Garden

Some photos from the garden, because it's really been taking off and I'm pretty proud of it.

Big zucchini leaves.

Huge cucumber! I've officially eaten numerous cucumbers from the garden.

Spinach

Peppers

Huge tomato plants

String beans

Cherry tomatoes and a dirty hand from lots of weeding.

Green

The salad fixings.

Hanging in the sun.

The salad, after. Everything in here (except the dressing) came from the garden!

So many tomatoes. Good thing these are like candy to me.

Huge zucchini ready to made into noodles.

Better than chips.

Weekend in Dartmouth

I'm very lucky to have a friend who lives in the beautiful town of Dartmouth, MA. We spent the weekend with her family -- heading out on boats, eating great seafood, playing board games, relaxing with her dog. It was just what I needed.

Not a bad sunset view

New Bedford Yacht Club...just like Capeside Yacht Club!

New bling

My first clam boil!

Snugs

Pickles > Bread

Brunch at the Gallows - South End

I really like the Gallows, so I was excited when my friends decided to go for Sunday brunch. We arrived around 11:30 and were able to get a table immediately for our group of 7. Pretty lucky for a South End brunch!

I started off with the "Simple" bloody mary. I really liked the house mix -- very flavorful, just spicy enough. I typically like to load up my bloody marys with stuff (pepperoni and cheese skewers anyone?) but I did order the simple, so a solo celery stick was fine.

The food menu is made up of a few entrees and a lot of side dishes that can be mixed and matched. All of the entrees sounded amazing, and I came really close to ordering the "Out of Control Deep Dish Pancake" which comes topped with bacon, bananas, peanut butter and maple syrup. Yea...sounds pretty awesome, right? Luckily my friend ordered it and I was able to steal a bite. It was as good as it sounds, and if you typically go sweet for breakfast/brunch, ORDER THIS!

I ended up ordering the burger instead because I have my weird no breakfast after 12 pm thing. It's not like that was a BAD thing -- the brunch burger comes topped with smoked bacon, american cheese and a sunny side egg. The only issue was that they didn't make the burgers to order (the waitress gave me a reason but I couldn't really hear her). Luckily the burger was juicy and cooked well, and honestly, who really cares about the burger when you have a sunny side egg to concentrate on?!

Some other notable dishes of the brunch:

A new menu item -- soft shell crab and waffles that came with a (spicy!) green curry sauce and a tropical fruit chutney. This is something I would have never ordered for myself, but I actually loved the Caribbean flavors and thought this was a really unique dish.

Sunrise Poutine: scrambled eggs, fries, chicken gravy, cheese curds, Canadian bacon AKA the ultimate mish mash to cure a hangover. I didn't get a picture of this, but I think my two friends who ordered this really enjoyed it. Also, you can replace the Canadian bacon with regular bacon if you'd like!

Overall, an awesome brunch and one I will definitely return for!

The Gallows is located at:
1395 Washington Street

Boston, MA 02118

Happy birthday

Today is my Grandma's first birthday in heaven. She would have been 81. It seems so crazy that it was just a year ago I went to NY for her 80th birthday party. I'm so, so, so happy that my family decided to throw this party for her. She looked happy, healthy and so adorable in her blue and white outfit.

I miss her every day, and I know she's up there celebrating and drinking Baileys despite being pissed about the Mets' 3 streak loss. Love you grams.

In other news, I tried something new last night and knocked off another thing from my Fitness Bucket List: take a free outdoor fitness class.

After work I went to Cardio Pilates on the Rose Kennedy Greenway with a few friends. Ali Baldassare led the class and even had an awesome DJ set up. Around 6:15 we showed up with our yoga mats and set them up on the grass with about 200 others. The weather was perfect and the class was awesome but really tough. Ali was an amazing teacher and I would love to take another class with her. The class was a mixture of pilates and barre moves with cardio bursts mixed in. I could definitely feel the fact that I haven't strength trained in about a month, but it was motivating. Gotta get back to it.

(Not my photo)

Hoping the weather will be nice next Monday so I can go again!

And now, some pretty pictures of flowers, just because.

Can you spot the bumble bee?

M.C. Spiedo - Fort Point

I had some friends visit this weekend, and on Saturday night we all went out for dinner in Fort Point to a new Italian restaurant, M.C. Spiedo. Side note, I was calling this "Mc Speedo" for days (like McLovin) and thought the name was ridiculous. Luckily I was wrong about how it was pronounced.

The restaurant is right off of the Renaissance Waterfront Hotel and is very large. The ceiling are incredibly high and adorned with huge chandeliers, tapestries and curtains. The color scheme was made up of mostly black and reds -- I wasn't crazy about the atmosphere, it was a little too dark and vampire-esque for my taste. Still, they were able to accommodate our group of 13 at a large table in a private section in the back of the restaurant. It was pretty cool!

The menu is fairly small and offers small plates and charcuterie to start, and salads, pasta, fish and meat as entrees. We all started off with wine and cocktails. I ordered a signature cocktail off the menu that was made with gin, prosecco, limoncello and cucumber. It was refreshing but very strong.

A few of us started by ordering the Chef's selection of charcuterie and cheese. The board had 3 tiers and came with a decent amount of food for it's $35 price tag. Unfortunately no one explained to us what was on the board, so we were left guessing for ourselves.

For my entree, I ordered a half portion of pasta: squid ink macaroni with charred octopus and house made sausage. I liked the pasta, but I didn't love it. I felt the pasta itself was cooked a bit inconsistenely, and the octopus was a little tough. The sausage on the other hand was amazing. This dish was very, very filling so I ended up taking most of it home with me.

Some other table favorites were the taglietelle bolognese:

The Salt crusted dorade:

And the ricotta gnudi (no photo).

Besides the lack of charcuterie explanation, the service at the restaurant was pretty spot on. Overall it was a nice dinner and reunion with friends.

M.C. Spiedo is located at:
606 Congress Street
Boston, MA 02210