Boston Archives - One Hundred Dollars a Month

Maria’s Pastry Shop – Boston – Save the Bakeries

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By Mavis Butterfield on October 5, 2017 · 4 Comments

While we were in Boston last month the HH and I checked out Maria’s Pastry Shop in the North End. Many of you had mentioned the bakery after I wrote about Mike’s Pastry and so we made sure to add it to our list this time around.

Maria’s truly is an old fashioned and very traditional bakery that’s been in business since 1982. In fact it’s just the type of bakery I was hoping to find for my Save the Bakeries series this year when I started my goal of trying to find 52 real bakeries. I came across this video and I loved it. I think it pretty much sums up her personality.

When we visited the bakery there was a tour group in the store {which is actually common in the North End} but we were able to make our way to the counter quickly and place our order.

When I was a kid one of my all time favorite things my grandmother made was Guandi. And I didn’t know it was called that until I saw it sitting on the shelf at Maria’s {and it was a total bittersweet moment let me tell you}. It’s basically fried egg dough with powered sugar. When my grandmother made it {which was usually around Christmas} the crispy dough was drizzled with a little honey and a few sprinkles of powdered sugar. As a kid who didn’t eat a bunch of sweets {or rather didn’t have access to them}, I pretty much thought it was the greatest thing ever.

The HH ordered a connoli. And said it was the best one he’s ever had.

I went home with a bag of the best almond biscotti on the planet. My intention was to gift it to my mother. But, well, 48 hours later I had eaten nearly the entire bag of biscotti and so she only got two pieces. 😉

Seriously, this place rocks. It feels like home and the food is simple and yet so amazing. We’ll be back. That’s for sure.

~Mavis

Got a sweet tooth? You can check out all the bakeries we’ve visited so far this year HERE.

Maria’s Pastry Shop
46 Cross Street
The North End
Boston, MA 02113

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Mike’s Pastry in Boston, Massachusetts

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 6, 2017 · 5 Comments

Our first experience with Mike’s Pastry was about 4 years ago when we were in town for the Boston Marathon. We stumbled upon the store after seeing several people walking around with their signature pastry boxes and decided to give them a try.

When we got the the store the line was out the door so we knew the place must be good. We each selected a cannoli and ate them in a nearby park. They were Ah-Mazing. So good in fact that we couldn’t stop talking about them for the rest of our trip.

So when The Girl and I knew our spring break trip would take us to the big city again, we made sure Mike’s Pastry was on our list for our Save the Bakeries Tour.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the fact that more bakeries are offering “slices” and more single servings these days. Growing up, cookies and doughnuts were about the only thing you could buy individually at a bakery. If you wanted a cake or a pie, you had to buy the whole thing.

Their fig cookies though… oh my word they are like nothing you’ve ever tasted before. I’m totally going to ask Santa for a dozen of them this Christmas… Seriously, you have to try the fig cookies if you go the Mike’s Pastry. The filling is so moist and the cookie part is spot on.

This is the box of pastries we brought to my friend Heather’s house for dessert: Cheesecake, Boston creme pie, chocolate cake, amaretto cannoli, ricotta pie, tiramisu, and a slice of rum cake. The cheesecake didn’t have your traditional bottom… instead the base layer was a thin bit of vanilla cake {divine!} and the chocolate cake was the best one I’ve ever tasted in my life.

I think I may have told Heather that if they sold a chocolate cake lotion or bubble bath I would have totally bought it. SO GOOD!!! And the ricotta pie? Crazy good. I want to try and recreate it so the HH can have a taste.

It’s not a trip to Boston without a stop at Mike’s Pastry. Seriously. You’ve got to go there.

~Mavis

Mike’s Pastry
300 Hanover Street
Boston, MA 02113

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My Favorite Photos From the Boston Garden Show

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 28, 2017 · 31 Comments

Last friday my buddy Heather from Massachusetts and I took our girls into the big city for the Boston garden show. It wasn’t as big as the Northwest Flower and Garden Show we have up here in Seattle, but there was still plenty to see.

