Chocolate Covered Trail Mix - Better than Moose Munch!

This past weekend, I was asked to make some chocolate covered strawberries to bring for a game night.  Since I was going to have lots of melted chocolate around the house anyway, I decided to recreate a treat someone brought us last Christmas.  The treat came from the Fresh Market in Raleigh and is similar to Moose Munch...only more delicious. How could there be a more a more fantastic chocolate trail mix treat, you may wonder?  Just wait...

This sweet snack has chocolate Chex, cashews, pretzels, popcorn, mini marshmallows, white chocolate, and dark chocolate.  Holy yum.  This recipe makes a lot of mix (as it should!) so it's perfect for parties, gifts, or just a nice way to solidify yourself as the most popular person in the office.

Ingredients

5.5 cups Chocolate Chex
1.5 cups pretzel sticks (broken in half)
6 cups kettle corn
1.5 cups cashews
1/2 cup white chocolate chips + 1.5 more melted
2-2.5 cups mini marshmallows
2.5 bags Ghiradelli Milk Chocolate Chips (11.5 ounce each)

Directions
Combine Chex, pretzels, pop corn, cashews, 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows in a large bowl.

Melt 2 11.5 ounce bags of milk chocolate chips in double boiler.

Then coat trail mix with melted milk chocolate.  There's two ways you can do this.  The first would be to pour the chocolate into the bowl and stir to coat.  Then spread the mixture evenly onto two large cookie sheets and let sit.

I decided to evenly pour the mix on two large cookie sheets.  Then I drizzled the chocolate on top, and moved it around with a spatula until everything was coated.

Then melt another half bag of milk chocolate chips and 1.5 cups white chocolate chips in different pots.  Drizzle white chocolate over the mix while spread on the cookie sheets.  Then drizzle the milk chocolate on to finish.  Let these set until chocolate completely hardens.  It's best to let the chocolate set at room temperature before setting in the refrigerator.  You want the chocolate to set at the temperature it'll be served at.

Once chocolate sets, break the mix into pieces.  Serve on a platter or section up into little baggies for gifts.  You're going to love it.

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And while you at it...you should make some chocolate covered strawberries with the other 1/2 bag of milk chocolate.  :)

Two Blog Tags!

In the last week, I've been tagged in two "tell us about yourself" blog tags.  One was from my good friend Bailey...and the other is from Melissa, a super stylish lifestyle blogger I met at the photography class I took.

Since these two tags fell so closely together, I've decided to break the rules a little and mesh them into one. Bailey's called for 50 random facts about me, while Melissa's tag had a little more structure, asking 26 questions that go along with the alphabet. So...I'll do 50 facts, the first 26 by the alphabet and the last 24 just random facts!  Whoop!

A: Attached or Single - Married to the sweetest guy

B: Best friend - (besides Travis) my mamma, Ann, and college roomie Holly

C: Cake or pie - Cake...but really I prefer ice cream.  :)

D: Day of choice - Friday of course!

E: Essential item - does husband count?

F: Favorite color - blue

G: Gummy bears or worms - Frogs.  They were always our favorite treat when we went to Williamsburg growing up!

H: Hometown: Smithfield, NC.  The best place on earth.  :)

I: Favorite indulgence- Ice cream...hands down

J: January or July - If we still lived in NC, my answer would be January.  Up here in Boston it's way too cold and snowy though...so July!!

K: Kids - Just our fur-baby, Toby

L: Life isn't complete without... - friends and family

M: Marriage date - July 22, 2006

N: Number of handbags - Three

O: Oranges or apples - Apples...especially since we moved to New England and started going apple picking!

P: Phobias - Tornadoes.  Terrified of 'em.  I also hate flying, but do it anyway.  I'd rather drive anywhere.

Q: Quotes - One of my favorite quotes from a recent sermon at our church (Park Street) was "Christ died to take away our sins, but not to take away our minds."

R: Reason to smile - When Toby wags his tail, his entire back half moves at 180 degrees.  It's the most hilarious thing ever.

