Tag Archives: seafood

Trade Em Up Tuesday: Spring Has Sprung!

This past weekend was spent staying put here in Boston, and that’s much needed because next weekend is the first of about five in the next month that I’ll be spending on the road. I would definitely trade that, but I wouldn’t trade the reasons I’ll be travelling. More on that in future posts, though. Here’s today’s Trade Em Up Tuesday.

I would not trade…Friday’s rest day. That’s something I hadn’t let myself do in a couple of weeks and it felt GREAT. Of course it was the only morning last week that I woke up before my alarm, feeling well rested. Funny how that works. But that just meant I had time to write Friday morning’s post.

I also wouldn’t trade rocking my new JCrew Factory necklace on Friday!

I would not trade…one of Southie’s newest restaurants, Loco. I headed there after work Friday with some girlfriends. Everyone went with refreshing Mexican restaurant style beverages to start – except me. I stuck with the old standby, bourbon. Our bartender Moira used to work at Citizen so I knew she’d be able to whip up a tasty bourbon cocktail for me! After our cocktails we all shared a bottle of sparkling rose.

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The Most-Needed Trip Ever

Sorry that I’m so late to the game in announcing the winner of my Tuttorosso Tomatoes giveaway! The winner of the prize pack is Amy – thank you for entering and I will be reaching out about getting you your winnings!

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It’s been a busy holiday season with no time to blog much…followed by a vacation during which I did not feel like blogging much. Sorry about that! Long-time readers already know that I go to Florida every Christmas season with my family. We use to split our time between my grandma and grandpa’s apartment and hotels, but now we have a condo of our own in the Palm Beach Gardens area.

My grandparents and I

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Marvelously Overwhelmed

I had a marvelous weekend, but it was busy, and left me extremely overwhelmed. Like to the point of sobbing on the phone to my mom and not being able to follow through on Sunday’s plans because I worked myself up to the point of mental and physical exhaustion. I seem to always need to re-learn the same lesson, every few months, about over-exerting myself. This summer has been so fun and as much as I’m dreading the colder weather, I think I need fall to get here so that I’ll start slowing down. (Oh but I’m travelling three weekends in September, I’ll try not to think about that for now.)

Link up with Katie today to share your marvelous!

Still, there is plenty of marvelous about this past weekend in CT (yes, another one) to be thankful for.

Marvelous is…meeting my parents at Mohegan Sun for another overnight stay. The fam can’t seem to get enough of the casino lately and I’m not complaining about it one bit!

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A Marvelous Weekend Recap

Ah, what a marvelous weekend, and I am continuing to live life on the slightly-more-low-key side. But, I’m still having a great time! I’m doing a pretty good job of listening to my body and mind, instead of FOMO. Unfortunately I went back to my once-a-week blogging last week, with only one recipe post. Who knows what this week will bring? I’m not too worried about it – I’ll blog when I have time – but at least with this post I know I have one down!

Link up with Katie if you are sharing your marvelous today!

Marvelous is…a rest day on Friday. Some lessons need to be re-learned and on Friday, I re-learned that if I don’t work out in the morning, it just is not going to happen. In CT I often worked out on Fridays between work and my evening plans, but there’s something about a Friday late afternoon in Boston that makes me just want to get the weekend started as soon as I leave work. When I left for the day I decided to grocery shop, then put away my laundry, then get my nails done…all to put off going to the gym. So then I decided (with help from a text-pep-talk from a friend) to just take the day off. And I felt much better after making that decision and sticking with it.

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Gerard Bertrand at Bistro du Midi

Thanks so much for your support in response to Wednesday’s post! I’m proud of how far I’ve come and your kind words mean the world to me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, my readers rock.

Last Tuesday my new friend Jay treated me to dinner at a lovely restaurant called Bistro du Midi, located on Boylston (near Boston’s iconic Newbury Street). I met Jay at Wine Riot (through Jeannie), and we ran into each other again at the Nantucket Wine Festival. He works for Gerard Bertrand, a French wine company that I actually am already very familiar with! Upon meeting I informed Jay of my love for the Gerard Bertrand dessert wine called Banyuls, and also the fact that I was already an overall GB wines fan. He invited me out to a Boston restaurant that carries Gerard Bertrand wines so that we could talk all things wine, restaurants, food, events, and more.

