Category — Little Bits

In my holiday baking frenzy I also had to supply pick-up desserts for my mother’s 80th birthday party. The Queen Mum’s surprise party guest list ages ranged from 80+ down to less than 1 month old, with grandkids of all ages sure to begin their dinner with the dessert table.

What to bake for the kids….Cake Pops!

Cake Pops are everywhere these days: they are bite sizes cupcakes (the size of a donut hole) on a stick. The original recipe called for baking a cake or brownies, crumbling it up, mixing it with frosting, cream cheese, or some other binder, and shaping it into a ball. Too messy, too much work.

But on one of my weekly shopping trips to Bed Bath and Beyond I discovered the Bake Pop pan: just pour cake batter into the pan, cover with the lid pan, bake and decorate! $19.95 – $5 coupon. Done!

I bought the pan, 1 box of chocolate cake mix and 1 box of yellow cake mix, and followed the directions on the Bake Pop can for mixing the batter (slightly different from cake batter directions: extra egg).  Followed the directions, et voila! cake pops!

Now to decorate. The Bake Pop pans come with 18 sticks, but that’s no fun! I decided to make my cake pops with edible sticks: pretzels sticks. Now to find the right pretzels sticks. Traditional pretzel sticks are too thin, pretzel twists were too short and too thin. Then at my favorite Trader Joe’s I discovered Trader Joe’s Honey Wheat Pretzel Sticks: not too thick, not too thin; not too short, not too long: perfect!

Next, the assembly: I used a chopstick to poke a hole in each cake pop. Then, I melted some white chocolate. I dipped an end of each pretzel stick in the melted white chocolate, then inserted it into the cake pop hole. I refrigerated 10 minutes to harden, then continued making the cake pops.

I’m not a great cake decorator, so I decided to go with the easy tuxedo-style chocolate candy covered cake pops. I dipped each cake pop (in the stick) into the melted white chocolate, almost up to the pretzel. I let the excess chocolate drip off, then set the cake pop to harden on a silpat mat for about 30 minutes.

Next, I melted some semi-sweet chocolate chips. I dipped each cake pop into the chocolate at a 45° angle first on one side of the cake pop, then the other, and set it again to rest on the silpat mat. Voila! Each cake pop decorated tuxedo-style with a white shirt and black tux.

Moi Tip: I considered but then decided against flavoring each cake pop before inserting the pretzel stick: after making the hole with the chopstick, add a few drops of liqueur such as Cointreau or Frangelico; or a pump of flavored syrup (I liked Torani’s Caramel Syrup). Try making your cake pops with a flavor: and let me know.

Moi Tip Encore: this would be a great baking project with your kids!

Bonne fête, Maman!

I’m highly competitive, and love word games so I’ve been a Scrabble addict since I was a kid. When we lived in Paris I bought the Scrabble version Francaise to help expand my French vocabulary, but never mastered French spelling so stopped playing that game. Moi husband and kids have refused to play Scrabble with me for years. Now with Moi iPhone and iPad I’m a Words With Friends addict: I have simultaneous games going with a young mother in England, a Marine in California, a Canadian in France, and countless sisters, nieces and nephews, and friends across the US: even my daughter will play WWF with me. I play in bed, in the car, on buses and train, in planes with WiFi, in line at Target (and to the annoyance of TBG at the dinner table, while watching TV, and anytime or place I can sneak a peak at my iPhone.)So while searching for the perfect birthday gift for a young friend turning 10 this month I bought him Bananagrams: sort of a free-form Scrabble/cross-word game. For 2-8 players aged 7-97. I’m ensuring I’ll be playing WWF for years to come! Completely portable and with its own case it’s perfect for home or on the road. $14.95  Fruits games also available: Appletters and Pairs in Pears.

Friend me on WWF!

After a morning of shopping, we bid adieu to Paris with a cruise on the Seine, followed by a nighttime visit to admire le Tour Eiffel sparkling in all her glitter.

Wandering the banks of the Seine with warm, runny crepes oozing with nutella (for la fille) or fromage (Omaha bff J and Moi), we chose Bateaux Parisiens for our cruise, because it was right in front of us and ready to depart.

Then at 10pm, as the late Paris dusk settled on us, a final nutella crepe to bid à bientôt to Paris, the City of Light, under the Eiffel Tower lights.

Á la prochaine!

