A couple weeks ago my younger sister turned 25 (which means I’m getting old) so we traveled to New Hampshire for a family celebration.

I present my sister, Jocelyn, in all her glory… Aruba this year…

Being goofy a couple of years ago…

To be a little nicer to my baby sister, a nice photo of all the ladies in my family from our trip to Aruba… my youngest sister, me, my mom, and Jocelyn.

If my she read this blog she’d hate me… but she doesn’t so I think I’m safe. She will never know that I’ve shared these great pictures!

Anyway… back to the ice cream cake… the first night we were at my parent’s house the Carvel cake made an appearance. I immediately forgot that it was my sister’s birthday, and not mine, and pushed and shoved my family out of the way to get to some of the cold, creamy goodness… then I saw my mom’s handy work, “Happy Birthday Jocelyn”… oops!

In addition to the Carvel cake my sister had picked up a sampling of goodies from a local bakery. My plate featured the heavenly ice cream cake and a taste of carrot cake. Personally I don’t think the carrot cake had a chance but it was still tasty.

After a sugar induced night of sleep we all went out to the Strawberry Patch for breakfast. Matt ordered traditional Eggs Benedict which was served with home fries and, of course, a strawberry.

I ordered a cheese and tomatoe omelet with home fries and homemade cinnamon raisin toast.

It was a great weekend reminiscing both with our taste buds and with our stories!

Just in case you’re actually reading this post… Happy (Belated) Birthday Jocelyn!

*sorry about the photos!*

Our friends Kaleen and Matt ended up being my lucky victims. My husband was too busy tidying the home before our guests arrived to notice me slipping in the secret ingredient…

I served appetizers and beer while I finished making dinner. Trader Joe’s edamame hummus with ak-mak crackers is my new favorite snack. I love the crunchy, crispy, wheat and sesame crackers with the flavorful green hummus.

After a couple of drinks and catching up dinner was finally ready. There was a quick assembly of sandwiches and then we all went to the roof deck to enjoy the view and our dinner.

The sandwiches were a hit… even after my husband discovered the secret ingredient. The layers of flavors are perfect together… crunchy, cool and spicy. It’s probably the best sandwich I’ve ever had or made.

For a dessert I had another little surprise… a new, Boston-based, local ingredient chocolate company had dropped off some samples and we were all going to participate in the little taste test. I had been drooling over the beautiful package from Vianne Chocolat all afternoon so I could barely wait to rip into them.

First we split the two dark chocolate raspberry truffles with cocoa and raspberry powder into halves.

After the truffles I carefully cut the five other chocolates into quarters with my good-enough-to-be-surgeon skilled hands. From the below picture starting with the bottom right corner you can see the delightful chocolates; Chambord filled with raspberry powder, lavender, burnt caramel cup, and mint.

There was one additional chocolate under these four beauties… a rose scented dove. This beautiful little dove was one of my favorites. I really enjoyed the slight hint of rose in the dark chocolate.

All of the chocolates were amazing but my absolute favorite was the burnt caramel cup. I wasn’t expecting the liquid center so when I cut into it I frantically shouted for my dinner crew to come quickly… they needed to catch a taste of the caramel before it was all over the plate. I think we all agreed that the caramel was perfect; you can tell that a very talented chocolatier made the perfectly burnt caramel. I may have run my finger through the caramel that was leftover on the plate when no one was looking… maybe…

We all felt so privileged to partake in a tasting of these wonderful chocolates!

The owner, Valerie, also throws chocolate parties which I’m sure would be a great event, perfect for a bridal or baby shower! If you’re interested in trying some of these chocolates or setting up a chocolate party go to the website.

Pork Meatball Banh Mi

Ingredients
Hot Chili Mayo

Serves 4

While I was enjoying the beer, the server poured a bottle of Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Noir. It was a bit of an awkward moment when she tried to fill my glass.

First up, some snacks. Our side of the table fired off a few orders that ran the gamut of sweet, savory and just plain different.