S: Season of choice - Fall.  It's my favorite here in New England.  The colors are beautiful!!

T: Tag 5 people - Courtney @ One Fine Wire, Lindsay @ Traces of Ayden, Ann @ Hard of Herring, Sara @ Forever & A Recipe , and Sara @ Gone Yonkers

U: Unknown fact about me - My brother and I played "Barbies meet the Ninja Turtles" a lot growing up.  Also, check out 24 more below! 

V: Vegetable - Broccoli.  I also love brussels sprouts...they're a new favorite.

W: Worst habit - I bite my fingernails.  It's terrible.

X: X-ray or ultrasound - Um...x-ray I guess?  

Y: Your favorite food - ice cream

Z: Zodiac sign - Gemini!


27 - My first job (besides babysitting) was at a snow cone hut in a Pizza Inn parking lot.  It was pretty much the most fantastic job ever.  My brother and I sat on a cooler and watched TV while sampling snow cone flavors.  We also made a snow cone every now and then.  :)

28 - In elementary school we had a Halloween poster contest.  I worked for a long time on mine and it was by far the best.  I didn't win 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place though, because they thought my mom did it.  :(

29 - When I was in 6th grade, an 8th grader told me the best way to clean your flute was submerge it in the bath tub and let it soak for 3 hours.  Well...I did it.  This is exactly the OPPOSITE of what you should do...do NOT give your flute a bath!!

30 - I almost knocked over a drunk person by tapping her while stepping off the T on our first St Patrick's Day here in Boston.  She fell over a barrier in slow motion.  I ran away so we didn't get beat up.

31 - I love to 'binge watch' TV shows on DVD.  It's one of my favorite things to do.  The latest series we've watched that way was Homeland.

32 - I love buying bags and blankets, and will always find a reason to need another one.

33 - Every time I put my feet on our wood floor when it's cold here, I feel like I'm in Maryland at my grandma's house.  It was the coldest place I'd ever been growing up!

34 - I always get Twizzlers when we go to a movie...but that's the only time I eat them.

35 - When I was 2 or 3, I pulled the drawers out of my brother's dresser and climbed up them like a ladder. Of course it fell over, and I flew across the room.  My poor mom...I gave her a heart attack on several occasions.

36 - I don't have a thyroid.

37 - I love mushrooms and onions and would eat them every day if I could.

38 - I've been working on one particular craft project for more than 2 years now, and it's nowhere near completion.  Oops...

39 - I LOVE orchids.  If you bring me one, I'll be the happiest person ever.

40 - I hate dressing up in costumes.  Chances are, you won't catch me in one...and if you do, it's something I can slip over regular clothes (so I can take it off 10 minutes in).

41 - I'm watching Keeping up with the Kardashians right now.  I know...ugh.

42 - Travis and I met in our first class our freshman year at ECU.  We were friends for three years before we started dating!

43 - My mom 'picked him out' before she knew I liked him.  After a concert, he came up to say hello, so I introduced him to my parents.  After he left, mom said "Hmmm...that was a nice boy...I like him a lot..."

44 - I worked as a Youth Minister in the tiny town of Midland, NC for two summers, and they were some of the best times of my life.

45 - I don't like coffee, wine, or spicy foods.  I'm a super-wimp.  If there's too much pepper on something, my lips burn.  You won't be finding any spicy fare on Much Ado About Somethin.  :)

46 - Music is a big part of my life.  Growing up, I took years of piano lessons and played handbells at church.  I started playing flute in the 6th grade and also took up the sax a few years later because I wanted to be in jazz band.  In high school, I had shoulder surgery and couldn't hold my flute, so I learned to play timpani and was a percussionist for a semester.  Later I joined the "winter percussion ensemble" and played marimba (badly).  In college I majored in flute.

47 - I never drew on my walls when I was small, but I did when I was in the 10th grade.

48 - I usually wake up 15 minutes before I need to leave the house.  If you've never seen my hair down, that's why.

