Do you ever have one of those weekends that are so fabulous that you don’t want it to ever end? There was nothing extraordinary about this weekend but I found myself smiling every day and was so sad when the weekend eventually came to a close. Please forgive some of the blurry photos that came from my Blackberry.
We started the weekend off by having a few of my law school classmates and their significant others over on Friday evening. Adam and Long are friends of mine from law school and they both live in Beacon Hill. Adam’s girlfriend moved in with him this weekend so we used that as an excuse to celebrate and indulge in lots of wine.
I absolutely love casual entertaining and I got the glasses ready for a fun night.
I did a simple spread of cheese, crackers and fresh raspberries from a local farmers market. Although I loved the brie myself, I’d have to say that the most popular cheese was this intensely smoked gouda from
Smith's Farmstead in Winchendon, MA.
Since we were celebrating, we of course brought out the bubbly, which I purchased from
Boston Wine Exchange at a great price.
Over a span of six hours, we laughed, ate, ordered
Upper Crust pizza, and drank eight or so bottles of wine. It was the perfect Friday night.
On Saturday, Bret and I tidied up the place from the previous evening’s festivities. Bret had a whole afternoon planned for us for a surprise date. We first started out at the
Panopticon Gallery of Photography. We heard that there was a great exhibit by William Wegman and we both really wanted to check it out. Neither Bret nor I had heard of this gallery before and we found ourselves completely charmed with this intimate gallery located in the
Hotel Commonwealth. We spoke with the proprietor and apparently this is the oldest photography gallery in New England. While the location has moved over the years, they have been at the Hotel Commonwealth for quite some time. This is a serious hidden jewel and I highly recommend that you check this out.
Afterwards, we headed downstairs to
Eastern Standard Kitchen for several hours of cocktails and light appetizers. I started out with the super spicy Bloody Mary made with habanero pepper-infused vodka. I then moved onto the Vin Amer Fizz at the bartender’s recommendation. I've never tried a cocktail with egg whites in it and I loved the texture it added. The cocktail tasted like a strawberry and thyme smoothie!
And then I closed out the afternoon at Eastern Standard Kitchen with the house Mai Tai. We also ordered their cheese and cracker plate and the house made potato chips with onion dip to nibble on with our cocktails.
When the rain finally let out, we headed to our next destination –
B&G Oysters. I’ve been dying to go here for quite some time but since Bret is not a big shellfish person, it never makes the top of the list. I was so touched that he would pick this place for our surprise date. We both ordered a Cisco Brewery Blonde Ale beer and I started the meal off with half a dozen oysters (Cape Breton, Malpeque, and Island Creek). I was torn on what to order for an entrée but at our server’s urging, I went for the lobster roll that everyone raves about. It definitely met its reputation from the plentiful lobster meat ever so lightly tossed in mayonnaise, sweet lobster roll, crisp house pickles, addictive cole slaw and finally the crispy fries. Amazing.
We were heading to a birthday party later that evening and we had some time to kill so we took a short stroll to the
Gallows to have a few after-dinner drinks. Don’t you love those days when you have all the time in the world to enjoy yourself fully? I started out with the White Grasshopper cocktail, which came in an adorable milk bottle.
Bret and I also split a dessert whose name escapes me. All I can say is that it involved bananas foster, chocolate sauce, peanut butter and crème brulee fluff. It seriously was as good as it looks and is described.
My friend Emily lives around the corner so she met up with us with her boyfriend for a few cocktails before Bret and I headed off to
Max & Dylans for a friend’s birthday. By the time we got to Charlestown, we had our fill of drinks so we sipped on one beer over the course of a few hours. It was one of those nights where everyone was having a great time and we couldn’t stop chatting about everything under the sun.
On Sunday, Bret and I got to sleep in a bit and then we headed to
Café Vanille to kill some time while our apartment was getting cleaned. I sipped on some iced passion fruit tea and caught up on some blogging. It felt so great to be lazy and just hang out. When we got hungry, we split the most amazing veggie torte that was filled with cheesey red pepper, carrot, bechamel and green bean goodness. It was seriously the best breakfast I've had in awhile.
We headed up to Tewksbury on Sunday night to have dinner with my parents. While I was there, I got to check out my mom's vegetable garden. I am very lucky to have grown up learning up the importance of local food at such an early age and my family always looked forward to the summer when our meals came straight from the garden!
My mom made her usual feast of dishes and we also indulged in a delicious strawberry rhubarb pie that Bret and I brought with us from our farmer's market delivery from Cook's Farm in Brimfield, MA.
We had a great time over dinner and my mom sent us home with lots of yummy leftovers plus some vegetables from her garden. It was the perfect way to end the weekend.
It was a wonderful weekend and maybe even one of the best I've had in awhile.
How was your weekend?
