City Strolling

Thanksgiving came and went and all of a sudden the Christmas shopping madness was upon us.  After hitting up Target on Black Friday morning (yes we survived, it wasn't even crowded), JO and I headed out into the city for some shopping on Charles Street. 

Charles Street is quintessential Boston and the holidays are the perfect time for walking down the brick sidewalks.  We stopped in several shops, bought a few gifts, and then made a stop at Bin 26, one of our favorite spots in the city.  It was freezing out and we both agreed that we needed to warm up. 😉  We ordered some wine and snacks (who doesn't love cheese and salami) and enjoyed some quiet time before heading out for some more shopping.

We cut through the Common over to Downtown Crossing where we stumbled upon Flying Tiger Copenhagen.  I really don't know how to describe this store but you should go!  We picked up this awesome light up display board for a whopping $7.

After doing some shopping at Old Navy, Primark, and DSW we needed another break so we headed over to Marliave where there were two seats at the upstairs bar just waiting for us.  This is probably my favorite restaurant in the city and while we were enjoying the dollar oysters and yummy cocktails we reminisced about all of the special times at this place.  (On a side note- the bartender now knows us and that makes me feel great!)

It was a perfect day for kicking off the holiday season!  It's going to go by fast this year and I fully intend on enjoying every minute of it!

Parlor Sports Run Club

You know I love Parlor Sports and now I have another reason to love it~ The Parlor Sports Run Club! Once a month, a group of patrons gets together to run a 5K and celebrate at Parlor Sports.  I was finally able to join the group for a run, the aptly named Tofurky Trot, and it was so fun (plus, I ran my best time every at 28:02!) It was a great way to meet some new people and enjoy the neighborhood.  I'm already looking forward to the holiday stroll in December that runs past all of the "tacky" holiday displays in Somerville!

Yes, the winner got an actual tofurky!

Nebo was a Winner

For the past few years, around the holidays, my college friends have gotten together for dinner in the city.  I'm in charge of picking the restaurant, which is always a bit of a challenge.  After all, I don't want to lose my "city" reputation.  This year, when there was a request for a restaurant near South Station, I knew exactly where we should go.

Nebo is a lovely, modern Italian restaurant a five minute walk from South Station.  The menu has lots of variety, and features many different prices to accommodate anyone's budget.  Plus the wines and cocktails are always delicious.  I also love the Nebo is a huge space, so you don't feel like you are on top of the other guests.  There's a huge bar area (that I want to go back to ASAP), and a nice dining room space on the side.  There's a somewhat open kitchen area in the center.  The ceilings are huge and the decor is definitely industrial with lots of soft lighting and pretty wood to warm the space.  

While I was walking over the restaurant, I was totally caught up in the tall buildings and the lights.  There is something really special about stepping out of South Station at night.  You definitely have this city moment, and it never gets old.  

We ended up ordering several antipasti dishes, splitting one of the pizzas (and drinking a few glasses of wine 😉), and the bag of donut strings!  I loved getting to catch up with everyone and showing off my city to my friends!  (everyone loved the restaurant- another success!  Nebo was the perfect place for a night out with great friends.

Zachariah's Power Outage Show

I think I've said this before, but if Zachariah Hicksman is playing a show at Passim it is a can't miss event.  Even though November was getting really hectic, really fast, I made time to go to Zachariah's Power Outage show at Passim (I even managed to go for a 5K run beforehand- who says I can't multi-task.)


The concept of this (hopefully annual) show is that the power has gone out (they turn off all the lights and hang some lanterns from the ceiling) so Zach sings around the "campfire yule log" with some of his very talented friends.  This year's show featured Kris Delmhorst, Dietrich Strauss, Dinty Childs, a string quartet, and many more.  The acoustic nature of this show makes for a really magical night of music.

I even discovered a new artist that I am obsessing about.  His name is Jesse Dee and his soulful, jazzy style took my breath away.  Take a listen, you'll see why!

