Becky's photoblog

Incredible colors at an awesome grocery store

Because it’s cold out there 🙂

The pasta maker is still set up on the counter so what was I supposed to do? I took a break from playing with my new coloring book to make butternut squash ravioli, and it was delicious!

I love making butternut squash risotto, but you only need a little bit of butternut squash for that … what to do with the rest of the squash? I’ve been meaning to find a use for the hand-blender that’s taking up space in our pantry so I made my first butternut squash soup! I used a recipe that called for just the right amount of ginger, plus a dollop of sour cream to round out the flavors, and of course it needs to be garnished with cinnamon. Absolutely delicious!

Brian’s not a huge fan of pine nuts, but we both love basil, so I broke out the pasta maker for a batch of fresh fettuccine, and tried out a recipe for basil walnut pesto. Pretty good! Definitely nuttier and a grittier texture than a pine nut pesto, so it needed more olive oil. Might need to try cashews next …

On Christmas Eve, Brian took over the kitchen to make an incredible chicken pot pie for dinner, and a delicious bread pudding for dessert. He used to make his bread pudding all the time when he was younger, so his mom and sister were very pleasantly surprised to enjoy an old favorite dish!

Who knew there was an incredibly pleasant Mexican restaurant with awesome outdoor seating down a weird alley in Newton Center? Deanna and I caught up over sangria and delicious food … I love our date nights!

We had planned to stay in for V-Day, and since it was blizzarding out, we decided to stick to the plan. Brian made an incredible dinner, starting with an appetizer of seared scallops, and then an incredible duck risotto, with plenty of seasoned onions, shallots and garlic.

I’ve eaten about a million tuna melts, but never a crab melt … until a few days ago. Turns out, it’s delicious. Three days in Maine, three crab melts. This one was the best: crab meat slaw, melted havarti and avocado at Robert’s Maine Grill right by the Kittery Outlets.

My parents hosted several friends on the fifth night of Hanukah. Mmmm mom’s latkes …

We spent the afternoon helping my mom make batch after batch after batch of delicious cookies!

A delicious and picturesque lunch with a friend

We hosted a Fall Feast potluck so we could get a bunch of our friends together and eat delicious food!

 

We wanted to see some colorful New Hampshire leaves, and it had been too long since we’d seen Sara and Eric, so we made some last-minute plans and drove to Keene, NH. We had an incredible brunch at the Stage Restaurant, wandered around for a bit, then headed over to Mt. Pitcher and walked to the top for some incredible views!

 

My parents set a beautiful table (as always) for our first Rosh Hashanah in the new house.

My cousin Alex was in town from Australia! We hosted a little family gathering and served some of our local favorites: Legal Seafoods clam chowder, apples and cheddar with caramel, and pumpkin pie!

Our first butternut squash risotto of the fall season! With broccoli, seared turkey breast and lots of delicious seasonings

So good to catch up with the beautiful Fiorentino family at the Harvard Fall Festival!

A few of us got together to celebrate Melissa’s birthday earlier this week, and they brought her an incredibly delicious dessert with four spoons!

We had a lovely dinner with Courtney and Brendan … married for only 6 days! They introduced us to a food tradition popular in Brendan’s family, and I’m convinced that many many more people should be doing this. Grilling delicious food right on the dinner table, then pouring amazing melted raclette cheese (which had been melting below the grill) right over your food. I didn’t get any great photos of this because I was too busy stuffing my face.

Other than their ‘official’ first bite, they didn’t get the chance to eat their own wedding cake. They treated us to a slice from their cake-topper and it was delicious!!

A perfect summer evening with my dear friend Maureen! Wandering the North End, looking out over the harbor, sharing amazing appetizers at Prezza, one of a gajillion incredible Italian restaurants in the North End, and sharing this spectacular chocolate cake … cold ice cream, warm center, raspberry sauce … soooo good! I love date nights.

After a long day, we had an incredible dinner at Frida’s in Westwood Village, then waited in line for way too long for ice cream sandwiches at Diddy Reise … but they were so good!

 

It had been too long since Melissa had an excuse to make her absolutely amazing orange and cranberry scones, so she and I decided to host a super fancy girls-only tea party while the boys were away for a bachelor party weekend.

I inherited a gorgeous set of china dishes from my great-great-aunt, and they’ve been in storage at my parents’ house for many many years. When they moved, it was finally time for me to store the set in my own basement. I had only ever seen the china once before, when my parents’ basement flooded in 2010 and the dishes had to be dried out like everything else. So, we brought up the dishes and laid out a gorgeous table with little tea cups, a huge platter of scones, a plate of tiny little sandwiches, chocolate covered strawberries, blueberry coffee cake, English muffins, jam and tiny cupcakes. It was kinda perfect 🙂

Our cousin is moving away from Boston, and we hosted a little make-your-own-sundae party on Sunday. By the way, mugs are a great way to put dessert toppings on the table – just shake ’em out!

We’ll miss you, my dear

Duck risotto with asparagus, because my baby loves me.