Like a Summer Breeze.

What better way to get through this particularly brutal winter than by having meals that remind you of warmer weather?  Bobby Flay's Grilled Mahi Mahi Tacos is just the thing...

Fresh cilantro.

Citrus vinaigrette.

Red cabbage slaw.

Tomato and avocado salsa.

Flaked Mahi Mahi.

A super flavor filled tortilla.

Coffee 101.

For Christmas this year, my boyfriend got he & I a cooking class, Coffee 101, at Stir in the South End.  I couldn't wait to go...

Upon arriving, we were served our first {operative word} small cup of coffee and were given a brief overview of how the class was going to work.  Details, details...

Suddenly, the door swung open and a woman with a tray full of white bowls came in.  In them was the most incredbile tasting Oeuf en Cocotte.  In English: lentils with mushrooms and a poached egg in black truffle broth.  Hands down, one of the top ten best things I've ever eaten...

Then we got down to business.  The business of brewing a great cup of coffee.  Ways I had never heard of:  V60 Pour Over, MoccaMaster, Chemex Drip.  Differences in the beans:  Longberry vs. Peaberry.  On and on...

Several cups later, they placed this Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake in front of me.  Nothing goes better with coffee than baked breakfast goods.  It was fantastic.  And now that I have the recipe expect a post come berry season...

They finished the class with a Milk Punch to my over caffeinated self's delight.  It is made with whiskey and the alcohol helped to take some of the edge off.  I should have had seconds or thirds after drinking who knows how much coffee on a Sunday afternoon...

**I cannot wait to take another class, it was awesome!**

Ice Capades.

My new favorite wintertime activities is to go ice skating on the Frog Pond in the Commons.  It's not crowded during the week, they play fun music and I always get a hot cocoa while the Zamboni cleans the ice.  Feels like 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' every time I go...

Winter Blues.

After being away for a week, I treated myself to a manicure.  I love dark polish on short nails but tire of the same old deep reds.  For a change, I opted for OPI's Sapphire in the Snow...

Purple in the sunlight, navy blue in other light, and sometimes almost black.  It really depends where you are.  It's versatile while different enough to be funky...



Thinking Cup.

After a matinee showing of Black Swan, the only thing my girlfriend and I were in the mood for was something sweet. We found ourselves just a couple doors down from the theater at Thinking Cup.  It was just what we needed...

We discovered a hidden gem.  Two small French Hot Chocolates, a piece of pumpkin spice cake and two mini cupcakes {red velvet & chocolate with peanut butter frosting} made us forget all about the images ingrained in our minds from the psychological horror.  Perfect for a Saturday afternoon indulgence...



Workin' Gal.

I will be in my beloved Rhode Island all week for our sales kickoff meeting, in downtown Providence.  I have a lovely room with a beautiful view of the capital building {above}. I'll be back in Beantown next weekend, have a great week!

Coffee Cake.

One of my favorite family traditions is having my great grandmother's sour cream coffee cake on Christmas morning.  For the past decade or so I have had the honor of making it on Christmas Eve.  The hundred year old recipe makes a dense yet moist coffee cake.  The hardest part is waiting the hour for it to come out of the oven...

And the unanimous best part is the cinnamon walnut filling and topping.  So much so that every year my little sister asks me to make a double layer of it but the dough is just too thick to accommodate her request.  Yet we still manage to devour every last crumb year after year...