‘Williamsburg’ Articles at Sweetnicks

Visit: Whitley’s Peanut Factory {Williamsburg, Virginia}

September 11, 2018 · Narrative

It’s almost a requirement that when you visit Virginia, you should get some peanuts. And so we did. Come visit Whitley’s Peanuts in Williamsburg, Virginia with us!

If you’ve been here long enough, you know that when I visit a new area, I always scope out the food scene. I mean, how can I not? I do everything from finding out what restaurants are NOT TO BE MISSED, and popping into the local grocery stores to see what they have versus what we don’t, to googling what that area is known for in terms of food. And so while I was googling what Virginia was known for when we were there in the Spring, peanuts came up on the list.

The first commercial peanut crop in Virginia was grown in the early to mid 1840s. They started to gain popularity when Union Army soldiers liked them and started taking them home with them, and in the late 1800s, the cry for “Hot Roasted Peanuts,” could be heard at P.T. Barnum’s circus as it traveled across the country. In the early 1900s, when the bull weevil destroyed the South’s cotton crop, peanuts started bringing in money and it is now a multimillion dollar industry in Virginia. In 2015, there were 175 peanut farmers maintaining 18,000 planted acres of peanuts, producing 67 million pounds of peanuts. There are four different types of peanuts grown in Virginia: Runners, Spanish, Virginia, and Valencia.

Finding out all this backstory on peanuts just reaffirmed the need to go find some legit Virginia peanuts, so I researched to find a peanut place near where we were staying, and that’s how we discovered Whitley’s.

A small non-descript place, it was easy to find and it has a dedicated parking lot. Once you walk in, there is no denying that they are all about peanuts.

SO MANY PEANUTS.

Everywhere you looked, there were a ton of different varieties to appeal to every taste bud or craving. There were samples available of almost everything, and I really wanted to buy so many (sea salt and caramel!), but the kids and I voted and went with three different kids: regular, salt and pepper, and bacon maple. I could have easily left with ten times that. Sweet, spicy, savory … no matter your pleasure, there was something for you. The peanuts we tried here definitely have a noticeable difference than what we usually get back home, and I think it might have to do largely with their freshness. Their bite is harder and crunchier, and once you have a handful, you’ll find yourself going back for more and more.

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The Day When We Visited Rachael Ray

May 14, 2018 · Narrative

Join me for today’s episode of “Moms Play Hooky,” as we ventured into the city to attend a taping of the Rachael Ray show.

To say I requested tickets for a taping of the Rachael Ray show a long time ago would be an understatement. Like, if I’m not mistaken, I originally requested them some 13 years ago!

And the moment finally arrived. I received an email in early April saying that my request had finally been approved, and they gave me two dates to choose from, and I could have up to four tickets. I picked a date, found some accomplices, got the kids off to school, and headed into the city.

The studio is super simple to find, and with rush hour traffic, it took us about an hour and a half to get there. There is a parking garage on the same street that is not outrageously overpriced, and I parked there to save the loops around the city blocks trying to find street parking. One of my friends was already in line, a line that stretched about half a city block.

The email states that while you have tickets, your entrance is not guaranteed. We missed getting into the show by about ten people, which was a total bummer. But the people in front of us in line, who also didn’t get in, had actually flown in the day before, just to attend the taping … that they now couldn’t get into either. So, perspective.

The good news about getting turned away in line, is that they give you an email address that you can email to request tickets again, and since you didn’t get it in on the first attempt, this next round is guaranteed. The coordinator emailed me back within a day with two dates and two different times to choose from, so that worked out nicely. Since we already were in the city, we took off for some adventuring, and returned back two weeks later for our taping.

Parked the car again, and walked to the studio. This time I approached the coordinator, and because we had guaranteed seating, we were ushered right in.

We had to sign a disclosure, and go through a security checkpoint, and then we waited in a holding room for about half an hour. Good time for a bathroom break! When we first got there, there were only about 20 people in the room; by the time we were done, it was standing room only. Rachael’s audience warm-up guy, Joey Kola, came out to get everyone hyped to attend the taping, and go over some ground rules. Interestingly enough, I’ve only gone to one other taping (Martha Stewart a million years ago), and when I went to go look up the link for that one, it turns out that it was the same warm-up guy.

The biggest rule (and contradictory to Martha Stewart) was that you couldn’t use your phone. It had to be completely turned off the entire time we were in the studio. If you were caught by security, you were escorted out. And that practically killed me. Partially because I wanted to take a picture to document our day and partially because if my kids aren’t with me, I don’t want to be completely cut off like that. But I followed the rules, and luckily no emergencies.

*taken once we got out of the studio

The taping we attended was in celebration of National Foodie Day, so it aired last week. The guests were Emeril Lagasse, Daphne and Lisa Oz, and Jason Scott. Since it was National Foodie Day, the show also did something different. They had six different food vendors in the studio from Smorgasburg (a market in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg), and during our time there, Rachael and Emeril talked to each vendor, briefly shared their story, and we were allowed to go down to the floor and sample all the food. Rachael made a point of saying that they only do something like this, with an abundance of food for the audience, every six months or so, so we were very lucky!

