Deals and Steals

Some times it feels a little bit like a good deal is hard to find in Boston proper. 

Lately Groupon and Gilt have been letting me down with proclamations of deals in Boston which are actually deals located several miles outside the city -- South Shore, North Shore, and Southern New Hampshire. 

Nice Idea...but in the doldrums of this New England winter...i'm not inclined to shovel out the car and take a slushy ride through the gray Boston burbs to get a discount haircut or half off apps of questionable quality.

Enter the monthly wine tastings at the Charles Mark Hotel. 

I went last night with a group of friends and was pleasantly surprised. It was easy to get to (located a few steps from the Copley T stop), very fun and only cost $20!

It was a perfect post-work, pre-dinner experience.

A mere $20 Gets You:

6 wine "samples" (which were actually very generous pours -at least 1/2 glass or more)

3 different martini shots

Light Appetizers

 (cheese, cheese, cheese, crackers, nuts, veggies, dips, hummus, pita, chips and some sweets)

     

 

The Lounge Space is  cozy and comfortable with both cushy couch and table options and plenty of space to stand and mingle. 

There is also a full service bar should you decide you'd like to stay for another round and open air patio seating which will be a perfect addition to the event once  winter releases it's icy death grip. 

You're also close to loads of good restaurants and other stylish watering holes if you decide to make a night of it. 

Which we did.

 Two Things to Note:

1. Reservations are Required - you can email or call to hold space

2. The tasting only lasts two hours. If you haven't used all your drink tickets by 8:00pm you are out of luck. I missed my final glass of wine because I wasn't paying attention to the time....curses!! 

Sigh - I'll be more on my game next time.

The Lounge

The Bar

The Patio

the F word

noooooo, not that F word....good goodness get your mind out of the gutter!

I'm referring to F-O-O-D word. 

The one word (the W-A-L-K word comes in a close second) that never fails to get my dogs' undivided attention.

They can be outside playing or soundly sleeping.... and if they so much as hear someone crack the refrigerator door or rip open a bag of chips -- or even silently contemplate possibly having a snack...they appear.

these little beasts of mine will do anything for a treat.

sit, speak, jump, shake, high five, make a deal with the devil...you name it, they'll do it.

one very good boy, showing super restraint --next time i want a brownie --someone should make me balance it on my nose while they take my picture. eeks.

they also eat their food in a very specific way -

1st: they eat as if they haven't seen food for days on end, like they are literally on the brink of starvation

2nd: they eat as if the world is going to end in approximately the next 50-60 seconds and they only thing that might save them is if they can ingest the meal before them in 3 bites or less...no time to chew...

3rd: they eat as if whatever they're munching on is the most delicious delicacy they've ever had the pleasure to sample -- as if the little dry protein pellets that they eat twice a day, everyday, all year long -- taste like filet drizzled in white truffle oil served on a bed of caviar

In the totem pole of their existence -- Food trumps ALL. 

A couple of weeks ago, the little guy ended up having to have emergency surgery after ingesting a very large piece of a nylabone (im considering staging a one woman protest outside their headquarters - jerks) which his tiny little tummy couldn't work out.

he started displaying some signs of digestive distress (i'm sure you can guess what t i mean by that....) early in the morning -- but it wasn't anything too alarming.
the glaring RED FLAG realization that something was seriously wrong came when i got up to feed them breakfast. this daily morning ritual usually involves me in a semi-conscious state, stumbling around  pre-caffeine fix... trying to get my eyes open enough to successfully get one scoop of food in each bowl and get each bowl to the correct dog while they excitedly run circles around my legs.
its a generally a frenetic blur of wagging tails and wiggly bodies crashing around the kitchen.

on this particular morning -- after bowls had been filled, i watched as the big guy happily wolfed down his food in the usual 30.5 seconds...while the little one just sat there, slumped next to his bowl, alternately looking down at the food and back up at me. ears back, eyes sad, tail still.

I flippppppppped my sh*t....

first i got down on the floor and tried coaxing him to eat the food out of my hand -- not interested.

then, thinking that maybe his stomach was upset  i ditched the dry food and went for something simple and easy to digest - rice and scrambled eggs. not a chance.

out came the milkbones. no thank you

the beggin' strips. negative

some leftover chicken pieces. a piece of cheese. nothing doing.

i tried spoon feeding him peanut butter. sadly not. 

honestly the only thing I didn't try was pretending the utensil was an airplane coming in for a landing....but i gave it a passing thought.

my final idea was maple syrup -- just a little sugary goodness on my finger tips -- which surely he would lick off. 

NOPE.

the worst part was, that through it all - in typical dog fashion -- he was doing his very best to make me happy. he would  pick up a few kibbles, hold them in his mouth and then slowly lower his head and drop them back in the bowl. Or he'd give the peanut butter (which i was practically shoving in his face) a half-hearted lick before lying back down and resting his head on my lap and giving a defeated little sigh. heartbreak.

this all happened in the span of approximately 5 minutes...
here is the point in the story when i panicked and started using the actual F word

OOOOOOHH FUDGE...
Only I didn't say "Fudge". I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the F-dash-dash-dash word!

