From the category archives:

Boston

Local Lovin’…

by agirlandhermutt on October 3, 2011

This weekend marked the 2nd Annual Boston Local Food Festival and I was on-hand to enjoy all the goodies out to offer. Last year it was a beautiful day and I was totally overwhelmed with all the great food. This year the festival was obviously much more popular so it was packed to capacity. Many restaurants came out to participate so the amount of food in one little area was crazy. Add in the farmers, exhibits and performance space and it became insane. You know, in a good way of course. ; )

The Scientist and I had tickets to the 1:30 session of the Local Craft Beer tasting so we decided to grab a quick bite to eat to help soak up all the beer.

Grilled cheese to the rescue. Is there anything as cool as lunch from a food truck?! Nope. I didn’t think so.

We decided to snack on half of a Blue Man Goo, which is a nice mixture of blue cheese and fig spread on raisin pecan bread. It was a great mixture of sweet and salty. I’m glad we only got a half though because a whole of this mix might have been a little too much.

We arrived at starting time at the beer tasting and got to work. They had a showing of about 11 places that were serving beer, wine and mead.

Some of my favorites for the day were:

Cambridge Brewing Company- Their Great Pumpkin Ale is one of the best. It has tons of pumpkin spice and a richness that is just perfect for fall. Loved every sip.

Farnum Hill Ciders- I’m a huge cider fan and this NH cider totally hit the spot. This was a totally new to me place and I was totally wowed. Not only is this cider crisp and super fresh, there are hints of sparkling in several of their offerings that made it feel special.

Blue Hills Brewery- I’ve heard this name over and over and their beer as alluded me. I was so glad we were finally introduced! They had several great offerings but my fave of theirs was the Dunkelweissen, a dark German heffeweizen beer, that was chock full of roasted goodness. I was totally blown away by how smooth and rich this beer was.

The Scientist was a fan too.

My fave brewery of the whole day was no surprise…Pretty Things!

Pretty Things- They had two brews on tap, their Jack D’ Or, which is a “simple table beer”, and Baby Tree. Both are excellent. Both are delicious. Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project, Inc. knows beer and knows how to make it right. On tap=THE BEST.

Free things! I love beer brewery coasters. We collected a few on Saturday!

Then the most magical thing happened. I ran into a fellow blogger…Suki! Beers in hand we chatted about our random sighting of each other in San Francisco and our first meeting at the Healthy Living Summit 2010. Two Suki sightings in one year!

The session started to wind down around 3:30 and we were STARVIN MARVIN. Our last stop for the festival was a local favorite, RedBones BBQ. This Davis Sq favorite is always busy and their food truck was no different. We snuck in for a pulled chicken sandwich and some of their out-of-this-world potato salad to split.

The 2nd year of the Local Food Fest was a success. I’m so happy to say that I live in a city where there is so much local love and so much wonderful local eats/drinks.

CHEERS!

I hope you guys are having a great start to the week! I’m ready for a week of fun starting with book club tonight. Let the reading (and chatting with friends!) begin!

Are there a lot of festivals where you live? Any great fests that you want to brag about that you have attended?!

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Wrapping Up Summer in Boston…

by agirlandhermutt on August 26, 2011

Lets do a quick Erin History & Geography lesson.

I’m originally from Florida. Right down there are on the bottom of the map on the Gulf of Mexico. Lovely little city but right in the eye of a few hurricanes and recently a tornado too. Eek.

I now live in Boston. Right up there near the top of the map. You know, the area that supposedly has four seasons but has to deal with lots of snow.

Typically when you see reports on the news about hurricanes you see maps that look similar to this. This is not an unusual map to pop up on the nightly summer news when you live in Florida.

However, today I woke up to THIS map on my morning weather update. Yea. We, as in Boston we, is under hurricane watch for Sunday.

It doesn’t look like it will be major for us. Just a lot of rain, but people are freaking out. Possibly because we also got to feel a little bit of an earthquake this week? Where is just a little bit of the snow and my four seasons?! Winking smile

Seriously though…I’m glad my VA and DC friends were ok after the earthquake and fingers crossed things go ok for my East Coast friends really in the line of Hurricane Irene.

Fortunately before all this weather hits I got a chance to enjoy the great outdoors in Boston. Oh yea..ZUMBA on the Esplanade! The Esplanade is about 3 miles of park along the Charles River and is a great spot for concerts and other fun events.

It was a beautiful night on Tuesday so there was quite a big turnout. LOTS OF MEN. I realized that night that one of my most favorite things in the world is watching a man being introduced to Zumba. I loved it!

My exercise dates were Karen and Tiffany. These ladies are both training for races in the Fall so this was their chance to do something besides run, run, run. I’m happy to oblige.