Seriously. How cute is this packet of Mexican sour gherkin seeds from Hudson Valley Seed company? Their packets are so adorable I wanted to snatch up one of each. But at $3-$4 a pop… a little self control was needed. But seriously. How cute is that packet!?

A six foot long horse trough planted with flowers and vegetables…. another winner. Our troughs are only about 3 feet wide. If I had the space I’d totally get the bigger ones and have towers of pumpkins and other squash growing from them.

One day, when I bust out of here and have a small barn or a sugar shack…. I’m totally going to get a copula like this. Seriously, what is it about whale weathervanes that make them so cool to look at? And the copper top. It’s going to have a beautiful patina in a year or two.

Wouldn’t a bunch of these glass blown jellyfish look dreamy hanging from a kitchen bay window with the light shining in?

Ahh the tiny house. For the longest time The Girl thought she might want to build a tiny house and live in one. Until last weekend when she toured the inside of one. 😉

The asking price on this particular tiny house was $55,000.

I don’t know about you, but I think I’d be more afraid I’d fall out of bed and land on my head in the middle of the night {or that the thing might blow away} than anything else.

Or that a small kitchen fire might burn the whole place down before I could get out. It was cute though, but I’d need something a little more substantial.

What is this type of lacework called? Anyone know? Isn’t it pretty?

I totally took the brochure for the glass greenhouse.

And isn’t this red woodstove dreamy? Those of you with woodstoves…. what brand do you own? Vermont Castings and Jotul woodstoves are the only ones I’m familiar with. The red and cream ones are my favorite. Do you love yours? Does owning a wood stove save you a ton of money on your heating bill in the winter?

Well, that’s it for now. Have a great Tuesday everyone,

~Mavis

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The John F Kennedy Presidential Library – Boston, Massachusetts

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 23, 2016 · 17 Comments

After our stop at the Dorr Mill Store in New Hampshire, and while on our way to that ocean front cottage on Cape Cod, The Girl and I decided to check out the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts.

And let me tell you Bob, I’m so glad we did.

In recent years, I’ve visited the Richard Nixon Presidential Library as well as the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum and it has been a fun way to learn more about our presidents.

For instance, did you know JFK’s wasn’t that great of a student and his teachers gave him a C- in public speaking? I had no idea.

Campaign buttons. I’ve seen a few of these pop up in antique stores over the years but it was the first time I had seen the little P.T. boat lapel pins.

During the campaign if you sent in a donation you could get one in the mail. Now days, you can just buy them on Amazon.

Kennedy campaign dresses.

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE looking at old garments. The quality was so much better back then and I was surprised the wool felt sashes were in such great shape for being 56 years old. I wonder if the letters were cut by hand?

One of the things I really liked about how the JFK Presidential library was set up was all the little storefronts depicting the time period in which he ran for the presidency. This one of course was a mock set up of campaign headquarters.

This appliance store was a hoot. I can remember my grandparents having those same bedside clocks, coffee pots, record player and even that brass starburst clock on the wall in their kitchen.

A few other places in the library were set up as a stage for an actual event that took place with video monitors. This of course was from the famous Kennedy/Nixon debate.

Walter Cronkite’s desk on election night.

Various rooms were also set up with gifts and famous events that happened at the White House during Kennedy’s time there. Unfortunately I didn’t get too many pictures in this area {even though there were just a handful of people in this area at the time} because there was a man talking loudly on his cell phone THE ENTIRE time talking to his realtor and it was incredibly distracting.

C’mon, who does that?

The oval office.

One thing I thought was super cool, was that there was also a room set up as Robert Kennedy’s office {the Attorney General}. They replicated it down to a T.

Including the drawing made by his daughter Courtney. The drawing was laminated and taped to the door. Which made me wonder if was an actual drawing she had made for her father.

Does anyone know for sure?

If you are ever in Boston, stop by and take a look around because it was totally worth the $14 ticket price. Just remember to turn off your cell phone before you go in. 😉

Have you been to any presidential libraries? Do you have a favorite?

~Mavis

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
Columbia Point, Boston, MA 02125
(617) 514-1600

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