What I bought on vacation (patience is rewarded)

It's coming up on three years since I moved into my condo and broke my cocktail pitcher on the first night. After a long-tortuous-hot-everything but the boxspring getting up the stairs day of moving, I made a manhattan and tapped the pitcher against the hutch, shattering it. Since then it has been one antique store after another, one china shop after another, searching for a suitable replacement. Everything is too wide or if not too wide, no handle. Finally, here it is. Wandering around the shops at The Circle in Orange (It's About Time, 131 N. Glassell St) one morning waiting for the June gloom to burn off so I could hit the beach, I find it. The picture does not do it justice - but it is heavy glass/crystal with a nice bevelled pattern. Looks better with the cocktail in it, no? Something ridiculous like $32 and the guy at the counter wrapped it up so good. I was practically dancing out the door.

Stephi's on Tremont (ice, really?)

Went here a few weekends ago on a Sunday afternoon nice enough to sit out. I got the Basil Berry - oxley gin, strawberry puree, basil, lemon and lime ($13). Sounds good, right? Well, not so much. It was a pretty loose concoction, enough gin, some mild strawberry flavor and some ice cubes.

The appetizer, on the other hand, mmm, mmm good. These are cheddar bacon apple fritters ($10) - fritters with green apple, cheddar and bacon with horseradish dipping sauce. Oh baby, these were tasty. I know they didn't but these had so much bacon flavor I almost asked if they were fried in bacon grease. Nice combination of flavors, perfectly fried and a nice, cool dipping sauce.

Would I go back? Not sure, drinks were pricey and just not that good. Or maybe I should just never stray from Manhattans. The appetizer was very good so maybe if I was in the neighborhood.

Stanhope Grille (look homeward angel)

I guess it's true, you can't go back. After years of raving, fantasizing and trying to recreate the Southern Manhattan from the Stanhope Grille, I finally got back there for dinner. Sorry to say but my attempts at home far surpassed what I got there a few weeks ago. This was just sad, sad, sad. It's supposed to be Woodford Reserve and Southern Comfort instead of vermouth. As you can see, the color is just all wrong. It should be golden, not this color which is so similar to the color of the cherry that you can barely discern the poor thing at the bottom of the glass.

I don't remember what my friend got but she is a vodka drinker and I think this it had cherries in it. She was happy.

Dinner was a soup (so long ago, I don't remember the type) and pork shank. Food was decent but nothing so great that I am dreaming about it.

Cucina Alessa

I went to a special event at Cucina Alessa and had this manhattan made with Early Times Bourbon. Limited choice on the liquors since we were getting a special deal (2 cocktails and 2 appetizers each for $20). Although the drink was quite tasty, the calamari was...meh. Just not very crispy or flavorful. I would have much preferred by mozzarella, tomatoes, basil plate but by the time I figured that out they were just taking out plates of appetizers and setting them up buffet style with nary a piece of mozzarella in sight.

Fish tacos (can you ever have enough?)

The answer, my friends, is a resounding no. I had a least one fish taco every day in SoCal except the afternoon I couldn't find the place someone told me about.

Day one - it's always the same: arrive, pick up the car, drive to Huntington Beach, stop at the Rubio's on Beach Blvd., change into bathing suit in their clean bathroom while they make the fish taco. Instantaneously relaxed the minute I hit the sand. I feel like I'm home and most definitely happy. Rubio's is a chain but don't let that stop you. It's a decent fried fish taco for a decent price. Good amount of chips and some beans. Ahhh.

Day two - leave very early for shopping in Santa Barbara and, again, it's the same routine here (who says you can't be in a rut and still be happy?). Lunch is always at The Natural Cafe. So, so tempted by the soup (roasted red pepper if you remember that from last year) but the counter girl tells me the fish taco is one of their most popular item. Sold. Grab a table outside and am presented with this lovely plate. My first reaction is, "Wow, that's a lot of carrots."

But this is a very tasty broiled fish taco. My only grip is that it's a little too wet for my taste but the clean and fresh flavor makes up for that in a big way. This might be one of the more expensive tacos but it was accompanied by this fab "peach-o-rama" smoothie.

