Some Local Action

Lots of great LOCAL things this weekend!  Including our dinner tonight!

Roasted chicken from our meat CSA.  We just started this CSA last month through Chestnut Farm, and I’ll tell you a lot more about it later this week after we pick up this month’s share this week! 

Red leaf lettuce and corn from the Farmer’s Market this morning.  The corn was super sweet and I wish we had bought more!  Luckily I have access to various Farmer’s Markets during the week in Boston.  Sometimes I like to swing through at lunch time.

Even the homemade croutons were made from Sour Dough bread from Nashoba Brook Bakery out of West Concord, MA.  So far this is the only TRUE sourdough we can find at Whole Foods (or any of our grocery stores around here).  Even the Whole Foods bakery sourdough has yeast and an added acetic agent.  If you want traditional sourdough bread…which is generally easier to digest because of the fermentation, then it should have basically 2 ingredients….flour and water. Maybe salt.  But NO yeast!!  The yeast is created by a starter of water and flour which creates its own wild yeast. 

I digress….

The chicken was made using my favorite recipe…Thomas Keller’s Simple Roast Chicken.  It’s just the best.   Last time I roasted a chicken I even went back to my previous “go-to” recipe (Barefoot Conetessa’s), but it just wasn’t the same.  Plus this is the SIMPLEST recipe ever.  The high heat + chicken fat can cause some smoke in the oven but this time we put a foil lined cookie sheet underneath to help :)  

It’s SO worth it for that crispy skin!

The corn was grilled.  And the croutons were made last minute by cutting up 2 slices of bread into cubes, heating about 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet, and toasting the bread!  Mmmm buttery grilled bread.

I also whipped up a quick vinaigrette of olive oil, red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, and dill.

  Dinner was simply awesome.

Earlier in the day we had another Farmer’s Market find of an heirloom “pineapple” tomato, made into caprese salad with basil from our garden. 

Brian and I devoured this.

In other Local fun…the Healthy Living Summit was this weekend!! 

I had purchased a ticket, but ended up only being able to come for the cocktail party + Saturday morning, but I still had a great time!

The conference was at the Hyatt on Memorial Drive in Cambridge which I actually had never been to before!

  
view of Boston from across the Charles River taken from the glass elevator inside the hotel!

Got ready for the cocktail party

Reunited with my HLS 2011 roomie Elizabeth who planned the whole cocktail party!!

She did a bang up job.  And we had fun with the photo booth props during a little Reach the Beach reunion…

(above 2 photos from Tina)

 

(above photo from Ashley)

The night ended with some quality roomie bonding over my first ever Room Service!

Yes we pulled the cart between our beds :)

As I mentioned before I had to cut my HLS short this year…because my friend’s daughter was turning 1!!

I mean who could resist this face…

 

Concluding with a stop at the new Merrimack Premium Outlets and my weekend has come full circle :)

A Celebration Weekend

It was an eventful, yet happy and celebratory weekend!

Saturday I had a friend’s baby shower…and there’s nothing cuter than seeing all the cute baby clothes.

And on Sunday I celebrated another friend’s Bridal Shower, AND my aunt and uncle’s 60th birthdays!!

This morning I headed down to my blog-friend-turned-real-friend Elizabeth’s bridal shower!!

She is getting married in November, and today her bridesmaids threw her a beautiful shower down at her family’s house.

There were lots of gifts

Good food

And adorable cupcakes

I was also the first winner at Bridal Bingo!  Booya!

Tina, Elizabeth, and Me :)

I can’t wait for their big day!

Straight from the shower, I headed to my aunt and uncle’s house for a birthday bash that my cousins threw for them!

No lack of amazing food…

Fresh figs on Dubliner cheese…awesome combination!!

Giant bowl of tomato & mozzarella salad!!

The main dish…Lobster Rolls…tons and tons of lobster rolls

On hot buttery rolls.  Drooling just looking at the picture now.  I had one, and then split another with Brian later.

But I think my FAVORITE dish of the day was this Mexican Seafood Cocktail

It was similar to a cold gazpacho, but it had lots of crab meat, shrimp, and big chunks of avocado!

SOOooo delicious.  The recipe is here on Epicurious, and I NEED to make this soon!!       

There was also two huge Pavlovas for dessert (giant meringue topped with fresh whipped cream and strawberries),  along with a pink champagne birthday cake!  

It was a fun and delicious afternoon with family!

This weekend flew by, and sadly work tomorrow!  

Question… what’s you’re favorite meal to make in the heat of the summer??  I feel like I’ve had less and less meals to post on here because I’m just not cooking as much or as creatively in this hot summer heat!!

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!! 

Willow Tree Farm: Chicken Pie!

For some reason, chicken pot pies are never something I think of making, or even buying for that matter.   I don't know why though, they are the epitome of comfort food, and it let's you have "pie" for dinner!

Recently, the nice people at Willow Tree Farm asked if I'd like to try out their chicken pot pies to review, and I gladly accepted.  Willow Tree is a local family owned and operated company out of Attleboro, MA specializing in chicken...especially chicken pies and chicken salad.

In most grocery stores around New England you can find their chicken pies in the freezer section and their chicken salad at the deli.

I selected their Chicken Pie with vegetables which had carrots, peas, and green beans.

With the heat we've been experiencing around here this summer, I was holding out for a "cooler" day to turn the oven on for this meal.  My wish finally came true this past Sunday when we had a nice day in the 70's ;)

Preparation is simple, place the pie on a baking sheet and bake for 1hr 15min.  I took the suggestion on the box to brush the crust with milk first to give it a nice golden brown finish.

Before we knew it, dinner was ready.  We had simple side salads to go with our meal.  The pie technically has 3 servings but if it's your main course I would say it feeds 2...we had no problem eating the whole thing.

Unlike some chicken pot pies this one only has a top crust which I really like!  Most of the time I feel like the bottom crust is just a filler and gets soggy anyways...this also keeps the calories down a bit.

I really enjoyed the big hunks of white meat, and the filling was nice and salty...in a good way, at least I thought so.  The crust was crisp and golden brown..good, but not as tender and flaky as it could of been.

I'd love to see them make a pie with just real butter and/or olive oil, instead of the shortening and soy or palm oils, but that would be my only gripe.

This would be a perfect meal for a brisk fall or winter day when you want something homemade but don't have the time.  Throw one of these pies in the oven, go do your other tasks around the house, and dinner's ready!

If you live in the area you can also check the Willow Tree Farm retail store  in Attleboro where they that pies, chicken salad and so much more!  I love their seafood salad and wish I could eat it more often, and they also make an awesome buffalo chicken dip which I ate copious amounts of at a friends house on Superbowl Sunday :)

They also have fresh turkeys you can order for the holidays...my "house Thanksgiving" 2 years ago used a Willow Tree bird and it was delicious.

Big thanks to Willow Tree Farm for providing me with the chicken pie!

Disclaimer: I received a coupon for a free chicken pie, but all opinions are always my own.

Do you rely on frozen meals sometimes??  As much as I love cooking everything homemade as often as I can…I also have to be realistic in that I keep my schedule pretty jam packed which leaves very little time for dinner some nights.  However, when I do by frozen foods I always makes sure the ingredient list is good and not filled with crap or chemicals :)