Search Results

Boston’s South End has many many fabulous places to eat and drink, one of them being Stella. Located at the corner of Washington St. and West Brookline St., its outdoor patio overlooks a lovely city green space full of adorable dogs and their walkers. Its sleek interior is comfortable and offers the perfect level of noise so that you can hear your cocktail companions but that isn’t so quiet that it feels stuffy.

The menu features a great collection of cocktails including the Aperol Spritzer which is a mix of Aperol, a slightly bitter orange-y Italian liquer,Zonin prosecco, and seltzer water . I love Aperol and until now have only had it the two times that I have been to Italy. I have fond memories of long ago drinking Aperol on ice in an open air cafe in Venice. . . sigh 🙂

I was glad that I chose this drink. It was fruity without being too sweet, bubbly, and refreshing. The hubs chose a glass of lovely Bottega Vinala Pinot Noir.  

While we were waiting for our food to arrive, we were each served a piece of fresh, hot focaccia bread. I ate half, and I saved the other half because we ordered mussels, and I knew I needed to sop up the broth with the bread. Way to be prepared! 😉  

As usual, we decided to share a few appetizers for our meals. We ordered the Spicy Mussels  / saffron cream / roasted peppers / white wine / garlic for $11, the Parmesan Arancini / buffalo mozzarella / spicy pomodoro fondue for 9 and the appetizer special, figs / prosciutto / gorgonzola dolce / honey / balsamic vinegar.

I didn’t actually expect to get dinner so I didn’t have my camera. All I have are Blackberry photos, and some of them, like the photos of the figs and mussels didn’t come out. The mussels were in a gorgeous yellow saffron sauce dotted with red, green, and yellow bell peppers and served with grilled bread on the side. I still needed the bread I saved earlier. I think my favorite part of eating mussels is eating whatever sauce or broth they are cooked in! I have had the arancini at Stella before, and they were once again perfection. The size of baseballs, they are fried crispy and golden oozing with soft, warm rice, and a gooey buffalo mozzarella surprise in the middle. Nestled in a bowl of intensely rich and robust tomato sauce, these arancini could really be a meal in themselves.

The star of the evening was of course the fig dish. What do you get when you combine roasted figs with crumbled gorgonzola dolce, honey, and reduced balsamic vinegar? Heaven! I only had a bite of the prosciutto with this, but the saltiness worked perfectly with the caramelized figs, creamy cheese, and vinegar/honey sauce. This is a meal I would definitely like to recreate at home. By the time we at these three dishes, we were perfectly full. I love small portions of lots of different things.

The service at Stella was great, and on each chair outside, they offered soft, cozy fleece blankets. I needed it by the time the sun started going down. If you live in or are visiting Boston, I would definitely recommend Stella for after work drinks and eats. I did another 110 minute run tonight with a major hill workout 3/4 of the way through, which had my heart pounding and my legs shaking. It felt GREAT! After a nice shower with my new Good Health Natural Products French milled lavender soap, which smells amazing(!) I am ready for some America’s Next Top Model and travel dreaming/planning. My brother in law invited us over to Italy the week of October 4 to help them harvest the grapes for their wine. . . and I would love to make it happen! If we can’t do that I would still really like to go to San Francisco for the Food Buzz Festival plus a few extra days in Napa. I’ll keep you posted! 😉

Working from home on Thursday, so I get to sleep in about a half an hour. Fabulous!

Have a great night everyone!

Ohhhh happy Saturday everyone! I hope you are having a fantastic day! Last night was a lot of fun. A bunch of co-workers and I went to Cuff’s in Boston’s Back Bay for some drinks and food. Over the course of a couple of hours I had a glass of prosecco and a delicious Mirassou Pinot Noir along with some just okay curry fries.

Not great photos, but I just love the setup on the bottom photo. A lovely summer event setting!

My farmer’s market beauties of the week

I left them a little after 7, and the hubs was kind enough to drive into town to pick me up as it was chilly and drizzly. We ended up having an impromptu dinner. After wandering around the South End and trying a few places, all of which were packed (a good sign indeed!) we ended up giving The Beehive another chance. I have had some not so great experiences there with service and meh food in the past, but last night was awesome! We ended up sitting downstairs at the bar for our meal, listening to the live jazz that they have every night. It was SO dark, so I don’t have any photos unfortunately. I ordered a Mumm Napa prestige sparkling wine as an ode to our upcoming trip to the Mumm Winery (woohoo, I can not wait!). We also ordered the grilled buffalo shrimp and the raw bar platter for two.

I love sitting at the bar once in awhile. It feels a little less formal, we get to sit side by side, and it just feels fun. Our buffalo shrimp came quickly and oh my goodness was this meal incredible! The grilled shrimp were slightly spicy and they were on a bed of a chopped celery and carrot salad with blue cheese and buffalo sauce. It was so incredibly delicious that I wanted to lick the plate! The salad was crunchy and fresh, the blue cheese was tangy and creamy, and the shrimp had that lovely grilled flavor. The raw bar platter was impressive and equally delicious. I get a huge oyster craving every now and then, and last night’s oysters were briny and plump, with a perfect horseradish accompaniment. The platter also included a perfectly cooked chilled lobster, tuna tartare, to die for shrimp ceviche, and chilled shrimp. This was the perfect amount of food for us, and we devoured every bit.

The hubs got a migraine not long after we got home, so we were in bed and sleeping by 10:30. It was much needed! It poured all night long and got quite cold, the perfect sleeping weather. I slept right until 9 and jumped right out of bed. I was unsure of my plans for today, but since we saw on TV that the Senator’s funeral procession was getting ready to leave the JFK Library, I put my running clothes on, hubs got on his bike, and we raced over to UMASS Boston to stand along the road. It took about 30 minutes, but we were able to see the motorcade go by. I then finished my run which was in total about 40 minutes. When I got home, I did a 45 minute stationary bike ride. My workouts are OVER for this weekend! It was a good endurance mix though, and since I have been having some intense lower back pain over the past days, I felt like lessening the weight bearing part of my workout would be a good idea. I am not sure what it is, but when I look down, I actually wince because of the pain that travels down my back and into the back of my leg. Its gotten better over the last few days and I am really looking forward to a full rest day tomorrow. The only working out I will be doing tomorrow is picking up my tasting glass at the Bin Ends Fine Wine Flea Market.

I am not sure what today will bring. The rain is really coming down, and I am really enjoying not having to go anywhere right now. We do need to finish planning our trip to San Francisco ,and I need to clean the house for our cat/house sitter, but other than that I may just read food blogs and be lazy all day 🙂

Do you like to split up your cardio workouts? Do you feel it helps/hinders your performance at all? See ya later!