Of the vendors that were there, I tried everything, but really loved the spring rolls from Roll Play Viet Nom, and the Butter Tarts from B Tarts (like pecan pie without the nuts and so amazingly buttery and smooth). I very carefully saved the banana bread from Bread & Monkey and the sticky buns from Big Buns to take home and share with the kids (and so I could get at least ONE picture from our day). I shared the Banana Bread with Nick, but found it very dry, and unfortunately our dog stole the sticky bun when I walked down to get Maddie off the bus, so only he knows how it tasted, but it looked amazing. (You can watch a clip with the foodie vendor portion here).

During most of the taping, Rachael stayed engaged with her crew and Emeril and was really working; she didn’t talk to the audience too much. Once in the middle for 2-3 minutes, and a quick thank you at the end. I’m sure with at least two tapings a day, it’s a whirlwind of jam-packed activity, but I wish they could carve out 5-10 minutes for a quick Q&A with the audience at the end.

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Review: Craft 31 Restaurant {Williamsburg, Virginia}

April 23, 2018 · Narrative

A bright and lively restaurant with a mouth-watering menu, let’s visit Craft 31 in Williamsburg, Virginia.

One of the tips that I give most often when it comes to travel is to ask the locals where THEY go, and a restaurant recommendation is no exception. But to be clear, I always say, “I don’t want to know where you send tourists. I want to know where you go to eat out yourself, or where you would take your family when they come to town.”

And so that’s how it was that we found ourselves pulling into the parking lot of Craft 31. A recommendation from a hotel front desk clerk (and, surprisingly, not even from the hotel where we were staying, but that’s a long story for another day), it was exactly what we wanted.

The restaurant is mid-size and was pretty busy considering it was a random Tuesday night in the Spring, but the hostess was able to seat us on their enclosed heated patio. I don’t think “patio” is the word I would use, but that’s how she described it. To me, “patio” is more outdoors, which was my initial concern because it was a bit chilly, but it really is fully enclosed and even has a bar in it.

Our waitress came by right away to take our drink order and, while on vacation, it’s time for Shirley Temples. I remember loving the special occasions I used to get them myself when I was a kid, and love that my kids will one day remember the same.

And now the menu … wow. I really wish the restaurant was closer to us, because I would make it my mission to work my way through the menu, one delicious item at a time. I had it narrowed down to a few choices, and when the waitress came back, I asked her which was the crowd favorite from my selections.

Blackened Blue Cheese Burger it was.

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Visit: Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, Virginia {Spring Break 2018}

April 13, 2018 · Narrative

Making our way through the East Coast’s amusement parks one rip roarin’ ride at a time, let’s visit Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia!

Busch Gardens is one of my fond memories from childhood vacations. I have no idea how old I was when we went, but I don’t think my sister was born yet, so that would put me at 9 or younger. I distinctly remember Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg, and taking a visit to these destinations has been on my list for the past five years. It kept falling lower on the list because of the long six plus hour drive to get there, but this year, we finally got it done.

Interestingly enough, during our time in Virginia last week, we met a few other families that were actually there for the same reason. It was a vacation from their childhood that they wanted to share with their own kids.

Check and check.

Busch Gardens graciously comped me two admission tickets, which was quite generous given the entrance tickets for four years old and older are $90 a person! Eeek!

Unfortunately, while it was our Spring Break last week, it also appeared that everyone else was on Spring Break too! The traffic started about two miles before the highway exit for Busch Gardens. At first I just thought that it was late morning rush hour traffic. Unfortunately I was wrong. From that two mile mark to when we actually parked our car in the far-flung-Scotland parking lot, it was over an hour. It was so bad that the parking lot ticket agents were comping everyone’s parking, which was a nice savings of $20.

Given the weather was grey skies and a threat of rain and a cool fifty degrees, we weren’t expecting it to be as busy as it was, Spring Break or not. Apparently the employees thought the same because we heard several of them talking about the very unexpected 25,000 guests that were there that day!

Because we ended up actually entering the park so late, we actually stopped for food as soon as we got in. Probably not the best idea, because everyone else does the same. Busch Gardens is set up with different countries, and the first country is England. If we had walked a smidge farther, just into the next country, the wait for food probably wouldn’t have been quite so bad, but hindsight and all that being what it was, we stopped at the first place we saw.

Wanting to experience things, ahem, properly, because we were in England, I opted for the fish and chips, while my kids got chicken fingers, and salad. I actually ended up getting the kids meal for myself (pictures on the top left in the below photo), because it was three dollars cheaper and looked like plenty of food for lunch, and it was. The food was cooked to order, which was awesome in terms of freshness, but not so much in terms of the wait. It was about forty-five minutes before I had our tray with food, and luckily I stationed my kids outside on table duty since there are only a handful of tables to grab from to sit and eat. The pricing is akin to any other amusement park, lunch was around $34.

Once satiated we started scouring the nearby gift shops and rides. We actually ended up hopping on the train ride first, because it’s a good way to get a quick overview of the park and scope things out. It goes through four countries and makes a full circle, so you can either get off at a different country or take a round trip (we did the latter).

As a side note, we didn’t see any paper maps near the entrance, nor did the ticket staff hand us one when we went through, so we were kind of winging it through stumbling and finding things.

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