Mass Innovation Nights - Foodie Edition

Wednesday I went to my first Mass Innovation Night here in Boston.  Mass Innovation Nights aim to give exposure to innovative Bostonians' new ventures and help connect these brands, marketers, job seekers, and the media (or just curious people) to create awareness and buzz about cool new things going on in the Bay State.  Each month's event has a theme, and to my great excitement, February was "Foodie".  Obviously I went.  :)

This month, the meet-up was held at the Microsoft New England Research & Development Center (or N.E.R.D Center) on Memorial Drive.

Sorry about the reflection - the view was pretty enough I decided to include it anyway.

Here's a little rundown of some of my favorite finds for the night.

Off the Cob Sweet Corn Tortilla Chips - These chips are made with sweet corn (instead of dry field corn like a lot of brands out there) and seasoned with sea salt and a trace of lime, so they're sweeter than most.  I really liked the chips, but liked the story behind them even more.  Cameron, the founder, told me he got his start in college when he won Babson College's Entrepreneurial competition, a $20,000 prize.  From there, he did a Kickstarter campaign and added another $15,000 to his business.  Here's a recent article on Boston.com about the start up, and a link to where you can buy them online!

Chocolate Therapy - I was excited about checking out this table.  Ever since the truffle making class Ann and I took, I've been interested in different chocolates.  This Framingham-based store uses therapeutic ingredients in most of their truffles - cold pressed olive oil, cayenne, honey, and ginger to name a few.  They were FANTASTIC.  I especially enjoyed "Liquid Caramel" - milk chocolate with a liquid caramel center.  If you don't live in the Boston area, you can check out the online store on their website.

BodyPhysica.com - Ok...truth time...I knew these guys before the Innovation Night, but that doesn't change the fact that they're awesome!  Lisa is a veteran fitness expert and has owned a Pilates studio in Brookline for 15 years.  Last year, she released her first two fitness DVD's - Modern Pilates with Lisa Johnson and Body Physica INTENSE.  Both feature Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced modifications  so there's something for you no matter your level.  Buy her DVD's!

Image from their Facebook page

NoshOnIt - As a foodie and a blogger, I was so excited to hear about NoshOnIt.  This is a curated content network that sends a daily email featuring recipes from up-and-coming bloggers and chefs.  Each day of the week has a theme - Meatless Mondays, Healthy Tuesdays, Sweet Tooth Fridays, etc.  Sign up for whichever themes interest you and enjoy the creative and beautiful dishes the arrive in your inbox each week.  Sign up for their emails here!




BudiBar - Budi Bars were the surprise of the night.  These things were seriously delicious.  The founder developed these superfood packed treats while studying Psychology and Mind/Body at Harvard.  These have "high antioxidant levels, mind balancing Omega-3 fatty acids, mind focusing amino acids, and natural ingredients that time release energy without causing sugar spikes".  Take that 5 Hour Energy!  I sampled the Macadamia with 72% Dark Chocolate and was blown away.  Currently, they're sold in local Whole Foods or you can buy'em online.

Ivyees Jamacian Honey is a new gourmet honey company.  They are currently based outside of Boston, but farms their own bees in Jamacia.  This is not your everyday, comes in a bear-bottle honey guys.  I sampled three of their four flavors and brought home two little sample jars of their "Hibiscus & Sorrel" and "Logwood" honeys.  I can't wait to use them!  You can buy some for yourself at their website.


The other companies in attendance were Bixby Bars, Boston Teawrights, Delectable Desires, KEO Homemade Ice Cream, and Unreal Candy Unjunked.  I couldn't try most of these products because I'm allergic to soy, but did enjoy watching everyone else "ooh" and "aah" as they sampled the products.

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of these new companies as much as I did!  What are some of your favorite new finds?

Bananas Foster Ice Cream

This weekend I realized I have an entire bunch of bananas that was so ripe it wasn't going to make it another day.  With Nemo, the blizzard that hit Boston this weekend, bearing down on us, I knew I wouldn't be able to go buy the necessary ingredients to make banana bread, so I put my thinking cap on.  As I looked around the kitchen, I remembered I'd bought some caramel to top the snow cream I was going to make, and knew exactly what to do.  Bananas Foster Ice Cream.

My little experiment was a smashing success...and now you've got another use for your "on the way out" bananas!

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup caramel
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Peel and smash bananas - the more "smushed" they are, the better!

In a medium bowl, combine heavy cream, skim milk, caramel, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Stir until smooth, then add smashed bananas.

Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.  The cold mixture will freeze better in your ice cream maker.

Once the mixture has chilled, pour into your ice cream maker and let it spin for 45 minutes to 1 hour according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Doesn't that look amazing?  If you can keep yourself from eating it all immediately, transfer into a Tupperware container and freeze until you're ready to enjoy!

Enjoy!

