Category: Holiday/Special Occasion

Happy Father’s Day!

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Good morning! Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there, especially mine!

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When I asked my dad what he wanted for Father’s Day, he simply said “for you to be home”. Easy enough, right?! It’s great to be here in Maine with him on this special day- he really is the best dad a girl could ask for. He’s always there to help me with bill questions, apartment issues/questions, gardening questions and general life issues and questions. So, dad- thank you for that. You have no idea how much your love and support means to me! I hope you have a wonderful Father’s Day!

Weekending: “Ladies Night”, Zeke’s 1st Birthday and Local Supplier Meet & Greet at Whole Foods

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You guys! This past weekend was busy, busy, busy…. but with all fun things so I can’t complain! I got a massage on Friday, which was a great way to end my “vacation” week and to kick off the weekend! After my massage, my friend Jess picked me up and we headed north for dinner in New Hampshire at Tortilla Flat with some of our other St. Michael’s friends. It may seem weird that we traveled all the way up there for dinner at a Mexican restaurant, but there was a Tortilla Flat near St. Mike’s and both Kia and Lauren worked there, which meant we went there… a lot… so  we had to check it out!

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Skinny Marg and a Combo Plate- nothing about Mexican food photographs well…

I have to share the cutest story from our dinner. There were 6 of us and all of a sudden a waitress brings over this little (5 or 6 year old) boy. Here’s how the situation went down:

Boy: Are you out for a ladies night?

Us: Yes, we are.

Boy: Well, you’ve come to the right place!

Us: Oh yeah? Why’s that?

Boy: Because I’m the ladies man!

So cute! We died laughing.

Luckily, it was an early night, which was good because I knew Saturday was going to be a big day. I cannot believe little Zeke is already ONE!!! It’s so crazy. Sara put on the most wonderful celebration- from the decorations to the food to the drinks to the company- everything was perfect! We lucked out with the weather, too. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, but it was such a great day celebrating a very loved little boy!

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I mean, can you get any cuter than little Zeke in his 1 year old shirt with a bow-tie?!?! Love! Also love my Shapleigh girls and getting to spend an afternoon with them 🙂

Danielle and I headed back to MA early on Sunday since I had a blogger event to attend at Whole Foods.

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I’m always excited for blogger events, but I was especially excited about this one because I’ve been big into buying locally and organic and wanting to know where my food comes from. It was a small event, but there were a number of vendors with samples ranging from fish to prepared salads to cheeses and butters to muesli, pickels, salsa, ice cream and iced coffee. It was so great to chat with all of them to see how their products are made, where they are located and what makes them different than other similar items sold in grocery stores.

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I’m a big fan of good swag bags 😉 Some of my favorite things I tried were:

  • Cheeses and Sea Salt & Maple Butter from Vermont Creamery– I put some of this on my dad’s homemade bread it and it was absolutely amazing!!
  • Muesli from TuTu Muesli– I anticipate early working hours, which means I’ll need to bring breakfast on the road with me so I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes with the sample that I received from TuTu. I bought some Muesli from Bob’s Red Mills and will likely do “over night oats” with that.
  • Salsa from Nola’s Salsa– This stuff was absolutely delicious! There’s nothing better than fresh, homemade salsa and this totally fit the bill for that. The owner lived in Texas for a while and learned from the best. She only uses real ingredients and you can taste the difference. I can’t wait to open mine!
  • Ice cream from Tea-Rrific– Wow. This tea-based ice cream was SO good. They actually brew the tea when making the ice cream so you could taste the specific tea flavors in each one. My favorite was the Masala Chai and the Chamomile- Perfect little sweet treat!
  • Cold Brew coffee from Grady’s Cold Brew– I gave up coffee about a year ago, but when I heard the vendor explain how it’s made without brewing coffee. Grady’s Cold Brew has less caffeine, it’s less acidic (much easier to drink!) and is easier on digestion than regular coffee. There’s no added sugar and the ingredient list is short: water, coffee, chicory and spices. All he added was a little almond milk for me and it was perfect!

Big thanks to Jess and Whole Foods Charles River Plaza for hosting such a great event… and providing us with some amazing swag bags with the products we were able to learn about and try.

Questions for you: How often do you get together with your girlfriends? What was the best part of your weekend? Do you like to shop locally or buy organic products? Have you ever heard of the ones I listed above?

Weekending: Gardening, Driving Range, Sunsets and Sheila’s Bridal Shower

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You guys. This past weekend was SO FUN! I was, again, surrounded by family and friends and the boy and enjoyed every minute of it.

