Category Archives: Holidays

Apr 03 2013
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Food, Holidays, Restaurants, Uncategorized

April Fools

Maybe I’ll whip up a batch of ice creamed corn this summer.

We had a good smattering of fun pranks around here on April Fool’s Day this year. The Kiddo served up frozen cereal for breakfast in bed, and stopped up the shampoo so it wouldn’t dispense in the shower. But best of all was our “doctor’s visit” that turned into a trip to Read’s Ice Cream in Henrietta.

Read’s makes up a batch of novelty ice cream each April 1st. Despite our recent unpleasant experience with corned beef and cabbage as frozen desert, we decided to give Read’s “Let’s Go To The Movies” flavor a try.

The folks at Read’s took all the great movie theater treats — popcorn, Junior Mints, SweeTARTS, and nachos — and mixed them into vanilla ice cream. Somehow, despite the pretty generously-sized free scoops we received, we missed out on the popcorn, but we had plenty of nachos and they were pretty darn tasty. The candies mixed in just fine, too. As far as novelty ice cream flavors go, this was a winner.

I’m kind of bummed we missed 2011’s flavor — “School House Lunch” which was tomato soup-based ice cream with bits of toasted cheese sandwich and tater tots. But we’ll keep Read’s on the April Fool’s Day roster for the future.

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Feb 01 2013
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Books, Holidays, Restaurants

Holiday Wrap-Up

No new books this year!

Time to catch up on my reading.

Time to catch up on my reading.

The festive flurry of activity is over and it’s back to work around here. We had a nice break with time for both relaxing at home and getting out and about.

This year, the kiddo had lots of Legos on his wish list and we all had fun helping to put them together. We all really dig the Monster Fighters line. The ghost train was especially fun to build. Would love to score the haunted house!

We talked a bit about the parts of the holiday that we all like the best. Aside from the chance to find that just-right gift for one another, the preparations (like making this figgy pudding) and the traditions (like getting the tree) were the big winners, along with time for relaxing visits.

One afternoon while the kiddo was at a hot cocoa party, I met the Mister and a friend at Barber’s Grill for a visit. This place is a local gem for sure. Their Balboa sandwiches are a delight and you can get them with a side of tater tots — yum!

While the kiddo went off to a summer camp New Year’s reunion, the Mister and I hit a couple of our favorite restaurants for Prix Fixe dinners. Rocco’s was wonderful from start to finish. And the Owl House had some stand-up main course choices along with delicious deserts.

My resolution this year is to read the books I already own before I buy any new ones. And I am counting cookbooks here — a major weakness of mine. I imagine that means I’ll be visiting the Hamlin library more often, but it also means 2013 could be the year I finally finish “Lipstick Traces!”

Wishing you all a happy 2013.

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Feb 01 2013
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Books, Holidays

Christmas Spirits

Will I ever achieve my dream of owning a full-size Leg Lamp?

Role Models.

It hasn’t felt all that Christmassy around here so far this year. I think that probably has to do with the warmer weather and lack of snow. We’ve been making preparations and all, but it’s been hard to believe the holiday is so near.

This past weekend, we kicked things into high gear. We started the day at the Brockport UnitarianUniversalist Fellowships’ Christmas pageant. This wasn’t your ordinary pageant, with impromptu participants, our always game minister taking on the role of the donkey, and family-friendly Rocky Horror Picture Show-style call-outs. How could we keep from feeling festive after that?

So, it was off to Green Acre Farm and Nurseryto pick out our big bushy Christmas tree. We divided up the decorating work with the Mister stringing on the lights (mini leg lamps and chili peppers included) and the boy and I on ornament duty.

The final event in our day of holiday cheer was attending John Water’s Christmas Show. What a fabulous and filthy send-up of all that is wonderful and oh-so-wrong about the holidays!

Waters has always had a love of the outlaws and oddballs, as he so delightfully details in his book “Role Models.” He points out that while reality shows tend to look down on their subjects, he looks up to his. Waters revels in being called “The Pope of Trash,”but you could never call him mean-spirited.

The highpoint of the evening for me was having the opportunity to thank Waters for his excellent appearance on a reality show of sorts — Celebrity Ghost Stories (Season 1, Episode 3). It’s not the scariest story, but it’s so satisfying and I love the way he sums up the impact it had on his life. You can buy the episode on iTunesif you haven’t seen it.

Waters was cute and acted like it was silly for me to fuss over this odd little footnote in his career. But sometimes it’s the little moments when we really share with others that make all the difference.

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