Maine + Friends + Concert + Lobster

I had a crazy fun weekend in one of my favorite places and want to give you guys the slightly abbreviated re-cap.  I didn't bring my real camera with me, so iPhone/instagram will have to do.

It started after work Friday with a little work event at the Harpoon Brewery down in the Seaport area.  I actually can't believe I haven't been here before.  We didn't do a tour, but our group and another private group had one of their tasting rooms where you can just hang out and sample as many beers as you want in the hour and a half time frame...they were nice and let us stay till 7:15 instead of 7 :). They had about 12 beers on tap to try.

First up for me was the UFO Pumpkin!  I know some people are all "noooo, too soon for pumpkin!" but I am not one of them.  It's getting to that time during the summer where I can't WAIT for fall.  I remember enjoying UFO's pumpkin last year and it was just as delicious this year.  I also tried their barrel aged White IPA, their Cider (which was actually amazing, and I didn't think I was a big cider fan), the Leviathan series Red Squared, and finished off the evening back at Pumpkin.

The Red Squared was good, but I could only handle a small taste…very strong, and somewhat bitter. 

I'd definitely recommend going there and doing the tour! Then you can sample the beers after.  While my co-workers headed down Seaport Blvd to continue the evening, Brian picked me up and we headed to Olives in Charlestown for my best friend's birthday dinner!

Blurry :(

I hadn't been to Olives since 2007 but it was just as good as I remember...although I hope their AC compressor arrives because it was quite humid and uncomfortable in there that night.

The next morning Brian, Bromley, and I hopped in the car and headed north....destination: Portland, ME.

A group of friends and I got tickets to the Gentlemen of the Road show, being headlined by Mumford & Sons in Portland.

We ended up stopping on the way up in Portsmouth for a late breakfast/early lunch.

Iced coffee from Breaking New Grounds and a salad from The Works.

Hit the spot.

We then continued another hour north to Portland.  I didn't have a dog-sitter, so we took Bromley and stayed at my friends house who lives about 10min from Portland.  It was nice not having to pay for a hotel, not worry about the dog, and relax before the show!

My friend and a few others were biking over from her boyfriends office, but dropped us off less than 2miles from the venue.  The concert had a bicycle valet to encourage people to ride over!! How cool is that?!

It was a pretty warm and humid days but being along the coast made it much more bearable.  Brian and I walked through The Old Port and then down the bike path that runs along the bay.

 

We had lovely views on the walk over. 

Then we arrived!  The concert took place on the Eastern Promenade which is a big grassy hill overlooking the Bay.  The area was gorgeous with the ocean in the background of the stages.

This was the biggest concert that the city of Portland has had here, so it was a big deal for everyone around the area.  Plus there were a bunch of bars/restaurants that hosted after-parties.  It’s a perfect area for something like this…very walkable. 

It was a big insane inside if you wanted a beer or food.  They had a TON of different food vendors…all the food truck companies in the City!!  However the lines were ridiculous and I was SOOO happy we ate beforehand. 

The beer lines were also a bit crazy, but they actually went faster than they looked.

Shipyard and Gritty’s were the two beer sponsors….yay for good beer at a concert!   

We arrived around 5 (show started at 2 but there were 6 bands).  I don’t know who was playing when we first arrived, but once we got settled we saw Dawes…who I hadn’t actually heard of, but they were really good! 

Then a surprise short set by The Dropkick Murphy’s!  They were playing a separate after-show at a nearby theater, so this wasn’t expected!  Very cool!!

Then Mumford came on! 

Honestly, going into the concert I was a fan, but not really a huge fan…I liked their songs, but didn’t actually even have the album…woops.  Well that is all changing, because I thought they were phenomenal!  They sounded amazing and I realized I  like a lot more of their songs than I thought.

Here’s a little snip-it from “Little Lion Man” which was the 2nd song they played.

Sorry, wish I recorded longer!!

It got dark as they continued…

It was just a really nice night, awesome concert, gorgeous venue, and one of my favorite places.

  The next morning, Brian and I headed back into the Old Port for brunch.

We went to The Farmers Table, and luckily snagged a table outside.

So guess who likes runny egg yolks now????  THIS GIRL!

I only JUST recently started to like them and am SO happy about it!  I don’t know what it was but they grossed me out.  Actually I didn’t even really like eggs at all until some point late in college.  And even then only eggs with “stuff” in them like omelets or scrambles with veggies and cheese. 

So when I recently made that yummy sweet potato hash….remember?  I just KNEW it would be the perfect time to try it out.  Delish. 

So, to get back to this weekend..that was my first time EVER ordering eggs Benedict with actual poached eggs.  This Benedict had thick Canadian bacon, sliced tomato, arugula, the egg, and hollandaise.  Loved it.