The brown sugar, cayenne spiced nuts put out the right combination of sweet and spice. Never would have guessed that based on what the name of the snack was… but I have to put something in between these photos…

I loved the texture and taste of the real, homemade chickpea dip with crispy flatbread.

The best of the bunch by far were dates stuffed with ricotta and pistachios; a bite sized snack with a lot going on. The creamy ricotta blended perfectly with the date and pistachios, with a hint of honey. I can’t wait to try to recreate these at home.

Snacks in the belly. Time for more wine.

No, this is not a prop bottle from “The Great Gatsby,” but rather a very earthy Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso Robles, California. I am not an earthy wine fan, but in this case it did not overpower the big, juicy flavor of the wine.

For the main, I opted to combine two appetizer dishes; the pasta special and a Vietnamese steak salad.

The pasta was orecchiette with pea tendrils, lemon, and ricotta. It was a light pasta dish which was perfect for the warm night.

Next up was the Vietnamese beef salad with green papaya, fermented black beans, lime, mint, and chili oil. I was initially put off by the fact that the beef was served cold, however it fit nicely with the rest of the salad and the flavor profile complimented the other ingredients perfectly.

Later, the three of us headed across the river into Boston to what we like to call “our living room” (Mooo….) for a nightcap and maybe… a look at the dessert menu.

The ladies decided to go against the stereotype and we ordered…the… Lady’s Martini. Ok, not really against the stereotype, but with Lilet blonde infused with fresh lemon, hibiscus syrup and a champagne chaser, it became too tempting to pass over. The martini was full of fantastic flavor but I’m not sure it could be really classified as a martini. Very sweet, not much alcohol… or so it seemed… not bad for a night cap…. not good if it is your first drink of the night because these go down like a Capri Sun and would end your night before you even knew what was happening.

For some reason, the dessert menu taunted us with a very intriguing dark chocolate stout cake. Now I’m not a huge chocolate fan but I do enjoy the “health benefits” of dark chocolate and a good stout. The cake was wonderful and really well done. Thank God Betsy and Matt were there or I might just have developed a real passion for chocolate… and by that I mean I would have eaten the whole thing.

Overall, this unscripted rambling back and forth across the river was a culinary and viticultural success. You can see Betsy’s perspective here. Our photos are almost identical. We were snapping dueling pictures so much that Matt had compared us to the most flash happy crowd in Boston in a tweet:

“@upwitholives & @amateurgastro take pics of food like Asian tourists take pics of the Cheers facade #canon #Boston.”

Give these ladies a camera that fits in a pocket and combine that with a love of food, and what do you expect? I’ll post my pictures of the Cheers facade in another post

We arrived in Chicago Saturday morning leaving us plenty of time for food throughout the day. On our way to my sister-in-law’s home we stopped and picked up sandwiches from Potbelly for lunch. When we got to their home all the ladies of the family, and Dave (the dad-to-be), were reunited for the first time since Christmas 2008. The baby of the family, Alleigh, has been doing good deeds all over the country, working in Americorps. We were lucky that her break fell during the week of the shower. It would have been great if Matt and his dad could have been there but the two New England men had to stay behind to run the bed and breakfast.

After our little reunion we left to head downtown to meet up with some important Michiganders at Cafe Iberico for dinner. There is nothing better than pitchers of sangria and tapas galore! It was so nice to catch up with the extended family over a fantastic meal. Dinner was over early so a group of us walked over to the Hotel Felix to have drinks in their swanky restaurant, Elate. Of course I forgot to take any photos on Saturday but Alleigh got a shot of her Blueberry Lemonade drink at Elate. I had the cucumber collins which was delicious but I think the table’s favorite was the ginger-basil mojito.

Later on that night Alleigh and I met up with one of my best friends who moved from Boston to Chicago a couple years ago. We all caught up over a couple of beers at The Bad Apple. It wasn’t nearly enough time but we all had to get up in early in the morning.

