Weekend getaways to a new city are one of the things the hubs and I are starting to do more of. Luckily for us, we live in Syracuse and we have the luxury of few a metropolitan cities within 4-5 hours driving distance. Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Montreal and Toronto are all within about 5-6 hours drive. Last September, we took a quick trip to explore Toronto for the weekend. It was a new-to-us city and we loved every bit that we saw and ate.

(more…)

The post Travel Bites: The Best Sweets in Toronto appeared first on A Classic Twist.

Are you planning a trip to New Orleans soon? Is NOLA on your bucket list? If it’s not, it needs to be. It’s an AMAZING foodie city with a rich cultural history.

I visited NOLA a few weeks ago with a group of girlfriends. My college roommate turned 30 and wanted a girl’s trip to celebrate and we decided to spend a long weekend eating our way through the city. The food was our only agenda and eat we did. Here are a few of the favorite places we brunched, sipped and dined at.

(more…)

The post Travel Bites: NOLA Eats appeared first on A Classic Twist.

It’s been a while since I did one of these Beyond the Oven posts and figured I should update you on things beyond the recipes I share. To be honest though winters and I don’t get along and in my opinion they are for hibernating and cooking comfort foods. Thus, I’ve hardly done anything beyond my kitchen and couch. Until three weekends ago when I decided to thaw out in the sun in Orlando, Florida at Walt Disney World Resort! It’s the best place to seriously thaw out 🙂

(more…)

The post Travel Bites: Walt Disney World appeared first on A Classic Twist.

Last weekend I packed my bags and big girl camera to attend my first blogging conference, The Big Harvest Potluck, in Bucks County Pennsylvania. To say I was super excited and nervous to meet all these amazing bloggers is an understatement. But all my fears were put to rest as I arrived at the Friday night meet-and-greet with Allie, Alice and Connie. It was as if I was at a family reunion…except I was not related to anyone. Yet, everyone was a friend. It was a night of making new friends, meeting ‘old’ friends and connecting with like-minded foodies over cocktails and some of the best pizzas I’ve had.

The rest of the weekend was just that; focused on connecting with each other. Sharing laughs, stories, experiences and how we make it all work. Our passion for food and writing was a given but our personal perspectives to what we do were all unique and the inspiring speakers and workshops urged us to tell our stories through our recipes.

It was not a usual conference. There were no lessons on how to increase your Facebook following, or SEO tips or food trends. No booths with sponsors and brands for pitches and networking. Instead we were inspired. Inspired to cook from the heart. Inspired to photograph a meal we shared with a friend casually and capture the emotions of the moment through the plate, inspired to question the source of our pork (or beef), inspired to grow and eat our vegetables in season and inspired to write about food in a whole different way.

(Kitchenaid Ice Cream break)

(Left to Right: Me, Hip Foodie Mom, URBAN BAKES, Baking a Moment)

(Lunch on the beautiful grounds of Burpee Gardens with Joanne, Mallory and Jen) 

(Finally got to meet and spend time with Joanne!!)

(I DID get into this bad boy for the first time ever and it was pretty amazing. Even though it was tethered!)

It was not a food blogging conference in the traditional sense, it was a family reunion. One that I look forward to attending again next year.

____________

This event will not be possible without the wonderful organizers, speakers and sponsors. THANK YOU for an experience of a lifetime.

– Three Many Cooks: Pam Anderson, Maggie and Sharon; Chris Thornton and Erika – thank you for the amazing experience and making sure everyone had a great time.

– Thank you to our sponsors: Gourmet Garden, Sabra, KitchenAid, OXO, Burpee, Kerrygold, Anolon, and Terra Chips for supporting this wonderful event!

– The inspiring speakers: Barry Estabrook, Cheryl Sternman Rule, Karen Thornton and the dynamic duo of The Canal House Christopher and Melissa.

The post BEYOND THE OVEN: Big Harvest Potluck appeared first on A Classic Twist.

This was my first trip to Boston and I was very excited to finally make it there.  Even though I was in the outskirts of the city for a whole week at a conference, I was unable to do anything until the hubby came down over the weekend. We had two days jam-packed with so many things to do, see and most importantly EAT!

We spent our first afternoon exploring the famous Newbury Street! Packed with restaurants, bakeries and stores, it was the perfect place to spend an afternoon. I stopped by Sweet Bakery and Georgetown Cupcakes before hitting Anthropologie and causing some serious damage to my credit card 🙂

Later that evening, I met up with one of my long time blogging friends Meghan from Spoonful of Flour. And by long time I mean, she has always been supportive and here since the baby stages of Blahnik Baker. It was so nice to finally meet her in person.

Being a baker herself, she gave me a tour of her favorite bakeries downtown. We visited the popular Mike’s Pastry shop where I grabbed a pistachio cannoli. Rumor has it they are the best in town. (And I can confirm!!)

We went next to Modern Bakery just down the road, where I again indulged in a cannoli. This trip quickly became a cannoli taste testing. Meghan made me 🙂 One of her favorite cupcake bakeries is Lulu’s Sweet Shoppe and I LOVED their nutella cupcake. Downed it in less than 2 minutes as we sat down at a park to chat. I felt like I knew her already. Now I just want to move to Boston and hang out with her all the time.

Once I said bye to Meghan, I spent the rest of the weekend with a girlfriend who lives in Boston. We stayed in the first night hanging out and catching up since it’s been over a year since we last saw each other.

The next day we started our day-long adventure of the city at a cute diner in Somerville where we had an incredible brunch. Mr J is a history buff and wanted to only do things along that line. I wasn’t exactly all keen on his agenda. My agenda was all bakeries, take in beautiful architecture while eating cupcakes and more bakeries. So we had to reach a compromise. Instead of spending a beautiful day inside museums, we walked the Freedom Trail. Taking us through historic sites in the city (a win for him) and a walk through the city with sights and hopefully some bakeries on the way (win for me!).

A cakery on the trail (Holy Macarons!!!)

Of course we have to try the macarons!

Another detour

Back on track

But then a farmers market on the way got us off the trail for good. I was excited to finally get some fresh figs (we don’t have them at our farmer’s markets here in Upstate NY) and loaded up. Recipes coming your way soon.

After all those hours of walking, we were all exhausted by dinner time. We had dinner at PJ Ryan’s in Somerville where I had the best pineapple lime cocktail. I was in love and had to make it this weekend at home (Instagram photo) and it was also the source of inspiration of some pineapple lime mini bundt cakes coming your way this week!!!

All and all it was a very great first trip to Boston!! It was unfortunately very short (less than 48 hours) and we did not have enough time to do much outside of downtown and a few bakeries. Just more reason to come back soon. But before we hit the road, we had a final brunch at the famous Flour Bakery! The doughnuts and croissants are freaking AMAZING!!

On that note…visit Boston!!

The post Travel Bites: Visiting Boston for the First Time appeared first on A Classic Twist.