Zo Boston and Fall Preview

Good Morning!  It’s a dreary, rainy, yet relaxing morning around here.  Perfect time for a weekly recap post of sorts.

First, a new work-day lunch finding!  I’m sure I’ll be posting all about these “new” (to me) fun places, and you’ll be thinking …where have you been, these aren’t exactly new!

Even though I’ve lived in the Boston/Greater Boston area my entire life, there are certain place in the city that are ONLY open on weekdays, and sometimes with limited hours catering only to the people with your standard Mon-Fri, 8-5 job.

This is most definitely the case with my latest finding: Zo.  I saw the ridiculously good reviews on Yelp so I was confident that this would be a good choice.

Zo is a small take-out restaurant at 3 Center Plaza in Boston, serving delicious Greek cuisine.  Their short but crowd-pleasing menu makes for long but fast lines, and super fresh delicious food!

They are also ONLY open from 11am-3pm Mon-Friday!  You know the food must be good when a place can thrive on being open only 20 hours a week!

Line out the door when I arrived:

 
Not to worry, the line went FAST! 

As it was my first time, I had to go with the classic Gyro.

Once I had that warm Gyro in my hands, I couldn’t even wait the 10min walk back to the office.  Plus it was a gorgeous day, so I sat on a ledge nearby and chowed down.

This did NOT disappoint!  Warm fresh pita filled with lean rotisserie pork, tomatoes, onion, and tzatziki sauce!

Simply amazing…I ate the whole thing.

That same day, I noticed a farmers market going on across the street at Gov’t Center.  

I walked through and was excited to see some Paula Red apples out!!!  I CAN NOT WAIT FOR APPLE SEASON!!

I love Paula Red’s…nice and tart!  I think I’m going to be buying a lot more of these.

Beer.

Pumpkin Beer!

It’s not that I want summer to be over…I don’t.  BUT I can’t WAIT for Fall!!!

First of the season.  Really liked this one!

Picked this up at the Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont.  I love this place because you can just buy ONE bottle out of a six-pack.  Great to try lots of different varieties.    

Another Fall-ish food came in cookie form.

Recently I had ordered the “C’Ville Bundle” from Kath’s Open Sky store.  I really wanted to try those C’Ville Clusters (which were amazing btw), but the package also came with some pancake and oatmeal mixes.

When Brian first saw this bag, he immediately thought it was cookie mix ;)   That got me thinking, because I didn’t think I’d get around to eating the whole bag as oatmeal.

So I winged it and made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!

Minus two 1/2 cup servings I took out to try as oatmeal sometime, to the rest of the mix I added:

• 2 T maple syrup
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
• 2 T melted butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mixed all together, spooned batter onto pan, baked at 350 for 8-9 min. 

They came out AWESOME!  Not as dense as a typical oatmeal raisin cookie, but still chewy, soft, and the flavor was dead on.

So to wrap up this totally random Sunday post, I give you breakfast:

Open faced egg sandwich with:

• 1 egg
• few shakes of Tabasco while cooking
• fresh basil added while cooking 
• cheddar
• sliced garden tomato

Side of:

• Non-fat plain Greek yogurt
• homemade blueberry sauce
• coconut
• sliced almonds

 

Iced Latte…obvi

SO good.   

4-hour dance rehearsal this afternoon, then picking up a few groceries before I get back to relaxing for the rest of the night :)

Anyone else getting excited for Fall yet????

Baked Alaska

I am excited to share a guest post I did for one of my fashion blogger friends!  Amy, over at Stylish Year, is currently on an amazing Alaskan vacation, so she asked me to create an Alaskan-themed post for her to use while she was away.

It was my pleasure.  I mean, I got to make and then eat this:

My very first attempt at Baked Alaska. It was divine.

Read more about it here!!

Man I love meringue

Happy Thursday!

Girls Dinners: Bistro du Midi and Dining In!

I had two fun and fabulous dinners with some beautiful ladies last week!

The first was a birthday celebration for my bestie!!

I’ve been dying to try Bistro du Midi for a while now, so this was the perfect excuse to have a fun girls dinner, sitting in the open patio area they have right along Boylston Street across from the Public Gardens…

I arrived first, earlier, to secure a good table.  We had a reservation, but this area is first come first serve

I then ordered a cocktail while I waited for the rest of the crew.