49 - I could play card games for 100 hours and not be tired of it.  My favorites are Canasta and Pinochle.  I was RAISED playing spades.

50 - In college I bought at least 6 "Code Red" Mountain Dews, but only drank about 3 sips from each.  What a waste of money.

Whew...that was a lot.

5 people just wasn't enough to tag - even if you weren't, I hope to see 50 things about YOU!

Frozen Watermelon Lemonade

Last weekend I had a delicious drink at Not Your Average Joe's - a Frozen Watermelon Lemonade!  It pretty much sums up summer, doesn't it?

I liked it so much I decided to try to remake it here at home.  It's cool and refreshing, and the watermelon is a great addition to regular lemonade.  Even though it hasn't been super hot here in Boston, I know the heat's coming, and this will be the perfect thing to cool you down.  It's also really easy to make - just 3 ingredients!

Ingredients (for 1 tall glass)

1.5 cups lemonade (I used Nantucket Nectars)

1 cup frozen watermelon cubes

3-5 ice cubes

Directions

Cut watermelon into small cubes and freeze until hard (several hours).  Remove as many seeds as you can before you freeze!

Add ingredients to blender.  You can add more or less ice to get the desire "freeziness".  I ended up using 3.  

Don't want to use a blender?  Try just adding frozen watermelon to your lemonade as ice cubes!

Also, as promised, I'm announcing the winner of Thursday's Bag Giveaway.  I used Random.org's generator and when picking a number between 1 and 18, it picked 1!  That means Sara from Forever and a Recipe is the winner!  Sara - I'll be in touch - congrats!  If you didn't win, you can purchase The Grocer bag online if you'd like.

Stay cool!

Some of my new favorite things + a GIVEAWAY!

Today's a blog milestone - it's my first giveaway!!  I'm also going to share a few of my new favorite things with you.  Check'em out!

Alexander McCall Smith's series of books, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series has made me excited about reading again.  My mom gave me the first book in this series several years ago.  A few months ago I picked it up and decided to give it a shot, and have since fallen in love with Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.  Mma Ramotswe decides to use her inheritance to open up Botswana's first detective agency, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

The book is about life in Africa and the cases Mma Ramotswe and her assistant, Mma Makutsi, work on.  The characters and writing are so sweet, and I often find myself chuckling to myself as I'm reading.  I just finished the fifth book and ordered 6 and 7 online earlier this week.  I'm hooked.




I'm kind of in love with my new grocery bag.  I love bags (I think I got that from my mother), and I especially love reusable grocery bags.  When we first moved to Boston and I saw the $1 reusable bags at Shaw's, I bought 4 almost every time I went to the store.  We had 25-30 in no time, and Travis put a firm "do not buy any more" order on me.  They were coming out our ears.  These worked fine, but eventually the bottoms broke, things always got jumbled, and the bags often slid around in the back of my CRV.

A few weeks ago someone from The Grocer sent me one of their reusable bags to try out.  It has a hard bottom that snaps into place, and the sides have metal bars that keep the bag from tipping over in the back of your car.  When you're not using it, fold it flat so it doesn't take up much room in your trunk.  It also has removable straps that you can use as handles, an over-the-shoulder strap, or as a backpack.  Brilliant.

The only thing I'd like to see added are more cute colors!  Right now they come in red, green, and grey which are nice.  I think it would be awesome to see some pretty polka dots or stripes.

Now for the fun part!!!  The fantastic people at The Grocer have agreed to give one of these handy bags away to a Much Ado reader.  Just leave your name and a comment below to enter, and I'll find a winner using random.org.  (The winner must reside in the US.)  Check back Monday, June 17th to see who the winner is!


If you read my blog about flatbread pizzas a few weeks ago, you know I'm now a big fan of Flat Outs.  They're 90 calories per wrap and are delicious.

You can use them to make wraps (obviously), flatbread pizzas like we did, or burritos, or quesadillas.  Mmmmm....

I really like Trader Joe's version of Fruit Roll-Ups.  They're 50 calories each and are organic and super sweet.  My favorite is the Apple Blueberry kind...YUM.

