To prove to the school children that chocolate doesn't always taste good, we brought some unsweetened chocolate for each student to try. Of course, we also brought along some of our finished product too - our very kid-friendly gourmet Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bon Bons.  The kids were so fun - very curious and expressive. We showed them a picture of our place, and one boy said: "That doesn't look like a chocolate factory; it looks like a garden center!" Pascal was very proud that the flowers in our window boxes made such an impression. The students had lots of questions for us such as:

A few weeks after our presentation, we received a large envelope in the mail. It was filled with letters from the class. We couldn't resist sharing a few of them with you, exactly as they were written:

June 9. 2009
Dear Mrs. Charlene and Mr. Pascal,
Thank you for comeing to Bradley Creek! The bitter chocolate tasted disgusting! Your hat looked like it had a real cake on it. We finished reading The Chocolate Touch.  I love The bon bons. Thank you for teaching us chocolate history.
Sincerly,
Wil

June 9. 2009
Dear Mrs. Charlene and Mr. Pascal,
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come see ous at Bradley Creek.  The Bon-Bons were DELICIOUS!! But the regular chocolate was yuck! That hat was hilarious and cute. I still can't get over the Bon-Bons (oo la la). I may just stop by and buy some!  I think you have a very hansom partner and you are very pretty too!  You too were very profeshenil! Hope to see you soon!
Sincerly,
Maddie

June 9. 2009
Dear Mrs. Charlene & Mr. Pascal,
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. Hi remember me I'm Tiera from Mrs. Holliday's class at Bradley Creek Elementary School. Thank you for talking to us about chocolate. I really learned alot from you. Thank you for letting us try the real chocolate but that chocolate was bitter, digusting, horrible, terrible, not sweet. I loved your hat. It look like you had a real candy & a real cake on your hat. I didn't like the real chocolate. The bon bons was so DELICIOUS! I hope you come again and give us more bon bons. I love bon bons. I hate real chocolate. I hope you have a good summer.
Sincerely,
Tiera

June 9. 2009
Dear Mrs. Charlene and Mr. Pascal,
Thank you for coming to bradley creek. Yougize were very nice to give us a good chocolate leson about chocolate! I thought the bon bon was good but the raw chocolate, not so much! It was very thoughtful for you to give us Free bon bons. I have a question:  can i have a free bag of Penut Butter bon bons? I've never tased REAL chocolate before.  Happy summer!
Love,
Macey

June 9. 2009
I love chocolate.
Dear Mrs. Charlene and Mr. Pascal,
Thank you for coming to Bradly Ceek School. I loved the bon bon. They are great and tastey. Mrs. Chalene I liked your hat the cake looked rile. I did not like the rill chocolate it tasted like socks. I hope you have a good summer and make lots of money.
Sincerely,
Violet

Each letter is so cute, I wish I could type them all for you, but all of this thinking about chocolate seems to have given me the John Midas touch - just take a look at my keyboard!

Our Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough fans would be horrified to see that their favorite flavor didn't make this list! We have a strong and loyal contingent of bon bon fans who order nothing but Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough! In fact, recently, one of those loyal fans turned 36 years old. Guess what she's received for her birthday - thirty-six Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bon Bons! Check out just a few of these testimonials from our avid Cookie Dough Bon Bon lovers:  

(Photo Lisa Puttbach with daughter and Mom)

(Photo Mazle Memory with all 6 of her children at a family reunion)

(Photo of Laurie Wierse with her Mom and two children)

Congratulations to all of our 2009 Bon Bon Moms; we're honored to induct you into our Bon Bon Mom Hall of Fame!

I'm on my way to New York City. I have finally made the time to redeem a fabulous Christmas present I received from my mother two years ago - a mother-daughter trip to the Big Apple! Our plan is to shop, catch a Broadway show, and get a haircut with Judy at Devachan, an incredible hair salon that specializes in curly hair. Then, I'm sure we’ll shop some more. On Sunday, I'll be performing a song at the graduation for Mama Gena's Mastery Class (consider it the ultimate singing telegram), and on Monday night, Mom and I have signed up for an evening of dancing with the stars. Really.  

