Sunday Ole Sunday

Well, it’s Sunday night again, but we have a long weekend coming up next week so that’s something to look forward to! For the long weekend, I am going home to NJ for a baby sprinkle (different than a shower how? I don’t know) for a friend who has a one year old and is due shortly with TWINS. It will be fun as I will get to see my niece, take her apple picking, and watch The Worst Witch, the best Halloween movie EVER with her. Have you seen it?! You should! Do you have a favorite Halloween movie? I also love The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown special and anything that is truly eerie or scary, though I can not stay home alone for months after I see scary movies, so I have stopped.

Anywho. . .

My work week ahead is going to be a huge crunch as I have two of my biggest deadlines of the year. Deep breath. . .

The plan for today was to head to Western MA to hike in the Holyoke Range, have lunch at The Northhampton Brewing Company, and pick up my all time favorite El Salvadoran tacos at Bueno y Sano in Amherst. When we woke up, my throat hurt, I had chills and a cough, and it was foggy and icky out, so we decided to stay close to home.

Since I had newfound extra time, I decided to go to the MSPCA for some more dog walking. I can not even tell you how much I love this time of my week. I LOVE dogs! They make me laugh so much. I walked 5 dogs before I really started feeling awful, and hubs and I headed to Cambridge for some brunch. Our original destination was East Coast Grill, but we passed by Ole, and since I am always craving Mexican, we decided to stop there instead.

Obviously, Ole is hard to miss! It is painted in bright purple with lovely tilework and still blooming flowers. The inside is just as festive and warm. This is kind of the look that I want for my own house, and is where I was going when I chose an orange kitchen with cranberry brown granite:  

He’s with me 😉

Photos of a trip to Chiapas  

To start, I ordered an extra spicy Bloody Mary, and they delivered.

I haven’t been able to smell or taste much over the last couple of days, but boy did this clear me up! It had chunks of grated horseradish floating in it and definitely had a kick of hot sauce. A nice squeeze of lime for bright citrus flavor, and it was perfect. I happen to make a mean Bloody Mary, so I am pretty picky when it comes to ordering them out. I haaaate it when they taste like tomato soup in a glass. Yick! We started with guacamole and salsa with right out of the fryer chips.

The chips were excellent, crunchy, hot, and salty, but the salsa could have been spicier. The guac was amazing! So fresh and chunky, just the way we like it. For my entree I ordered Huevos a la Mexicana, eggs with tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, and cheese on a corn tortilla with refried beans.

This was good but not great. Maybe it is because I am a fiend for spicy food on a normal occasion and even more so when I can’t taste much, but I didn’t taste any spiciness at all. The beans were very good. They had a nice smoky grill flavor, but the eggs themselves were just regular eggs. I actually didn’t have much of an appetite at this point, so the hubs had some, and I left the rest. I did enjoy the perfectly ripe strawberry to the left of the plate 🙂

After brunch we grabbed a coffee around the corner at 1369 Coffee House where I proceeded to severely burn my tongue on a cafe au lait. Both Ole and 1369 Coffee House are in the Inman Square area of Cambridge, lesser known than Harvard and Central Squares, but a really cool area that I wouldn’t mind living in. We decided to walk around a bit more and found the coolest spice shop, Christina’s which is next to a fairly well-known ice cream shop of the same name.

My photos aren’t great because at this point, with my burnt tongue, sore throat, and congestion, I was starting to get to that point where everything is irritating, especially all people around me. I really want to go back to this shop to browse their spices, grains, and loose teas when I am feeling better. I did pick up some amaranth, which I will be using for a warm breakfast cereal this week.

We checked out a few more adorable shops in the area and then headed for our final destination of the day, Trader Joe’s. I needed to pick up the Get Well Stay Well Giveaway prizes for my lovely winners and also to get some groceries for the week. We made it through in record time and ended up with lots of great stuff, as usual, including these, my grocery shopping pride and joy:  

I am feeling an heirloom tomato and Nature’s Pride panzanella coming on. I also bought butternut squash for roasting and some Sierra Nevada stout for drinking on cold nights. As much as I used to love pumpkin beer, I am afraid my tastes have changed once again, and I am finding it more cloying than refreshing.

On the menu this week are lots of salads, a chilled sopa de ajo blanco, roasted root veggies, turkey burgers, and much more. Stay tuned for a super simple and healthy apple crisp recipe as well!

Have a good Sunday night (anyone watching Desperate Housewives like I am?) and Monday, and don’t forget to look for my guest post tomorrow on On a Lobster Placemat!

New Weekly Feature:
Goals this week 
Start studying Spanish again, using the Notes in Spanish materials I bought last spring
Have 2 good runs and 1 good long stationary bike workout
Take a lunch break at least once
Turn my computer off before 9:30 every night
Start the transition to being self-hosted  
P.S. While my husband is on his hiatus from the 9-5, I am thinking I may ask him to help me migrate to a self-hosted blog. Any tips or things to watch out for would be appreciated!