Becky's photoblog

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!

I love love love fall flowers, and the sweetheart who brings them to me 🙂

Really good light on really really thoughtful flowers

Melissa couldn’t believe that we had never been to any of the Boston Harbor Islands, so we made a last-minute plan to fix that right away. We packed a picnic, hopped on the ferry from Long Wharf (which stopped at Spectacle Island) and spent an absolutely perfect Saturday afternoon wandering around Georges Island.

Most of the island is what’s left of Fort Warren, a civil-war era fort which is now mostly grassy fields, big empty rooms, creepy dark stair wells, and upper ramparts with amazing views  in all directions. We could see Boston, Quincy, Hull, and Boston Light on Little Brewster Island. There were tons of families out there because it’s a fun and inexpensive way for kids to run around and explore, and for adults to relax along the shore with amazing views. We got our exercise in, and we also sat for a long time and read our books. Perfect afternoon! Thanks, Mel!!

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 such a lovely day trip up to Portland a few weeks ago and we decided to try it again … Maine is only an hour and a half away! We decided to drive up to Ogunquit because we just wanted to walk around and get some exercise some place scenic. I remembered the beautiful scenic path along the water near Perkins Cove (the Marginal Way), so we headed there. SO bummed to find that it was so crowded with tourists that we had to completely abandon the idea … there was absolutely nowhere to park the car! So annoying because I could see glimpses of the stunning scenery as we drove around, and I was itching to get out of the car and take a long a walk but we were actually stuck.

After some whining (all me), we decided to continue north along the coast to see what else we would see, and we drove through a quieter, less touristy, residential neighborhood of incredible oceanfront properties … and then, suddenly there was a parking spot! We hopped out at Wells Beach, and walked along the shoreline listening to that wonderful irreplaceable sound of waves crashing on rocks.

After we walked a bit, we decided to take a risk on a tiny little shack of a restaurant called Wells Beach Lobster Pound. It didn’t look very promising from the outside, but we were pleasantly surprised! We brought our food across the street and enjoyed incredible clam chowder, fried clam strips and a lobster roll on a ledge overlooking the ocean. Absolutely perfect!

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!!

I volunteered at the Gardner Museum for the third of three Neighborhood Nights … a summer tradition of fun, games, art and music at the Gardner on lovely summer evenings, all for free. I’ve been volunteering at this event for many many years.

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.

The morning after Brendan and Courtney’s wedding, we decided to wander around nearby Salem before heading back to Boston. We hit the gorgeous Turner exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum and then we wandered around the touristy part of Salem – gorgeous views of the harbor, and a lovely lunch!

I bought myself pretty flowers in honor of … going to the grocery store

Did you know there are over 3,000 islands off the coast of Maine? We took a little day trip up to Portland Maine, and we saw about 10 of them on a 3-hour cruise on Casco Bay Lines. The cruise is called the Mailboat Run because it brings passengers and mail deliveries to the islands twice a day, and it gives tourists like us the chance to see Maine as it was intended to be seen: from the water. A perfectly beautiful relaxing  inspiring New England day.

We passed Gorges Island, Peaks Island and Little Diamond Island, then our first stop was at Diamond Cove on Great Diamond Island, followed soon after by a stop at Long Island. Our third stop was at Cliff Island, then finally at Great Chebeague Island, then back to Portland for window shopping and an amazing dinner.

The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, CA

On our last day in LA, we headed out to Pasadena so I could show Brian the Norton Simon Museum. We had also heard that the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens was lovely, and it was open earlier, so we headed there first.

This place is absolutely gorgeous! Henry and Arabella Huntington amassed an enormous collection of rare books, art, and plants from all over the world, and it was an incredibly pleasant and peaceful place to wander around. In the library, we saw a Gutenberg Bible (among many other fascinating things). In the art collection, we saw the usual array of lovely paintings and interesting sculptures, and the gardens truly knocked our socks off. The rose garden was spectacular, and the Japanese garden, with the lily pads, the bridge and the colorful fish swimming in the pond was really breath-taking!

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!

After saying our goodbyes to the grooms in Campbell, we headed up to San Francisco. There’s never enough time to explore such a great city … last year when we were in town for Lou and Jonathan’s wedding, we got to drive through San Francisco for less than an hour, mostly at night. This time, we had about four hours. I’ve been out to San Francisco five or six times before to visit my dear Lou, and spending four hours with her was definitely better than none at all.

We met up with Lou and Jonathan in her old neighborhood, where I stayed with her in 2006 and 2007, and we walked a very familiar route a few blocks down to the ocean at the Cliff House and Sutro Baths. It feels like the end of the earth there since it’s essentially the northwest corner of San Francisco, and there’s an incredibly wide vista (see video below) … nothing but ocean until you reach Japan. I used to take walks down there every day, so it was great to be back!

Then, we headed over to the Legion of Honor (a museum and park) for amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the South Bay and the Marin Headlands. We drove around a bit so we could see some more of San Francisco, and then after a stop for coffee and ice cream, our time together was over all too soon.

After the wedding on Saturday, we wandered around the downtown Campbell area, which we got to know a bit when we were out here last summer. It’s a fun area, and the water tower looked cool in the setting sun, but it was way too crowded for dinner! On Sunday morning, we headed back to the same neighborhood to meet up with the grooms and enjoy Campbell’s Farmers’ Market for a quick hour before heading north to San Francisco.

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

We got rhododendrons for mom for mother’s day because we used to have them in our front yard. Gorgeous day!

Duck risotto with asparagus, because my baby loves me.

We didn’t know it at the time, but last year was our last Passover in the house I grew up in. After 26 years of two consecutive nights of Passover seders in our dining room in the old house, we made our old traditions brand new again in my parents’ new dining room in the new house. Quite predictably, it was strangely new and yet utterly familiar.

On Monday (the day of the first seder), I took the day off so that we could spend the day helping mom. We let the breeze in because it was absolutely gorgeous out, and the bright sunshine made our platters look lovely!

As always, we sat down to a delicious meal with family and friends, some who had joined us before and some for the first time, and we retold the familiar story of freedom.

Check out my other posts tagged ‘Passover‘

After a long day of playing games, we headed over to the South End for an early dinner at the Gaslight Brasserie (in the Summer of 2009, we became very familiar with the Gaslight, and their bathroom, since it’s right next to the SOWA Open Market).

We were pleasantly surprised to learn that they have an awesome prix fixe menu before 6:30pm, and also that they were willing to take a four-year old gift certificate, so we had a great meal!

I gave a tour of the Gardner Museum to Courtney and a few of her friends who were in town for the weekend – I love meeting my friends’ friends because they are always, without fail, awesome people!

And, we got to see this year’s hanging nasturtiums in the courtyard … and they are truly gorgeous this year!