This is my monthly plug for Club Passim~ go to a show, you won't be disappointed!

ThanksgivingFest 2019

I know, I know, it's called Friendsgiving but I always refer to ours as ThanksgivingFest (in keeping with our other fests- cheese fest, meat fest, etc.) ThanksgivingFest is one of my favorite traditions we have.  I love setting up the house, with the long table in the kitchen.  I love that everyone is able to sit at the same table.  I never really had any Thanksgiving traditions growing up so this one seems extra special to me.  (Plus we get to enjoy all of the leftovers which is awesome!)

This year, we did a little extra cooking (usually we only do the turkey but we had a few less people attending this year and had to make some of the dishes ourselves) which resulted in JO mashing potatoes in our extra room.  I laughed so hard I cried when I realized what was happening (I was in the midst of stuffing madness.)

In the end, everything turned out perfectly and it was another smashing success!

Moona

There's this great, little, Mediterranean restaurant in our neighborhood called Moona.  Moona is so tiny, and so popular, that you really need a reservation.  We walk by Moona every time we go to the rock gym and we lament that we don't go there enough.  Well, we fixed that the other night.

A few Fridays ago we should have gotten take out and worked on cleaning and prepping for our Friendsgiving but I had had a pretty rough day at work (did you know that Santa is coming soon) and really didn't want to clean anything.  JO suggested we go out to eat and so we headed over to Ole but when we arrived it was so packed we couldn't even get in the door (there were a lot of people wearing patriotic onesie pajamas) so we decided to head over to Thirsty Scholar.  On our way to Thirsty Scholar, we passed by Moona and the bar looked empty.  JO said he would check to see if they had a spot for us and luckily for us, they did!

I can't say enough good things about this place.  Each dish is masterfully crafted, with just the right touch of sauce, cream, and spices.  The wine list is fantastic and the atmosphere is wonderful.  The space is decorated with exposed brick, marble, and this wrought iron star accent wall.  The space is small and cozy and you definitely feel like you are somewhere special when you step inside.  We thoroughly enjoyed our evening, and we saved all the cleaning for the next day.

Breakfast with Tiffany at the City Winery

A few weeks ago, my friend and I went to see a live taping of Mueller, She Wrote at City Winery.  While we were there, we saw an ad for Breakfast with Tiffany (yes, that Tiffany of 1980s fame.)  We both agreed we couldn't miss that so a few weeks later, we were back at City Winery for a morning of music with Tiffany!

FYI- Tiffany still rocks.  She sang a lot of her newer music and she rocked out!  Of course, she also sang the songs we all remembered from our childhood.  It was such a fun morning in the city!

Harvard Square Night Out

After a few seriously busy weeks, I was looking forward to a weekend of relaxing and catching up on school work.  But as JO pointed out, there's only so much school work one can do before it's unhealthy.  He suggested we head out to Harvard Square for a relaxing night out and of course I couldn't say no. 

We started our night at Border Cafe.  If you've never been to Border Cafe, it's a no-frills, Mexican restaurant, with wood paneling and funny decor.  It's definitely the college hangout in the Square.  The Border Cafe in Harvard Square is really large, which is a rarity in the Square.  Usually you have to wait for a long time to get a table, but we lucked out and got a table right away. 

After dinner, we decided we needed to continue our evening, so we walked around and did a little pre-Christmas window shopping.  Our stroll took us past The Red House and we couldn't help but go in.  The Red House is this adorable, cottage on a side street in the Square.  When you sit on their adorable patio, you feel like you've been transported to the Cape.  When you sit at the bar inside, you feel like you're in a rustic little restaurant in coastal Maine.  (It's that rare Cambridge restaurant, that is on both our winter and summer list!)  The interior of The Red House is what you would call "cozy."  There are six seats at the tiny bar, and then two small rooms for dining.   The bar room has a wood fireplace which made it the perfect backdrop for a chilly evening in the city.  JO and I were lucky enough to be able to get seats at the bar.  We enjoyed a few drinks and some tiramisu, but most of all, we just enjoyed being able to relax for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Sulmona and Area 4

