BenSpark Family Adventures

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.

Photo-A-Day #02747 I finally smartened up and froze some of my pretzels so that I could enjoy them throughout the weekend. By freezing them I can pop them into the air Fryer for 5 minutes and have nice hot and fresh soft pretzels as intended. If I leave them on the counter they start to absorb the salt and get gummy. One night is fine but beyond that, no good. When I went into the Pretzel Factory today for my shift 11:00am - 3:00pm I was greeted by my boss frantically making trays and trays of rivets (Pretzel bites) because he had an order going out at 11:15 for 4 large Rivet trays. The oven wasn't up to temp yet and he wasn't even sure if he had enough stock for the order. It was chaos for the first hour but we got it taken care of and he even put in 6 heart shaped pretzels because this order was for a wedding. The bride is a big fan of The Philly Pretzel Factory and wanted a bunch of our branded stuff to have at the reception including a ton of cups and other things.

Photo-A-Day #02745 It was back to the Pretzel Factory today. They have a new item on the menu. It is their take on a Cinnamon Bun. I had seen a post on social Media about them and it was titled a Cinnabon which is a brand and come to find out the bosses wife put that up and then had to fix it because Cinnabon is a brand. the way they make these is that they take the raw dough, put it in the butter and then the cinnamon and then spiral it out and put it in the walk-in. Then they bake it for the 7 minutes per usual and top it with a dip. I suggested that they show one with dip and one without and let people decide to put a dip on it. when that happened the next person to come in bought one with no dip.

Photo-A-Day #02744 Allison was out tonight so Andy and I went to The Meadows for some frozen Custard and then over to Briggs for Dinner. Yes, we did dessert first. They have some excellent custard there. We got the Oreo cheesecake. We split a special pizza at Briggs and when we came home we watched Spider-Man 2 together. Andy is watching all the Spider-Man movies to prepare for seeing the new Spider-Man movie next week.

Photo-A-Day #02743 Today was National Ice Cream Day and we did not have anything I liked in the house. So, I went over to Seabra and found a pint of Autocrat Coffee Milk and Cookies from Warwick Ice Cream. It was excellent. I spent the day wondering if Eva would have to go to Jury Duty tomorrow. The kid barely turns 18 and is nailed with the civic duty right away. Luckily, she did not have to interrupt her time at her job on the Cape to have to go in for Jury Duty. We were lucky.

Photo-A-Day #02742 Tonight was another Food Truck night at Capron Park. We went over along with Andy's friend Autumn. Autumn is the one giving me the "Who is this crazy guy" side-eye. The meal was a good one. I got the buffalo chicken fries from Friskies. Andy found two places and combined the meal. Autumn got Friskies as well and Allison got a Buffalo Chicken sandwich. Then we walked over and got dessert.

Photo-A-Day #02740 Tonight we had a group get together to say goodbye to my supervisor, Ben. Ben is heading to days and as with all things here we celebrate with some food. I decided that I'd be bringing pretzels. I also decided to try out the Too Good Too Go app and get the pretzels that way. I got it as early as possible and did pay the highest price but that is okay I felt kinda weird doing that then just buying an actual item so I bought 3 large dips to make up for that. The Too Good Too Go bag had 15 pretzels as well as a bag of rivets and two bagels. Seemed a little lighter than we normally make it but that was because Tim wasn't there.  People seemed to like the pretzels and I was happy to have some once again after not having any for two weeks. Could also be why I'm back under 200lbs. So, I'm going to have to watch that now that I am back.

Photo-A-Day #02734 We do a lot of grilling when we are here on The Cape. Tonight we had swordfish and steak tips. I had marinated the steak tips for a day and we did the swordfish with a butter and dill mixture that was brushed on. Then we had many items in foil. We always have many items in foil. The trick is getting the timing down so that those items in foil get cooked well enough as everything on the grill.  I worked in Dad's Office/Andy's room last night because Andy and Allison were home. I have it again tonight but tomorrow I have to move my setup downstairs to the sunporch. I do like working at Dad's roll top desk, though.

