Category: Dinner

Pizza night, Halloween party, relaxing

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Overall, the past weekend was really quite relaxing… or at least for me. I didn’t spend a lot of time at my apartment since I screwed up and broke my heat. With the temps we had in Boston over the weekend, this wasn’t the best time to break the heat. Needless to say, I spent Friday working like this:

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I was so grumpy and frustrated with myself by the end of the day. There’s nothing I hate more than doing something stupid that ends up costing me money. I was tempted to just stay in and drink wine by myself, but I decided to pull myself together and take someone up on their offer to grab pizza and a drink at Santarpio’s Pizza.

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Totally worth it and I felt much better after! Santarpio’s has totally lived up to its name, too… loved, loved, loveddd the pizza!

Saturday started off with kickboxing and then I got to do one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen: frost cookies!! There is something so relaxing about frosting cookies… and, ok, maybe I love it so much because I get to eat frosting throughout the process. I could literally eat frosting by the spoonful. Anyone else like this?

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For me, holiday’s are not complete without funfetti cookies, so I make a point to bring them to every holiday party that I go to.

Rachel and her husband, Dan, had a Halloween party on Saturday night, so I headed over to my old apartment to hang out with my sister and Amy before going to the party. I reused a costume and went as a flapper.

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Rachel’s apartment was so festive! Everywhere I looked there was glitter and cobwebs and other “Halloween” stuff. I couldn’t help but have some of her famous sangria… my favorite part of every party she has 😉

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It was so nice to go to a house party where you can actually have conversations with people… and snuggle babies!

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Thanks for a fun party, Rachel!

Sunday was another relaxing day… spent mostly at my old apartment. Since they had heat and I did not, it made sense to go hang out with them. My sister and I also had to plan our Chicago trip, so it made for a good afternoon to hang out there! She made us pizza for lunch… yummm.

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When I left the girls’ apartment, I did my weekly grocery shopping and was so excited to have time to make a real meal! It’s been far too long. I’ll share the recipe with you later this week, but it was delicious and a perfect warm, fall meal to eat.

And here we are… another week! I am happy to have heat back, that’s for darn sure!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite pizza place? Do you love frosting or are you more of a cake person? Do you have a Halloween costume? If so, what were you? What was the best part of your weekend?

Beef Burgundy: Sometimes I crave red meat

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Whenever I’m scheduled to go home, my mom always asks me to think about what I would like her to make me for a special meal (I know, I’m spoiled!). Well, as soon as she asked me this question a few weeks ago, I immediately responded with: Beef Burgundy. Sort of a strange request, right? I don’t know why I was craving it, but I was totally in the mood for red meat and hadn’t had beef burgundy in a while so I thought it was a great idea.

Lucky for me, my parents always have every type of meat imaginable in their freezer, so this wasn’t a problem at all! And, for once, I sat back and let my mom do all the cooking. I drank bubbly and blogged, while chatting with her and keeping her company in the kitchen.

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I forget the name of the cookbook that she used for the recipe, but I did take a picture of the recipe and instructions since I thought it was good enough to share.

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Instead of using egg noodles, I requested that we use potatoes from my dad’s garden and make garlic mashed potatoes (my fav!). We also baked broccoli and had steamed carrots and parsnips.

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This meal was absolutely delicious and I’d love to say it was easy, but I have no idea how easy or hard it was to make since mom did everything 😉 Sometimes there’s just nothing better than having wine and a nice meal on a Sunday night, especially when you know you aren’t going into the office the next day 🙂

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Thanks for making such a nice meal for me, mom! B2B readers- if you’re looking for a change up to your normal meal rotation, I highly suggest adding this!

Questions for you: If someone offers to make you dinner, what do you usually request? What’s your idea of a perfect dinner? Red meat- fan or not?

Weekending: Sushi, Shopping, Harvest Party & Travel

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Weekends go by fast enough when you have the whole one, right? Well, getting one cut short makes them seem even shorter 😦 Even though my weekend was cut short, I feel as though I was able to do a lot of fun stuff during the time I did have!

