Blood Orange Spritzer

There's no shortage of great citrus this season, and I've been enjoying it in different forms, but especially cocktails. In March I made a martini, but this month I wanted something a little more refreshing.

Blood Orange Spritzer
serves 1

Ingredients
1 ounce  vodka
1/2 ounce St-Germain
juice from 1-2 blood oranges 
soda water (preferably from one of these)

Instructions
Juice oranges, straining the pulp from the juice if necessary. Set aside. Fill a small glass with ice. Add the vodka, St Germain and orange juice, then top with soda water. Garnish with an orange slice.

Three Reasons I Love The Lower Depths

Located in the heart of Kenmore Square, right around the corner from Fenway Park, the Lower Depths is a basement-style bar, which is no frills and no fuss with good food and great beer. It's one of my favorite places in the city, and this is why:

The beer selection here is fantastic. With a dozen beers on tap and close to a hundred bottles, there is something for everyone. The tap list is rotating and seasonal, and the bottle list is organized by country. The staff is knowledgeable and always ready to recommend.

And not just plain old tots, but Kenmore Tots  WITH bacon, chipotle aioli and cheddar. tHEY ALSO HAVE Tots Supreme (caramelized onions, blue cheese and balsamic reduction), Tots Mexicana (jalapeno, salsa and cheese) AND Poutine Tots (smothered with cheese and gravy)...and regular plain old tots can be served as well. 

These dogs are the Boston Strangler (dog with mackin cheese and caramelized onions) and the Chicago Dog (pickle, mayo, onions, mustard) but they have over a dozen different options for dogs or you can build your own. At $6-$9 each, these dogs are a more creative and delicious option than something you can get in the ball park (though they do sell Fenway Frank style dogs for $1).

And dogs aren't the only thing here, they also have a great variety of appetizers, sandwiches, burgers and salads.

It's packed when the Sox are in town, but usually quiets down after the game starts (though non-game days are usually the best time to attend, in my opinion). There's an outdoor patio, if you don't care for the dark basement bar scene, which is really part of the Lower Depths charm.

Tip: this bar is cash only. While they do have an ATM, save yourself the fees and come prepared.

Rendezvous Central Square

This past weekend I had dinner at Rendezvous in Central Square. I've been to this restaurant a few times, but I've never actually had dinner there, (they have half-priced tapas on Monday nights, so I've done that a few times) so this was a welcome change. 


Rendezvous is a locally owned and operated restaurant that has green initiatives including a rooftop garden where they grow many of their herbs. They have a french-style menu, with many local and in season ingredients.


We started the evening with cocktails, while we looked over the menu. Cocktail choices of the night were the Mint and Cucumber (Hendricks Gin, mint, cucumber, lemon) and Orient Express (pomegranate, lemon, rose and vodka), while I had my usual (Grey Goose, dirty, with olives).

Appetizers for the evening were Rendezvous charcuterie assortment, Selection of farmhouse cheeses from Formaggio Kitchen, Potato gnocchi with braised oxtail, brussels sprouts, fresh horseradish and piave and Grilled lamb sweetbreads with smoked octopus, chick peas and romesco sauce. 


All of the appetizers were fantastic, but the entire table agreed that the gnocchi would have been a perfectly-sized entree for one. My favorite on the table was the sweetbreads, because I loved the accompanying flavors of chickpeas and romesco, the sauce was outstanding! 

For dinner the various entrees were skillet-roasted skate wing with broccoli rabe, meyer lemon and hazelnut brown butter, Gascon-style duck three ways: sliced breast, garlic sausage and confit leg, Braised pork and veal meatballs with toasted orecchiette, maitakes and piave cheese.


My entree was the duck, something I love to order when I am out. The confit leg was outstanding. The meat pulled away form the bone and it was tender and the skin was crispy - perfect. I also really loved the pork and veal meatballs, they had such wonderful flavor and the orecchiette was slightly browned, which was a great touch.

The wine with dinner was a Chante Cigale l'Apostrophe Rouge, from 2009, which was a very smooth-drinking wine.

The food at Rendezvous is creative yet comforting, and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with good laughs and great company. 

Favorite Product: Soda Stream

I am a soda water addict. I love drinking bubbly, fizzy, sparkling water whenever I can. In late 2010 I found myself buying bottles of the stuff almost every day. Not only was this habit expensive, but it was wasteful. It was around then that I heard about a product called Soda Stream. I made a new year's resolution to stop buying bottled water, and I starting producing my own sparkling water at home.

