Things to See & Do in Boston

Now that it’s getting cold, I’m thinking about an icy drink in a frozen glass.  At least, that’s what we had when we bundled up in the cold at the Frost Ice Bar in Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace.  Kept at a cozy 32 degrees, guests are given heavy parkas and gloves to enjoy their time in the frozen hangout (boots can also be rented for an extra fee.)  Everything inside is made of ice, or really really cold plexiglass, and even the drinks, served in molded-ice “glasses,” are even a little frozen.  It was fun, in a why are we paying to be frozen but we’re on vacation why not kind of way.

Frost Ice Bar, Boston

If you’re going to Boston, here’s a few other stops to make in the city.

Eat, shop, and people watch at Faneuil Hall Marketplace.  I guess every city has it’s little tourist-y square and this is the one for Boston, complete with street performers who cajole you to give them a couple dollars to do magic tricks or dance.  But, as the tourist, you got to stop by.  Visit the market, especially if you love options for foodstands.  Down both sides of the market they’ve got everything from seafood, pizzas, pastas, to endless options for clam chowder.  (I've even worked on a recipe inspired by the made-for-you macaroni and cheese stand - Everybody's Favorite Mac & Cheese.)

 

Faneuil Hall Marketplace

Do the college tour.

Harvard Gates

Stop by Harvard for lunch.  Lunch trucks and a mini-farmers market line up on one of the squares at lunch time.  We enjoyed wraps, noodle dishes, hydrogen blasted ice cream, and cheesecake pops.

Go to MIT Science Museum.  This is a very cool science space. It’s MIT – what would you expect?  When we were there, an exhibit about gaming was on the entry level with various stations depicting how a video game is developed.  Two of my kids are in a magnet program at school and one of the courses is on programming and gaming.  Careful stepping here, this vacation trip could get really close to being school-related.  There were also exhibits on the evolution of robots, holograms, and kinetic machines.  I know – doesn’t sound like “vacation,” but really – it was fun.  And for $10/adult and $5 for kids, it's pretty reasonable as far as family-friendly stops go.

The college campuses =also turned out to be the city with three ice cream stops - Lizzy's, Churn, and Christina's (you can read more in this post on our ice cream tour.) 

Take a historic walking tour.  We all know Boston from American history class – Tea Party, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, Underground Railroad.  There’s a multitude of options focused on various stories of history and interests. We took the Black Heritage walking tour, which started at the monument to the 54^th Regiment, the Black regiment depicted in the movie, Glory.  The tour went past various houses which once were old churches, segregated and integrated schools, Underground Railroad stops, and meeting places during the abolition movement.

 

54th Regiment Memorial and recruiting sign

Visit the Old North Church.  You really cannot go to Boston and say “one if by land and two if by sea” if you passed American history class, so go to the church where the lanterns (there were two) were hung to signal that the British were coming.  Inside, the pews are still divided in boxes.  According to the tour guide, parishioners back in the day had to pay for a box so that they would have a pew in church, then they would decorate their box in whatever manner they would like – cushions, wallpaper and such reasonable decorations for a church.  In the balcony were the cheap seats, often paid for by the box owners so that their house staff could also attend church and have a seat. The tour guide said that is no longer the practice, although the boxes remain.

Old North Church - steeple and box pews

And of course, take time to walk around the city. Enjoy the the city hills and the beautiful parks, the old and new.  Let us know your favorite sites in the city.

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Everybody's Favorite Macaroni & Cheese

Busy days and hungry people result in the frantic question, “What’s for dinner?!”

When we were on our northeastern roadtrip, our stop in Boston landed us to Quincy Market with its rows of food stalls.  Think of any city food market – the options are endless. Sandwiches, pasta, pizza, then throw in the New England spin – fried oysters, fried clams, lobster rolls.  One of those stands was MMMac N' Cheese – a make to order macaroni and cheese shop.  They individually made servings of macaroni and cheese, with all kinds of meats and veggies added in, yes, like an omelet stand.  While the kids ordered their lunch, I watched to see how to make macaroni and cheese on the spot, to individual specifications.