A few weeks ago we got to visit with a good friend who used to live in the city but moved out to Portland several years ago.  Whenever she comes back to Boston she organizes a night out and I help her pick the restaurant.  It's a tricky job, since I need to find a restaurant that is stylish, an "it" destination, yet good for gathering, lingering, and chatting.   For this visit, I picked Sulmona in Kendall Square.  I went with Sulmona because they have a great interior and atmosphere, yummy drinks and wine, and the food is really delicious.  It was a really fun dinner and when it was over we wanted to continue the evening.  My plan was to go to Catalyst and hang out by the fire place, but to our chagrin they were closed.  At the point in the evening, I really didn't feel like walking around so I suggested Area 4, which is always getting rave reviews for their cocktails.  We had the entire place to ourselves, to the point where I don't think they were thrilled that we were there 😉  In any event, it was a fun ending to the evening.

Thankful Thursday in Inman Square

There's always something neat happening in the neighborhood.  This past Thursday was Thankful Thursday and the business association had set up a gratitude wall.  I am so thankful to live in this special part of the city!

Mueller, She Wrote Live

Last fall my cousin introduced me to a new weekly podcast, Mueller She Wrote.  Self described as a binder full of women unraveling the mysteries of the Mueller investigation, it is everything you need to get through these crazy times.  The two hosts are stand up comics in San Diego.  They cover all of the news and add in lots of laughs and inside jokes like put some beans on it, Papadop, Jordan's boyfriend, criming, and squid pro crow.  They do a great job reporting the news and have been right on top of, or ahead of all the major stories that have broken.  These ladies have gotten me through the last crazy year and I love them so much!  Their show became so popular that they were able to put out a daily show called "The Daily Beans."  I spend most morning driving to work and laughing out loud.  I loved the podcast so much that I shared it with a good friend, who also got hooked, so when MSW announced a live show in Boston we grabbed VIP tickets.

The VIP tickets gave us entrance to the meet and greet before the show.  We got to talk with A.G. and Jordan for a while.  It was so neat to get to meet them in person.  They weren't fans of our cold weather but loved the city. 

The live show was amazing and so funny!  I can't recommend the two podcasts enough! 

There was a live illustrator at the show who drew live what was being discussed on stage. 

Popping Up in Inman

This "flower" pop up recently showed up in Inman Square and I kind of love it!

Orfano's

I'm not really a Halloween person.  I don't love costumes, and as a teacher the day is pretty draining, but last year JO and I discovered the most amazing thing about Halloween.  If you don't have your own little trick-or-treaters, you can get a reservation anywhere in the city.  JO and I took advantage and got a reservation at one of the hottest restaurants in the city, Orfano's.  Orfano's is the latest creation of Fenway restauranteur extraordinaire Tiffani Faison.  I had been wanting to try this place since pictures starting showing up on Instagram of the gorgeous interior.  (Please visit their IG, you won't be disappointed.)  I loved the blacks, whites, golds, and velvet I was seeing in the pictures.  The restaurant is a spin on an old fashioned Italian steak house and it did not disappoint.  We enjoyed watching the "martini man" travel around with his cart.  

We were seated in the dining room, which was a bit smaller than I had anticipated.  The bar area looks amazing and I would love to come back and check it out sometime.  Our waiter earned extra points for replacing my white napkin with a black napkin so my black dress wouldn't get covered in lint.  We ordered drinks.  Of course I got a glass of prosecco and JO tried the Grammie's fix which featured sherry, pineapple, chamomile tea, scotch, gin, and lemon.  It smelled like "grandma's house" and was delicious! Later in the evening JO tried the spritzer.  I wish the picture I took had come out because the presentation was adorable.  It was served in an old fashioned soda bottle with a cute paper straw.  