Jay and I at Nantucket Wine Fest!

The two-floor restaurant has a bar on each level and the second floor has spectacular views of the Boston Common! Jay said that around Christmas time, a second floor seat makes for excellent cozy dining and viewing of lights. I’m not anxious for winter to return anytime soon though, and the green Boston Common view was pretty darn nice too.

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Spring at Seasons 52

Before I get rolling on this post, I want to announce the FIVE winners of my Taste of Nature bar giveaway! Another huge thanks to the company for offering that many prizes – very generous! The winners are:

I will be emailing you guys to connect you with Taste of Nature so you can arrange the receipt of your bars. Congrats and thanks to all who entered!

I received the food and drinks featured in this post free of charge. I had no idea that would be happening until I finished my meal, and all opinions of my experience are my own. This is not a sponsored post.

Seasons 52 is – as the name would suggest – all about seasonal food and drink. And seasonal often means the freshest, healthiest options. This is one of my favorite chains (it doesn’t even seem like a “chain”) and was first introduced to me when I started reading blogs. Once I finally got the chance to visit I saw what all the hype was about and even “converted” my family into Seasons 52 lovers. Now whenever we visit anywhere with a location nearby, we all have got to go!

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Stellaaaaaa!

I received the food and drinks featured in this post free of charge. All opinions of my experience are my own. You’ll likely see me at Stella again, whether I’m buying or not!

Last Wednesday I had the chance to visit Stella, an Italian restaurant in Boston’s South End, with my coworker Jeannie. She works with them and needed to stop in to try/photograph new spring cocktails and food items – tough job! Luckily she recruited me to help, because after all the more people in your party, the more cocktails and food can be ordered and sampled. And we had some VERY tough cocktail choices to make!

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I love love loved the white and yellow color scheme!

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Pretty bars are the best.

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Just Marvelous

I finished up my first full Boston weekend since my recent vacation and man it was just marvelous. I’m going home again this Saturday (for Penelope‘s first birthday party!) so to have a weekend with no events to work and just time to do what I enjoy, in the place I love, felt really great.

Be sure to link up with Katie!

Marvelous is…this video. I don’t usually watch YouTube videos but this one is too spot-on not to share. Plus it features two of my favorite things, saying “yaaaaas” and #Hathahate.

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What-I-Ate-Lately Wednesday

Thank you guys so much for your support and understanding in response to Monday’s post! I feel like I’ll put less pressure on myself to blog when I don’t want to, now that I’ve put everything out in the open. And I’m just happy to know how excited everyone is for me as I continue on this new path in life.

I may have switched locations but my eating habits have not drastically changed...something I’m grateful for! It certainly eases the transition. The biggest difference is the fact that I’m making my own at-home food, as opposed to my mom handling it for me. Other than that I’m still packing salad lunches, eating my staples (bananas, plain Chobani, sugar-free chemical-filled Jello pudding cups, etc), and dining out. This seems to be an appropriate What I Ate Wednesday topic.

Share your WIAW post here!

I’ve been having great success with my weekend food prep. The only weeknight I left myself cooking to do I got very stressed out, so I learned a lesson quickly. I have yet to order takeout, which is an accomplishment and one I need to keep up seeing as I still am going out to eat a few nights a week. I’ve learned how quickly different foods cook in my oven, made dishes I’ll repeat and dishes I’m not anxious to eat again, and both followed and created recipes. I’ve also learned that I need to make MORE food each weekend if I’m going to be using it not just for dinners, but lunch salad ingredients as well.

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Thinking Out Loud: First Week

Time to blog is short to come by these days! But all day long I’ve always got blog ideas popping up in my head and I’m always anxious to put them to digital-paper. I may not have time to do a whole post expanding on each of my ideas, but I always have time to think out loud with Amanda!

1. My first day of work went well! I showed up without my laptop because I’m used to working for a job where a PC is provided, but I’d much prefer to use my own laptop and the beauty of living so close to my job is I could easily walk to my apartment to grab it! I had a great time learning our e-commerce system for online wine purchases, brainstorming promotional ideas, and meeting my new co-workers. To be excited for the next day of work is a new feeling for me and one I could easily get used to!

First day of work selfie. I’m still riding high on my braid-making semi-abilities. I also have realized some form of headwear covering the ears is essential in Boston.

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