Friday night, I went to Douzo Sushi in the Back Bay. I had never been there before, but I was pleasantly surprised by both the atmosphere and the service/food. We sat right at the sushi counter which was fun because we got to watch the sushi chefs do their magic. I had a glass of Cava to start… nothing like bubbly to kick of the weekend!

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We got the garlic-spice edamame (holy crap SO SO good. I want to try and recreate this at some point), a few signature rolls and some sashimi pieces. Yum!

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Isn’t sushi presentation the best?!

Saturday started with a workout and then some shopping, which was really just a reason to exchange a pair of shoes. There was a Chipotle in the mall so I treated myself to a chicken burrito bowl for lunch. Delish!

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My friend Nikia and her boyfriend, Kyle, had a Harvest Party at their gorgeous home in New Hampshire, so I headed north on Saturday afternoon to attend. It was only about an hour trip- love that. No surprise that Kia had the place beautifully decorated!

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I was driving back home to Boston that same night, so I had a few glasses of bubbly at the start and then switched to water.

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They had games set up outside and I had forgotten how fun it was to play corn hole, beruit, etc. Steve and I (well, mostly me… apparently I’m good at corn hole?!) killed it at corn hole!

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Per usual, Nikia had an amazing spread of food.

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Thanks for a fun party, Kia!

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I made it back to Boston in no time at all and ended up watching the Sox game… I don’t watch sports, so I am glad I picked Saturday’s game 6 game to watch.

Sunday morning was spent blogging, catching up on some TV shows, filming something fun for an upcoming post and getting ready for an afternoon of travel. I love that most airports have Wi-Fi because it allows me to get work done.

I hope you’re having a good week so far, I’m hoping to be back tomorrow with a really fun Wednesday Workout post.

Questions for you: Do you like sushi? What is your favorite sushi restaurant? Favorite drinking game?

Weekend in Maine: getting out of dodge

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City life can be so tiring. We are constantly rushing from one thing to the next: plans, work, gym, catching the next T or next stop light… always rushing. While I don’t mind a fast-paced lifestyle most of the time (I like to do things fast. All the time. Maybe that’s why I get so run down!), there’s something to be said about “getting out of dodge”, and for me, that’s heading to Maine for a weekend of complete R&R. Maine living is completely the opposite of Boston living and sometimes that’s exactly what I need.

With that said, after teaching my kickboxing class on Saturday, that’s what I did; made the trek up north, but not without a number of stops on the way. Not being on a timeline is something I don’t do often (or well, for that matter), so it was a nice treat to have the day open for anything I wanted to do!

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side note: how fun are my new pants?! Love them!

I stopped off in Kittery, which, in hindsight was a terrible idea since it was so busy, but I did score some good deals at Banana Republic so I guess that made it worth it?

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New pants that match the suit I bought this summer, 2 new blouses and a new sweater… all for less than $100! The outlet was 50% off. Doesn’t get much better than that! I also stopped off at Lowe’s to get a digital thermostat to help make regulating my heat easier.

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My last stop of the day before going to my parents was the hair dresser. I usually go to a salon in Boston, but as of late, I haven’t been happy with my hair cuts and she has gone up to $65, which I think is outrageous! I decided to get my hair cut in Maine since it’s $26… yes, that is a huge difference. She went a little shorter than I had wanted, but hair grows and I’ve always been more of a short hair person than long hair.

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I wonder how it’s going to look curly… hopefully not too short!

We had a dinner party on Saturday night at my parents, which is always a fun thing. What made it even better was how much bubbly people brought; sometimes I think they do it just for me and “Burpees to Bubbly” 😉

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Have I mentioned how much I love being home?

Sunday consisted of church with both parents (dad doesn’t always go, so it’s a nice treat when he does) and then lots of shopping at Wal Mart, Kohls and Market Basket. I also visited with my friend Meredith, which is always a special treat. She sent me home with ice cream.. the best ice cream!