Day 3 - Normita's Surf City Tacos - by far the best deal in town in the fried fish taco category. Look at the size of that piece of fish (mahi). This has the potential to be too wet but it is just on the right side of that equation.

Day 4 - the loser of the bunch. Was driving around on one of the earlier days and saw this place (Guty's) with a sign advertising shrimp tacos for $.99. Jotted down the intersection and drove by one day before the beach. There were two miniscule fish in each taco, lettuce and, I don't think I'm wrong, mashed potatoes? Can that be right? It came with some very watery sauce (not pictured). It was all just a little too weird. In their defense, he did put the sauce in a separate container and the shells...I don't know what they fried them in but I was very happy with those.

The winner and still champion (although Natural Cafe is close, close, close) is Wahoo's. Again a broiled fish, again mahi. So good I went twice; once a la carte which is pictured and, on my last night, the combo plate with beans and rice.

Bricco Redux (who doesn't love redemption)

After our first outing to Bricco, my friend was so disappointed she sent them an email and they sent her a $50 gift card. We went back a few weeks ago and were mightily impressed. Granted they were treating us like royalty, but all in all this is a place to which I'll return (but probably not on restaurant week).

After much finagling (and some shameless flirting with the guys next to us), we got their table, the same one as we had last time with both chairs having a view of Hanover Street. This time they did have the main ingredient for their version of a manhattan (still not on their online drink menu so let me see if I can remember (strawberries, vanilla bean and maybe something else marinated in bourbon (I never got the brand from the waitress or the bar manager who eventually came over. My friend asked if he knew a drink called Golden Dreams and he said he email a friend in Miami because he didn't). The manhattan was interesting but a little too light for me. You could taste the strawberry but not the vanilla. My friend got a vodka martini. Each drink was $12-13.

We split the zucchini flowers stuffed with truffle ricotta cheese and tempura vegetables ($19) which would have been enough for a meal. You can't really tell from the photo but the flowers were nicely fried and more golden; the vegetables were a thick slice of eggplant, onion, red peppers and green beans.

Friend got the swordfish (I got the clams off that dish).

And I got the salmon, broccolini and rabe puree (wasn't impressed with either of those), broccolini rabe and what the menu says is salsify cannelloni which I had (mistakenly) identified as potato last time (but it sure tasted like yukon gold potatoes to me). Whatever is was....mmmm good.

So at the end of the night we are pretty darn satisfied. We are settling up thinking the bar manager has forgotten the Golden Dream recipe but...wait for it...he brings the drink and the recipe to my friend.

Golden Dreams:

2 oz. Galliano

1 oz. Creme DeCocoa

1/2 oz. Triple Sec

3 oz. OJ

3 oz. cream

Not really my cup of tea as it's pretty sweet but I could see this at a Sunday brunch...and I certainly wouldn't refuse one if it were offered.

Total for the evening was about $116 plus tip so it ended up being about the same as we spent on the first visit but seemed to have a lot more and a lot better food.

Flowers are amazing (no retouching other than cropping!)

Franklin Cafe Southie (Chef Ramsey has left the building)

I've been wanting to go to this place for quite a while so when some friends were visiting from NYC, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. We got a bunch of tapas and one hamburger. Pizza never should have been brought to the table as it was burned. Hamburger was stacked way to high to get a normal sized mouth around. One dish was crazy salty, another had no flavor (sorry, it's been about a month since we went so I don't recollect specifics of what we had but none of it made me swoon.

The drink was a their version of a manhattan - pretty mild and not cold!

Because this place has such a good reputation (place was packed by 7 pm on a Monday night), I will give it another try but that's it.

25 and another close but not perfect replica of the Southern Manhattan

This 4 year old girl in the dishwasher had a bad reaction to flea medicine and has some bald spots around her neck and back but she's as sweet as can be. She'll be with me for about 4 weeks and hopefully will have all her fur back by then.

