On "little g" grief
Balanced out with bacon cheddar scones, fun flowers, and easy dinners
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Let’s start with the fun stuff first, shall we?
It was my coworker’s birthday last week and he requested a savory treat, so I made these bacon cheddar chive scones. They were a huge hit – and a great use for leftover bacon (not that you’d have any). I made them the day before, froze them overnight, then popped them in the oven for warm scones in the morning. SO good. (We ate them so fast that I do not have photos.)
I’m thrilled to report that after a whole five minutes of spring, SUMMER has arrived in Boston! It’s humid and sticky but it is still glorious. Our office is right by the Charles River, which is a great excuse to go for a walk or run after work. When you live in a cold place, the energy once the warm weather hits is unmatched. The Esplanade is full of people running, walking their dogs, picnicking, hammocking, and napping in the sun. There’s a seasonal beer garden and outdoor yoga. On the river, there are sailboats dipping left and right and kayakers trying to avoid sailboats. I almost always stop on the Longfellow Bridge to take a photo of the Boston skyline.
We tried a new bakery this morning: Verveine Cafe in Cambridge. It’s getting lots of hype as the area’s first fully gluten-free bakery. We had a breakfast biscuit with chili jam, egg, arugula, and avocado (pictured below), a gouda and scallion scone, and a peanut butter-miso and double-chocolate tahini cookie (those will be a treat for later this afternoon or after dinner). While I technically didn’t have a croissant today, we did still have a fun Friday morning pastry adventure, and that’s what matters. (Also, for all being gluten-free, everything was pretty good.)
The floral arranging class I told you about in last week’s newsletter happened this week. We sipped bubbly, fruity drinks and snacked on dried coconut and mango as we put together our arrangements, which featured waxy anthurium, verdant monstera, spunky protea, sleek calathea, dusty rose carnations, and more tropical-inspired flowers I don’t know the names of. Suffice it to say I will not be starting a career in floral arrangement anytime soon — but I had fun and that’s what matters!
I’ve been largely focused on easy (read: lazy) meals that don’t require recipes: beef bulgogi tacos (literally just frozen beef bulgogi from Trader Joe’s, flour tortillas, slaw, and this simple crema), these sausages with peppers and onions and sweet potato fries, and a life-changing tofu method (press the tofu for an hour to get some moisture out, tear it into chunks with your hands, toss it with cornstarch, brown it in some grapeseed or canola oil, then saute it in Soyaki and serve with rice and stir fry veggies – the tofu gets all crispy and craggy this way). Because sometimes we want to make elaborate meals and sometimes this is all we have the energy for!
Speaking of Trader Joe’s, these mini cakes and the ube pretzels are shockingly good little treats.