Boston Marathon of the Eating Kind

As you read this, I will be in Boston eating my way through my favorite haunts, mostly in the North End or Little Italy. I have a few important things to do, one, compare Regina Pizzaria to Santarpio's and second, do a Half Moon (Black and White Cookie) Throwdown, and third, do a repeat cannoli throwdown between Mike's, Modern's, and Maria's. After that first throwdown, I had a few people chime in for Maria's, so to be fair, I will repeat. I am always happy to take one for the team.

I really like Santarpio's Pizza but have just recently learned that Regina's ages their dough which Santarps does not. I will compare sauce, crust, and cheese. That's funny there really isn't anything else to compare, it's pizza for goodness sakes. I am hearing that Santarp's is opening a new location, Peabody?

And for that Half Moon throwdown, I will be comparing Lyndell's, Bova, Maria's, Mike's, and Modern's. In Boston we call them Half Moons which are frosted and more cake-like, the NYC version is called a Black and White Cookie which is topped with a fondant glaze and has a drier texture. So why the Half Moon? When I was a little girl my Grandma used to take me to Mass, then to the bakery for a Half Moon, then on to her girlfriend's house for coffee and all the latest gossip, which I never got because it was all in Italian. I was to sit quietly, take my cheek pinches an "how bella I was," and eat my cookie. I always ate the chocolate frosted side first. So who has the best Half Moon? We'll see.

More BRK's Boston Travel Stories
Newbury St. and Fenway Park
Faneuil Hall and The Italian North End
East Boston to Revere and Beyond
Good Food Hunting in Revere
Food Shopping in the North End
Mike's V. Modern's Cannoli Throwdown

Robin Sue

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Fire Pit Supper

Our evenings have been beautiful of late so we took advantage of the warm night and ate outside. My brother and his family were over last night and we decided to make our dinner over fire. We served brats, red cabbage, homemade Spätzle, and of course S'mores.


It was very enjoyable sitting around the fire, chatting, and laughing while cooking our brats and roasting marshmallows. I kept it all very simple, why not when we are eating off sticks?


Prior to roasting our brats, I made the Spätzle using a pastry bag instead of the scrape method which worked just as well. I tossed the Spätzle with browned butter.


Our Boy Scout was pleased to help with the fire and carving our cooking sticks. Boys sure do love sharp objects. Sheesh.


We increased our brats' surface area by quartering the ends for extra charred pleasure.


Oktoberfest Biergarten Fare.


This guy lived his first three years in Germany. You should have seen him in lederhosen. What a doll. And now he is almost all grown up. Time is a thief!

What do you like to cook in your fire pit?

Robin Sue

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Salame di Cioccolato

Eating this reminds me of Christmas. Something about orange and chocolate. Don't be off-put by its name, there is no meat in this salami, it is purely dessert. It only looks like salami and tastes like Christmas on a dish. You can add whatever nut, liquor, flavoring or cookie you would like. One can get very creative, I am thinking graham crackers, tiny mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips. But there is something sophisticated about chocolate and orange. I think next time I will try this with 2 packages of Choco Leibniz Cookies for a deeper chocolate flavor.



Salame di Cioccolato
1 1/2 sticks butter
2 pasteurized egg yolks
1 T. Grand Marnier
2 T. sugar
3 T. unsweetened good quality cocoa
zest of 1/2 orange
3 T. finely chopped toasted walnuts
7 ounces tea biscuits like Leibniz

Pour cookies into a zip top bag and crush with a rolling pin, set aside. In your mixing bowl add butter through orange zest. Mix on medium high speed until mixture is light and fluffy, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Add nuts and cookies. Blend well. Turn out mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a salami. Roll up in plastic wrap and twist ends tight. Chill until ready to serve. Before serving sprinkle the salami with powdered sugar. Place on a platter to have your guest slice their own or slice onto a pretty plate and serve.

To give as gifts, unwrap the chilled salami and dust with powdered sugar. Reseal in a new piece of plastic and wrap in waxed or parchment paper and tie ends with kitchen twine. Place a pretty label on your salami.

Christmas is coming fast. What are your favorite from the kitchen gifts?

Robin Sue

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Garlic Ranch Pretzels

There is a story behind these pretzels. I made them way back when Captain Himself deployed to Haiti. Along with some other treats like baking and sealing a cake in a jar (yes I was doing that in the 90's) and homemade beef jerky and dried fruit, these pretzels would make the long journey to Haiti with some lucky soldier who would get his own box of treats for getting Himself's package down to him. When I visited the company just before a new group flew down to Haiti, I had many young guys line up and volunteer to personally escort Captain Himself's pogey bait*. "Ma'am is that Capt. Himself's box, I'll carry it to him and see he gets it." Tip hat, smirk, and runs off to the other soldiers yelling, "Ha, I got Capt. Himself's pogey bait this time!"