Pinwheel Quilt Pattern

Last week I told you about my trip to Jo Ann's to buy the tools necessary to learn to quilt.  I'm happy to report that so far, it's been a success!  I saw really great YouTube video with instructions on how to make a pinwheel, so I decided to start with that design.  My first project is going to be a bag (to hold my quilting supplies), so I think I'll just need 8 pinwheels.  So far I've made 4, so I'm well on my way!

Here's how I did it.

First, cut two colors of fabric (I used white and blue) into 5" squares.
Lay one of each color on top of the other with the "pretty" sides facing in.  Pin around the edge.

Sew all the way around the square, removing the pins as you go.  You can do this with a sewing machine, but since I don't have one, I just did tiny stitches by hand all the way around.

Once you've sewn the two pieces together, cut your square into 4 triangles on each diagonal using your ruler and rotary cutter.

Once cut, open the triangles (you should now have squares) and iron them so they stay flat.  Make sure the back seam stays to the darker color's side so it can't be seen through the white.

Now that you've got your two-tone squares, rearrange them so they form a pinwheel.

Now it's time to sew the pinwheel together!

Take one square, and "fold" it on top of the one beside it so it's facing down.  Line up your seams on the side  that should touch and pin along the edge. Once you've sewn along the pinned edge, open it up and iron so it stays flat.  Do this with each half of your soon-to-be pinwheel.

Just one more piece to sew!  Now lay one side on top of the other, line up the seams, and pin along the edge again.  Once this is sewn and ironed, you'll have completed your first pinwheel!

Not bad for my first go, if I do say so myself!

Beef Stroganoff

One of my favorite meals growing up was Beef Stroganoff.  I worked from home Friday so I could stay off the roads because Boston's big snow was on it's way (Nemo) and knew exactly what would make the perfect dinner to celebrate the beginning of our snow-pocalypse.  Chunks of beef, mushroom and onion in a creamy sauce - perfect!

We decided to invite our awesome next-door neighbors, Paul and Ali, over for dinner.  It's great to have friends who don't have to break the driving ban to come for dinner!  When they arrived, Ali told me Beef Stroganoff is Paul's FAVORITE food, and I was immediately nervous.  Could mine hold a candle to his mom's?  *nail biting* After inhaling the first few bites, the assured me this was certainly on par with mom's.

Ingredients

3 lbs cubed beef stew meat
1 large onion, chopped
16 oz mushrooms, sliced
26 oz Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
16 oz Sour Cream
2 cups beef bouillon
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Directions

Prepare your ingredients - lightly brown the beef on each size, and saute the onions and mushrooms in a little olive oil and salt.

Add beef, onions, mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, half (8 oz) sour cream, beef bouillon, and Worcestershire sauce to the crock pot, stir, and turn on to start cooking!

Cook for 8 hours on low or 4-5 on high, until beef is very tender.  Just before serving, stir in remaining half (8 oz) of sour cream.

My favorite way to enjoy Beef Stroganoff is over egg noodles - it's just perfect!

Enjoy!

I Found Nemo - The 2013 Boston Blizzard

Well...that was some kinda snow.  If you haven't already heard, Boston had a crazy blizzard that started yesterday and ended this morning.  Now...two years ago, we had a pretty crazy winter, getting about a foot of snow (what seemed like) every Wednesday.  But even still, I've never seen ANYTHING like this.

I haven't heard final numbers of how much snow we got here in West Newton, but it's well over 2 feet.  I was really excited about making a 8-10' snowman, but this was too much snow.  There was nowhere to put our snowman!  Without further ado, here's what you really want...the pictures.  :)  (You'll notice there are no pictures of Toby in the snow.  That's because he HATES it.  He even went on a 24 hour bathroom strike.)

This picture was taken Friday night - the final amount of snow was more than double this.

Our neighbors' archway looked awesome in the snow!

Saturday morning just before the snow stopped.

Our neighbor, Paul, realized his motorcycle get-up also protected him from the elements while shoveling!

Our house

Snow on a bush in front of our house - see the face? 

The wind was crazy during this storm, which made for really awesome snowdrifts.  Here are a few...

Really awesome drift between our cars

This drift doubled over on itself and made a cool hole.

Once we were completely exhausted from shoveling and (mostly) had our cars free, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood.  Here are a few shots.

(That's a bird bath)

These people will never get out.  See the massive pile in the front left?  That's their car.  They pulled their car to the end of their driveway (we're assuming so they could get out easily), but obviously didn't think about the fact that plows would do more harm than their original plan's good.  

When there's more than 2 feet of snow, you have to toss it pretty high when shoveling!

The snow on the top of my car was almost as tall as the garage beside it!

Cross country skiers were out in full force

Skiing down Watertown Street

Even the snowman was surrounded

Even though the shoveling is obnoxious, I thought Nemo was a lot of fun.  I'm still at the point where I think tons of snow is just hilarious.  :)