Brian had their braised brisket and sweet potato hash with over-easy eggs and hollandaise.  Also amazing.

And if that wasn’t a good enough food weekend (I should mention we grabbed some apps at Fore Street after the concert, and stopped at Two Fat Cats bakery earlier in the day as well)….

We stopped by a fish market and grabbed 4 lobsters to bring home. 

 

Lobster Feast.  

Top Notch weekend right there! 

Have you ever been to “all day” type concerts/festivals??  This wasn’t exactly all day…and honestly I don’t know how people sit out in the heat for entire days!!  We were there for about 4-5 hours and that was PLENTY!

Also if you live in New England, or anywhere for that matter, and haven’t been to Portland, ME….GO!! 

Sweet Cheeks Q & Some BBQ For You

Last night Brian and I finally got to try the new-ish BBQ place near Fenway Park that everyone seems to be raving about: Sweet Cheeks Q.  Sweet Cheeks opened in November 2011 and is chef-owned by the well known Tiffani Faison of Top Chef fame. 

I love some good BBQ and there aren’t too many place in and around Boston to get it. 

We had Red Sox tickets that night, so I met Brian after work for an early dinner before the game!  He got their before I did and grabbed 2 seats at one of the communal tables (basically you share with whoever else needs a seat).  In this type of atmosphere (casual & kind of noisy) I don’t mind that seating.  Wouldn’t recommend it for a first date or anything though.

Brian had already ordered a beer, so I scanned the menu and picked my own.

I’ve had Sweaty Betty before and remember liking it.  Refreshing, flavorful blonde ale.  They didn’t have too many beers on tap, but they did have a fantastic selection of bottles and cans!

To start we ordered the Fried Green Tomatoes.  Neither of us have ever had them.

Thick slices of juicy tomato, and a crispy browned coating.  They came with a sort of ranch dressing that had a nice kick to it!  With the ranch these were awesome!  The tomatoes themselves weren’t the most flavorful, but it’s not tomato season so it’s hard to complain. 

Maybe 1 minute later our meals came out!

I ordered the pulled chicken tray with sides of heirloom baked beans and the farm salad.  I also ordered a single biscuit instead of the sliced bread that usually comes with the meal.

If you only order one thing there…GET A BISCUIT!!!  O.M.G.  The menu has an order of a basket of 4 with honey butter on the side, but you can order just one even though it wasn’t on the menu.  AND make sure to ask for some of that honey butter.  WOW.

First of all the biscuit was HUGE.  Easily 4” diameter and so thick and fluffy.  Warm, crisp on the outside, tender and flaky on the inside.  That with the honey butter was a match made in heaven.  I’m drooling on my keyboard right now.

       

Brian’s tray:

Ribs, collards, and potato salad.

The pulled chicken was delightful.  Tender, juicy, flavorful…especially with their housemade BBQ sauce.  The table also had a bottle of their housemade vinegar sauce, and habanero lime hot sauce! 

The farm salad had tons of seasonal veggies, nuts, grapes, arugula, parmesan, and a mustard vinaigrette (I believe).  I loved all the veggies and it would of been perfect with just a tad less dressing.

I stole a lot of Brian’s collards.  Vinegary, and cooked with some type of pork which gave the greens an awesome flavor. 

I also stole a bite of the potato salad, 2 thumbs up.

The ribs were incredible tender, and not overly fatty.  I don’t mind fat, but hate actually biting into it. 

The one thing I wasn’t crazy about was the beans.  They were pretty good, but tasted way more like chili than baked beans.  Too smokey, too much cumin for me.  But they were still sweet, which I wouldn’t like my chili to be so it was just a conflict of flavors for me.  Brian really liked them though.

We still had time to kill before the game so we went with another round of beers.

Brian HAD To order this as we never see it ANYWHERE

I tend to not like overly hoppy IPA’s because they are usually bitter, but this one is just the opposite.  No bitterness, but just tons of hop aroma.  Delish.

All in all it was a great night.  Would have been better if the Sox won but what can you do?

 

Pretty good seats too!

Now with all this BBQ talk, I have the perfect contest you can enter!!

Eversave is giving away 2 of these prizes of $250 worth of delicious BBQ catering from Dickey’s Barbeque Pit! 

Now, there aren’t any Dickey’s in Massachusetts (closest ones are in CT, or in Portland, ME)…but this is open to anyone so maybe there is one near you.  But if there’s NOT…don’t fret, if you win you could also choose a $250 gift card to Omaha Steaks!!   Create your own feast with that prize!

Just enter HERE!  This contest goes until Sunday, May 6, and they will notify the winner on Monday, May 7!

And in case that doesn’t pan out for you, the folks at Eversave are letting me give away a $10 save reward (to use on any Save) to one of you!