Back at home, I tried it out. It’s so easy, it’s so fast, the kids loved it and declared that mine turned out just as good as the place in Boston. Now, any mom knows the “it takes just like the restaurant” is quite the compliment.  So here’s how to make what will be Everybody’s Favorite Macaroni & Cheese.

Ingredients

• Macaroni noodles (cooked)
• Shredded cheddar cheese plus a variety of your family’s other favorite (meltable) cheeses, shredded
• American cheeses, slices
• Half-and-half or milk (your preference, or whichever is in the fridge)
• Butter 
• Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning to taste

Fix-ins (all cooked)

Use whatever you’re family likes, it should be cooked and cut into small pieces.  You can cook it, buy it cooked, use last night’s leftovers, whatever works in your schedule.

• Meat suggestions: Ground beef, chopped chicken, chopped/cubed steak, chopped ham, chopped rotisseries chicken, crumbled bacon, shrimp, crabmeat, lobster
• Veggies suggestions: broccoli, spinach, chopped carrots, chopped tomatoes

To make it the quick, just ran in from work and after-school activities dinner, the key is to prep everything the night before, the morning of, or, if you work at home, on your lunch break.  On the other hand, if you’ve got time, you can prep it all just before you’re ready to cook.

You will be making single servings, so each person can choose their own cheeses and fix-ins.  Offer as many or as few options as you’d like.  Serve along with a salad and everyone can enjoy their salad while their macaroni and cheese to be cooked – no waiting.

Line all your ingredients up at the stove, ready to go, this moves fast like when making stir-fry.

1. Melt a pat of butter in a large frying pan.
2. Add 1 slice of American cheese.  Add ¼ cup cheddar cheese, plus ¼ cup of any other favorite cheese.  Add more shredded cheese, to taste.
3. Add about 1/8 c cream/milk.
4. Stir to keep cheese from burning, and add milk, if needed, until smooth and creamy.
5. Add Fix-ins (meat and veggies) to each person’s preference.  Season, to taste, if desired.  (If the meat is already seasoned, you may not need additional seasoning. But if you're doing an all veggie option, it might need a few shakes of something. Try a dash of Old Bay if going with a seafood option.)
6. Add ½ cup macaroni noodles and mix until noodles are fully covered in cheese and fix-ins.
7. Serve.
8. Start the next person’s dish.

Enjoy!

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Taking the Sweet Road - Our Ice Cream Tour

One thing our family agrees on is that we all like ice cream. A lot.  Enough so that one of our traveling rituals is to eat ice cream almost every day of our vacation.  (We also walk a lot on vacation, so it kinda balances.  Kinda.)

But we do have some criteria, we don’t stop at just any ole ice cream spot.  A few rules.

• We’re looking for fresh, home-/hand-made ice cream at independent shops, or at least ones don’t seem to be a big-name chain.
• Scoops have to be less than $4, as close to or below $3, if possible.  I’ve noticed some places now charge $4, $5, even $6 a scoop!  For us, that’s $30+ for dessert.  So we did pass up shops that may have fit the independent shop rule, but were too pricey.  I’d like to not break a $20 if possible.
• Good flavors, creative mixes.  Give me a scoop of coffee or chocolate ice cream and I’m pretty happy.  But I’ll definitely try one of those with some nuts or chocolate ripple mixed in.  The kids are cookie dough, birthday cake, mint connoisseurs.
• Exceptions can be made to these rules, as needed. 

On our recent roadtrip, we enjoyed scoops from these ice cream shops throughout New England.  And we did make one big exception - we ended up at a slightly larger ice cream shop – the Ben and Jerry’s Factory in Vermont.

Mr. Softee Truck – Brooklyn, NY

This may not really qualify as home-made ice cream, but we don’t get one of these trucks in our neighborhood too often and how can you pass up $2 soft ice cream cones?  Ice cream for the whole gang and friends for $12? We couldn’t let this truck roll by.

Dylan’s Candy Bar, Manhattan, NY

Okay, not your teeny mom & pop shop, but not a big chain either.  Upstairs, there’s an ice cream counter and candy bar, i.e. cocktails.  The kids got ice cream which they said was delicious! while my friend and I got candy cocktails. Her’s had Strawberry Nerds in it, mine had a rock candy swizzler. In the middle of walking through the city, this is a fun stop. Albeit, an expensive one. 