Sally drove us to it. You see, my friend, Sally Blenkey, is a huge inspiration to me. She owns a super successful tanning business called Brazil Bronze; she is incredibly funny (I so want her to have her own television show - she's that funny!); she has two adorable girls with the cutest names, Georgie and Charlie); she passionately pursues ballroom dancing; and she's married to a sweet and sexy professional ballroom dancer named Alex, who starred in the documentary Mad Hot Ballroom.  

When I learned that Alex and Sally were offering a special ballroom dancing workshop, I knew Mom and I had to go. It's going to be like having an old-fashioned dance card, only instead of dancing with awkward guys who only know how shift their weight from their left foot to their right foot and back to their left foot again, we're going to dance with champion ballroom dancers! Now, Mom really knows how to cut a rug, and I'm sure she'll have a great time jitterbugging with the pros. As for me, I must confess that I'm a little nervous about hitting the dance floor. But how could I miss out on "An Evening of Dance Seduction", especially one presented by Alex and Sally?

I'll look forward to reporting in when I return back to Wilmington. Will I discover that I really do have two left feet? Or will I be dusting off my dancing shoes more often?  

My friends, Cheri and Elizabeth, call them "God Winks" after the similarly titled book by Squire Rushnell. I call them Signs from The Universe because I like to imagine God (or whatever you call your higher power) as a force as big as The Universe. I think the more you look for those signs of coincidence, fate, serendipity, or destiny, the more you find them. And I find them a lot. Or, when I don't find them, The Universe wallops me over the head with them. Here's a recent example:

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post entitled Secrets of a French Femme Fatale. In the post I mentioned several books that promise to reveal how we can dress like French women, eat like French women, act like French women, and seduce like French women. One of those books was French Women Don't Sleep Alone. I did not know the author; nor had I read her book. I had simply cited it as one of several titles that promised to reveal that "je ne sais quoi" that French women seem to possess in spades. Much to my surprise, not long after publishing that blog entry, I received an email from the author of French Women Don't Sleep Alone, Jamie Cat Callan. It said: "Hello there - I'm actually writing to you because you mentioned my book "French Women Don't Sleep Alone" on your blog and I wanted to thank you. Also, I was wondering if I could be of some help - (here she proposes a top secret plan that shall be revealed later). In any case, I love your blog and I adore the photos of you with the cake hat! xo Jamie"

Now first, let me say that I was over-the-moon excited and flattered to receive such an email! I couldn't believe that a published author had actually read my blog, liked it, and contacted me about working together. How cool is that? Cool is exactly how I tried to play it. I replied to Jamie, saying that I was interested in the prospect of working together, but I would have to review her book first.  Jamie graciously agreed to send me a copy for review. What can I say? If you read this blog, then you know that I'm a slut for books!

I received the book, started reading it, and then went on a weekend trip to New York City. While I was there, I begged for an appointment with my friend, eyebrow guru and make-up artist to the stars, Ramy Gafni. I used to be a regular RAMY client when I lived in Manhattan. Now, I order his make-up online and try to plead my way onto his schedule whenever I'm in New York. His make-up and skin care line is fabulous, and his brow work is life altering! Every time I see him, I beg him to bring his product line down South. As per my usual routine, while he was working on me, I started working on him: "I'll help publicize it, Ramy, I will! Last year when Karen Quinn came to Wilmington, we got newspaper and radio coverage; I'm sure we can do the same for you."