The manhattan is another attempt at the Southern Manhattan: Woodford Reserve (last of the bottle) and Southern Comfort substituted for the vermouth. One of the recipes I got for this drink included cherry juice but I didn't have any so I just added a bit of the lingonberry syrup from Ikea. I have to say it wasn't bad and the color was gorgeous.

New for me from Trader Joe's

Asiago, fontina and parmesan? Ready in 90 seconds? Need I say more?

Bricco (or how do you make pork (pork!) tasteless)

We went to Bricco for Restaurant Week this year and it started a bit shakey. The drink that really caught my fancy was the Manhattan in Boston (a bourbon that I've not had before infused with cherries, vermouth and a twist (I think; it's not on their online menu and it shouldn't have been on the menu that night). Our waiter looks over at the bar and shakes his head; they don't have any of the infused bourbon (and prepare in advance). So I ask for the Hendrick's martini (described on the menu as Hendrick's, a splash of dry vermouth and a fresh lemon twist). Does this look like a twist to you? Does it even look like a lemon? My friend got one in her vodka martini so maybe they gave her the last one but I doubt it. We were quite pleased with the drinks as we were with the appetizers.

She got Mozzarella di Bufala Caprese and I got the stuffed calamari "affogati" in a spicy tomato coulis (with grape tomato halves) and a garlic crostini (pictured here). Then things went seriously downhill pretty quickly.

My friend got the beef braciole filled with garlic pecorino cheese and herbs, red wie sauce and brocolli rabe. Sounds great and looks decent enough but was overcooked and dry. After several considerations and consultation with the waiter, I ordered the pork chop which was supposed to come with carrots and ... (seems this is not on their online menu any more either). It came with a very fetching tube of what I presumed after several bites had to be potato but it was very bland and non-potato-like consistency. The other side was a bitter slaw like substance. The the pork chop, oh my!, the pork chop was the biggest disappointment of the night. It wasn't that it was overcooked (as I sometimes do); it just lacked any flavor at all. How is this even possible? Even when I over cook and don't put any spices on it, my chops come out better than this sad excuse.

Desserts were bread pudding with caramel sauce and tiramisu. Meh.

Overall, my friend deemed Bricco as our only Restaurant Week failure. I have heard such good things about this place, I might give them another try but am not beating a path to their door.

First flowers but not in my yard

What I'm cooking - Salmon with warm lentil and arugula salad

My boss, both of my bosses actually, are obsessed with my eating habits and quite frankly, I am sick of it. But one of them is on a lentils kick and there were a few recipes with lentils in my magazines over the past few months so I tried this one from Real Simple. The salmon was perfect. The dressing for the lentil salad was a little bland for my taste but added a little salad dressing the next day and it was better.

Hot chocolate and a new ceiling?

I went to a reading at Boston Public Library about a new book on Sacco and Vanzetti. It was in a room I'd never been in before (Orientation Room). Reading was kind of meh...subject obviously interesting but it felt very term paperish. First thing I noticed was the ceiling and kept getting distracted by it during one of the sections of endless quotes the author was reading. Remember that from college? You'd basically string all these quotes together with a sentence or two in between of your own thoughts. We didn't go out for a cocktail afterwards; just grabbed coffee and hot chocolate at Dunkin Donuts. Yummy.

Upper Crust Pizza

Best ever. This is from Newburyport branch - mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic. I don't know what these people do to the crust but you can eat half a small pizza and don't feel like you did. You can get slices of cheese, pepperoni or pizza of the day for about $3.50. This small pizza was about $11; all drinks (except beer and wine) are $1.

Krumkake

You need a special device to make these lovely little Scandanavian version of a pizzelle. They are thinner and lighter in texture than pizzelles.

I am lucky enough to have found my device in an antique store several years ago and got the recipe from my mother. We are Italians so don’t ask me how she got her machine, much less ever heard of these things.

Anyway, the recipe is very simple – flour, sugar, eggs, butter. milk and flavoring (I used almond for these). You always end up throwing the first one out since it preps the surface a bit for the rest of the cookies but almost always falls apart when you remove it from the iron. You have to experiment with how long you leave it over the heat (recipe says 1-1.5 minutes but I ended up at 2-2.5 to get the darker color. My smoke detectors are super sensitive so, of course, they all started screeching at some point.

