simple weekend recap: edition 26

The weekend started early at The Salty Pig customizing charcuterie boards and having (in my opinion) the best octopus plate Boston has to offer.

 

 

 

 

With fennel, peas, & olives, I was in love with the octopus. I feel like this is going to be one of my new favorite places...and T will definitely be in love once I take him here!

 

 

After a long week of work, Friday night consisted of whipping the grill out of the basement and grilling up some BBQ chicken, having the best potato salad in the world (which I forgot to document, so I guess I'll just have to re-make it so I can share it with you!), and the brussel sprout and corn recipe I made a few days ago before relaxing in front of our new outdoor fireplace with some s'mores.

 

 

Saturday morning lunch was spent at Harvest

which has my now-favorite cold lobster roll in the city. We relaxed on the beautifully peaceful patio before heading off to a matinee of The Great Gatsby at the Somerville Theatre, which provides cheap prices for movies in an old-school environment (with beer on tap!)!

 

 

For Saturday night date night, T & I finally went to 

Oleana for the first time (review later this week).

 

 

 

Sunday night dinner was coffee rubbed steak with chimichurri sauce with some homefries & a green salad made with romaine, pears, browned brussel sprouts & chives with a simple mustard-vinaigrette.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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caramelized chicken wrap

I like to put honey, rock salt, and garlic all over my whole roasted chickens to make a supa crispy blackened outside. Not having a whole chicken on hand (shucks), but craving this combo, I decided I would settle for a whipped up caramelized chicken wrap. Turns out I didn't settle and this was aaaamazing.

Ingredients (for 5 tortillas-worth inspired by this recipe):
1 lb organic chicken breast, sliced
1/4 cup honey
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbs olive oil  
rock salt & pepper
1 cup water, divided
1 handful of cherry tomatoes
1.5 cups rice pilaf
5 tortillas
Creme fraiche for topping

Directions:1. Cut chicken into slices and place in a bowl or a ziploc bag directly. Add honey, garlic, red pepper flakes, olive oil, and rock salt & pepper. Mix and stir to coat. Transfer to a ziploc bag or cover with clingwrap and place in fridge for 20 minutes.
 

2. Heat a pan (or this nifty pan that lets liquid pool in the cracks) over medium-high heat.
 

3. Add chicken and marinade to the pan, squeezing every bit of marinade out onto the pan. Let cook over medium-high heat while marinade bubbles underneath and browns the chicken until dark (shown in last picture of this instruction).

 

 

 

 

4. Add 4 tbs water to the pan to sizzle and stick the sauce to the chicken.  Cook until water is gone. Transfer chicken to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm, but let breathe to not overcook while sitting.
 

 

5. Add tomatoes to the pan over medium-high/high heat. Add remainder of water to the pan and shake to coat. Cook until tomatoes begin to squish and split, about 10 minutes.
 

 

6. Add squished tomatoes to the chicken plate, arrange wraps in the order of tortilla, rice pilaf, chicken, tomatoes & a dollop of creme fraiche.
 

 

 

 

*Of note for leftovers: chicken and rice saves well in the fridge, 

tomatoes & creme fraiche do not*

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bon me pop-up picnic

Bon Me, the fresh & inventive Vietnamese food truck, hosted their 2nd pop-up picnic this week. For this picnic they partnered with West Bridge, a new French restaurant in Kendall (and soon-to-be new neighbors of Bon Me's first home in a building)! The 4-course picnic was $18 and came with a picnic blanket, to make it super romantic. My friend, Grace, and I set up camp and enjoyed the following in the Rings Fountain park on the Rose Kennedy Greenway with a thai iced tea and a spicy ginger lemonade: 

1st: pork butter crostini

2nd: bok choy slaw

3rd: a baguette chock-full of pickle

carrot & daikon, cucumbers, cilantro,

 red onion, housemade spicy mayo, 

pate, with a prepared braised tongue

 and plum mustard.

4th (my favorite course, which I could

 probably eat 5x/day for a week):

 coconut amaranth pudding

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After a filling picnic spent trying to grasp the complexity & range of ingredients combined in the tastiness we were consuming, we decided to walk it out. We headed towards the North End and stumbled upon a beautiful rose garden, on one of the most perfect-weather-evenings of the summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After exploring, we headed straight for LuLu's cupcakes to split a carrot cake cupcake, before parting ways. It was a perfect date night on a perfect evening in Boston. Thank you Bon Me & West Bridge for sharing your culinary treats with Boston, if only for 1 night!

 

 

 1: Photo courtesy of Bon Me

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