Recipes

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Celebration Dinner!

BIG NEWS!!! Well this has NOTHING to do with blogging, food, or healthy living…this is regarding my professional life and while it may not be very interesting, I’m just too excited NOT to share (plus there was a yummy dinner involved haha)

I passed my Professional Engineering Exam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As some of you may know, I’m a Civil Engineer by day haha, which is totally on the other end of the spectrum to the blog world. Although that’s why I love my blog; it’s something completely unrelated to my job that I love doing…it’s my outlet when I want to pretend I’m not an engineer :)

Some of my long time readers may remember me mentioning this exam back in 2008! Yes I’ve taken it before…and failed. So the fact that I’ve finally passed is that much sweeter. 

Actually Brian took it as well, and Passed! (he’s an engineer too…yes I married another engineer, we met in college)

I was WAY too excited to go to the gym, so we headed into Boston for a celebratory dinner! I wasn’t in the mood for anything heavy, but really wanted a yummy cocktail…so I went to the place with one of my FAV cocktails.

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I’ve been here once before and I remembered that I had a delicious drink, and the atmosphere was great. Being that it was a Monday at 6pm we had no problem finding a parking spot or a table!

I started with the infamous Grape Excess cocktail – House made grape infused Skyy Vodka, white cranberry, moscato d’asti, frozen grapes

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I’ll admit, I remember liking it more last time, but it was still very good and I love the skewer of grapes!

Brian got the Tap Wars: Battle of the Local Breweries

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This is a new thing Post 390 just started. Just this week, Mon-Thurs, you can participate, and you receive 3 samples of beer. This was Battle of the IPA, so they were all IPA’s from different Brewery’s: Cape Anne Brewing in Gloucester, Cisco Brewers in Nantucket, and Berkshire Brewing Company in S. Deerfield.

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You vote on your favorite, then on Friday they tally up the votes and the wining brewery gets a tap at the restaurant for the Month! They are going to do a series of these, and the brewery that gets the most votes on its beers will get to have a special beer dinner hosted at Post 390 with a menu worked up by the executive chef! Pretty cool if you ask me!!

I’m going to keep an eye out for when that beer dinner eventually happens!

First came a mini warm baguette served in a brown paper bag…just like you picked it up from the bakery

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It was a hot and humid night, and I was in the mood for a lighter meal.

I LOVE Gazpacho, so that was an easy choice.

Chilled Gazpacho/Avocado/Sweet Bay Shrimp

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The avocado was a perfect accompaniment, but I think I’d like it better without the shrimp.

I also ordered the: Tuna Tartare and Smoked Sashimi/ mustard sauce/ potato bread melba toast

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The tartare was good, but the Smoked Sashimi was INCREDIBLE! Very salty, so the small portion is great, but SO flavorful!! I loved this!

A fun, relaxing evening with the husband :)
Celebrating the addition of 2 letters to the end of our names!

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Saturday, June 26, 2010

Blogger Dinner at Vlora

On a beautiful Friday evening in Boston, a group of Boston blogger + 1 special guest got together at Vlora for an evening of delicious food and great conversation. IMG_0138

However, my first stop of the night was to meet up with our special guest…Erica from Itzy’s Kitchen!! She was up in the area visiting some family, and we decided to meet up so we’d only have to drive 1 car into the city.

I was SO excited to finally meet Erica in person! We’ve been ‘blog friends’ for a while now so it felt great to finally chat in person. She’s just as nice and sweet as she seems on her blog :)

We made good time and arrived at Vlora with some time to spare. It really was a perfect night in Boston..warm and breezy.

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While we waited at the bar I ordered a glass of Prosecco.

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We were lucky, because the girls from We Are Not Martha arranged for us to try a variety of their Appetizers.

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First we started with warm crusty bread and olive oil and olives.

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Then came the deliciousness…

Arancini Siciliani - italian rice balls, mushroom & feta filling, fresh tomato & mint sauce

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delicious, I’m always up for arancini…little crispy balls of risotto heaven.

Watermelon and Feta Tidbit - olive oil, balsamic vinegar, parsley

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I first had the watermelon/feta combo on the Vineyard last summer and it was love at first bite. The salty feta is the perfect compliment for crisp, juicy, sweet watermelon.

Grilled Octopus - tomato, cucumber

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Yep, this was my first time trying Octopus… It was good! I don’t think I can get past the psychological part of knowing I’m eating octopus but it was kind of like a firm tuna. I thought it would be tough, but it’s not.

Trio of Pies - spinach & feta, yogurt, tomato & onion

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Mmmm I only tried one of the pies but it was delicious!

My first plate of tastes…

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Elizabeth, Chels, Susie

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After all the tasting, I was still a little hungry so I ordered the…

Vegetarian Moussaka - layered medley of eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, potato, swiss cheese, tomato, served with garlic yogurt and cucumber sauce

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Yummmmmmmmmm basically delicious vegetables in a little pool of a warm tzatziki sauce

Erica got an awesome looking Greek Salad.