These are garlicky, salty, and addictive. HOOAH!

Garlic Ranch Pretzels
1 pound Bag Sourdough hard pretzels broken into pieces or Nibblers, whole
1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
3/4 cup canola or olive oil
3 tsp. garlic powder

Mix the spices with oil, pour over the pretzels. Stir well to coat and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or until all the oil is absorbed, stirring every ten minutes. Cool and store in sealed container.

Garlic Ranch Pretzels were also sold at the Bake Sale for $2 per bag.

*Pogey Bait- Candy and other high calorie junk food.

Robin Sue

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Bake Sale: Doggie Treats, Acorn Cupcakes, Candy Corn Cookie Bars, and More!

Here we go! The Bake Sale Recap from last week. I baked six different treats from 9 am to 11 pm last Thursday- not sure if I will do that again as it took 4 days to clean Big Red Kitchen. Maybe I will stick with 2 or 3 items next time. My friend Sheila made 5 different cupcakes plus two other items. You have to to see her Sweet and Tart Cupcakes! For my items, I will start you off with the Giant Candy Corn Sugar Cookies.


Bake one recipe Sugar Cookie Bars in an 11x17 inch jellyroll pan. Make up one batch Butter Cream Frosting and dye 1/3 orange, 1/3 yellow, and leave 1/3 white. Frost a 5 inch wide rectangle in the very center of the bars. Then frost a 3 inch ribbon on each side of the white, yellow. Finish the edges with orange.


After cutting a line down the center of the bar, start at the bottom edge and measure 4 inches over. Cut a triangle. Follow the picture above to cut the others. Your cookies will measure 4 inches at the base and 5 inches tall. I got 14 cookies plus scraps for my belly.


Wrap in plastic wrap and sell. We sold these for $2.00 a piece- a bargain!


Now for the cute Acorn Cupcakes. I think from the photo you can see I "glued" a mini Nilla Wafer to a Hershey Kiss using a bit of frosting then topped them with a mini chocolate chip. Very easy and cute. Next time I think I will use melted chocolate so that it looks a little better. These sold for $2 a piece. See how I wrap cupcakes for bake sales.


Instead of scooping out cookies individually, I find it is easier to bake up a batch of regular Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies in a jellyroll pan. You can press in any color of M&M you would like, such as school or team colors. I think I got 16 bars from one pan, then wrapped them in a layer of plastic wrap and sold them for $2 a piece, they were huge!


We can't leave out the Puppaduppollis's now can we? Doggies need a treat too. These Chicken Dog Bones are a cinch if you have a giant dog bone cookie cutter. I wrapped these in cellophane bags with a twisty tie and sold them for $1 each.

Chicken Doggie Bones
4 cups flour
3 cups old fashioned oats, not the quick kind
2 T. brown sugar
4 T. veggie or olive oil
1 egg
1 cup hot water, plus a bit more if dough is too dry
1 chicken bouillon cube

Dissolve the bouillon cube in the water then mix all ingredients until it forms a dough. Add a bit more water if dough feels dry (1 tsp at a time), but do not get it too sticky. Press into a large rectangle, you can use a jellyroll pan so that the dough is about 2/3 inch thick. Press out bones using a large bone-shaped cookie cutter or shape into bones using your hands. Continue rolling out and pressing until all the dough is used up. I got 15 large bones. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour. You may make various sizes according to the size of the dog being fed these treats. We used to have a Rottie so hers were BIG.

Another treat I made was giant Rice Krispie Treats on a stick. And the final treat I made was Garlic Ranch Pretzels which I will share later this week. The pretzels, although savory, have a very sweet story, so come on back and see.

For more bake sale ideas click here and scroll through all of my bake sale posts.

Robin Sue

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Life at BRK

I am still trying for figure out life here at BRK. I am now teaching three Science classes and Girl's PE, one science class more than last year. Let me tell you this HS Biology is fantastic but it is kicking me in the gluteus maximus. Last week I issued an essay examination to the Bio students, 10 essays of varying lengths. Do you know how long it takes to grade essay tests? What was I thinking? Hence the lack of posts here this week.

I will not use the word busy, I have been productive. See those cute little cupcakes up there, they are for a Bake Sale at school today and I will come back here next week with photos and recipes of all that I made. OK? Maybe that will make up for my absence.

But it has not been all work. Himself and I attended the German Reunification Celebration at the German Embassy in D.C. last week and here are a few photos of our fun.


Himself and I.


My friend Maggie and I. No we did not plan to both wear grey.


A cute little car I found. And want.


We were tempted to go wading but Maggie's husband is the head of security at the Embassy. Although, I wonder if he would have arrested us?


Himself and I in the Biergarten.

Have a fantastic WEEKEND! See you back here next week for more details on the Bake Sale Goodies.

Robin Sue

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