My Trader Joe's has these up at the register.  Just don't mistake them for another kind of 'fruit leather' floating around the store...those are gross.  :)

Sunday, my parents and I went to Not Your Average Joe's in Watertown for dinner.  The weather was perfect, so we sat outside and enjoyed our food.  Before dinner, their new summer drinks caught my eye and I excitedly ordered their Frozen Watermelon Lemonade.  Sounds like summer in a glass, doesn't it?  It was SO good.

I actually picked up some watermelon yesterday and am going to try to recreate it at home.  Fingers crossed it works out well, and I'll be sharing the recipe with YOU!

I'm also into DietBet.com.  (I mentioned it before in my blog about losing weight.)  When my friend Ann read the blog, she decided to start her own diet bet, so of course I joined!

I'm a little torn in this time around doing a bet with friends.  You want your friends to do well...but if everyone loses weight, you don't make money!  (haha) I'm fine with just getting my $25 back if everyone's getting healthy!  Whoop!


Ok...now...leave a comment below (don't forget your name) to be entered to win the bag!  The winner will be announced in my Monday blog, so check back!

What are some of your favorite new finds?

*I was provided a free reusable grocery bag from The Grocer to review, but all opinions are my own!

Essex, Halibut Point State Park, and The Lobster Pool

I'm so far behind.  I can't believe I haven't told you all about the other half of our Memorial Day weekend.  Sunday, Travis and I decided to see a little more of Cape Ann, Massachusetts' north shore area.  We LOVE Cape Ann and have spent a lot of time in Gloucester, Rockport, and Newburyport. One place we hadn't gone before was Essex..so we decided this would be a great time to go explore!

Essex is a super cute sea-side town that is a big ship building hub.  Almost 4,000 wooden ships were built here!  There are lots of antique stores, cute shops, and shipyards to wander around.  We love to go antiquing, so of course we spent a few hours sifting through several of the stores.  One of the stores had some old pictures with holes cut where the faces used to be...which we had a great time with...you'll see evidence below.

A really cool metal clarinet!

After that, we stopped by the shipbuilding museum and walked around for a while.

As we were finishing up at the shipbuilding museum, it started to rain, so we jumped in the car for cover.  I'd talked to my friend Bailey a few days before, and her boyfriend Dave had some great suggestions for other places to see on Cape Ann.  We decided to take one of his suggestions and spend the rest of the day at Halibut Point State Park in Rockport.  He also suggested we get there via Route 127, so like good little listeners, we took off for destination #2!  He was 100% right - it was a beautiful, windy road that takes you through little towns along the coast.  We decided to go straight to Halibut Point...but vowed to double back later to check out some of the beautiful overlooks.

Halibut Point is at the tip of Rockport, MA and has stunning views.  On a clear day, you can see the coast of New Hampshire and Maine!  There are lots of paths that lead you around an old granite quarry, down along the rocky coast, and up to a tall visitors center.

After we'd seen most of Halibut Point, we decided to have dinner at The Lobster Pool.  Our friends Tyson and Kelly introduced us to this gem a few years ago on a group day trip.  The Lobster Pool is a cute red building along Route 127 and is nestled in a rocky cove.  The food is fantastic...and it's a super laid-back place to eat.  You can either eat inside, or out back on one of the picnic tables scattered across their lawn.  When the sun goes down, the owner makes a bonfire and brings out ingredients for S'mores.  Last time we were there, they had crafts for kids (decorate oyster shells) and guitar and other instruments laying around.

The front

The back.  Can you find us?

Then, as promised, we stopped by several of the scenic overlooks/beaches on the drive back.  The first was Folly's Cove.

Then we went to Plum Cove Beach where there was some crazy person in the water.  It may have been Memorial Day weekend...but it was a COLD 52 degrees and windy!

Then we turned out sites toward home.  One the way we passed a house covered in lobster buoys that I loved.  Such great colors!

The next day we went to Kennebunkport - read more about it!