We catered an art opening yesterday, a group show called “Lady”, at the Charles Nolan store in the Meatpacking District. Mark made mini chocolate cupcakes with dulce de leche cream cheese frosting and our lemon lavender cupcakes, as well as some brownies and shortbread cookies, cut into mini rounds. Hope you had a good opening, ladies!

You know the scene in Close Encounters, when he’s playing with the mashed potatoes. That’s me, except with marshmallows - stacking, restacking, arranging and rearranging. Seriously, how many times can I photograph a marshmallow? I think this is my best work yet, however, and I’m considering doing a series of marshmallow photos as art prints. So what are these? We finally found a beer that works quite well with the marshmallow, Fort Collins Chocolate Stout, and the result is quite interesting. I can’t quite describe the flavor, but it does have a distinct flavor that doesn’t make you feel like you’re, well…eating a beer marshmallow. In fact, I think it gets better with age. They’re going to go into our Father’s Day gift boxes. And this below? That’s brittle - Cashew Cocoa Nib Chipotle Brittle. That will also be in the gift box as well. Look for them in all our stores.

Ok, I never thought about rice krispie treats until a few people inquired about them, and then I did that poll on twitter where everyone was “duh, of course you should sell them”, so after one miserably failed attempt a few weeks ago, Mark made a batch that came out crispy, a bit chewy, and light and dense at the same time. I can’t remember the last time I’ve eaten a rice krispy treat - I’ve always thought of them as sticky sweet things that I didn’t much like, but I am a convert now.

We’ll most likely have some for sale tomorrow at the Flea so swing on by.

Everyone needs to have leftover birthday cake in the house at all times. Mark tried a cream cheese buttercream frosting for the first time. The flavor was great, but a bit hard to pipe, so it needs a bit of work, but it sure is tasty. Did everyone have a great Saturday? It was like summer here in NY! Mark was at the Flea, but I was with the girls all day, who spent several hours outside digging in the dirt with sticks and pushing ants around. When Mark got home, we took a little family walk at sundown, something we’d like to do every evening in nice weather.

Mark told me that there were quite a few twitter followers who wondered where I was. Although I would have loved to have been there, the Flea is all Mark’s. Remember the last time I brought the kids to the flea? I vowed never to do it again.

Did you know that M&Ms come in gray (gray!!), dark blue, lavender, purple and turquoise? We went to Dylan’s Candy Bar in the mall in the burbs over the weekend (yeah, I know, the mall!) and saw the full range of colors. The gray just about killed me.

So we told the girls that they can pick just one thing at the candy store and can you guess what they picked? I LOVE that out of the whole store, they chose the smallest lollipops as their special treat. They weren’t tempted by Pez, peeps, chocolate bunnies, large suckers or even these M&Ms. They just went for the tiniest Dum Dum lollipops and were totally happy as clams. We’ve trained them well, ha! Most people assume that the girls have real sweet tooths and that they probably eat a lot of cookies. They do love sugar (they ARE kids), but we’ve kept a tight reign on the sweet stuff to the point where I feel like we’re sugar nazis at times. No juice, except at parties, and the occasional cookie or ice cream, but certainly not everyday.

Aside from the fact that they just don’t need all that sweet stuff, the real reason behind the sugar stinginess is because we don’t have dental insurance. If cavities are preventable to any degree, then I’m going to make sure that the girls are good brushers, flossers and moderate sugar consumers. I know from first hand experience how much dental work can be and I was once reduced to tears when handed a bill at the dentist. I’ve got a mouth full of cavities, almost all of which I got under 10 years old and most of which I got filled without any novacaine. Needless to say, I’d love to spare the girls and my wallet that headache.

Our friends Shii Ann and her daughter Bea just dropped by with leftover cupcakes from her 2 year old birthday party. They stored surprisingly well over the weekend. And you know what? Sometimes, store bought cupcake mixes and frosting really hit the spot.

I guess we are embracing all that is cute, pink and sweet with these vanilla marshmallow hearts, flavored with a subtle hint of rose. They are starting to make their appearance in all of our online stores and are impossibly cute and soft looking in a cup of hot cocoa/tea/coffee. Stay tuned for more Valentine’s Day goodness.

If you’re in Brooklyn, swing on by the Brooklyn Flea today and get some freshly made homemade smores. Mark with be there with his blow torch toasting them up right as you order. These open-faced smores, a recipe and presentation that he’s played with for years, are made up of 3 layers: graham crust, a cinnamon chocolate truffle, and freshly made cinnamon marshmallows…yum!!

Update: great day at the Flea. Sold out of the smores, hot spiced white chocolate, pumpkin ginger sandwiches and whisky sandwiches, hooray!