These came out a little thicker and heavier but I think a little more milk would solve that problem.

City Bar, Lenox Hotel, Boston

You know this is a good sign, right? I don't usually do much enhancing on my photos but did turn this one into black and white.

But on to the report on The City Bar, 61 Exeter Street, Boston. When we first walk into City Bar on a Wednesday night, it is jam packed with 30-somethings. Hostess tells us it’s a private party that should be breaking up soon. So we swim through the crowd towards the bar getting these dismayed looks from men who will barely move an inch to let us pass even after we say “Excuse me.”

Man, oh, man. It was just hours after I read the suggested maximum daily intake strong spirits is 1.5 ounces and the disclaimer that you cannot save up your servings for the weekend and I get the big gulp manhattan. Come on, it’s prepared it a large iced tea sized glass; what else can you call it? It’s binge drinking any way you look at it. But folks, the manhattan on the menu lists Old Overholt Rye and sweet vermouth as the ingredients so how can I quibble. There are even a few (two?) non-vodka martinis but there are the usual chocolate martini type concoctions in abundance.

No snaps of the food which is a shame. I get yakking with my friend and get presented with the fig/duck flatbread and all that silly stuff is forgotten. This just might be the best cacaphony of flavor (sweet fig, salty duck) and texture (gooey fig and chewy duck) that I've had in a while (until two nights later when I get the polenta with wild mushrooms from Tavalo in Dorchester (not even a photo of the cocktail from that outing). Prices are reasonable for the 'hood ($11-12 cocktails and appetizers were about the same.

Wow, it really is pretty.

How did this happen? I opened the window at work the other day; yes, dead of winter and I have to open the windows at my office because it's been 80 degrees in there for several weeks and no one cares enough to do anything about it. I'm not exaggerating. I call the boiler room and tell them where my office is and they say they know and tell me the temperature on their monitors. So I've been opening the windows in rain and sleet and hail and snow. And low and behold, the tree outside my window has just a dusting of snow on the branches and, even though these pictures don't really do it justice, it almost took me breath away.

24 cats and another among the countless manhattans

I picked up this lovely 3 year old girl midweek. She is foster cat number 24 for me. She was found wandering the streets of Dorchester by Animal Rescue League and has been in the shelter since December 28. She's with me for 10-14 days so she doesn't get an infection after being fixed. She's as skinny as a rail but is eating well.

She is quite the starlet. She'd take a few steps, pause, face the camera and then repeat. Very sweet temperament but has a real problem with being picked up and held so it's a good thing she doesn't require any medication. She is sleeping with me and has jumped up on my lap while I'm working at my desk so I'm hoping by the time it gets to put her back in the carrier, I won't be mauled to badly.

The tradition in my house is I get a cat, I welcome her with a manhattan. This one is a perfect sazerac...in my perfect frozen glass.

JJ Foley's Boston

Not much to write home about with this place, typical Irish pub. This Maker's Mark manhattan with a twist that was really a wedge was decent enough at $9.50. All the little sparkly things are the reflections of the Christmas lights hung around the backroom. It was a last minute/early outing on New Years Eve. Tonya supplied party favors to all the girls (boxes with hula dancing paraphernalia Gross.

I did meet two people who might shovel the walk; one at the bar and one who was shoveling at the Epiphany School. Why can I find 4 people to to this chore and the other two unit owners can't find anyone? Rhetorical question since we know the answer.

Red pepper and tomato soup (so shouldn't this be red?)

Another recipe from James McNair - and you'd think from the name, it would be much redder. OK, Patricia Brabent's photo in his cookbook is much redder but in the interest of full disclosure, my photo is unretouched. Tomatoes available lately in the great state of Massachusetts have been most unappealing and unappetizing. But come on, if they are shipped all the way from California, shouldn't they be better (sorry Barbara Kingsolver, I am weak. Although I will probably make due without until spring). All that aside, this was a very good soup. I got lots of good red pepper favor and I will make it again.