"Well, if South 'n France does events with authors", replied Ramy, "I should put you in touch with my client, Jamie Cat Callan. She wrote a book called French Women Don't Sleep Alone." Now, what are the chances of that? This is New York City, after all. A town of millions. For once, I was speechless. When I returned home, I was suitably recovered.  I promptly wrote an overzealous email to Jamie to tell her about the coincidence, which I interpreted as a sign that we must work together. When I didn't hear back from her right away, I thought I'd probably scared her off with my over-enthusiastic outpouring which could easily have been interpreted as just plain crazy.

But wait - it gets better. A couple of weeks later, I sent a note to my friend and soon-to-be-published author, Joanne Tombrakos. I had just subscribed to Joanne's fabulous blog, One Woman's Eye, and I wanted to tell her how much I was enjoying it. Joanne responded with this reply: "Thank you, sweetie! I have been following your blog as well and am really enjoying it!! I am also thinking you should connect with a friend of mine, or at least read her new book, French Women Don't Sleep Alone. Maybe there is something French you two could do??? Her name is Jamie Cat Callan."

Well, darlings, as far as I was concerned that wasn't God winking at me, that was God hitting me over the head with a two-by-four! I got the message loud and clear. Jamie and I need to know one another. We need to do something fun and French-y together. So, I did what I always do. I called up Jamie and pleaded my case, "You must come to Wilmington; you must come stay with me; you must properly introduce your book to all of us G.R.I.T.S. (Girls Raised in the South for my sweet northern readers)!: Stay tuned for what happens next...

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I get all kinds of unusual requests related to my singing telegram service. A few months ago, someone called and asked me to perform a singing telegram for his girlfriend. When I asked him to give me details about her that I could personalize the song lyrics, he replied: "She really likes Bon Qui Qui, and I'd like you to put as many references to Bon Qui Qui as you can into the song." Now, I must confess that I had no idea who Bon Qui Qui (intentionally mispronounced as "Bawn Kwee Kwee") was. Unlike 16 million other viewers, I had not yet seen the MADtv comedy skits on YouTube performed by stand-up comedian, actress, and former NFL Cheerleader, Anjelah Johnson. If you haven't seen her in action, you should immediately stop reading this and watch one of her King Burger skits. They are funny!

I incorporated "Rude!", "Sa-cur-ity!", "Don't get crazy!" and a few other Bon Qui Qui catch phrases into my singing telegram, and opened the song by explaining that if she couldn't have Bon Qui Qui at her party, at least she could have the Bon Bon Queen! 

Since then, I have crossed paths quite frequently with Bon Qui Qui. At a Grapes & Crepes Party, one of our guests enjoyed a few too many glasses of the "grapes" (you know who you are!) and launched into a complete impersonation of Bon Qui Qui. She had all of us laughing so hard it hurt and many of our guests thought she played the character even better than Anjelah Johnson. Just recently, I learned that people who search for the phrase "Bon Qui Qui" online are sometimes landing on our website. If you are one of those people, I have just one thing to say: "Welcome to South 'n France where we can do it your way, but don’t get crazy!"

As we prepare for American Mother's Day, the French are just starting to think about how to honor their mothers at the end of the month. (In France Mother's Day is celebrated on the last Sunday of May.) 

Mother's Day was instituted in France after World War I, to help rebuild the French population. In fact, mothers of eight or more children received gold medals from the French government for their contribution to society. Don't tell Octomom Nadya Suleman; I think she'd be jealous! France isn't giving out medals anymore, but after years of zero population growth, they sure are doing a lot to encourage women to have children. In recent years, France has added new and improved family-friendly laws to what many already considered to be generous policies (in place since 1970). As a result, France now boasts the second-highest fertility rate (1.94) in Europe. Check out these stats cited by Tracy B. McGinnis in her online article, One More Reason French Mothers Have to Be Thankful:

In France:

* French mothers receive 100% of their salary for six weeks prior to the birth of their baby and 10 weeks after.
* Maternity leave ranges from 20 weeks for the first child to up to 40 weeks for the third child.
* Paternity leave (introduced in 2002) grants fathers 11 days full pay.
* Parental leave (introduced in 1997) is available to parents who have been with a company for at least one year, and gives mother and/or father the right to take three years' unpaid leave. At the end of that time the employer must take them back under the same terms as before.
* Tax breaks based on the number of children for French families.
* Monthly childcare subsidies.
* Inexpensive summer camps.
* Long paid vacations. (Anywhere from 4-8 weeks.)
* Free child care centers for children ages 3-Kindergarten. 