In the spirit of BBQ, to enter for the $10 save reward, leave me a comment with your favorite side dish to order at a BBQ joint.  If you’re not a BBQ fan, then just your favorite other restaurant side dish!

I’ll choose a winner for the $10 save reward by 10 p.m. EST on Monday May 7th!

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes – Egg Free!

Happy Spring folks!!

Sometimes I sit down at the lap top and just stare at the screen for a while…I hate that.

But that’s one great thing about having a blog!  It’s mine, and if I want to take a little break I can :)  Of course I miss it, but it’s not worth stressing over. 

Also, it’s pretty amazing how fast time flies…it does NOT feel like it’s been over a week since I last posted!  Craziness.

Now, where were we?

Let’s see, this past weekend was St. Patty’s day, and while I tried to avoid the craziness that ensues in Boston, I did spend it with friends and some delectable cupcakes! 

My friend hosted a housewarming/St Patty’s day party and I was in the mood to make some cupcakes.

I went with a popular combo: Guinness chocolate cupcakes with Baileys butter cream.  However, I opted to make an EGG-free version as my friend’s daughter is allergic!

I’ve made egg-free muffins before, but they are usually meant to be a “healthy” treat.  I still wanted these to taste like classic chocolate cupcakes!

Most egg-free recipes I saw didn’t call for an egg replacer, but I opted to add a flax-egg anyways.

Of course the real stars were:

You don’t taste the beer in the cake, but it does make for a super moist cupcake!

Egg-less Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Taste and Tell

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup Guinness
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
• scant 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 flax-egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T water)
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 T vinegar

Pre-heat oven to 350. 

Make flax egg and set aside.  Takes 15-30 min to “set”

In a sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat.  Add stout and bring to a simmer.  Add cocoa powder and whisk together until combined.  Remove from heat. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. 

Once butter/cocoa mixture has cooled a bit, stir in sour cream, flax egg, and vinegar.  Pour this mixture into the flour mixture.  Mix gently to combine batter. 

Line cupcake tin, or MINI cupcake tin! 

Fill each cup about 2/3 – 3/4 full.

Bake mini cupcakes for 9-12 minutes, regular cupcakes for 16-20 min.

Once cool, I used the Smitten Kitchen recipe for the butter cream using salted butter (of course) and only 2 T of Baileys + 1 T of half and half.  You could definitely still taste the Baileys but I don’t like my baked goods overly boozy tasting. 

Frost!

Not only does using a pastry bag + tip make them look prettier, but it is so much faster!

YUM!!! 

The cake and the frosting were such a delicious combination!!!  I LOVE butter cream :)

Didn’t miss the egg one bit!  These cupcakes still held together great. 

I think everyone loved them as much as I did :) 

I know cupcakes are like “so last year” but I still love making them…especially in mini sizes!

And somehow it’s already bed time ;)  I’m telling you…time is FLYING!

Pizza & Beer at Stone Hearth

Hope you’re all having a relaxing Sunday night!  I don’t know why I always wait until now to post when I could have done it earlier…but then again I think I’ve been that way for as long as I can remember.  Sunday night homework anyone??

Last week was crazy busy!!  I participated in my 3rd Flashmob Thursday night at the State Room in Boston for a charity event hosted by Kevin Youkilis of  the Boston Red Sox. 

There were late rehearsals on Tuesday and Wednesday with the actual event on Thursday.  Throw in a blogger event Wednesday evening before rehearsal and I was one tired girl by Friday! 

In case you’re curious… 

I’m in the pinkish sequin dress splitting center in the beginning.  Space was tight, and I kind of think it’s hilarious we all blanked at one point in the beginning while up on the damn stage.  Never once in rehearsal did that happen, but what can you do…besides keep going.  We were all really squished for the other dances too but it was SO FUN!!  Plus we were able to enjoy this very nice event a bit before and after we performed. 

Moving on…back to Wednesday!

I was invited to, what sounded like, a delicious and fun event at the new Stone Hearth Pizza location in Allston!

I was even more excited to learn it was a stand alone building with a parking lot and I wouldn’t have to deal with trying to park in Allston center.

There was a nice big group of us bloggers, and we were seated at a long table ready to dive into some appetizers, salads, pizza, and dessert.  All of this delicious food was also accompanied by some fantastic beer from Clown Shoes. 

A representative from Pete & Gerry’s eggs was also there to tell us about their eggs and one of our desserts was made specially with Pete & Gerry’s eggs!

Centerpieces of heirloom eggs

 

When I arrived, some appetizers were just being brought to the table. 

We sampled their Parmesan Flatbread (thin chewy flavorful cheesy!)

Cheddar Covered Olives (loved these!!)

