And even more s'mores!

A while back, I wrote about how much I love s'mores and my favorite way to make them at home. Today I received an email from Pillsbury that had me beat. The article was entitled 'What we're obsessing about' and had not just one recipe for s'mores but a whole week's worth! They all look delicious and I hope you enjoy trying them out.

S'More To Love™ S'More maker

Beantown again

Mimosas at Friendly Toast

Hanging out at Legal Seafoods
with Tim & Shannon

We visited Boston, aka  'Beantown' this past weekend for Al's cousin's wedding and even though it was a whirlwind trip, we made the best of it. Boston is one of my favorite places ever and I was so happy to be there again, along with the perfect weather.

We met up with two sets of friends for breakfast at the Friendly Toast and for lunch at Legal seafood respectively. That not only allowed us to meet old friends but it also meant brunch cocktails followed by New England clam chowder and raw oysters. Yay! 



The wedding party outside the
Boston College church

The wedding itself was very nice and Al's cousin, Kristina, the bride looked beautiful! Since we moved to Austin, we don't get to see Al's family that often, so this was a great opportunity to catch up. 




We were staying in Boston's little Italy, more commonly known as the North End and a trip there would not be complete without getting some Italian food or desserts. We didn't just eat there,but we brought home cannolis from the local's favorite, Maria's Pastry Shop. Yum, yum, yum!

Macaroons, many ways

So today was my first time ever trying French macaroons. I know what you're thinking --- seriously, what rock have I been sleeping under? But I've grown up knowing other types of macaroons (more to come on this) and had no inclination to try the French ones till I saw how they were made on a cooking show. Today, we found a cute little French bakery called La Patisserie in our neck of the woods and one of their specialties was their macaroons. We decided to sample not one but all the flavours. Our favorites were lemon, guava, nutella (of course) and raspberry.

Now back to the other macaroons that I've eaten. One type I'm sure you've heard of are the coconut macaroons and I'm not a fan of these at all because the coconut can make it too rich and sometimes a little oily, depending if you use the fresh or dessicated type. 

The other type that you probably haven't eaten are Mangalorean macaroons. My mother is from Mangalore, India and over there they make their own version of macaroons with egg whites, sugar and cashew nuts. I do like these when my mum makes them, but some bakers tend to be heavy-handed with the sugar and that's when egg white and sugar should never be together. Another thing is that we dont really pronounce the second 'a' and it's more of macroons :-)

My middle name should be $$$

This week has been an amazing finds week. I just don't know how people go about in the US without using the savers or loyalty programs and keeping an eye out for discounts. I have a CVS card and along with the coupons, weekly offers and personalized offers for me, I saved almost $24 from a bill total of $40. Yes, I did split my bill into 2, but the first one gave me bonus dollars to use on the second... sneaky, sneaky.

Then I happened to be at Bed, Bath and Beyond and saw these OXO Steel pop top containers in the clearance section. If any one knows me, I'm a huge organizer fan and this was like finding the holy grail (even Amazon.com doesn't discount these babies). I even had this on my Wunderlist as an optional home item, since I have a few and absolutely LOVE them. The original list price was $99.99 but was marked down to $49.98 because one of the lids was missing. Hmm, I looked inside but found all of them so I was wondering what was wrong and found one of the pop tops didn't work. I jiggled it a few times and used my keys and voila, I was able to get it to work! Woohoo! I used my 20% off coupon and got it for $39.98 - talk about a $60 savings, and did I mention I love these containers?