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Erica and I! So great to hang out last night!!

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She even brought me a little gift…Almond Butter from Idylwilde Farms and some candied Pecans from South Carolina! Both are delectable.

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I had such a great night with you girls! Hope we can get together again soon :)

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Other girls of the night were: Coleen and her sister Meg , Naomi, Alicia, and Meghan

Off to a wedding soon!! Should be a beautiful night :)



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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Vineyard Vacation

So sorry for my absence!!!

On Saturday morning I left for my annual trip to Martha’s Vineyard!  There was no internet at the house, and the weather was PERFECT so we hadn’t had to “fill time” finding places with wi-fi.  I’ve been diligently checking my email and twitter on my phone though.

For 4 or 5 days every year I get “adopted” by my best friend’s family and get to tag along on their trip to the Vineyard.  Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. 

In June, the weather here can be a crap shoot and after a few rainy days you can get BORED fast!  This week, however, has been weather heaven!!  High 70’s – Low 80’s, mostly sunny…just a few clouds, and a nice sea breeze….oh yes.

Over the years my friend, Jocelyn, and I have accumulated a lot of “favorites”…mostly food related.  Restaurants, gelato shops, bakeries, and…wedding stalking.  What?  Like you’ve never noticed a wedding going on and try to get a glimpse of the bride?

With all our favorite meals as “must haves”, we tend to have our days scheduled around what we want to eat that day.  This also requires scheduling in some runs ;)

Now for some highlights…

The Black Dog sail boat IMG_0062

Beautiful Hydrangeas EVERYWHERE on the island

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Edgartown Lighthouse

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Joc and I

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Best Restaurant on the Island. period. IMG_0076

You MUST order the  Feta RouilleIMG_0081

And I’m determined to re-create this recipe at home.  It’s too cruel to be subjected to only having it once a year IMG_0083

We made dinner for her fam on Father’s Day…fresh grilled Halibut. 
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And a fresh veggie “scampi” of sorts, with whole grain linguini

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Gelato:  Peanut Butter chip + fresh Strawberry

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Photos on the docks before dinner… (don’t mind the wind swept hair-do I’m rocking there)

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hello lovelies :)

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Final meal On-Island… crazy good sandwiches from Humphreys!

We split the Tree Hugger (basically veggies, honey mustard, provolone)

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And the biggest most incredible chicken salad monster ever!

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See you next June MV!!

I’m now back at home and off to work tomorrow :(  Sadness.  At least it’s just a two day week for me!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Green Thumb Part 1

Time for an update on our yard!

The month of May seemed to be all about yard work…probably the most I’ve ever done :)  I mean weeding alone can occupy many many full days and you’ll never be done!!

We’ve been at our house for 1 year this month!  I’d love to share some of the adventures/projects as new homeowners.

#1 – Vegetable Garden

I always knew I wanted to have a veggie garden.  We didn’t move in early enough last year to really get one going, although we did have a few tomato plants last year and those are always great to have.

We did tomatoes again in the same spot, as that worked out pretty well and we’d have more room for other veggies in the new garden.

 

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(this pic was from a few weeks ago.  We now have some green tomatoes sprouting and they’ve grown a lot!)

For our new garden, we did a raised bed.  We build the box ourselves, and it’s 4’x8’ and 8” high. 

The area we chose gets a lot of sun throughout the day which is very important.  The plastic in the picture was there when we bought it to keep weeds at bay, so we cut around it for the bed instead of removing it. IMG_9639

My handyman/yard work champion

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Once in place, it was time to buy some veggies! 

We had a gift card to Mahoney’s Garden Center leftover from the wedding (great gift idea btw!!), so we headed there one Saturday morning.

They had SOOOO many things to choose from, it was a hard decision and we really didn’t know how many different items we could fit into our garden.  

Definitely Basil

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Look at all these gorgeous basil leaves!!!!!!!!!

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This is what an asparagus plant looks like

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I bought 1 to see what would happen, but we wont see anything from the plant until at least next Spring.

Thought this was interesting…

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A Stevia plant!   Didn’t get one though.

In the end we had a full cart of veggies and herbs

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  • cucumbers
  • green, red, and yellow peppers
  • carrots
  • mesclun lettuce
  • red onion
  • zucchini
  • summer squash
  • asparagus
  • snap peas
  • basil
  • cilantro
  • parsley
  • thyme
  • oregano
  • dill
  • rosemary
  • mint
  • chives
  • sage

And into the ground they went…

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Aside from 1 year with tomatoes, we are both gardening newbies!  So we are figuring that this year is more of a learning experience than anything…but I do hope we have some success!

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So far things are going pretty good…not great, but good.  I really need to read up more about each plant and how to take care of them.  It’s also only been 3 weeks so I don’t know how much growth to expect yet.

If anyone has any tips for any of the items we are growing it would be greatly appreciated!! :)