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Yes, that’s liquor ice cream. Strong liquor ice cream.

We had visitors in the afternoon on Sunday… another one of my favorite parts of going home. I wish people my age did afternoon cocktail hour on Sundays that just consisted of a few cocktails and a few snacks.

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Bubbly and blogging… how fitting.

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Starting sweet Emma off young… her favorite thing at my parents’ house is the plastic wine glass collection. And Longaberger baskets.

For dinner, mom asked what I would want and randomly enough, I requested Beef Burgundy. It’s something I have made before, but likely wouldn’t make again for a while so it was the perfect meal to have her make me. Served with fresh, roasted garden veggies and garlic mashed potatoes (from the garden, too) made for a delicious meal. And, speaking of gardens, look at the last of the tomato crop from my dad’s garden.

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I wanted to have a “guess how many tomatoes” game on B2B, but that would require me counting the tomatoes and there were just too many to do that!

And, that about sums up my weekend. I’m heading back to the city feeling refreshed and ready to attack a few crazy weeks of work travel, parties and teaching. Bring it on!

Questions for you: Where is your favorite outlet shopping? What was the best thing you did last weekend?

Sunday dinner & what intimidates me in the kitchen

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If you were to ask me what I would have my mom make me if she could only make me one meal, I would answer without a blink of an eye: Roast chicken with all the fixin’s… “fixin’s” being mashed potato casserole (pretty much the best thing ever), steamed veggies, and loaded stuffing. Really quite simple if you ask me! Just kidding… a roast chicken dinner is a very labor intensive meal, but it is worth every ounce of time put into it.

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With that said, when I looked at the garden care package from my dad and brainstormed what I could do to use up the veggies before the went bad, it came to me: make a roast chicken meal!

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I made my meal just as my mom would, except I bought a roast chicken from Market Basket that was already roasted. I know, I know. Totally a cop-out move, but the truth is, I’m scared to cook a whole roast chicken on my own! Has anyone done that before? They are so big and there are so many “gizzards” that have to come out and how do you know it’s fully cooked?! I could go on and on, but bottom line is that I realized I need to face this silly cooking fear and make a stupid roast chicken start to finish all on my own. I will do it, but maybe when I’m home and can have my parents walk me through it 😉 Baby steps!

Anyway, as I talked with my mom for nearly an hour on Monday, I puttered in the kitchen chopping veggies, peeling and boiling potatoes and preparing the stuffing. The kitchen was an absolute disaster by the time I finished (and I used about every pot, pan and Tupperware container by the end of the night), but it was so worth it once I tried everything!

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I didn’t measure anything, but here’s a quick run down of what I made and what ingredients I used.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

  • 5 small red potatoes, peeled and boiled until soft
  • about a 1/2 cup of 1% milk (They were out of skim, which is what I usually buy, but 1% has been a nice treat!)
  • 1 tbsp. minced garlic
  • salt, pepper, garlic salt
  • 1 tbsp. margarine

Maple Glazed Steamed Carrots and Parsnips

  • cut carrots and parsnips, steam until soft (or whatever consistency you like your cooked veggies to have)
  • 1 tbsp. butter
  • 2-3 tbsp. maple syrup- I used a pecan maple syrup that my sister brought me back after one of her site visits which was perfect!

Loaded Stuffing

  • 1 package of stuffing mix- cook according to the instructions on the box
  • green peppers & onions- maybe 1/2 cup of each? sautéed so that they are already cooked when you add them to the boiling water with the dry stuffing mix.
  • 1/4 cup of craisins to add in with the peppers, onions and stuffing mix. Let everything set for 5 minutes.

Serve everything with gravy, because gravy makes everything better 😉

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It’s a shame I live alone because I still have so many leftovers, 3 days later. I have issues with cooking smaller portions sometimes!

Questions for you: What’s a food or meal that intimidates you or makes you nervous to try? If you could have your parents (or anyone) make you one meal, what would it be?