Sunday morning, after a quick run along the Lake, we headed to the suburbs for the baby shower!! The shower was held where Carrie and Dave got married almost two years ago, the Riverside Reception. It was a beautiful day for a perfect baby shower!

Here are some photos of the room and the view

A little sweet favor

My mother-in-law made the most beautiful diaper bag for Carrie. For the rest of the weekend everyone referred to her as Linda Bradley.

Our gift came from a little boutique in Boston, Red Wagon. I loved how they wrapped the gift in a small pizza box. Too cute!

All of the food was fantastic!

After our big lunch there were two desserts, cake and ice cream! The beautiful cake was a chocolate sponge cake with a cherry filling.

We were so full that we couldn’t even imagine eating dinner.

Here I am with Matt’s beautiful twin cousins. Before Saturday, I hadn’t seen them since my trip to Michigan in October.

Here I am with my two gorgeous sister-in-laws getting ready to open all the gifts.

When we were finally back in Chicago and had made room for dinner, we enjoyed pizza and a salad while we watched the season premier of Drop Dead Diva. We love the talented Brooke Elliot! She’s a college friend of Carrie’s and we’re all so proud of her! It’s been so much fun watching her on her show. Here is my favorite photo of Brooke with Matt at Carrie and Dave’s wedding.

I love spending my weekends in Chicago but it doesn’t happen as often as I would like and when it does happen it’s always over too quickly. Before we knew it Alleigh, mom, and I were getting ready to leave for the O’Hare airport Monday morning. Before we left we wanted to get one last photo of all of us.

Then I took another one just for good measure. You can see we’re all laughing because Duncan, their chocolate lab, was very confused as to why we were all standing there so he started to bark at us. Silly Duncan!

After reuniting with the hardworking men back in Boston we went to dinner at Scollay Square. I started with one of my favorite salads in Boston, the roasted pear salad, and a Blue Moon.

Then Matt and I shared the buffalo chicken mac and cheese. We feel better about eating this heavenly, fatty dish if we share it!

It was a great long weekend and I can’t wait to meet the newest member of the family!

We sat down at the bar and ordered our drinks. A slightly dirty Grey Goose martini for Matt and a Hendricks martini with a twist for me. I forgot how potent gin martinis are and had to leave half of my gin in the glass. I knew that if I had finished my martini I would not have enjoyed (remembered) much of dinner. We really liked Avila and I made a mental note to come back for dinner some time.

On to Market! We felt so special walking into the restaurant; walking through velvet ropes to get to the lobby, having our names checked off on a list and passing through the movie set to get to our table. From our table you could see some of the film equipment outside the restaurant windows.

The restaurant was beautiful. I loved how the table was set with different dimensions and textures.

We ordered a bottle of Barbaresco for dinner. It was a very young wine that needed to open a bit so we decanted the bottle.

After a short perusal of the menu we figured out what we wanted to order.

We started with the arugula and Boston lettuce salad with a mustard vinaigrette and fine herbs.

For my dinner I ordered an appetizer; rice cracker crusted tuna with a citrus-chili emulsion.

To make my dinner a little bit more robust I also ordered the fine herb and Comte fritters. They were the most delicate, mouthwatering cheese fritters I have ever had! I definitely didn’t want to share but after much bickering I finally let Matt have one or two.

Matt ordered the Parmesan crusted organic chicken with white asparagus and a lemon-basil butter. It was really good but it was basic enough that I think I can recreate this dish at home.

My man’s dish was lacking a little bit of substance so he also ordered a side of mashed potatoes.

Dessert was the most amazing part of our meal; caramelized banana cake with a praline crunch and salted caramel ice cream. Words can’t even begin to describe how much we enjoyed this dessert!

Our date was so much fun and delicious. I can’t wait until Matt plans our next one… sometime in July!

Tuesday after work I made Garlic Chive Chicken from my Allrecipes recipe box. I have a slight obsession with garlic so this recipe touched my heart. Along with the garlic obsession, I realized that Matt and I consistently enjoy chicken on pasta dishes. It was no surprise that we awarded this meal a sacred spot in the Longaberger recipe box.