I'll spare you the details -- the next couple of days were pretty rough.
xrays and iv's and stitches and operations. and a fair amount of crying on my part. 

not fun.

the great news is that he came home happy and healthy - like nothing had happened.

he is his normal, energetic, excellent puppy self. 

he didn't even have to sport the trademark cone. 

his appetite also came back in full force

Since it's looking like we'll be snowed in this weekend -- and we'll probably do a fair amount of baking/cooking/eating...i thought i'd do something nice for the puppies and give making homemade dog treats a try. Found a simple enough recipe  and gave it a go. 

 i've taken away two things from this exercise

1. Cooking with dogs is awesome because they are super good helpers

making sure i was using the best ingredients

making sure i had the right tools

checking that i measured correctly

patiently waiting for the goodies to finish baking

2. Cooking for Dogs is seriously rewarding because they LOVE love Love LooOOOOooove WHATEVER you make.

It is a serious confidence booster...feeling like a 5 star chef right about now. 

and i can guarantee...that these cheesy biscuits are the

 GREATEST THING THEY'VE EVER ATE, ever. 

(welllllll at least until the next time they get fed...)

Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.

- Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

beer me

i'm already pretty adept at beer drinking (thank you large, fun, state school with lot's of extracurricular get-togethers and lots of thirsty students).

 However...after about three years of daily walks by the brew your own beer store on Mass Ave and countless passing proclamations about wanting to become skilled at the fine art of beer making....i finally decided it was time to try my hand at brewing beer at home.  

In my particular experience, brewing beer is best accomplished with the assistance of 2 guys, 2 happy dogs wrestling/running around the kitchen floor (threatening to knock things over/trip you at each step of the process), and couple of beverages to keep you hydrated throughout (on this occasion Brooklyn lager and Sam's winter did the trick).

It's a fun -- mostly easy, do it yourself project -- with an enticing end result. (no guarantee that the final product will be either appetizing or remotely palatable -- but we've got our fingers crossed). 

There's a fair amount of equipment needed....which if bought or borrowed separately could be pricey/time consuming. instead we opted to go with an all in one, reasonably priced starter kit from the The Homebrew Emporium. 

Contents Included: "Home Beermaking" Book , Equipment Instructions, Primary Fermenter with Lid, Airlock, Bottling Bucket with Spigot, Siphon and Bottling Set-up, Bucket Clip, Twin Lever Capper, Hydrometer, Liquid Crystal Thermometer, Bottle Brush, No-Rinse Cleanser

we also purchased an IPA beer mix - as the beerman at the beerstore suggested it was the easiest not to flub up on your first try -- if you're feeling ambitious and rather confident in your abilities, or if IPA isn't your thang --  there are lots of brew choices to select from.

Good to Note: one very essential item that is not included in the kit is a pot large enough to boil 5 gallons of liquid at once...unfortunately a bathtub sized pot was not in stock in my kitchen....luckily someone's nice italian mother lent one to us.

Overall the trickiest parts of the operation: 

1. Following the numbered, step-by-step directions in good order 2. Having patience 3. Cleanliness*

* Sanitizing all equipment and keeping hands and counter spaces very clean at all times was probably the most time consuming part of the whole process. It's uber important to keep bacteria out -- everything that comes in contact with the beer batter has to stay super, super, mega clean -- which honestly makes me wonder about many of the home brews i sampled throughout my college years -- delightfully alcoholic treats which were cultivated in questionably cleanly living spaces by people who were definitely not obsessive hand washers! mmmmm mmmm tasty.

I'm going to stick to a photo montage....but if you're interested in an actual play by play of how beer is made - Here's a little BREW 101

Day One: Beer Mixing

IPA Mixings - The Starter Kit

Prepping to Steap the Grains

Steaping

Draining the grains

Boiling Hops

Adding Yeast

adding the malt mix

Air locking

Wait 2-3 weeks to allow fermentation

Day Two: Beer Bottling

This part was pretty fun - felt very official and accomplished -- was especially pleased to open the bucket and find that we hadn't totally messed up part one -- the "beer" actually looked and smelled pretty great (in reality, this means nothing....take for example vanilla extract: smells like yummy goodness, tastes like bum...)!

plus the bottling process was satisfying and gratifying and i love a good assembly line.... 

Bonus -- I learned how to accurately syphon liquid -- so if I ever need to steal gasoline out of someone's tank -- i'm good to go....

Suggestion -- instead of buying new glass bottles which can be kind of pricey -- my roommate had the genius idea to call a few local liquor stores with redemption facilities and ask if we could buy empty's that hadn't been crushed yet. one store was nice enough to put aside 50 or so bottles which they then sold to us for a whopping 5 pennies per pop. 

we found that bottles with pop tops (as opposed to screw offs) worked best for capping purposes. It added a couple of additional steps: 1. Going to get the Bottles 2. Buying a few six packs of beer while there 3. Soaking the bottles in our bathtub and  then scraping off labels -- but it was totally worth it and we also get bonus points for being green. (captain planet!)

bottle bath

Sanitized Beer Bottles

adding boiled sugar to prompt carbonation

syphoning beer from bucket 1 to bucket 2

Filling up Bottles

Performing Quality Control

cap that

What we ended up with:

wait two weeks...

Day Three: Beer Drinking: Stay tuned for the verdict on the final product!