BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02852 You'll notice that the warming cabinet is empty. That is my fault. I added water to the little reservoir and it overflowed. I thought I had cleaned it up well but apparently I did not. A while later it shut off. The register also shut off. Water had gotten inside and shorted it out. My boss had to take it apart and we dried it as best that we could. However, it kept shorting out. So, we waited for an hour or so and tried again. Luckily the case finally dried out and we were able to put everything back in it.  I now know how very small that reservoir is. I also know how easily water can get into the electronics of the unit. It was not a good day at work. 

Photo-A-Day #02850 On the way to work I stopped at Dunkin donuts because they were supposed to have the new Avengers: Doomsday promotional items. I found all the things and picke dup one of the tumblers and promptly pt it back when I saw it was $25. I don't need a new tumbler for that amount for any reason. I have two water bottles, one for Work and one for Home/Work in the Office. I also picked up my comic books. M.A.S.K. and GI JOE / Tomb Raider. This is a great crossover. Work was okay, I'm sort of getting a bit tired of the terrible communication and also being the one picking up after my boss all the time. I learned that I had two hours cut from my schedule on Friday. While the extra time at home is fine I'm missing out on some money and that is why I am working. The tough thing is that this business is struggling. I have my thoughts on why but I'll keep them to myself. It would be nice for a raise at some point but they can barely afford it.Let's hope that Tim...

Photo-A-Day #02847 Today we went to University Station to Not Your Average Joes to have lunch with the whole family. We have not had the whole family together in a very long time. Not since the Summer. Eva came down from Boston, Mom and Dad from the Cape, Tara and Erik were here from Kentucky and Shelby and family came from Southboro. We met up and had a very nice lunch and nice time together. 

Photo-A-Day #02835 On Monday night Allison, Andy and I went to Bliss Dairy because they were doing Stuff a Stanley night where you pay $10 for 4 scoops of ice cream to put into any water bottle. We brought over three large water bottles and each got four scoops. I picked Oreo, Strawberry, Cookie Monster and Coffee Oreo. Got a few days out of this treat.

Photo-A-Day #02831 We've been working on Halloween themed stuff at The Pretzel Factory. We have pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns and now these Spiders that are on display. These aren't for sale but more for decoration. We also have pumpkin dip and special versions of our brownie batter and buttercream. Essentially they have Halloween colored sprinkles added to the top of the dips. Festive.

Photo-A-Day #02823 We've been making some pumpkin themed pretzels at Philly Pretzel Factory. Some look like pumpkins and others look like jack-o-lanterns. We put out a special of 4 of these and some pumpkin dips. We made some cinnamon style and some salted style, too.

Photo-A-Day #02817 I had seen some photos from another Philly Pretzel factory where they made some pumpkin and jack-o-lantern pretzels. I showed my boss and suggested that he run a special on them with the new seasonal  pumpkin dip. Like 3 pretzels and pumpkin dip for $3 or something like that. Not sure if he will do it but he did make a bunch and I took three home today.

Photo-A-Day #02809 Yesterday at The Pretzel Factory we got the new pizza prep station. This means that we can now list pizza on our menu and people can order them. So I now make pizzas as well as pretzels. The one above is what I made today. Not too bad, I think.

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.