French Justice Minister Rachida Dati (pictured here) must agree that this system is "très juste" (in English: very fair), especially when we compare it to the benefits of new mothers "aux Etats-Unis". (Rachida Dati gave birth to a baby girl and will be celebrating her first Mother's Day this year.) Happy Mother's Day to Ms. Dati and moms all over the world - we salute you! You may not be able to enjoy the same legal benefits as the French, but we hope that each and every one of you gets a chance to kick up your feet and benefit from eating some gourmet chocolate bon bons!

When I tell the story of how Pascal and I met in Paris, I often make reference to the Moulin Rouge, the legendary Parisian cabaret located at the tip of Paris' red-light district, Pigalle (just a short walk from Montmartre where Pascal and I used to live). In the early days, this famous cabaret was a hotspot for "happening" painters, poets and bourgeois locals; today it is frequented mostly by tourists and corporate executives. But the venue, the dancers, and the show continue to maintain the Moulin Rouge tradition of opulent glitter and glamour. It is an extravaganza of music, dancing, feathers, rhinestones, sequins and champagne.

Like most things in Paris, the Moulin Rouge has a rich history. Here are just a few fun facts about the greatest cabaret on earth:
- The first Can Can dancers at the Moulin Rouge were not professionals, rather working class girls-by-day (linen maids, laundresses and seamstresses), rowdy, boisterous party girls-by-night. Most of the dancers became famous due to their peculiar and suggestive "stage" names such as la Goulue (the glutton), Nini Pattes-en-l'Air (a leg-over, muse of artist Toulouse-Lautrec), Grille d'Egout (drain cover) and la Mome Fromage (kid cheese). 


- The first show was called Frou Frou. It was such a great success that the owner, a superstitious man, chose to title each revue with the names that begin with "F." To date, the shows have been: Frou Frou, Frisson, Fascination, Fantastic, Festival, Follement, Frénesie, 'Femmes, Femmes, Femmes', Formidable and Féerie.
 
- Speaking of "F"-words, the Moulin Rouge goes through a lot of feathers. They have their own preferred feather maker.

- The dancers' shoes must be able to withstand the girls dropping to the floor, doing the splits, and performing acrobatic tricks - all to the fast-paced, frenetic rhythm of the French Cancan. A traditional Parisian shoemaker, M. Clairvoy's makes special shoes just for the Moulin Rouge.   

- Celebrities like Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Ginger Rogers, The Village People, Liza Minnelli, Michael Baryshnikov, The Gipsy Kings, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Juliette Binoche have all performed at the Moulin Rouge.
 
- Jackie Clerico, the same superstitious owner who insisted on "F" titles for the revues, staged the first topless dancers in 1962 and installed a giant aquarium that elevates from below stage for a nautical ballet. The aquarium (and the topless dancers) are still part of the revue today.

- The Moulin Rouge is the biggest champagne buyer in the world - around 350,000 bottles a year - more or less 1000 bottles per day!

- There are more than 100 artists on stage and almost as many waiters and bus boys to keep up with the champagne-drinking crowd.

- These days, the show costs anywhere from 92 to 180 euros (with dinner), but this extravagant, show-stopping cabaret is well worth it! Just like riding the gondolas in Venice, it's one of those touristy attractions you really shouldn't miss.

you place creative orders; and you bring us cool stuff! But for Pascal, who dreams of being a serious "cave man", this reason may be his favorite reason yet:


#346: You Know How to Make a Frenchman's Day
And that's no easy feat! It all started when a charming, new-to-the area couple discovered South 'n France in December 2008. They dropped in to buy bon bons for the holidays and started talking to Pascal about French wines. The monsieur is a serious wine collector with a very impressive cellar, and Pascal thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue. A few months later, this couple joined us for Dinner and a Movie when we featured our favorite French comedy, The Dinner Game (Le Dîner de Cons).