Wednesday was date night. Matt planned a romantic night out with drinks at Avila followed by dinner at Market by Jean-Georges. It was a great night; special enough that it will get it’s own future blog post.

Thursday I made Pork Medallions with Cherries from an old Women’s Health magazine recipe. I tried to get a cool shot of the cherry sauce reducing but I couldn’t quite capture the steam. It ended up looking just foggy.

I served the finished dish over brown rice. It was fantastic but the cherries were slightly overwhelming. I would recommend using less cherries than the recipe calls for, however it is still a keeper.

On Friday we left work a little early to pick up Matt’s mom from the train station to bring her to Winthrop. She was visiting friends for the evening before meeting me at the airport in the morning for our trip to Chi-town. After dropping his mom off, Matt & Bailey headed north to Maine to help run the B&B for the weekend. Since I was home alone Friday night I decided to make seafood. These seafood recipes are reserved for nights when Matt is not around (he cannot stomach seafood, much to his dismay). I picked hazelnut-crusted scallops from Coastal Living. I enjoyed the scallops on a bed of whole wheat spaghetti with a glass of sauvignon blanc.

Two things I don’t have very often, white wine and seafood. It was weird not having one of my two boys home with me but my meal was good enough that I forgot they weren’t here while I ate.

My fun weekend in Chicago will be detailed in another post.

The Chicago trip extended through Monday, so my weekly planning of meals was disrupted. Tuesday night I stopped and picked up a whole wheat pizza shell for a mindless dinner. It bought me another night to figure out what we were going to eat. Last Thursday was the first night I got to cook at home. High off of my recent seafood excursion, I decided to make a twofer. Candied Salmon from my Allrecipes collection for me, and Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops, for Matt, courtesy of Epicurious. The candy-shell-esque topping on the salmon reminded me of a taffy brittle with onions. I even convinced Matt to take a bite… and for a moment, he forgot he was eating fish… and then he made that gagging sound again… baby.

Matt enjoyed the pork, but commented that the Maple-Balsamic Glazed Pork Medallion should remain as the top spot of the “P” tab in the Longeberger box.

All in all we had an assortment of recipes for a less than planned out couple of weeks. I would say the highlight was eating fish twice, even once within mere feet of my husband…

Here are the recipes:

Aunt Joan’s Chicken Marsala

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1/2 t dried basil
3 T butter
3 T olive oil
6-8 oz sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 c marsala wine

Pound chicken to 1/4″ thickness between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Combine flour, salt, pepper, basil, mix well. Heat oil and butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Dredge chicken in flour mixture. Cook chicken until lightly browned on first side (2 minutes). Turn chicken and add mushrooms around chicken. Cook about 2 minutes more until lightly browned; stir. Add marsala wine to pan. If you like more sauce, you can add chicken broth and more marsala (to taste). Serve over fresh linguine with a nice loaf of Italian bread. ENJOY!

Serves 4

Garlic Chive Chicken
Ingredients

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Wrap the garlic head in foil, and bake 30 minutes, until cloves are soft. Remove from heat, and cool enough to handle.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add egg noodles and cook for 6 to 8 minutes or until al dente; drain.
Slice off the top of the garlic head, and squeeze the softened cloves into a medium bowl. Mix in the chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Lightly coat the chicken breast halves with flour, and cook in the skillet about 10 minutes on each side, until lightly browned. Set chicken aside, retaining skillet juices. Stir in the garlic mixture, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and return chicken to the skillet. Continue cooking the chicken about 5 minutes on each side, until no longer pink and juices run clear. Remove chicken, and arrange on plates over the egg noodles.
Mix the butter into the garlic sauce mixture in the skillet until melted, and stir in the chives. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and egg noodles to serve.

Serves 4

Pork Medallions with Cherries

Ingredients

1 lb pork tenderloin, sliced into half-inch-thick medallions
1/2 C finely chopped red onion
16 oz bag frozen dark sweet cherries, defrosted slightly in microwave and drained of juice
1/2 C reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 tbsp honey
3 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried thyme

Season medallions with salt and pepper to taste.

