New Gym Sore Body

But in the good way.  I can’t believe it took me almost 2 months to join a gym again after moving!!  Luckily I was still running, taking dance class, and using my dumbbells at home.

However, as the cold weather moves in and it now is completely dark by the time I leave work (hate that!), I knew my outdoor running days were  dwindling (what can I say…I’m not hard core enough to run when its freezing out!). 

After much thought, I broke down and joined the brand new Boston Sports Club near my house!  I’ve always joined the “cheaper” gyms, and for once I just really wanted a nice gym that I wouldn’t mind actually showering at haha.  In the end it wasn’t as much as I expected (yay!), AND my good friend joined too!!  So far having a gym buddy is AWESOME.  Much harder to bail.

Back to the soreness.  Another big draw to joining BSC was that they now offer the Les Mills Body Pump and Body Combat classes!!

After hearing so much about Body Pump on Erica’s and Tina’s blogs, I was dying to try them out. 

Last Thursday I did Body Pump…awesome class!!  What a great way to get all your muscle groups done in 1 hour!  Plus I definitely pushed myself harder in class than I would if I was just lifting on my own.  I was feeling it all weekend.  Tonight I did Body Combat…holy workout!!!  That class kicked my butt, and I’m already sore…esp in my arms.  It feels SO great to be back to a steady workout schedule.

Back to last Thursday.  I told Brian I’d be at this class and sort of jokingly (but not) said how great it would be to have dinner ready when I got home.  Well, that night I came home to this scene:

• hand blender in hand
• wine on the counter
• fish on the counter
• cookbook in the cookbook stand
• and it smelt delicious!

He rifled through the cookbooks and decided on this:

A Provence-Style Fish Stew from this Williams Sonoma “Soup” cookbook I have, that I don’t even think I’ve ever used!

It was basically a stew with: onions, garlic, carrot, fennel, fish stock, red wine, canned tomatoes, and fish!  (he used Cod).

Fresh FRESH French bread…

  

A few minutes later…dinner served!

Lucky Girl :)

Random Note:  This is our new couch and chair that are being delivered Friday!!!!!!

 

Post Body Combat meal….brenner (you know, breakfast for dinner!)

Scrambled 1 egg+ 1 egg white, with spinach, and topped with a little American cheese.

Kashi Heart 2 Heart waffles, a little Vanilla Chobani, and some real maple syrup! 

 

My sore arms and I need a shower and BED!  Good night. 

Flavors of Fall

Brian and I just got back from a delicious evening full of fun Fall inspired food.

Last week I received an email from Boston Chefs, about their Sixth Annual Flavors of Fall.  This event benefits Second Chances… “a local nonprofit that collects and distributes free clothing to homeless and lower income people who are clients of Cambridge and Somerville shelters, service providers and anti-poverty agencies.”

We had been trying to pick a restaurant for my Birthday(!!) which was on Saturday…the big 2-7.  When I got this email I knew this would be a fun option instead of a dinner out (even though I still had a fun dinner Saturday).  

As Fall is my FAVORITE time of year, the chance to sample fall inspired dishes from some of the top restaurants in Cambridge and Somerville sounded like a perfect evening.

I didn’t get pictures of it all…but here’s a sampling :)

CHEESE!!  The Blue Room had a superb cheese spread with Aged Goat cheese, TBR Flat Bread, spiced nuts, and brandy poached apricots.  The nuts, apricots, and goat cheese were AMAZING!

They also had cream puff-looking bites, which were actually gougeres stuffed with goat cheese and drizzled with black pepper caramel….YUM.

That’s not the greatest picture…but that table was the home of:  Duck confit tartlettes with leek fondue and spiced cranberry conserve from Chez Henri.  I had a couple of these babies.

Next up: OM Restaurant and Lounge with their Sweet potato ravioli with brown butter cream sauce.

These were another one of our favorites!

Upstairs on the Square offered a pressed sandwich of artisan salumi and Taleggio with marinated red pepper relish.

Another grilled sandwich (which went unpictured) but equally as amazing was the Grilled pimiento cheese sandwich on B&R pecan bread with country ham and local apples from Hungry Mother.

