking in these new guys, who knows maybe in 10-12 years I’ll be posting about having to give these ones up. Pictured, my favorite worn in babies, you will be missed. Women truly do have a bond with their shoes! Haha

Snippet - Kale Chips

I am a snacker, I munch throughout the day on pretzels stuffed with peanut butter, almonds, chips, goldfish, really whatever is around. I usually eat pretty healthy for my meals but the snacking is my weakness, my Mom is the same way! Haha maybe it’s hereditary?! Anyways recently I kept seeing these recipes for bake kale chips, a way to get your greens and snack healthy while also getting that salty crunch. I bought some dinosaur kale this weekend from Halcyon farm at the Orleans Farmer’s Market with the intent on trying to make these chips. Today was the day, I set the oven to 400 and began trimming the kale into chip size pieces and removing the toughest parts of the stems. I soaked them in water to get rid of any dirt and a small snail I found, then I spun them in the salad spinner to spin off the extra water. After the spinner I wrapped them in a towel to soak up the excess water, you want the pieces as dry as possible before coating with olive or canola oil. I have an olive oil pump; I used it and sprayed the kale in a bowl turning the chips to get them lightly coated. I finally placed them on a baking sheet spread out and sprinkled with kosher salt and baked or 10 minutes, my oven runs hot so 10 mins was perfect. They came out of the oven a little darker and crispy and so tasty. I am in love with this snack and hoping that August will like them too..TBD. One thing I will say though if you do snack on kale chips be sure to swish with mouthwash or brush after before you go out, they tend to get into the teeth.

Kale Chips

Kale

Salt (kosher or other)

Oil (olive or canola)

Set your oven to 400

Cut the tougher stem portions from your kale, then rip or cut the leaves into chip size pieces. Wash thoroughly (I like to soak) then spin them dry or ring out excess water in a towel. Make sure the leaves are completely dry to get crispy in the oven. Coat the leaves lightly with oil and spread onto a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt or other seasonings and bake for 10 mins. Let cool and enjoy. 

Snippet - Jelly Bean Rugs

     I love my Jelly Bean Rug, no it’s not a rug with jellybean designs on it, Jelly Bean is the brand name. Jelly Bean Rugs are indoor- outdoor accent rugs that are machine washable, and claim to wash better than your blue jeans, not sure the last time I called my jean blue-jeans haha. The designs are great though and the materials are of the highest quality. This is not your standard welcome mat. After seeing them in Boston at a few stores I searched for them on Amazon and ordered a fall theme one for my entryway. There were so many great designs though, it was hard to choose, and I found a ton that would fit great into the house and cute animal designs for Augusts’ room. So for now I have this one rug, but I am thinking it would be great to get different styles for each season and maybe one for outside the door too once boot (rain or winter) season gets here. I will say that I have not washed it yet so I can’t attest to the “washes better than my blue jeans,” but I’m confident. Check em out. Mine is pictured.

Snippet - Blackfish

     Best Pork Belly EVER!Has some amazing food, kudos to self-taught Chef Eric Jansen. Ever since I tried his food at a catered event I had been wanting to try it in house at their location in Truro. Like many Cape restaurants the space is similar to a home, a few rooms with warm tables and seating, great lanterns for lighting and exposed brick give it a nice feel. As we were sat at our table right next to the hallway leading to the kitchen, right next to the server station I was kind of curious why our hostess chose this location, especially since it was 6:45 and there were maybe 3 other tables of patrons, 10-15 or more empty waiting for us to sit at them. I shrugged it off, but again I was kind of wondering why when I called and secured our reservation for 7pm I was told that wouldn’t work but 6:45 was available, ok I agreed, we have a child and so our plan was a mid-evening dinner, not early bird, not late. Again with only three other tables sat, why couldn’t I have come at 7pm? OK maybe I should have just been a walk in, but with finer dining I like to respect the restaurant and give a heads up even though the season is almost over here on Cape Cod. We sat looking at the drink menu and food menus and ordered some beverages, me dirty grey goose martini, him Long Trail (beer).  Our server was quick with the drinks and attentive and took great care of us throughout the meal. There were a number of specials that sounded amazing, but really all I could think about was the pork belly I had at the past catered event. So we split two apps confit pork belly with hoisin bbq over white corn polenta and roasted endive and pear salad with sweet gorgonzola dressing. The pork belly could have served as my entrée and I could have eaten about 20 of them, haha. The endive salad was a nice combination of bitterness from the lettuce, sweetness of the pear and nuttiness of toasted walnuts, along with the endive it had mixed greens heavy on the frisee which I am not a huge fan of, otherwise great salad. Main course for me was a special pan roasted halibut with fingerling potatoes, arugula and a lemon caper beurre blanc (no capers were seen though) The fish was perfectly cooked and the veggies and sauce a great accompaniment. Do you see any capers?Rob had a burger with bacon and he was happy, also I must add the house made potato chips were so good. We skipped desert, we were both pretty full and honestly it all sounded a bit over the top, lots of extras on top of what could be simply great deserts. The bill came and I was kind of surprised, no I didn’t ask the price of my special, but when I saw it listed on the bill at a higher price than the highest ticket item on the menu I was shocked. All other fish were priced closer to $25 and mine was over $32? Really? Hmm. I would easily go back to Blackfish with a table request in mind, asking questions about the pricing of my entrée and maybe eat a little simpler. Pork belly of course would be first thing to order followed by a burger or maybe the steak salad, keep it a little more simple. Go and eat there, yummy food and nice atmosphere. I truly think restaurants should be judged by their food and Blackfish has amazing food. Just thinking of that pork belly right now is making me hungry!