Last week we enjoyed Garlic Chive Chicken from my Allrecipes collection, my Aunt Joan’s Chicken Marsala, Pork Medallions with Cherries from Women’s Health, and Hazelnut-crusted Scallops from Coastal Living. In addition to last week’s four recipes I also have a second date night to summarize and a weekend in Chicago. Once I’m all caught up from last week I’ll share my reviews on the recipes that I picked for this week. Tomorrow night I’ll be having Candied Salmon from Allrecipes while Matt enjoys Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops from Epicurious. Friday night we have twp of our friends coming over for dinner so I’m going to try to make Pork Meatball Banh Mi from StraightUpWithOlives.

It’ll take me some time but I hope to catch up soon! I don’t like being so behind in my posts! Until then, good eats and fun reads!

As we left work for the day, Matt and I stopped at Central Bottle Wine & Provisions to, well, to do exactly what the shop’s name implies. We had only been here once before on a very busy Thursday night. The atmosphere was cool, but the abundance of Cambridgians in relation to the available square footage was a bit too much for us. The Friday before Memorial Day, however, was the perfect time to engage the “slow browse.” This shop is fantastic! The selection of cheese, wine, beer, bread, chocolate, etc. is amazing! We ended up leaving with a growler of Berkshire Brewing Company’s Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale, a 6-pack of Troeg’s Dream Weaver Wheat Beer, a 4-pack of Harpoon’s Leviathan Imperial IPA, and a bottle of Barbaresco for a friend’s recent law school graduation. This place will most definitely become our regular check-in to the world of new and interesting wine, beer and the occasional pigs hoof (right next to the register, by the way).

The rest of the evening included takeout from Zen on the roofdeck, watching the Celtics win the playoff series against Orlando with friends, and stopping in to that graduation party to (reluctantly) offload the Barbaresco.

Saturday “morning” we loaded up the Swagger Wagon (our Ford Edge) and headed off to Maine for the night. Once the car was parked and the dog safe with grandma and grandpa, we headed off to imbibe with some friends at Frills (famous for their “Thirsty Traveler” a rum punch-inspired concoction). Later, we enjoyed great pizza and salads from Caffe Prego while relaxing with Matt’s parents and some Spanish red wine on the front porch. After dinner we met back up with our friend’s at Maxwells Pub for a few beers and some terrible (and that is not nearly a strong enough word) karaoke. I admire the guts it takes to get up there, but I consider myself smart enough to know that the only people who want to hear me sing are the ones stuck with me in my 430 square foot condo and they have no choice.

Sunday started with the 16 Beach Street “test kitchen.” This is where Matt’s mom tries out new B&B breakfast recipes on us. This morning it was almond-crusted challah french toast. It was as good as it sounds (and looks!). The toasted almonds made a crunchy and lightly salted crust that blended perfectly with the sweetness of the challah bread. What a wonderful way to begin a beautiful day!

After breakfast Matt and I headed to the beach for a little R&R with our friends from the night before. The weather was great, the water was wonderful. Sometimes, you forget you are in Maine. Then you wade into the water and realize that the pain in your feet is actually early-onset frost bite. Regardless, I’ll take a day at the beach over any other day! Dinner Sunday night was take-out from the Front Porch, our favorite restaurant in Ogunquit. Matt and I split a pepperoni flatbread and a chicken mozzarella sandwich. Both of these entrees were new for us, and we enjoyed them both. The flatbread had thick, real slices of pepperoni with dollops of creamy ricotta cheese and perfectly caramelized, roasted cloves of garlic. Apparently, Matt is not a huge fan of ricotta on pizza. This became evident when there was a piece left and he was all to eager to let me take it. The chicken sandwich reminded me of a chicken bruschetta with divine mozzarella on top. The bread roll fell a little flat compared to the other vibrant flavors in the sandwich, but hey, it’s just bread, right?