On to the sweet stuff…

The people from Sandrine’s Bistro had the blow torch going right there so it was a fresh crackly sugary top.

 

Next was pumpkin whoopie pies and native apple crisp from Henrietta’s Table! 

We decided to double team the apple crisp/whoopie pie with the offerings from JP Licks…

    

We took a sample of the Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream and the White Coffee ice cream.  I also snagged a sample of their own Holiday Blend ground coffee.

Live jazz..

 

Gotta love a swag bag:

A re-usable grocery bag full of fun info, coupon, a copy of Edible Boston magazine, some Little Bites Belgium chocolates, a bendable cutting board, and more!

This was such a fun and different thing to do, and I can’t believe that there were so many restaurants I haven’t been to when I used to live a mile down the road!! 

Soup for You!

The winner of the Campbell’s V8 Soup Giveaway is…..

Meg C.!!  Congrats girl!  Email me your info and I’ll have your package sent out :)

Is it too early for Christmas Music?

I think not, but the husband would beg to differ!

I must say that I was PUMPED when I walked into Starbucks last week (yes in October) and I was served my misto in a red Holiday cup!

I am so excited for Christmas EVERYTHING!!

My neighbors also put up their Christmas lights the day after Halloween…they are my new favorite neighbors.  I can’t wait to actually put up lights on OUR house! (edit: the neighbors put them up but they aren't turning them on yet…oh well, I saw the test run)

In other things seasonal:  Mom brought over some homemade chocolate chip pumpkin bread this weekend.  She was also proud of herself for cutting back on the sugar and oil, and admitting it still tasted just as good!  Go mom!

I decided to enjoy a slice this morning with some Maple Almond Butter!  May not be new to you, but it’s my first time…delicious!  Just a very subtle maple flavor.

Perfect Combo

Don’t forget about the soup giveaway!!

Dance class tonight…woot woot!

Soup Giveaway and House Updates #1

First, thank you so much for your sweet comments on our wedding photo slide show!!

I’ve really wanted to share all our house  adventures with you, and we’ve gotten a lot done so far! 

My favorite before/after is definitely the bathroom and I will share that soon…it just needs one more thing before it’s camera ready.

However, this weekend we picked up two new furniture items for the kitchen and dining area, plus came one step closer to re-finishing our dining room table!

Here’s a couple old Before pics, right after move-in:

Here’s after some new paint:

 

• This is taken from the kitchen.  What you don’t see is the lovely metal folding table that used to live right where the tile meets the wood…it matches the equally lovely folding chair you see on the right.
• The table with the green tablecloth is a cherry dining room table ($20 at a yard sale).
• We have been sanding it for a while now, and just stained last night.  It will be ready for reveal by the end of the week!!!!

Kitchen View:

 

Our two new additions are the black Belmont Kitchen Island and white Windham 59” Cabinet, both from Crate and Barrel.

With the help of mom and my bestest…let the assembly begin!

 

Ta Da!!!!!!!!!

 

I’m obsessed.  It looks great, plus extra drawer, cabinet, and counter space!!

The other side has a leaf that goes up for a little extra eating space.  We are going to get two stools for this side.

The beautiful Windham Cabinet:

 

I needed this so badly to store all the wine glass, vases, and any other various piece of glassware that I had no room for in the kitchen.

Afterwards, we moved the dining room table back down to the basement to finish staining, and right now the room looks like this!

Much better. 

• The dining table will be a darker walnut color, with the white chairs you see, and we will be getting two other white fabric end chairs as well. (table seats 8)
• and I still really need to get rid of those shades…they came with the house, and while serving their purpose for now, I can’t stand them.  Just not my style. 

Sunday morning, Brian and I went for a MUCH needed 3 mile run, and then enjoyed breakfast at our new counter space.

Scrambled eggs, toast with Smart Balance and strawberry preserves, and homemade pumpkin spice iced coffee on the side!

SIDE NOTE:  Had the best veggie pizza ever Friday from a fairly new place in the next town over from us.

