whilst recently wandering the streets of williamsburg in brooklyn, searching out independent retailers who have a point of difference, something out of the norm to say, we stumbled quite delightfully and unexpectedly across a chocolate shop. but this was no ordinary chocolate shop. as we opened the doors to this store we weren’t quite prepared for the intense smell that was about to hit us. it was epic, like something i have never smelt before. pure chocolate. this was no shop or store, this was a real life chocolate factory. the chocolate factory of the mast brothers, rick and michael mast, bearded food-loving pioneers from primghar, iowa, what a find.
getting in our halloween groove
so yesterday our halloween prep started, when mr HPMcQ brought home a pumpkin. we got our carve on. however this just wetted ronnie’s appetite for more halloween preparations and he wanted even more pumpkins, so when he’d gone to bed i popped out and snuck two more into the living room, ready as a surprise in the morning.
cut the crap
have you ever had that moment when you are reading something, and you can’t quite believe what you are reading? you then carry on reading and it just gets more and more ridiculous? well this happened this morning
i was reading a story about a man called tony wild. 22 years ago he discovered a very rare coffee, which was uniquely smooth with a musky flavour which came from it’s very strange source. this coffee is called kopi luwark, it is a indonesian coffee.
sizzle sizzle
barbecue’s, don’t you just love ’em? any excuse in our house. absolutely any excuse. doesn’t have to be a good one either! so when we are presented with a weekend where the weather is going to be floating around and abouts 30 degrees, a good friend is up from bristol for a sleepover and the weekend is finished with the bubbles popping over to say hello. a barbecue would be top of the list. so how timely that an email pops into my inbox, with talk of a competition. a barbecue competition. oh yes please, that’s right up the HPMcQs alley. as i said we love a barbecue in this house, we do. so here it is money supermarkets charcoal challenge, the ultimate barbecue for 50 quid. easy peasy lemon squeezy. here we go.
pear and mulled wine punch
as i said here, this evening we went to the white company’s christmas in july press show. whilst the nippers were down stairs cosied up in teepee’s in the cinema room, scoffing their tea, all the mummy’s were upstairs sipping gin punch and mulled win whilst decorating gingerbread men to get us into the festive spirit.