Boston turned out to be a big ice cream stop. Who knew?

Churn2 ice cream truck, Harvard Farmers’ Market (on campus)

This is the scientifically made ice cream.  Liquid nitrogen is blasted into a metal mixing bowl with fresh ingredients (milk, flavor, etc.) until it’s frozen.  Each order is made fresh while you watch. The results? Very creamy and that full, round mouth feel.  The process is supposed to make this less fat than regular ice cream, too.  This does, however, break the less than $4 rule. A scoop is $6.25; we got one to share because we just had to taste it.

Lizzy's Ice Cream – Harvard; Boston, MA

We found this teeny little shop while on our way to dinner, then had to make sure we were back before it closed because it looked really good.  Good decision.  I got the Colombia Fudge Avalanche – coffee ice cream with all chocolate and walnuts – which was really good; it was creamy, tasted like coffee, and full of the add-ins.  And the price was right – about $3 for a small scoop, which was really enough post-dinner. There was also a kiddie cone and an even smaller mini-cone.

Christina'sIce Cream – Cambridge, MA

The shop smells like Indian spices, presumably from shop next door (which may be owned by the same people).  It’s a pleasant smell, just not one you’d expect at an ice cream shop.  I got the Bailey’s ice cream, which was creamy, but didn’t really taste like Bailey’s, more like coffee with a whole lot of cream in it (which, by the way, is how I drink my coffee.)  The kids got birthday cake and mint.  The scoops were about $3 for a small.

And now, I'm so full - and hungry.  Let me go grab a bowl of coffee ice cream with some almonds sprinkled in and I'll get back to the rest of the list in part two of the ice cream tour.

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Take the History Tour

It's what makes kids moan about and fear whenever there's a family visit to the city. Any city. Any city with a museum or historical site or old church. Eventually, the parents are going to drag them to somewhere at which they will hear or (gasp!) read something that might be educational or cultural or the least bit intellectual.  They kids know it's coming, that moment when they'll be pulled into some exhibit that one day may be vaguely familiar when a teacher mentions it in class. And as parents, we feel the need to do this, to expose them to culture and history, because, well, just because.

 

We've done a pretty good balance of the historical and potentially educational sites while on vacation. We visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York City and the kids didn't complain. Whether that was because they were actually interested or knew that this site was something they should not complain about, they were respectful and questioning and exploring when we went.

 

In Boston, we walked the Black History Trail, starting with the 54th Regiment Monument.  Along the route, there were homes where various Black Americans once lived and hid runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad and held abolitionist movement meetings, the first colored school and the first integrated school in the city, the African Meeting House that served as church, community center, political meeting place, and school.  We made our way to the spot that Crispus Attucks died and the Old North Church where Paul Revere instructed the men to hang the lanterns (one if by land...) 

 

"Why do we have to go? It's so hot. All these hills!" The kids whined.

"Because it's important. This was where the Revolutionary War started.  And these people worked toward ending slavery.  You'll be able to talk about it in school," I said.

"We don't even learn about all this in school, we don't talk about slavery," they reported.

"Well, then that's even more reason why we're here. Keep walking." 

 

I knew they were going to complain.  I didn't expect that they would have the same excited reaction as when we went to the aquarium, which is just as educational, in a different way. These are the experiences and knowledge, however, to which we want to expose our children. Seeing the Boston harbor will illustrate the point when they learn about the Boston Tea Party.  Understanding that "Glory" wasn't just a movie (although a great one) emphasizes that there were real, live people willing to sacrifice their lives for future generations' freedom even when they weren't even considered full citizens themselves. And now, having made it to New England on vacation, driving, perhaps it's more evident how long a journey it is from a southern (slave) state to a northern free state, and the distance people were willing to walk to escape slavery; and then there's the poster hanging in the museum, warning Bostonians about a law that would allow slave catchers to capture Blacks and take them back to the south as slaves, whether they were free or runaway slaves.  That may or may not come up in the history lessons at school, but it happened.

 

There's a lot that we want our children to know and understand about our history, culture, religion, world. As parents, that is one of our responsibilities, to teach them and expose them to as much as we can that we feel is important.  Even if they whine and complain.

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