Farmers Garden:

Fresh broccoli, caramelized sweet onions, sautéed button mushrooms, marinated artichoke hearts, grilled asparagus, sautéed peppers, and a sprinkle of our cheese blend.

  

Heaven in a cardboard box. 

Ok finally time for some giveaway action!
I was contacted a couple weeks ago about

Campbell’s V8 Garden Vegetable Blend Soup!

This is a delicious thick soup with only 120 calories per serving.  It has no artificial flavors or preservatives, and provides a full serving of vegetables in every bowl!

For those who like to COUNT calories as a means to stay on track, this giveaway is for you!

•           Campbell’s V8 Garden Vegetable Blend soup;
•           A Campbell’s V8 Soup Health Journal and vegetable shaped pens to keep track of your servings;
•           A Flip and Tumble shopping bag to stock up on vegetables; and
•           A Pedometer – to count your steps!

p.s. the red grocery bag is really sweet…it folds up into a pouch that fits in the palm of your hand!

To enter, just leave a comment about your favorite soup (recipes welcome!). 

I will pick a winner at random, and the contest ends at the end of the day on Thursday, November 5th!  Good Luck!

Just For Fun

Gotta make it quick…I’m “working”

We finally got our proof book from our wedding photographer!!  Also, while the full online gallery isn’t up yet, she did make us a cute photo slideshow set to music. 

I can’t stop watching it :)

It goes through a little quick, but if you click on the down arrow in the lower right, it will bring up the controls which has a pause button.

Hope you like!

http://www.AmandaAmbrosePhotography.com/BrianandBridget

Slow Return

The l0nger you wait, the harder it is to get back.  That’s how I’ve felt lately with the blog.  I can’t believe how long I’ve gone without posting.  First I was just busy, then I was tired, and the excuses kept popping into my head and I just couldn’t get myself to sit down and post.  Craziness. 

Well I’ve missed it WAY too much, and I was so touched when RhodeyGirl left me a comment telling me to come back.  Just the kick in the butt I needed :)  Thanks Sabrina!

I felt so behind on the Honeymoon recaps, and I still do…you guys really need to see my Santorini pictures, BUT for now lets get back to what I loved about blogging in the beginning, FOOD!

My computer’s being extra slow tonight so we’ll just go over a couple yummy dishes that have been eaten in this house lately :)

First was made tonight actually!

 

 

 

Autumn        Chowder

This was a recipe of my old roommate’s old roommate (got that?), that we tweaked a bit.

The recipe contains all of this and a bit more:

6 slices chopped bacon  - I use 3 regular and 3 turkey bacon

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup water

2 ½ cups pared, diced potatoes (2 sweet and 2 regular potatoes)

1 cup chopped carrots

2 tsp chicken bullion

3 cups milk (I used 2%)

1.5 bags (16oz bags) of frozen corn kernels

1/8 tsp white or black pepper

1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 – 1.5 cups shredded monetary jack

3 tbsp flour

Partially cook bacon. Stir in onions and cook until bacon is crisp. Stir in water, potatoes, carrots, bullion. Heat to boiling. Reduce head and cover. Simmer until potatoes are tender (15-20 min). Stir in milk, corn, and pepper. Heat to simmering. Mix in cheese and flour. Add to soup, stirring until melted.

Soup awaiting cheese:

For some added green, we roasted some Brussels to eat with the soup.
Beauties!

Dinner Served:

you’ll be seeing a lot of my new silverware.  I heart hammered stainless.

Another delicious dinner was made easy with a bag of frozen shrimp!

Scampi!

I winged this one and it came out awesome, hopefully I can remember :)

• Start water boiling for pasta
• 3 cloves of garlic and 1 Shallot diced and sauté in some olive oil until soft
• Add a splash of white wine and 1 can of diced tomatoes and squeeze of half a lemon
• Add raw shrimp and simmer until pink
• cook whole wheat linguini
• add thawed frozen spinach to scampi

Serve scamp on pasta, top with parmesan and squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

SO good.

I have a giveaway this week!  I was hoping to get it up tonight but my camera was not cooperating.  The good news is that I FINALLY got Live Writer to work on my laptop!!!!!  Things will be much easier now.  Feels good to be back.