Greetings from the Hamptons! I was invited by the Cercone Brown Company (CBC) to participate in their Cooking Cottage for the next couple of days, and I’ve had a great time so far!
The Cooking Cottage is an opportunity for editors and bloggers to participate in a variety of activities (cooking demonstrations, product sampling, and even biking scavenger hunts) that feature a number of brands, who have signed on with CBC for this special house experience. It’s a really cool concept because we get to engage with these brands and their products in a fun and meaningful way.
[rewind to yesterday morning]
My travels to the Hamptons went smoothly and as planned. I drove down to New London (barely hit any traffic) and arrived at the ferry with a solid 20 minutes to spare. The ferry ride was nice and relaxing. I even fell asleep for a little while!
When I arrived on the other side of the sound, I drove to the Cooking Cottage in East Hampton, which was about 1.5 hours away. It was a gorgeous ride””past farm stands and vineyards””and the experience just screamed fall, so I made a little a pit spot at Harbes, an adorable, family farm and vineyard. I wandered around, bought an apple to snack on, and then hit the road again.
A short while later, I arrived at the Cooking Cottage where I was warmly welcomed and then directed to my room for the next couple of nights. On my bed was all sorts of goodies from the featured brands at the Cooking Cottage.
So fun! I am excited to learn more about many of these products!
Because the brands are central to the Cooking Cottage experience, products are displayed all over the house, which, as you can see, is absolutely beautiful!
My goodness, this house is stunning. You should see the kitchen! (I will snap some pics.)
How fun are these stackable wineglasses?! Awesome idea.
Once everyone arrived at the Cooking Cottage (there are five editors/freelancers, who all write for popular women’s magazines, and me, plus three folks from CBC), we enjoyed some wine and snacks from Good Food Made Simple and played a couple of icebreakers sponsored by the brand.
The first game was basically Taboo with ingredients not found in Good Food Made Simple products (i.e. high fructose corn syrup). Then, we played a few rounds of Heads Up, which was so fun. Have you guys played this game? HILARIOUS!
After our icebreakers, we headed out for a biking scavenger hunt, which was sponsored by Yoplait. A series of five clues lead us all around downtown East Hampton.
Amy and I teamed up as Team Harvest Peach (named after one of Yoplait’s flavors).
Our first clue totally threw us off. We stopped at a couple of different halls (East Hampton Town Hall and Village Hall) before finally finding our second clue at Guild Hall.
Once Amy and I found our second clue, things moved a lot more quickly. We rode all over town finding the rest of our clues at key landmarks and other stops around East Hampton.
One of the stops on the scavenger hunt was Dylan’s Candy Bar where we had some fun with the mix and match bins.
Candy bins are the best.
Our final clue led us to Rowdy Hall where Yoplait had a frozen yogurt sundae bar waiting for us.
Hello!
I tried the honey caramel flavor with lots of toppings, and it was delicious! Mmm!
Yoplait also sent us home with some goodies! Thank you!
After our biking scavenger hunt adventures, we headed back to the cottage to get ready for dinner, which was at The Riverhead Project.
Dinner was phenomenal””we enjoyed a wonderful, four-course tasting menu””but the lighting in the restaurant was dark and not conducive for snapping photos. Highlights from the meal: kale salad with a smoked paprika dressing and vanilla gelato with tangerine and grilled figs. Yummmm!
More adventures to come!