This is most definitely my favorite cocktail of the year!     Excuse me if I am spelling this wrong but it was the Montesquieu, which was:

• white rum
• fresh strawberry
• sparkling wine

It was refreshing, could barely taste any alcohol (which I like), and the only sweetness was from the fresh strawberries!  Perfect Bridget drink :)

We started with a couple appetizers:

Courgette Flower Beignet, Orange Maple Glaze :
Fried Artichokes, Aïoli

Both were delicious (fried of course), but the aioli served with the artichokes was so good we dipped everything in it!  I didn’t care for the sweeter orange maple glaze that came with the zucchini flowers.

For my dinner I chose the:

Seared Duck Breast, Swiss Chard, Gnocchi, Black Olives:

Everything on this plate was incredible!  I especially wished there were more gnocchi!!  Filling though, after the apps, so I took half home to Brian…he was happy about that!

Really didn't need this side of Ratatouille Provençale , but it too was amazingly flavorful.

The birthday girl ordered the:

Coral Infused Chitarra Pasta, Maine Lobster, Baby Spinach, Lobster Jus

I stole many bites.  The flavor was so interesting and delicious, and that pasta was perfect.

If all that wasn’t enough, we made sure to save room for desserts.

I had checked out the dessert menu ahead of time and knew I wanted to try something!

We chose 2 for the 4 of us.  Both were AMAZING!!

Hazelnut Milk Chocolate Cake, Salted Caramel Ice Cream

I wouldn’t even call this “cake”…it was like a layer of almost a crisp meringue/cake with a chocolaty mousse layer on top of that.  Then whole hazelnuts and chocolate on top!  With the salted caramel ice cream on the side.

Each bite was heaven.

The other was a fresh cherry and pistachio tart with cherry sorbet (can’t find the menu description)

A pistachio tart shell was filled with a pastry cream and topped with sliced juice fresh cherries!

The pistachio flavor was subtle but paired perfectly with the cherries.

I haven’t had restaurant desserts this good in a long time!

And my classy-self timed photo of my outfit that night:

 

• orange dress: Forever 21
• navy belt and gold bracelet: were my grandmother’s
• brown heels: Libby Edelman from Lord & Taylor

Friday’s dinner was just as fun and delicious…but totally different!

Different group of ladies, and we gathered at one of the girls apartments.  We all brought something to eat (on the lighter side) and spent the night gabbing away.

I made up a batch of zucchini cakes!  This time I baked them, as it was easier in this situation, but I would recommend frying them over baking!

We also had some beautiful jumbo shrimp with cocktail sauce!

I always forget how yummy, easy, and healthy shrimp cocktail is!  I need to buy some shrimp more often!

Fresh corn salad with red onion and basil…this was a Barefoot Contessa recipe and such a perfect summer side dish.

Also a gorgeous salad!  This had mixed greens, big buttery pecans, and lots of dried berries!

(wines and salad dressings) 

Love my friend Wendy’s floral plates!!

I missed pictures of dessert, but we had small bowls of coffee ice cream and delicious little salted brownie bites from Trader Joes.

It was a blast!  Hope we do it again soon ladies!!

2 Questions:

• Favorite place/restaurant to go out for a girls night??
• Favorite dish to make for a girls night in?!

Working in the City

I can’t believe I’ve already been at my new job for 2 weeks!! 

I’m sure the novelty will pass someday, but for now I just love commuting into Boston everyday :)  For now I’m just going to pretend it’s still this fun and easy when 2 feet of snow fall overnight…yeah.

(yes I took a photo at the commuter rail station my first day haha)

It felt like the first day of school, which I always loved.  Mostly because I’d have my new first day of school outfit! 

Things have NOT changed.  First day outfit! 

Also BIG bonus for having a full length mirror in the bathroom at work!

• Dress:  Target!  Has a cute exposed zipper in the back too.
• Gold belt:  Gap
• Nude peep toe shoes: Rampage from Macy’s

At my last job we were all in this big open space so everyone could see each other, and clearly not conducive to sneak in a picture of breakfast or lunch.

But now I have some privacy!  :)

So far these past 2 weeks I’ve been enjoying big bowls of:

• plain non-fat Greek yogurt
• fresh fruit
• honey drizzle
• sliced almonds
• and/or granola

Or the same, but with homemade berry sauce

(taken at home before I left obviously)

Love Breakfast.

I’ve also been scoping out new-to-me coffee shops in the area!

My first discovery (and apparently they just won Best of Boston) was Thinking Cup!

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think this will be my spot for espresso drinks!  Although they had some great iced coffee too.  I saw someone in there with a cappuccino and it was beautiful!

Still too hot out though for me to switch to hot coffee!

They also have treats…

 

The mini cupcakes are especially perfect for an afternoon pick me up!