The soda stream is very easy to use. It was a little complicated to set up, maybe because I hate following directions, but I figured it out. The machine barely takes up any space, and it takes about 30 seconds to produce sparkling water and I can enjoy it whenever I want!

(source)

I just had to share my love for this product, with it being Earth Day and all.

Myers and Chang

If there's one restaurant in Boston that I have been anxious to try, it's Myers and Chang. I've heard so many great things about this restaurant, but it was something I needed to check out for myself. Sunday was a great day to go, as they offer $1 oysters and $1 PBRs and I can't pass up a deal like that!

We started with PBRs and a half dozen oysters and, lucky for us, they ran out of oysters right after we ordered so we ended up with 8 instead of 6!

Our next courses were the braised pork belly buns and the crispy artic char roll - both recommend by our server - and then dan dan noodles and mama chang's pork and chive dumplings.

The food was nothing short of amazing. Everything was fresh, spicy and beautifully presented. The pork buns were my favorite of the night, with their perfectly cooked pork belly, house made pickles, sweet hoisin sauce and the steamed bun. Mama Chang's dumplings were a close second! I also loved our front-row seats at the bar, since we got to watch the wok action up close.

While I think I only scratched the surface on what Myers and Chang has to offer, I'm glad I finally had the chance to check it out!

Cambridge 1

There's something about Friday nights and pizza that go really well together. Growing up, pizza on Fridays was a tradition. My parents still keep that tradition alive and while I can't make it back home every week, I still crave pizza on Friday nights. That's where Cambridge 1 comes in. Like their sister restaurants (Audubon, Middlesex, Tory Row and Miracle of Science), Cambridge 1 has a simple menu. They make what they do best - which in this case is thin crust charcoal grilled pizzas with creative toppings.

I ordered a Brooklyn Lager to start, this beer is easy-drinking and I thought it would go with whatever we ordered.We sipped on our beers while we watched the Red Sox and looked over the menus. I noticed that both the restaurant and kitchen were clean and bright.

We snacked on the addicting home made spicy bread sticks while we waited for our food. For dinner we ordered two half pizzas to share.The pizzas were great - they were light and the toppings were generous - but it seemed to be more like a flatbread than a pizza. That being said, I didn't feel overly stuffed when we left.

tossed baby arugula, fontina, parmigiano

hot cherry peppers, black forest ham, manchego

I loved the laid-back and fun atmosphere of this restaurant. We arrived early but I noticed that both the bar and the tables filled up quickly (they do not take reservations) but the turnover seemed to be fast. The restaurant is conveniently located, just a few steps from the Harvard Square T stop. The pizza was fantastic, and satisfied my craving for Friday night tradition.

Lunch at Soul Fire

Sunday afternoon was a perfect day to walk over the bridge to Soul Fire BBQ in Allston for a little lunch and Red Sox. It's Spring, baseball is back and it's finally warming up in Boston.

We sat at the bar and I ordered a tall boy while we looked at the menu.

We decided to start with the southern fried chicken wings, which were nothing short of amazing! They were crispy, tender and hot. The order was also huge, it was only 6 pieces of chicken, but these were good-size wings.

The wings didn't come with sauce, but Soul Fire has 6 different home made sauces to chose from from hot and spicy, to sweet and BBQ. I sampled them all, I love trying different dipping sauces.

For lunch we split a pulled pork sandwich with a side of mac n cheese (topped with pieces of BBQ potato chips!) and fries. The bartender recommended mixing the fiery sauce with ketchup for the fries and it was a wonderful suggestion! While thickly-cut fries are generally not my favorite, these were hand-cut and crispy.

Of course I had a variety of dipping sauces for my sandwich as well. Soulfire, sweet and fiery were the perfect accompaniments for my tender pulled pork sandwich. I loved this sandwich, and will the fries, mac and wings, it was plenty of food, I'm glad we shared it (though I probably could have eaten one myself).

Soul Fire is a small restaurant on Harvard Street in Allston. It's casual and cool, much like the town it's in. The menu has an extensive BBQ selection and various sandwiches and sides. They play some great, old soul music and even have a projection screen for the game. Check it out if you're in the area!