olives

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The Grand Reopening of Olives

June 28, 2012 in Cocktails, events, Food, Restaurants by traveleatlove | 8 comments

Long-awaited, highly anticipated, and well-attended, the reopening of Todd English’s Charlestown Olives location made for a fabulous Tuesday night out with friends. Never having had a chance to visit the restaurant before a fire closed it in 2010, I was more than a little curious to check it out, and I really loved what I saw.

Olives Charlestown

Olives is laid out in a bright, airy, and open space with high ceilings and an open kitchen. It is beautiful, chic yet comfortable and a great place for a party.

Olives Charlestown

We were fortunate to be able to attend the media portion of the event which was complete with an olive oil tasting from Chile Olive Oil. Olive oil was the theme of the night, and it was even in the signature cocktail.

image

Have you ever had an extra virgin olive oil martini? These were delicious and strong!

olive oil martini

I brought the recipe home; I think this would make for a delicious boat drink.

olive oil martini

Passed bites like ceviche and steak tartare circulated throughout the room all night long.

image

I enjoyed these delicious little jars of carrot soup.

carrot soup

But I passed on the raw quail eggs and olive oil.

quail eggs

This tres leche cake, made with Chilean olive oil, stole the show for me. It was light, buttery with a gentle sweetness, simply delicious.

olive oil cake

Olives’ owner Todd English also circulated throughout the room all night. Despite his reputation, which has not been so great in Boston, I found him to be very gracious, stopping to take photos with everyone including our group. Now I just need to track the photos down!  He was also very sweet with his kids; it was definitely a family affair, and it was really nice to see.

I love wandering Charlestown, and I look forward to visiting Olives for dinner soon. I wish Todd English and Olives the very best as they get reacquainted with their old neighborhood.

Olives on Urbanspoon

Tags: blogger events, Charlestown, events, Food, olives, Restaurants, todd english

Pasta with No-Cook Olive Sauce

June 10, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 11 comments

I don’t know about you, but I LOVED the heat and humidity yesterday. I was pretty much sad to see it go away, along with the thunderstorms. After a winter from hell (I am pretty sure hell really is cold and snowy.), I want to sweat, to melt, to feel tired by the heat.

But I don’t necessarily want to cook. On our boating date last Saturday, my friend Julie brought lots of delicious snacks and bubbly. The spread included a delicious olive tapenade, which I thought would be perfect on some pasta.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the olive tapenade, and last night I finally decided to turn the thought into dinner.

olives

Eat, Write, Retreat provided us with some fabulous, buttery Lindsay Olives as part of our swag bags.

Lindsay olives

For my tapenade, I used an entire can of green ripe olives and the whole container of the Italian seasoned black olives, both thoroughly drained. Yum.

Lindsay olives

While I boiled my Trader Joe’s spinach and chive pasta (using water boiled in the electric kettle, further avoiding heating up the house), I made the simplest sauce ever.

linguine

Olives, four cloves of garlic, a splash of red wine vinegar, and a splash of olive oil, plus some crushed red pepper and ground black pepper

olive tapenade

Once the pasta was cooked I topped it with room temperature olive tapenade and crumbled goat cheese.

linguine with olive sauce

Tossed all together so that the goat cheese, tapenade, and pasta get all melty and gooey, I sweat this combination was better than many pricey restaurant meals I had. It was all about the flavor.

I realized when I was looking for the goat cheese that we currently have the following cheeses in the fridge:

shredded Mexican, shredded part-skim mozzarella, 2 kinds of blue cheese, goat cheese, Neufchatel cheese, and Kerrygold Dubliner

Who needs seven cheeses at once? I do!

What is your favorite cheese? What cheese do you have on hand at the moment?

Tags: Food, olives, pasta, recipe, Vegetarian

Lobster Puttanesca

February 16, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 21 comments

Also known as a meal I magically threw together using only ingredients we already had in the house. While I spent last weekend out of town visiting my family, my husband spent the weekend working 15 hour days until he finally got to come home at 1:15 am on Monday. Needless to say, neither of us got to the grocery store this weekend, and coming up with a delicious meal became a daunting task.

Trader Joe's cappellini

Luckily, we always have some sort of random items in the cabinets and freezer. I started with a half package of Trader Joe’s cappellini. I love super thin pasta, and this one is a bargain. It really does cook in three minutes, as the package promises.

I busted out a can of black olives, also from Trader Joe’s. Canned black olives might not be the most highbrow menu item, but I really like them. I used half the can in my sauce and the other half as my snack while I patiently waited for the husband to get home Smile

black olives

I had some jarred capers left over from many months ago. They were still good!

capers

And I had the last of my gift from the Muir Glen tomato dinner, their super fancy Meridian Ruby Reserve tomatoes. I can’t wait to order some more Muir Glen products. Their tomatoes are truly superior.

Muir Glen Meridien Ruby Tomatoes

To make a nice puttanesca-style sauce, I added five chopped cloves or garlic to some olive oil and started the garlic cooking until it sizzled. I then added the chopped olives, capers, more olive oil, and the tomatoes, liquid and all.

puttanesca

I let the mixture simmer, added some garlic powder and crushed red pepper flakes, then got started steaming some lobster tails I have had in the freezer for awhile. My mom really spoils me with all sorts of food items when I go home! Smile

lobster tails

Steaming the lobsters was quick and easy, as was cutting the shells, removing the meat, and cleaning out the vein. I was left with sweet lobster meat which tasted freshly caught.

lobster meat

I boiled the pasta and at the very last minute, I added the hot pasta and the chopped lobster to the sauce. I didn’t want the lobster to cook any more as I did not want it to get tough. Mixing it with hot pasta and hot sauce made it the perfect temperature while leaving it nice and tender.

lobster puttanesca

Not too bad for someone who had NO clue what dinner was going to be at 5:00 last night!

Canned tomatoes and pasta are must-haves in my pantry. What do you always have on hand?

Tags: canned tomatoes, capers, easy recipes, Food, garlic, lobster, Meridian Ruby tomatoes, Muir Glen, olives, pasta, puttanesca, quick meals, recipe, spaghetti, tomatoes

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