In the movie, the lead character, a wealthy publishing executive, suddenly has to open a bottle of wine for a tax inspector who is coming over to his luxury apartment. He fears that the tax collector will want to audit him when he sees his impressive wine collection, so he opens a 1978 bottle of Château Lafite (one of the most famous and expensive wines in the world) and pours vinegar into the bottle in order to mask its quality.

This couple joined us again recently at the launch for our new Wine & Dine Party. When they walked in the door, much to our shock (and Pascal's incredible delight), they presented us with a most extraordinary gift - you guessed it! - a bottle of 1978 Château Lafite from the monsieur's collection. This generous, thoughtful, and humorous gift made Pascal's day, his week, his month, and quite possibly his year. As soon as we were finished working for the evening, he sat down to admire his new bottle, a new crown jewel in his own collection. You can be sure that we won't be adding vinegar to that Château Lafite, no matter who's coming to dinner! In fact, I suspect that it will be many years before Pascal even lets us get close to that bottle with a cork screw. Thank you, Dan and Pat, for making Pascal a very happy "cave man". You can bet he'll be proudly displaying that bottle of Château Lafite for all to see at our next showing of The Dinner Game!

Last week, we conducted a pre-launch trial of our newest Wine & Dine Party. Three groups came on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to experience our three different versions of a fun, unique, and educational French wine tasting. We discussed all sorts of things from wine renegade Michel Picard's rise to fame (that's his château pictured here) to why the French put serial numbers on corks. We are most grateful to our gourmet "guinea pigs" for their participation and their feedback. At the end of each pre-launch evening, we gave a simple poll to our guests. Here's what they had to say:



Our Question: Did you learn anything new at the Wine & Dine Party? If so, what "take-aways" will you remember?  ("Remember" being the key word after sampling four different types of wine!)

Some of Their Answers: 
How to read wine labels                                                 
How to pair foods with wine                                               
About the "châteaux" wineries                                               
All about wine corks                                               
That you can pair spicy ethnic foods with certain wines                                               
That Michel Picard Pouilly-Fuissé is a really good Chardonnay!                                 
About the AOC                 
What makes a wine taste like things that weren’t used to make it (i.e.  blackberries, peaches, minerals, oak, etc.)
What "mis en bouteille" means
1-100 scale wine experts use for grading wine
2005 was a very good year for many French wines and why
How food really changes the taste of wine
How to choose wine in a store
How to tell the location of wine production  
Stories about famous wine makers
Why some wines are more expensive than others
That you can drink certain red wines with dessert
What color tablecloth to use at a wine tasting
About decanting red wines      


Our Question: Please grade us on the wines we served and the foods we paired with them.

Some of Their Answers:             
Great choices!
Awesome!  Everything was delicious.
10-Good mix of price and taste on the wines
10+ Loved the food - yummy!
Excellent
Food was nicely paired with wines to enhance the flavors of the wines
Dessert was so good, I wanted seconds!
I'm not a fan of red wines, however, I thought all of the wines were great!
Wines were excellent and a good variety.
I am not a wine drinker, but I enjoyed trying the different wines.
Superb flavors!
Wines 100%; Food pairings 110%!!
The dessert course left me speechless - was there other food?

Our Question: What else should we know?