These were so different!  A salty olive covered in a cheese coating and baked.  They had a nice little kick to them as well. 

And we had all three varieties of their Meatball Poppers

Basically, they are their housemade meatballs (made with locally raised beef) stuffed with mozzarella cheese!   

They came with signature tomato sauce, spicy tomato sauce, and also creamy roasted onion and herb sauce

I loved them all!  I’m a sucker for a good meatball, especially when I can order them as an appetizer.  The tomato sauces were delicious, and the herb sauce ones reminded me of beef stroganoff…YUM!

To accompany these appetizers, we all sampled some Clown Shoes  Clementine.  I’ve tried some of Clown Shoes’ beers before, and this is one of my favorites.  I love how refreshing white ale’s are. 

Next, there were 4 beautiful salads brought over to the table.

I didn’t get photos of them all, but the one above is the Spinach and Avocado which also has red onion and lightly dressed. 

This salad had romaine, pears, shredded celeriac, and walnuts.  Loved the flavor combinations on this one! 

There was also a classic Caesar salad, and an Arugula and Portobello salad. 

Our next beer was another that I knew I liked…Tramp Stamp!

They have some really funny names for their beers! 

Tramp Stamp is a Belgian Style IPA.  I’m usually not crazy about IPA’s (some are much too bitter for my liking), but I do love Belgian Style ales, and I really like this one as well.  It’s citrusy and refreshing but a bit more bite than the Clementine.   I believe I heard this uses some West Coast hops, and after our trip to San Fran in November I know I like West Coast style IPA’s much better than other IPA’s. 

Pizza time.

 Farm Fresh Garlic oil, cherry tomatoes, charred red/yellow peppers, Yukon gold potatoes, artichoke hearts, green olives, fresh mozzarella, and topped with a salad of arugula, red onion and prosciutto

Bacon & Blue Garlic oil, julienned zucchini/squash blend,
mozzarella/provolone blend, smoked bacon, blue cheese, cherry tomatoes, and finished with fresh basil

 

The Divine Goddess Our healthful version of a white pizza. Garlic oil, topped with a mixture of fresh spinach, broccoli, local ricotta cheese and finished with our cheese blend and a pinch of parmesan

This was their current special, and also probably my favorite of the night, it had leeks, maple sausage, gouda, kale, and cilantro.  I didn’t really taste the cilantro but that’s ok because it was AMAZING.  The best part was how the pieces of kale got all crispy on top.  This is making me so hungry right now!

We also tried The Bean:  Garlic oil, white bean spread, fresh mozzarella, sautéed red onion topped with a spinach, red onion, and pesto salad

I don’t think I’ve ever had a pizza with bean spread on it, but I loved this. 

I actually really loved them ALL!!  The crust was super thin and chewy, the vegetables and other toppings were SO fresh, they weren’t overly inundated with cheese, didn’t leave my hands greasy, and the flavor combinations were unique and delicious!

I was lucky that Shannon agreed to go half-sies with me on all the slices so we could try them all without getting too full!

Best Plan Ever.  The Bacon and Blue was a close second favorite, by the way. 

The last two beers we tried were the Brown Angel, American Brown Ale, and the Supa Hero! 

The Brown Angel was smooth, slightly sweet and went down nice and easy.  The Supa Hero, on the other hand, was more of the type of IPA that’s a little too bitter for me!  Good flavor, but I only had a few sips. 

Dessert.

Stone Hearth Pizza has partnered with Pete & Gerry’s by providing a delicious Custard for a Cause dessert.  Stone Hearth will serve a seasonal custard dessert using Pete and Gerry’s eggs, and all proceeds go to a local charity called Community Servings.  Community Servings prepares, packages, and delivers fresh meals for people who are too sick to shop or cook for themselves.   

Our custard was served with organic maple syrup from Schoolyard Sugarbush and walnuts. 

I was a BIG fan of the custard…love the creaminess and the flavors. 

The other dessert was Sweet Potato gelato!!  We had to guess the flavor, and it was so subtle at first I had NO idea…but as soon as I heard sweet potato, I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth.  Normally I’d love it, but I think I’ve OD’d on the sweet potatoes lately…my taste buds need a little break…I know, I didn’t think it was possible either!!

A BIG Thanks to Stone Hearth Pizza, Clown Shoes Beer, and Pete & Gerry’s!!  It was a fun, relaxing evening with some awesome pizza and beer, and even some trivia to keep us on our toes.   I can’t wait to come back so I can try all the different pizzas on the menu, they all sound incredible! 

This meal was complimentary, but all opinions are my own.

Is January really almost over???  How did that happen?!! 

How are those resolutions going??  Honestly I didn’t really make any…and I’m totally OK with that ;)