BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02796 I created a new dip flavor at The Pretzel Factory. This one is Caramel Coffee. I used some salted caramel topping that we use for ice cream and also some of the espresso flavoring that we purchased, plus a pump or two of the Autocrat syrup. I mixed that with our buttercream to create this new flavor. We'll see if people like it.

Photo-A-Day #02793 We've been making pizza at The Pretzel Factory lately. My boss has been perfecting the dough and the cooking method to make some excellent pizzas to sell in the store. I am also making pizzas. We need additional people besides my boss who know how to make the pizzas. I'm there often and so I am also making pizzas.

Photo-A-Day #02788 I took some spare dough and rolled it flat through a pasta maker and then sliced it into triangles. They puffed up a lot when they baked and were hollow inside. They were really good with a garlic butter that we use for the pizza crust. I may try these again.

Photo-A-Day #02787 I made a new dip flavor for The Philly Pretzel Factory. I had asked my boss to pick up some Wild Strawberry and blue raspberry flavors. With that I put together a mixture of the two flavors with a themed for the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series. My sign features Princess Donut, yes that is supposed to be a cat. It look smore like a groundhog. There is a running gag where Princess donut says something to the effect of "Carl, you know how I feel about [blank]" and each time it is something she's never mentioned. I also thought that the colors represented Mongo the raptor that is her pet. So this flavor is called Mongo is Appalled (another thing she says often).

Photo-A-Day #02778 Today we took a trip around Rhode Island to see the Trolls that were created by artist Thomas Dambo. There are 5 of them in Rhode Island and we've seen 2 of them before on a previous adventure, but today we decided that as one of the last big family adventures before College and High School we'd take this trip. You can get to each of the trolls pretty easily and see them all in one day. There are 4 stops because two trolls are at one of the stops.  We decided to drive out to the Troll that was furthest from us. That would be Young Boulder. The map we had said to put the actual GPS coordinates into your map program and that saved us from a very long walk to find this guy.  Andy decided that they would be getting as close as possible to each troll for a photo. Not climbing on it or anything, very respectful, just getting close to each one. At each stop Eva took out their sketchbook and did a quick sketch of each troll. Then took a reference photo to finish the...

Photo-A-Day #02776 Today I went over to Seekonk to Master's Homemade Donuts to pick up a 2 Good 2 Go package bursting with dozens of donuts. I was trying to get over to Triple S BBQ because that is in Seekonk as well but they were so packed I just decided to go to Newport Creamery for lunch before getting the donuts. There I got a BLT and a Cookie Monstah Awful Awful. It was so good. I think I have milkshakes on my mind since that is my bosses latest obsession. I'll probably be making them next week at work. But the trip to Seekonk was for the donuts. There was a kid who came to The Pretzel Factory and he was starting a small Tik Tok channel to review 2 Good 2 Go locations. So, I learned about Masters Homemade Donuts from him. I couldn't find it on the app for a while but finally did. And then I couldn't snag the bag until yesterday. It worked out well since I had last night off from work so I could go get the donuts in the afternoon and then I took them to work. I did ...

Photo-A-Day #02774 We're trying to do some things before Eva heads to college including going to our favorite Chinese food place. House of Fortune has been our celebration place for the kids' entire lives. Back before House of Fortune existed there was Fortune House and it was the first restaurant we ever took Eva to. Ever since then we've done all of the big things there, birthdays and graduations. So, we were trying to find a time that would work with my work schedule and Allison's upcoming work schedule. We had time today so we went over and met the new owner who had a menu item special called the rainbow mountain. It was essentially the spicy seafood roll but with crabmeat and roe of various colors on top. It was excellent. Everything still had that great quality that we've enjoyed for 18 years.

 Photo-A-Day #02773 Before I went off to work today Allison and I took Andy over to Target to get some things for the start of the school year. A set of LEGO and a cool looking AM/FM radio that doubles as a Bluetooth speaker was also not on the list but I was excited that Andy thought it was something cool that I had to get them it. Andy was so excited about it that they brought it downstairs to show Miss Colleen.  Today at The Pretzel Factory my boss was making cinnamon sugar rivets which are done in a  baking soda bath instead of a lye bath. He got distracted and started to salt the rivets.  Caught himself and then baked the pan of rivets. I took the unsalted ones and made the cinnamon sugar rivets for the display case and to sell while I also took the salted ones and made them into cinnamon sugar rivets to bring home. I brought a box him and they did not last the night, everyone loved the little hint of salt to these sweet treats. Everyone said that we should add ...

 Photo-A-Day #02772 Each day that I come in for work at The Pretzel Factory there is something new happening. My boss is always trying out new things to see what will sell. Today I was washing some donut pans because he made donuts in them. I personally don't think that he needs a pan and could just twist the dough to a donut shape. His are the two up in the top of the photo. I made the two on the bottom. I used one of his roll shapes and baked it, then put it through the cinnamon sugar we use for rivets and then baked it again so the cinnamon sugar could caramelize a bit. Then I dipped it back into the butter and this time covered it with the cinnamon donut sugar that we had when we were out of our normal cinnamon. They came out great.