Some of Their Answers:             
You guys do a great job!
1 platter of appetizers for every 4 people works well!
You need to sell the dessert you served - amazing!
Love the entrance to your place.
This would be a great idea for a "pre"-bachelorette party!
I think everyone should experience one of your parties!  Love it!
Make the street address/house number larger; we had trouble finding it.
We have been to previous parties at South 'n France and this was our favorite. The people were diverse and the wine and food were absolutely perfect!
I ate a light dinner before I came (as per your suggestion), but I don't think I needed to. I'm so full!
Fine event.  I would return for another.
I'm a really picky eater and there was food I liked. Made me happy!
It was highly entertaining.
It was amazing and so are y'all!

Want to know more? Visit our Wine & Dine Party page or call Charlene for details:  910-762-6882.

 

I’m a big fan of April Fool's Jokes. Usually, Pascal is my victim, but this year, my mother was the one who played the (horrified-turned-happy) fool! On April 4th, she celebrated her sixtieth birthday. Unbeknownst to her, we had planned a big party with quite a few surprise out-of-town guests.  One of those guests was Anne, a friend from Norway that my mother hadn't seen in fifteen years.  Since Anne was flying in to North Carolina on April 1 and only able to stay for one week, we had to find a way to plan a "pre-surprise" surprise so she would have enough time with our mother before the actual party. Lucky for us, Anne arrived on April Fool's Day.

I called our local Olive Garden restaurant (Mom's favorite - what can we say?), and spoke to the managers about our plan. The entire staff was accommodating and excited about being in our joke, so we booked a table and made our special request; we wanted a rude, abusive waiter who would give me a reason to ask for a manager.  When "The Manager" came to our table, it would actually be my mother's friend, Anne.

We all arrived at the restaurant early to take our places for the joke. Prior to our mother's arrival, I gave our waiter, Chris, lots of ideas on how he could insult me (Example:  I'll order a high-fat-dish like Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo, and you say: "Honestly, ma'am, I think you should be ordering a salad..."); I had told him he had permission to spill drinks or food on me: I had begged him to show no mercy and act as outrageously as he pleased. Anne would hide at the bar, waiting for her cue to come to the table to speak with me, the "angry" customer.

There was just one problem - our waiter, Chris, was such a nice guy that I couldn't get him to do anything bad enough to warrant calling a manager! So, I tried to instigate him: I ordered the fettuccini as planned and Chris asked, "Are you sure?" I replied: "Yeah, do you have a problem with that?" Chris said: "No, but there are other choices on the menu...". Instead of being horrified by our waiter's terrible service, my mother was aghast at my "rude" behavior! Meanwhile, Anne hid at the bar for what felt like an hour, sipping wine and waiting for her cue while I desperately tried to get Chris to insult me! 

At one point, a floor supervisor came to check on our table. "How’s everything going?", she asked, "Would you like to speak to a manager?" My mother vehemently shook her head "No" and gave me a "Don't you dare!" stare. Desperate to get this joke to work, a few minutes later I faked a trip to the bathroom and went looking for sweet Chris. "Chris", I begged, "Please! Come spill a drink on me or something!" Before Chris had to resort to such tactics, I finally found an opening to insist on speaking to a manager. Next thing we knew, there were five people standing at our table: our two servers, the floor supervisor and two "managers". When Anne spoke as the "Senior Manager", my Mom was so embarrassed she didn't even realize that the manager was actually her friend from Norway! My poor mother was just appalled by the scene I had created. After giving me a piece of her mind, the "Manager" turned to my mother and asked, "Isn't that right, Gwen Dupray?" At that moment, the light bulb went on. Mom jumped out of her chair to hug Anne and started screaming: "I don't believe this! I don't believe this!" 

Later, as we ate our pasta and re-lived the joke with everyone at the table, my mother shared her perspective: "I couldn't believe how obnoxious Charlene was being with the staff, and when that manager started telling her off, I thought "Ooooh - this is going to get ugly!'"

So there you have it. I had to endure my mother's scorn in order to pull off this year's April Fool's joke. As for our waiter? Chris apologized for his inability to be rude, but said he was sure his mother would be proud. But looking at this photo of my Mom, our waiter, and our surprise "Manager" from Norway, I'm certain that my "rude" behavior was worth it. I love (or, in this case, O-live) April Fool's!

