simple weekend recap: edition 19

Friday kicked off the weekend with some guacamole in my Christmas molcajete. My favorite & easiest guacamole is just 2 avocados, 1/2 lime's worth of juice, 1 small tomato, 1 tbs cilantro, sprinkling of salt & pepper, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, and 1/2 tsp onion powder all mashed together.

 

Saturday Erin had a date with one of her boyfriends, Mickey, at the dog park...

 

...before the pup-parents headed out to dinner at 80 Thoreau.

 

I started with the crisp gnocchi with bacon, oysters, and cauliflower...

 

..before having the outstanding roasted & braised chicken with potato gratin, brussel sprouts, and almonds. I can never pass up their chicken...it's always so moist!

This weekend we also ended up at the Tip Tap room for some snacks. Started with the mashed sampler, a tasting of horseradish, goat cheese, creamed corn & olive tapenade mashed potatoes. Sadly the only one I enjoyed (but really enjoyed) was the creamed corn version.

 

The dessert saved the visit though...I will definitely return if not just for the perfected bread pudding dessert. Mmmmm.

 

Weekend home-cooked dinner was a chicken lasagna roll-up, a new recipe I thought up while craving both lasagna and chicken cacciatore.  Tender shredded chicken simmered in a tomato sauce rolled up with cheddar inside pieces of lasagna. T almost ate the whole batch himself, as these are delicious (recipe will be posted Tuesday)!

 

 

 

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simple weekend recap: edition 9

A gray and rainy holiday weekend began with a delicious dinner at 80 Thoreau, as always, with friends. After a late night of catching up, I slept in before heading to a late brunch at Aka Bistro in Lincoln. 

A bowl of warm soup, a massive salad, and the best french fries

 & garlic aioli in the world for brunch...

 

followed by experimenting with finger limes, which are like lime caviar...

little balls of lime that pop in your mouth...

 

 

Sunday morning I made no-knead bread from a Le Creuset recipe, while T installed 

some of our new aesthetic changes to the house...

 

 

 

 

before heading out for date-night at Lolita.

 

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monday: simple weekend recap edition 1

After a busy weekend of guests rotating in and out, it's back to normal. Went out to two dinners (Bistro du Midi and 80 Thoreau) but was a terrible photographer and did not do well with that aspect this weekend...oops! This is the first of the "monday: simple weekend recap"s. Easy peasy, no pressure Mondays.

 

 

 

 

 

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anniversary date night

Cinqo de Mayo, the Supermoon, and our anniversary dinner all happened to fall on the same celebratory day this year! T and I began our celebrations at Clio, with an underwhelming dinner surrounded with some incredibly rude company at the tables to our left and right (which was unfortunate).  After a frustrating dinner we decided to continue our celebration at 80 Thoreau (again) for some after-dinner cocktails.

 After a couple of cocktails close to home, we decided to call it a night...but not before a few pictures of my beloved Loubies (obviously taken in the kitchen before I fell asleep)!

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grilled steak with curry mustard sauce and asparagus

Eek, it's been a while...

Just a quick one before horror movie night with popcorn and the lights off.

This week's main dinner was a delicious grilled steak (T's job) with my own curry-mustard sauce along with some grilled asparagus (my jobs!).

 

Asparagus is one of my favorite veggies, and although Spring is not my favorite season, it does bring my long green friends back to me fresh for a small window of time!! 

Unfortunately I was a terrible blogger this past weekend and forgot to take pictures of our dinner at 80 Thoreau. Not too worried though, I'm sure I will be back within the next 2 months...especially for one of their "tonic & gins" with their house-made gin. 

Tomorrow T and I will celebrate our 5-year anniversary at Clio, where I will hopefully remember to document the culinary experience...as well as some of my Loubies!

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boston restaurants 1-Z

I have also decided to attempt my plan that I have been trying to put in place for the last 2 years.  My goal is to try to best restaurants in Boston...in alphabetical order. I knew there were many talented restauranteurs in Boston, but I had no idea that 800+ restaurants were listed on opentable.com for this area. My plan is simple: Begin with numbers, followed by A and continue all the way to Z. Choosing will be easy, I plan to choose the highest-rated restaurant of the letter and blindly go there, no researching the menu, only the dress-code. I understand that this will create some overlap for places I have already been, but if I have already been there there must have been a reason anyways! Unfortunately there are no restaurants beginning with Q, X, or Y (surprisingly) in the Boston area, so those will have to be skipped! First on the list is one of my favorites where I was already planning to go in a few weekends anyways! 80 Thoreau. Let the plan begin!

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