Orfano's menu features a lot of antipasti options.  We started with the hand cut mozzarella, which was cut into 4ths at the table.  It was finished with delicious olive oil and sea salt.  We probably should have ordered the "garlic bread" served old school style in a red plastic bag and covered in paper to go with the cheese.  We ended up eating it straight and it was delicious.  

The people next to us tried the parmesan mousse and I definitely want to try that next time.  We also got the chopped salad featuring the most amazing pickled cauliflower.  The flavor was like right to the limit, any more and it wouldn't have worked.  I definitely stole some pieces from JO.  (The only thing we didn't care for was the shrimp cocktail.  The sauce was on the sweeter side and it was lacking lemon.)  For our main meals I got the chicken with sausage gravy and spicy peppers and JO got the Bolognese.  My chicken was really good but JO's pasta was out of this world.  I don't understand how they got the level of flavor that they did. For dessert we tried the tiramisu and I think it ruined tiramisu for me.  It was delicious and extra boozy and perfectly balanced.  

Orfano's earns an A+ rating from me, for sure!  The food, the service, and the experience were all amazing!

How I felt about teaching the day after Halloween!

Together Live

Have you heard about Together Live?  It's this amazing girl power event put on by author Glennon Doyle, who also happens to be married to soccer legend Abby Wambach.  Doyle assembles a panel filled with diverse women to just talk about life, struggles, etc.  I started following Glennon on social media back during the World Cup because her posts were so funny and spot on.  When I saw her posting about Together Live I grabbed a ticket. 

I'm so glad I did.  Together Live was so inspiring.  My hands were tired from clapping so much!  The Boston panel featured Glennon, Abby, Sabrina Jalees Mayson Zayid (Muslim comics and disability advocates), Brittany Packnett (political commentator), Amanda Gorman (poet), and Jennifer Rudolph Walsh.  Each panelist had some time to present individually and then there was a roundtable portion.  I left with this sense of empowerment that I haven't felt in a while.  I can't say enough good things about this event. 

I met Coach Auriemma and it was Awesome as you Would Expect

Last Saturday I pretended to be a basketball coach so that I could listen to Coach Auriemma, head coach for my beloved UConn Huskies!  Coach Auriemma was the keynote speaker at the Harvard Coaches Clinic.

The clinic itself was super interesting, even though I'm not a basketball coach.  It was neat to see the drills and offensive/defensive switches that the coaches were focusing on.  I'm so excited for basketball season to get here. Obviously, the main draw of the day was the two hours with Coach Auriemma.  He started off with talking about coaching in general and then he talked defensive rotation (which I found fascinating since his Husky teams have been so, so good at it~ now I feel like I really understand what they are doing.) He ended with a Q and A session where he was asked about a lot of his Husky legends.  I was so motivated by everything he said about teamwork and consistency.  I took so many pieces of advice back that I can use in my classroom.

When the clinic was all over, Geno stuck around for a while and I was lucky enough to meet him!!!!!

Inmanween

I say it all the time, but the thing I love the most about Inman Square is the community.  People actually live here, for a long time (hence why no properties ever go on sale around here.)  I love the seasonal events put on by the neighborhood business association.  Inmanween is one of my favorites.  In the old days they used to have a pumpkin carving contest, which JO and I won three times!  They no longer have the contest, but they do host outdoor movies, a beer garden, and lots of restaurant deals around the neighborhood.


JO and I caught the tail end of Transylvania before heading over to Wit's End for dinner.

This peanut butter pie was AMAZING!

It was so fun to see all the kids walking around in their costumes and all of the restaurants decorated for the season!

Gone Hiking

Every year we try to go see the foliage and every year we fail spectacularly.  It's kind of a running joke between JO and me.  This year I figured we wouldn't even get a chance to try since the fall has been so crazy but we had a free day a few weeks ago so we decided to go for a hike up at Gunstock.

We ended up with a perfect day for hiking.  It was sunny, with a slight fall chill in the air and the leaves were perfect.