(mini Boston cream pie cupcakes…AMAZING!)

I also found a place called Olga’s that has TONS of iced coffee flavors (brewed flavors, not flavor shots…I HATE flavor shots!)

That was banana hazelnut…can’t wait to try them all :)

And for fun…Outfit Day 2

• grayish-green cropped pants:  Banana Republic
• pinkish floral top: Nordstrom
• cream cardigan: Banana
• brown heels: Libby Edelman from Lord & Taylor

Happy Saturday!  Time for the beach!!

Blueberry Dessert

Totally sharing a family recipe here today!  Hope that’s OK Nanny!  Some recipes are just too delicious not to share :)

I mentioned this one a week or so ago.  I brought this to Tina and Mal’s Pig roast! 

Everyone seemed to really like it, and of course everyone was asking what it was.  Well, in my family we call it “Blueberry Dessert”.

Not very descript, but those two words can get anyone in my family excited! 

Basically, it’s a 4-layer dessert:

• graham cracker crust bottom
• a cheesecake-y layer
• a blueberry layer
• and a whipped cream/marshmallow topping

Sounds pretty good right?

I’ll give you both versions…the original, and my adjustments.  Now a days, the original version is just a bit too sweet for my taste, so I like to cut back on the sugar where I can. 

I made “my” version for the pig roast, and don’t think anyone missed the sugar based on the reactions :)

Blueberry Dessert

Layer 1: Graham Cracker Crust

• 24 Graham Crackers  (and by 24, that means 12 full sheets.  i.e. a s’mores is technically made with 2 graham crackers or 1 full sheet…you follow??)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• I cut back to 3T and add 1T of water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• I leave this out.  In my opinion graham crackers are sweet enough as is. 

Place crackers in a food processor and pulse until crushed.  Add remaining ingredients and pulse until all combined.  [If you don’t have a food processor, place grahams in a large ziploc bag and, using a rolling pin, roll them out/crush them until they are a course sand consistency.  Then mix all ingredients together in a bowl.]

Pour crust out into a 9x13 pan (I like to spray it with cooking spray first), and press crust evenly into the bottom of the pan.

Bake at 350 for 12-14 min.

While the crust is baking, getting working on the next layer.

Layer 2: Cream Cheese

• 1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened at room temp
• I used reduced fat/Neufchatel cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• I use 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs

Beat all ingredients until creamy.  Pour over your crust once it’s out of the oven.  Now put the whole thing back in the oven (still at 350) for 15-20 min, until slightly browned.

(well mine wasn’t really browned, but it was set)

Once Layer 2 is baked, you can now turn off the oven and let this cool.

Layer 3:  The Blueberries

• 1 can blueberry pie filling
• add in fresh blueberries (optional)

OR, make your own blueberry filling, which is what I do:

• 1 1/2 – 2 pints of fresh blueberries (or a bag of frozen)
• water
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 sugar (or more to taste)
• 1 T corn starch

Place berries into a medium sauce pan.  Add enough water to come just about halfway up the blueberries.  Place pan over med-high heat until boiling.

Reduce heat to med-med low, add sugar and lemon juice.  Cook for 10-15 min or until blueberries start to break down.  Mix the cornstarch with 1T of water to dissolve it before adding to the berries.  Bring the heat back up a bit, to get the mixture boiling again.  Pour in the cornstarch/water while whisking the mixture at the same time until it’s thoroughly mixed in. 

Continue cooking for 4-5 more minutes, until it’s cooked down a little more.  The mixture will also thicken up as it cools.

Once cool, pour over the other layers.

Layer 4 – Whipped Cream/Marshmallow

• 1/4 lb marshmallows (about 1/2 of a typical bag)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy cream

Add marshmallows and milk to the top bowl of a double boiler set to med-high heat.  Cook until marshmallows melt and the mixture is smooth.

Let this cool!!  It may separate as it cools, that happened to me, and it was fine. 

Then, whip heavy cream in a separate bowl on medium speed until it thickens up/stiffens to whipped cream consistency.  This takes just a few minutes depending on your mixer.  I just use a handheld mixer for this.

Take this whipped cream and add it to the COOLED marshmallow mixture.  Fold in.  If you had separation issues, just take your mixer and whip this together for another minute or two.  That worked for me. 

Spread final layer on top.  Chill at least 1 hour in the fridge before serving :)

  
I had to go back for seconds. 

This is a great dessert to bring to a party!  Everyone I know that has tried it, has loved it.  My family goes nuts for it.  It’s a winner :)