Last week, I showed you no-calorie crocheted bon bons. This week, I had to share chocolate soap bon bons! 


According to the manufacturer, fetosoap.com, these bon bon-shaped soaps look and smell like real chocolate. They are made with cocoa powder and high-quality creamy goat's milk soap. It's too bad these didn't exist when I was a kid; it would have been a much more pleasurable way to have my mouth washed out with soap. Nowadays, sites like Wikipedia define getting one's mouth washed out with soap as a form of corporal punishment! 

But it also reminded me of that scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where a toon weasel gets his mouth washed out with soap for using bad language, causing him to hiccup soap bubbles. Speaking of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, here's a video clip of Jessica Rabbit's unforgettable nightclub scene dubbed in French. You can hear what Betty Boop and Eddie Valiant sound like when they speak French. To paraphrase Jessica, "They're not bad... they're just dubbed that way." Somebody pass the bon bon soap...

The Easter Bunny has hippity-hopped through town, and now you're left with several dozen hard-boiled eggs and empty egg cartons.  (If you had a really great Easter, you even have a few empty South 'n France Bon Bon egg cartons sitting next to your fainting couch).  What do you do with all of those leftovers?  Hard-boiled eggs are great for egg salad sandwiches, deviled eggs, and salade niçoise, but egg cartons aren't so tasty. Still, they can be useful. For example, if you're feeling creative you can make your own egg carton toy camera. Isn't this little photographer just too cute? The lens of his camera is the top of a sports drink bottle.


Speaking of creativity, egg cartons make wonderful disposable paint palettes for your kids: use the compartments to hold various colors of poster paint, and the lid as a place to lay down the paintbrush. For easy clean-up afterwards, just close the lid and toss the whole egg carton into the trash. Or, de-clutter your office desk drawer by removing the lid from the egg carton and using the bottom tray to sort paper clips, rubber bands, thumb tacks, staples and other tiny office accessories. Want more fun ideas for your egg carton recyclabes? Get inspired by these nifty ideas on how to re-use egg cartons from CultCase.com, a culture and online art magazine.  They've thought of everything, from goggles to flowers to lamps.

In the olden days, the toys in Cracker Jack boxes made for wonderful surprises - metal boats and airplanes, magnifying glasses, pirate eye patches, tiny figurines and secret decoder rings. Today, collectors clamor for these vintage collectibles. Sadly, by the time I was a kid, the prizes hidden in the Cracker Jack boxes were pretty lame. I mostly remember temporary tattoos and fun facts (which weren't that fun at all). It seems that these days the prizes are even worse; this blogger wrote about receiving a puzzle piece!  Yes, that's right; not an entire puzzle; just one little cardboard puzzle piece.

When I first went to France as a teenager, I was delighted to discover Kinder Eggs. Having grown up on Cadbury Creme eggs available only at Easter time (they were the highlight of our Easter egg hunts), I was thrilled to see that Kinder Eggs are sold year 'round. Instead of a sugary gooey center that resembles egg whites and an egg yolk, Kinder eggs are hollow. The "yolk" is a plastic capsule that contains a really cool toy prize. 


When Pascal learned about my fascination with Kinder eggs, he started buying them for me as treats, often hiding them under my pillow. To this day, some of the Kinder prizes I found in those eggs peek out from behind books on my bookshelves, reminding me of the childlike delight of receiving a treat with a cool prize, no matter what your age. Here is one person's collection of Kinder surprises. Much better than what you find at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box, n'est-ce pas?


This Easter weekend, Pascal and I wish you lots of wonderful surprises. Whether you get bon bons, bunnies, Peeps, or at least one Cadbury egg (like me), we hope you'll have a very sweet holiday! Don't forget to join us at our Open House tomorrow night - we'll have lots of fun surprises for you here, too!