Friday night, the boy and I headed to Waltham for his home-town friend’s surprise birthday party. It was my first time meeting all of them and they were so friendly and welcoming! We stayed out late- until after 1am, which is unheard of for me. I was the DD, but I still felt off on Saturday morning, which must have been because of the lack of sleep. Totally worth it, though.

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I skipped the gym on Saturday since I knew I’d ben working hard with my dad. He was gracious enough to take the time to come down and build me a garden on my back patio- how lucky am I?! Ever since he retired, he started gardening, which has been really fun to be a part of. My garden is about a fraction of the size of his, but I’m still so excited about it. Between lugging about 25 bags of heavy manure, compost mix, mulch and pete moss, as well as wood, I was pretty beat (and secretly loved it- I love physical labor!). It only took us about 2 hours from start to finish which is pretty impressive. We leveled and measured and screwed and shoveled and raked- in other words, we earned our beers after we were done 😉

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My dad is going to come back down in a few weeks to do the planting for me. I wouldn’t be able to do this without him, so I’m so thankful that he’s helping me!

After my parents left (my mom went and hung out with my sister in Southie), the boy and I went to Quincy to drive some balls at the Granite Links Golf Course and Driving Range. We planned it perfectly because we finished our bucket of balls just in time to get a cocktail and watch the sun set. Have you guys ever been there? It’s the most beautiful place- it’s up high and everywhere you look it’s gorgeous. They also have an outdoor bar and had live music. We each got a margarita to watch the sunset and agreed it felt like we were on vacation!

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By the time we realized it, it was 8pm so we scratched all plans of making dinner and went to the tavern at the course and had dinner there at the bar. Based on the wait and how busy it was, clearly we were not the only ones with that idea. Thankfully I’ve got eyes like a hawk when it comes to nabbing seats at the bar so we were seated in no time. I got the fish tacos which were amazing!
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Sunday was a day all about my friend Sheila. She’s getting married in September and her mom had planned a surprise bridal shower for her at the Venezia. It may have been terribly hard to find, but boy was it worth it! The location was right on the water with beautiful views of the city. Being around my girlfriends, drinking cocktails and celebrating is probably one of my favorite things to do.

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Everything about this shower was perfect- the location, the decorations, the food… you could clearly tell there was a lot of time and energy spent on making it the most perfect celebration for Sheila. No detail was missed! The food was also fantastic. I went with the Scallops and Lobster and Asparagus Risotto and it did not disappoint. My favorite part, though? The ice cream sundae bar!!! Best idea ever.

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All in all, it was such a wonderful afternoon. At this point in our lives, we are all so busy so it’s nice when we have an excuse and an event that brings us together. Jessi and Kelly were missing- we missed you girls!

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Can’t wait until the bachelorette party… shenanigans will ensue 😉

And, there you have it. Monday morning clearly came way too fast 😦

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Did you spend any time outside? Do you like to go to the driving range? What’s your “vacation” drink of choice?

How to host a low-stress party or get-together

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Over the weekend, I hosted a Mother’s Day brunch for my family. Rather than going up to Maine again, I thought it would be fun to have them come down here and let me (and my sister- she was a big help!) do the brunch get-together. My parents are notorious for bringing down ample amounts of food, drinks (ie: wine) and presents and even though I told them not to do that this time, what did they do? Bring down lots of food and drinks and presents. They are too good to us!

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Since the brunch was super easy to put together, I thought I’d share what I did in hopes it might help you host your next get-together stress free!

Plan out your menu in advance

In addition to planning out the menu, write down what ingredients each dish requires so you can be prepared to shop for what you need.

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Shop in advance

I never like to leave my food shopping trip for the day of or even the night before because I’m always afraid they won’t have what I need, especially if it’s something that the stores tend to run light on (kale, for instance). It’s also less stressful shopping in advance because you know that even if you don’t get everything in that one trip, you have plenty of time to go to another store to get what you need.

Prep what you can in advance

There are lots of “prep” things that need to get done when hosting a get-together, but the great thing is that not everything needs to be done the day of. I made my muffins the day before because I knew they would keep fine for the next day. I also cut up all the veggies and fruit early in the morning so that I was ready to put everything together when my parents got here.

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Keep it simple

It may sound like a great idea to put together a fancy dish or meal that you’ve seen on Pinterest or from Martha Stewart, but trust me- it’s always going to be more work than you think it will be. I wanted to do a crepe bar, but decided to skip that because it was going to require a lot of ingredients and a lot of prep work. By picking a few main items for the brunch, it allows those to shine. I skipped out on apps, too, because I wanted them to eat the brunch and not fill up ahead of time with crackers and cheese or something like that.