Photo-A-Day #02732 This morning Allison and I drove up to Mashpee to see if we could find the Cape Cod tumbler at a Dunkin Donuts. We were unsuccessful after visiting 7 of the stores. We did, however, go to Duke's Donut Worx and got some those donuts because Dunkin's donuts just don't cut it. In the afternoon we took Andy to CSS and then went to the farmer's market. There I got a Chicago Dog from Wally's Hot Dog Cart and we also found some fun flannel shirts that had be upcycled with T-shirts sewn onto the backs. I found a Voltron one for me and for Andy we found aU2 one. Andy was not impressed. We also picked up some smoked Salt at the Farmer's Market. This is another thing I want to try on Philly Pretzels.

Photo-A-Day #02728 We spent some time at the beach today and this evening we went to main street in Falmouth and had dinner at Anejo. This is an excellent Mexican restaurant and we had a great meal. We watched Norway win their match at The World Cup and the kids are fascinated with Haaland. I think we all are at this point. The guy is a machine and from all signs appears to be a good guy.

Photo-A-Day #02726 There is a new taco place a few doors down from the Philly Pretzel Factory. I stopped there today before work. I got their birria tacos and they were very good. I also got some chips and queso which was also good. They were also fairly inexpensive. I'll be back. Today at work I was twisting pretzels and going pretty hard at everything. My back has been a mess lately and today it went all the way to being thrown out. It seized up on me to the point where I could not move without intense pain. I finished my shift and then went to my uncle's house and got into his massage chair. It did not work. I went home and was worried that I would not be able to drive to the Cape the next day. It has never been that bad. I think I scared my boss. He gave me a device that gives electrical stimulation to muscles. I used that a bunch and it seemed to help out. 

Photo-A-Day #02723 At The Pretzel Factory we have 4 different slushie flavors. Lemonade, Cheery Lemonade, Raspberry Lemonade and Mango Lemonade. We also have an ice cream machine. I figured I'd make a fun little slush in honor of the 4th of July. Maybe I'll make another tomorrow and we can do a special photo shoot. for Social Media. 

Photo-A-Day #02722 Tonight I went to Sura with my friend Aaron. Allison and the kids are on the Cape and I'm finding things to do while they are away. So, I contacted my friend, Aaron about going to an adventurous meal night. He knows the best places to try new things. We had Bibimbap in stone bowls. It was a beautiful meal filled with colorful vegetables and a fried egg. I got the short rib version. The food was excellent and very flavorful. We started with a kimchi scallion pancake. It was an interesting take on the scallion pancake. On the way to the car I noticed this street art and it made me think of K-Pop Demon Hunters. 

Photo-A-Day #02721 I picked up some Shameless Snacks. These are low sugar, high fiber snacks. They are pretty tasty. They sent this little container so that I can put a bunch in there and have one or two at a time instead of opening and eating a whole bag. 

Photo-A-Day #02716 Today at The Pretzel Factory my boos made these twice dipped cinnamon pretzels. He takes the pretzel and coats it in the butter and cinnamon like we normally do then he bakes it again and then dips it in the butter one more time and also in the cinnamon a second time. It gets an almost creme Brule type of crunch to it.

Photo-A-Day #02715 Allison bought a large box of Georgia peaches and one of the things that were done with them was making them into a Peach syrup. Specifically Andy decided that they would like to make some Peach Syrup. When we went to IKEA Andy bought a bunch of squeeze bottles that have many uses. So in order to put them to use Andy started a simple syrup of peaches. Andy is quite excited for this to be ready. Also today was Andy's trip to Six Flags for the 8th grade field trip. Last night I set Andy up with the ability to make payments using their phone. The nice thing is that it is set up to alert Allison and I that a purchase has been made, Inside the park they could only use credit cards or load cash onto a card. It made more sense to have Andy use a credit card. They did not go overboard. Andy did have a great time with their friends.

Photo-A-Day #02711 Today I brought some sliced olives and banana peppers into the Pretzel Factory to make another pizza. Tim took the pizza dough and put it in the lye bath and added salt tot he crust. Then he fired it in the oven for 2 rotations. He next took it out and I added the toppings. Then we baked it a full 7 minutes. The pizza came out great. Tonight I went to the Attleboro Community Theater for the Board meeting. I brought a bunch of pretzels with me along with many of the dips. The main point of the meeting tonight was to vote int he new board. I decided to run as a write in and was elected. Now I have lots of events to attend with ACT. My first will be North Attleboro Pride Festival next Saturday. should be a lot of fun.