Matt’s dad knows that I am a sucker for ice cream so he surprised me with a Kahlua brownie ice cream from a local creamery. He served it with Linda’s fantastic oatmeal cookies. Great culinary ending to a great beach day.

These series of photos are from the “it will have to do for now” iPhone camera.

After the great meal, we headed back to Boston. Monday morning Matt made breakfast (probably in an attempt to avoid taking the dog out, but the end result was worth the hassle). An Eggo whole wheat waffle with bananas and an over easy egg. I always love it when he makes breakfast!

He also had a decadent surprise for me. My favorite vanilla creme donut from Dunkin Donuts. This is such a treat because not only are they hard to find (not all of the DnDs carry them) but I am now sadly aware of my caloric intake. “Fortunately” he split the donut with me so I didn’t have to beat myself up all day.

After breakfast we headed out to the Natick Collection to take advantage of some bittersweet deals. The Calvin Klein store is closing, and everything was 50% off. We also hit up Martin + Osa as they prepare to close the brand… sad, but GREAT deals! On our way back from our errands we got this smokey view of Boston. I don’t know if you can tell from my iPhone photo but the city is covered in smoke from the Quebec wildfires. It was crazy! It was hazy and it smelled like a campfire in the city!

The rest of the night was a typical end of the weekend routine… dinner (recipe post to come) and getting geared up to head back to work after a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Ian and I took Centergy, which is a “fusion of Yoga, Pilates, Dance and traditional exercise done to amazing music”. After Centergy we took Power Yoga Flow with his new favorite yoga instructor. Both classes were amazing! So much fun and so much pain! Good pain.

After showering with the Kiehl’s products that are stocked in the beautiful locker rooms we walked towards my home hoping to find some food on the way. When we got to the Boston Garden we decided to stop for a little pre-dinner dessert at the Frosty ice cream truck. We both got a kiddie cup of vanilla soft serve with rainbow sprinkles. Sorry the photo is blurry. I had to take an iPhone photo while walking. Doing two things at once is not my strong suit.

By the time we had walked a block I had finished my ice cream and we were standing in front of Boloco. After my sweet first course I was ready for dinner. My chicken terriyaki bowl was very satisfying with chicken, carrots, brocoli, and brown rice. Yum!

Ian and I had such a great night catching up on his trip to Africa, exercising, and eating! It couldn’t have been any better. Regarding Equinox, I feel this quote summarizes my experience with this amazing gym, it’s “better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”. Maybe someday we’ll find our way back to each other?! I just need to bring home a bigger paycheck first.

Thursday night after work I picked my copy of the Superfast Kofte (Turkish meatballs) recipe from Cooking Light, March 2007. A colleague of mine is Turkish so she was more than excited to give me tips and tricks regarding kofte Thursday afternoon. When I went home I was more than prepared to make dinner! Taking the advice of my colleague I added a little minced garlic and sea salt to my yogurt which was an amazing addition to the recipe!! Dinner was delicious! I brought in the leftovers the next day for my colleague to try and she said I did great! Traditionally, kofte does not have mint or cinnamon however she enjoyed the addition of the mint but would leave the cinnamon out. She also suggested that next time I put the onion in the food processor so that it is more minced than chopped. Also, my “chopped” onions are HUGE. I think I’m going to take a knife skills course very soon!

Matt’s review: I loved it! He even had seconds!
Lauren’s review: This is great. Next time I make this recipe I’m going to use ground turkey instead of beef, mince the onion, will definitely keep the yogurt with the garlic and salt addition, but will also keep both the cinnamon and the mint because I liked both of the flavors in the dish.
Final decision: Keeper!

Superfast Kofte

Preheat broiler.

Combine first 12 ingredients in a large bowl; stir until just combined. Divide mixture into 8 equal portions; shape each portion into a (2-inch) patty. Place patties on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Broil 4 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Place 1 tomato slice and 1 patty in each pita half; top each half with 1 1/2 teaspoons yogurt.

Serves 4.