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Ask for help

I know I’m guilty of always wanting to do everything on my own and not ask for help, but I’ve learned that’s like an open door for unwelcomed stress to come in. You don’t have to ask for a lot of help, but if someone offers to bring wine or a side dish or to come early and help you prep the food, graciously say “ok, that would be great. Thanks!”. My sister came over an hour before my parents were due here and it was so nice to have another set of hands.

Don’t expect everything to turn out perfectly

Things happen. Things get forgotten. Things don’t turn out as well as you hoped. And you know what? That’s ok! No one will even notice… especially if you keep their glasses full 😉

Enjoy yourself

Pour yourself a cocktail before everyone gets there and be excited to be hosting a gathering! If they see you relaxed and happy, they will fall in line, too. No one likes to see a stressed host!

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 Questions for you: Do you like to play hostess and host various gatherings? Do you tend to go fancy or keep it simple? What’s something you do to stay stress-free?

 

Weekending: Dining, drinking & celebrating mom

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Weekends are usually pretty great, but this past weekend was especially great and I think the combination of being surrounded by lots of family and the weather was the reason behind it. I’ve been trying to cut back on weekend recaps because I’m not sure how much you enjoy hearing about my play-by-play weekend adventures, but this one was filled with trying out new restaurants and celebrating someone very special so I figured it was worth sharing 😉

Friday night, I met the boy in Central Square and he brought me to a little hidden gem: Green Street Grill. This little restaurant/bar was tucked away on a street parallel to Mass. Ave right in the heart of Central Square. We were lucky enough to snag 2 seats right at the bar (our favorite) and enjoyed some vino and delicious (gluten free) dishes. I had had a very stressful (but good stress) day and it was so nice to be able to relax, have a few wines and not think about anything for a while.

Saturday morning, my sister and I went to a class at Flywheel and, just as I expected, Ann taught a phenomenal class. I’d love to say that I had a great ride, but for some reason, my legs felt like lead and I just didn’t have it in me to push myself and pedal faster. I wanted to- so badly- but my body had another thing planned. Oh well. It was still fun riding next to my sister and we left there hot yoga sweaty!

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After class, we shopped around a bit (I got a new dress for Miami!) and then had lunch at Sonsie. The weather had cleared and we got seats right near the open windows- felt so nice to have warm weather!

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I can’t say any of what I ate/drank was healthy, but life is all about balance, right?

Saturday night was date-night. We went to his brother and sister-in-law’s condo in the South End for roof deck cocktails and baby snuggles before having dinner at Stella, which is also in the South End. My friend Jess recommended it and it turns out it’s one of his favorite restaurants, so it was a no brainer to try it out! Even better? They have a whole gluten free menu. We had a drink while waiting for spots at the bar to open up (the Bruins were on. I couldn’t care less, but I wasn’t going to take him away from watching). For dinner, we shared the sausage and broccoli rabe, the arugula salad and the braised short ribs. They split that for us, which was so nice! They also served it atop gluten free penne instead of GF mashed potatoes which was totally fine.

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Yum. I can’t wait to go back- I dream of that dish. Okay, not really, but it was SO good.

Sunday was a fun day filled with pampering mom! We were lucky enough to have them agree to come down for the day instead of us going up there since we’ve been a few times in the past month or so. Danielle and I made a pretty delicious brunch, if I do say so. We had an egg casserole (egg, milk, chicken sausage, sautéed peppers and onions, spinach and cheese- so easy, so tasty), warm kale salad (with EVOO and lemon juice as the dressing, craisins, goat cheese, grilled pear and candied pecans), fruit salad and Stonewall Kitchen blueberry muffins.

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One of the best parts of the day was the fact we got to spend time on my back patio, soaking up some serious sun!

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(terrible picture, but it was all I had!)

My mini patio set is, well, mini, but we squished to make it work.

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Yummm. I love brunch food! We had such a nice afternoon drinking wine (mom loves excuses to day drink!) and catching up. My dad is coming down next weekend to help get my garden started and I can’t wait! It will be so nice to have fresh veggies all summer- I’m lucky that he has volunteered to help!

And that about sums it up. Although it was a rather indulgent weekend, there’s nothing better than spending time with the people you love and food/drink indulgences are totally worth it during those times!

Questions for you: Did you get outside to enjoy the weather? What was the best part of your weekend? What did you do to celebrate Mother’s Day? What’s your favorite “hidden gem” restaurant? Do you ever have workouts where your mind wants it but your body doesn’t?