Photo-A-Day #02770 Tonight we went over to Capron Park for another food truck night. Tonight Allison and I opted for some cheesesteaks. She got the Angry one with lots of heat to it. I got a blue cheese and bacon one. Both were really good. We also got some Cajun fries with crabmeat on top. that was also really good but everything was super filling and I could not finish the cheesesteak or the fries. No dessert for us either. Andy and Eva both opted for Friskie's Fries and the General Taos version. I was surprised that Andy did not go for something more exotic today. Usually they get a big mishmash of things to make their own meal.

Photo-A-Day #02767 This morning we took the kids to First Watch for breakfast. They were not impressed. The place was really loud, they didn't quite enjoy their meals and that made for a rather poor experience. While we were there though we talked about the things that we'd like to watch together (movies) before Eva goes off to college. We settled on watching Stand By Me as the first of a series of movies we'll watch over the next few weeks.  I worked at The Pretzel factory today until closing. Then I ran a bunch of pretzels over to America's Best Defense. I had put out a call earlier in the week for people who might want a delivery of pretzels. Sensei Howard replied and I got him on the list for tonight. Last night I went to the North Attleboro Fire Station and they practically tackled me for them. Both nights someone did not pick up their 2 Good 2 Go order so I had multiple bags of pretzels to share.  When I got home we watched Stand By Me. I think both kids really en...

Photo-A-Day #02766 I was on Tik Tok the other day and saw an ad for the Pizza Pack. this is a way to store multiple slices of pizza for easy reheating and the storage container won't take up a ton of room like a regular pizza box. I got one for us and one for Eva to take to college. Hope it works well.

Photo-A-Day #02761 Today I took Andy and their girlfriend Jazzy to see Spider-Ma: Brand New Day. It was a fantastic movie. So much fun to watch. Andy did their research, too. Andy watched all of the original Spider-Man movies with Tobey Maguire, the two reboots with Andrew Garfield and the 3 with Tom Holland before seeing the 4th movie starring Tom Holland. So many great cameos, movie tie-ins and iconic comic moments. After the movie we went to get Ramen for dinner. The bowls were HUGE! It was a great meal and it was a lot of fun to spend time with Andy and Jazzy. They are very cute together.

Photo-A-Day #02758 Today is national chocolate chip cookie day and I got an idea to add chocolate chips to the pretzel dough and then cover it in butter and cinnamon sugar then bake it to make some pretzel cookies. I was going to try and roll everything and make the cookies look more like the cinnamon buns that my boss makes. Either way this came out really well.

Photo-A-Day #02754 Today was Andy's last day of Culinary Camp. This year each of the kids in the teen camp got their own knife. They got to keep it, too. Andy is pretty excited to have their own cooking knife. They had the usual dessert showcase this ear with a lot of great items to enjoy. The teens did not decorate cakes this year but rather some cupcakes. They also had a monster cupcake competition where they decorated their cupcakes with monster themes. Andy did Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. This is funny because Andy often Mike Wazowski's themselves in photos meaning covers their face accidentally. After the dessert showcase I went over to Warwick to pick up a comic book from a fellow reader of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. They had left it on their porch for me to pick up.  In addition to the comic they also gave me two stickers. I put one on each of my water bottles. I should have swapped where I put them because the one with the straw is one I take to the office an...

Photo-A-Day #02752 I didn't have to work until the afternoon today so Allison and I took Andy to camp and then on the way back we stopped for breakfast at First Watch. The place just opened so they are just getting their feet under themselves. The kitchen staff is new and so they did not want to overwhelm them and are accepting less people than they have space for until the staff can keep up. so our wait was like 30 minutes. We should have signed in to the line through the app but that is okay. Allison had a free side and so we got the Million Dollar Bacon. It was very tasty with a slight kick to it, too.  I opted for the traditional breakfast with home fries and bacon and eggs plus some multigrain toast. It came with an excellent strawberry jam. After breakfast we went shopping at Target for some things for Eva for college and also some stuff around the house. I can't believe that one month from today Eva is off to school.

Photo-A-Day #02751 I made a special dip today at work. I had gone to Michael's and picked up some Orange Extract and orange food dye. The extract was actually an emulsion and I used that with some of our buttercream to make the Orange Dream dip. I wanted to call it Orange Dreamsicle like an Orange Creamsicle. My boss didn't get it so said shorten it to dream. I do like that I ave a bit of leeway to make some other items from time to time.

Photo-A-Day #02748 Allison and I went to the Attleboro Farmer's Market. We picked up a few things like empanadas and Foss Farms sauce as well as a couple of Jerusalem Bagels form NAVAD. It was nice to walk around and see what they had all around the market. I haven't had one of the Jerusalem bagels in a while. They are so tasty. I think I'm going to try and make a pretzel like this next week at work. We have the sesame seeds there.