Friday I made a field trip to Chelsea to personally check-out the much hyped Limelight Marketplace: a former Episcopal church turned trendy and exclusive Gothic nightclub, now reincarnated as a bubble-gum bright and squeaky clean mini-mall whose doors are open to everyone. Calling themselves New York’s Festival of Shops, squeaky clean is definitely the image they’re trying to project.

All the PR is paying off: open just  a week, and Limelight was packed with trendy New Yorkers and tourists.

Limelight definitely has the cool factor: the developers kept many of the original architectural details: stained glass windows, swooping stone archways, dark and hidden stairways. [Read more →]

Forget the t-shirt: I’ve discovered the perfect souvenir gift: small, inexpensive, and comes in all sizes and colors: Socks!

A recent weekend in Vermont yielded these adorable moose themed sockies for my favorite 2 year old niece and nephew. I even bought a pair in xlarge for one of our fave guy friends celebrating his 56th!

My trip to Holland found me wearing these hot pink delft socks

Guests visiting me in NYC love to take home these subway map patterned socks

One of my favorite gift shops is Little Miss Matched, where I can find colorful, mismatched 3-to-a-pair socks for kids of every age: and even little coin purses made out of socks

A perfect baby shower gift is this adorable boxed set of Trumpettes

And of course, what would a Notre Dame fan do without a pair of Go Irish socks

Who Knew? Sock it to me!

Moi attended a black tie at the Waldorf last week (I like to keep mentioning that…it makes me happy!) and one of Moi table companions was an UES Mom who was lamenting the problems of tracking down some cute Little Bit togs by Stella McCartney for GapKids and BabyGap.  As I wasn’t in Little Bit shopping mode at that particular moment (my delectable trio des chocolats was being served) I sort of drifted through her trials, until I realized that the problem was this collection is in short supply!

Just arriving in Gap stores last week perfectly timed for the holiday season, not every store carries the Stella GapKids collection: it’s only in select stores, in limited quantities. How’s that for creating demand:  designer to the stars (Stella McCartney is regularly seen on gal-pals Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore, and Madonna), young mother of 3, environmentalist, celebrity since birth (surely you’ve heard of Paul McCartney hint: Beatles! and wife Linda hint: animal rights activist and vegetarian cookbook author) and lots of PR in all the fashion and celebrity mags!

The collection follows the designer’s aesthetics:

• mini-me, of the moment styling with leggings, military jackets, winter shorts, hi-tops and hoodies
• vegetarian and organic conviction: no leather or fur products
• high-moderate prices starting at $14 for leggings up to $98 for jackets and dresses

On-line or or at a Gap store near you…if you’re lucky! Better hurry, this stuff is too cute and Mommies everywhere will be snatching it up…rumour has it Angelina has already stocked up!

Halloween is Saturday and the streets will be filled with spooky creatures, fairy princesses, super heros, pirates and every kind of sports and action and cartoon character.

pink satin elephant ears

What’s your Little Bit wearing?

Sunday was Trick or Treat on Southport with shop-to-shop trick or treating and face painting, pumpkin decorating, and lots of games and prizes (and a few cocktails were served for the double-wide stroller pushers). Two of my favorite little party animals strutted their Halloween costumes for the crowds and the cameras.

little panda with shiny red shoes

Baby K’s adorable elephant bunting  for newborns from Annie’s Costumes had pink satin ears big enough to carry her off in a Windy City gust, and her big sister niece M had a panda outfit from Baby Ultimate perfectly set off by her ruby red Dorothy shoes.

Be warned: Saturday these two little tricksters will be full of tricks if you don’t have your treats ready!

                                                                                                                                                       …this photo cracked me up, so I had to include it too, don’t you just love them!

party animals - ready to crash

I’m suuuuuurrrrrrrre they want you to have a little more cover up, but Yummy Mummy on Lexington in NYC is showing it can be REALLY convenient to breast feed your Little Bit.

These peek-a-boos make it really easy to breast feed!

New baby girl niece arrived last week…need a tres chic baby gift. Headed to Bloomies childrens’ department, and checked out Tori Spelling’s new baby clothes line, Little Maven. Tres cute! A little expensive, but for a Tori fan like my sister,  a dress from Little Maven was a sure thing…gotta be the cool aunt.

The best thing about buying the dress at Bloomies is that my sister lives in Chicago…and can exchange the dress if necessary. Gotta love Bloomingdales!

baby K's new dress