The class itself wasn’t the most intricate choreography but it was fun to be outside and pretty challenging to do it in the grass. I was pleased! By the time we were done the sun was setting and Boston was looking pretty picturesque.

I wish there had been more nights like Tuesday this Summer so I could have enjoyed the outdoor events a bit more. I’m going to keep trying for the next few months.

Boston Locals…The Esplanade Association has tons of events coming up until the beginning of October. Check it out!

In addition to the Zumba I also got a chance to get together with my girlfriends. 12 of them to be exact! We all met up on Thursday night at Anthem Kitchen & Bar in Faneuil Hall for some drinks and dinner.

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I got there a bit early so I noshed on some marinated olives and a Villa Wolf Pinot Noir Rose. Both were fantastic! The rose was so crisp with tons of classic Pinot Noir flavors. Really unique!

For dinner I ordered the Greek Salad Pizza. It was topped with grilled chicken, olive tapenade (olive overload!), cucumber & tomato salad, and feta cheese. I ate one piece and was STUFFED!

I also enjoyed a little bowl of their clam chowder. Anthem was the 2010 Chowderfest Best Chowder in Boston winner so I couldn’t pass this up. Two thumbs up. Creamy, a bit heavy and chock full of clams. I wish I could have split this with someone!

A few of the girls enjoyed the bread pudding dessert but I was still stunned by one of the menu choices…Fried Twinkie! I could feel my heart seizing on me as I read the menu. How do people come up with these ideas?!

We drank, ate and laughed a ton. It was so nice to get together with everyone. It had been WAAAAYYYY to long since we had all been together. Anthem was the perfect spot for us. Their service was fantastic, the food was tasty, and the drinks even better. I can prove how much we liked it. Winking smile

Nice work ladies, nice work.

I left Anthem with my face hurting from smiling so much. I was stuffed and had lunch for the next day. If that doesn’t scream GOOD NIGHT OUT then I don’t know what does?!

I hope you all had a great week! This weekend I don’t really have solid plans in case this hurricane thing really happens. I DO have a spa day scheduled for tomorrow so I’m hoping that works out. Please, please, please work out!

Ok the big question of the day…Would YOU have tried the Fried Twinkie?!

PS. Don’t forget to enter the Robert Mondavi Wine Tour Giveaway. Today is the final day! Check it out here.

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Give Me A Sunday and I’ll Lead You To Shopping…

by agirlandhermutt on August 23, 2011

I totally get window shopping. I like to peruse online sites to satisfy most of my shopping urges. I add to the cart but never hit purchase (is that weird?!). If I bought every time I felt the urge we would have to have some kind of spending intervention. However, there are times where I give in willingly and bring out the wallet.

Sunday Karen and I gave in to some shopping urges and hopped over to the SOWA Market in the South End to enjoy a beautiful summer Sunday and spend some $$$. I’ve always had success at the market.

This market has grown by leaps and bounds over the past two years. Gone are the days of just a few tents every other weekend. The SOWA Market is now there every single Sunday till October and is packed with some AMAZING artists, food trucks, and a farmers market element. It’s a one stop shop.

I needed energy to shop appropriately so we stopped for a little lunch first. My choice was from Lefty’s Silver Cart.

Lefty’s uses local and organic ingredients, which I love and falls right in line with my personal eating philosophy.

I went for the Lil’ Kim-Chi, which sounded fantastic. What really sold me was the sesame black beans. Guess what did NOT come with my sandwich? Grr. I didn’t know the beans weren’t available until I already had my sandwich. Boooo. Let a girl know! Good thing the sandwich was delish. Definitely a make at home meal!

Full bellies…Ready to shop! This market is NOT your average craft show. There are some really interesting and creative folks.

I’d love to own one of those fantastic umbrellas but I can’t seem to keep an umbrella around more than a week to save my life. Where do they go?!

Check out this little store on wheels! Walk in and shop. There was a dressing room to try on the clothes too. Clever clever.

In addition to all the great vendors, there is also a HUGE vintage market. I’m not a big vintage shopper, but I love to check out the fun displays.

Obviously we were working hard checking out all the tents so a break was needed. The Cupcakory food truck to the rescue. I snacked on a Pistachio with Raspberry Cream cupcake. Lets just say that it is a good thing this food truck is not near my office. Yum-my!

The farmer’s market area is pretty awesome too. Lots of fresh veggies from local farms and quite a few locally made food vendors. Karen met her shopping mission by buying a ton of beets. We all have goals. Smile

Final Market Haul Included:
-From the Fashion Truck- Awesome gunmetal grey bracelet with gold studs. Super soft and flexible!
-Grillo’s Pickles Pickled Asparagus. The perfect mix of salt and crunch.
-Fifth & Madison Collection Candles in Orange Blossom and Santiago. They smell beautiful and burn wonderfully.