My dearest friend, Miss Brooke (aka Tig) is jetting up from NYC to spend a summery Maine weekend with me. I could not be more excited.
Here is a random assortment of iPhone photos to tide us over.
Friday Things
1
Category Archives: Food
Italia
I embarked on my first trip to Europe one misty morning last October. After consulting my best friend Brooke about the fashion of Italian women (she had spent a semester abroad in Florence during our junior year of college and said “Absolutely no pashminas. Italian women don’t wear them. No flip-flops. Leather is OK. But remember, less is more!”), I crammed a Diane von Furstenburg suitcase full of clothes and shoes, a couple Italian phrasebooks, and headed to Rome. I remember feeling buzzed with excitement the night before we left. The food! The art! The fashion! The history!
From the moment we were picked up by a handsome driver who gave us an informal tour of the city to when we packed up and said goodbye to the flamboyant front desk host at our cozy hotel, Rome did not disappoint. Although we both caught head colds from travel and jet-lag, nothing could have dulled what Miek and I were seeing. I am Catholic but have never been terribly “religious”. Over the years I have cobbled together the framework of my spiritual beliefs in a way that many of my generation have…distancing ourselves from the confines our parents and grandparents experienced. But the Vatican, and St. Peter’s Basilica, and the tiny, medieval churches we stumbled across during our afternoon walks, made me feel closer to a “higher power.”
The pasta was a religious experience too. I had the best espresso I have ever had. Dinner was an event.
As we rode the high-speed train through the Tuscan countryside on our way to Florence for the day, I was seated next to an Italian scholar. A professor perhaps, maybe a doctor. As he studied his journal article, I looked past him to the ancient stone farmhouses and rustic landscape. When we walked the Ponte Vecchio, I felt connected to the merchants who sold their wares there on the bridge hundreds of years ago.
I felt at home in Italy. I felt comfortable in the sunny piazzas, nibbling on a piece of bread with cheese, sipping a glass of the best “house red” ever.
Surrounded by art and history, I felt connected to humanity in a new and different way. I will go back.
Wednesday Date Night – Pai Men Miyake
Every Wednesday night is date night. I like having something to look forward to as I trudge through Monday and Tuesday, and it allows Miek and me to connect mid-week over the many delicious culinary treats this city has to offer. It started out informally; we realized that for several weeks, we had been meeting for Wednesday dinners out at our favorite spots — slurping oysters loaded with horseradish and lemon, sitting elbow-to-elbow at our neighborhood spot called JPs for creative cocktails and specials, scarfing down po’ boys at Hot Suppa! or getting our fried pickles on a Silly’s. We realized we had a list of restaurants to work through, and have found that “Wednesday Date Night” is the way to do it.
Tonight we had ramen and appetizers at Pai Men Miyake, a noodle bar that specializes in fresh ramen and soba, sushi, yakitori, and sake cocktails. Miek started with their pork buns, which were steamed bun pillows filled with unctuous pork belly, pepper relish and spicy mayo. I had the pan-seared pork and cabbage dumplings. For the main event, I had the vegetable ramen; although it was a vegetarian dish, it was rich and “meaty” with a dark mushroom broth, cabbage, seaweed, tofu, spicy garlic paste and peppers. Miek had the miso ramen. We shared crispy fried Brussels sprouts kissed by fish and soy sauces – a textural delight of crispy caramelized bits and soft, salty centers. With sake cocktails in hand, we toasted to another Hump Day success and crossed another Portland restaurant off our list.
Soggy
It feels like I’ve temporarily moved to Seattle. It’s been raining since Saturday. I just checked weather.com, and I THINK we will have some relief this weekend.
The rain is pretty to listen to while sleeping (when it’s dark out, anyway) and I have been able to put some miles on my rain boots. But it’s pretty dismal. Miek and I have been keeping our spirits up with good food — why hello bacon mashed potato pizza!, good movies and TV queued up on Netflix, and loads of productivity at the office.
Unofficial Start of Summer
Rattled awake by a thunderstorm this morning at 5 am, I’m back at the office after a most sublime Memorial Day Weekend.
Some of my favorite moments: dipping my toes in the Atlantic while the younger kids swam the day away, driving to the Dairy Corner with my boy in the passenger seat and his nephew, my sister and her boyfriend in the back – all singing along to the Alabama Shakes, spending time with a Westie, chihuahua, and two doodles, and making friendship bracelets on the upper deck as the sun beat down on me and the ocean lapped against the sand.
Ahhhhh, summer.
Lobster and Beer
After stopping by my mom’s shop – This Old Thing? – and scoring a snazzy vintage Sarah Coventry belt and a mid-century modern mini ice bucket for two – it was far too nice out to just settle in at home with Mad Men reruns on Netflix.
So Miek and I headed downtown in search of a patio, like many from Portland often do as soon as things thaw out. We settled on The Porthole. I worked on my tan and we made friends with the chubby pug at the neighboring table. Sometimes a girl just needs some seafood and an Allagash.
(more to come on This Old Thing?)
Hot Off The Dress 