Tag: United States

Linking with Other Bloggers in Person!

Today's Friday Link is Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris. She did a report on our recent lunch at Sel de la Terre. If you have blogging pals and your travel schedules put you in the same city, I recommend meeting up if your schedules permit.

Our lunch began with a toast with a glass of sparkling wine from Westport Rivers Vineyard & Winery. When I mentioned that my dining companion was visiting from Paris, our very gracious waiter presented the lovely board of charcuterie shown in Mary Kay's photo (above) as a gift from the kitchen. It was the perfect opening to a leisurely lunch.

After lunch we slipped into the Salon at L'Espalier so I could show Mary Kay a spot to treat her husband to some fine cheese and wine in the heart of the Back Bay. The staff there was just as welcoming and took us on a quick tour of the restaurant, provided menus for us to review, and even supplied the current cheese list to Mary Kay.

Since she was staying in a Back Bay condo on a home exchange, we both picked up a few things at the Copley Square Farmers' Market before our walk home.

When you visit Out and About in Paris, be sure to put Boston into the search box and enjoy seeing our city through the eyes of a frequent visitor who certainly seems to love it here.

What's on your Back to School shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your back to school needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photography: Courtesy of Mary Kay, Out and About in Paris

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

Basque Country Supper: Recreating Happy Memories

Framing the Square

Boston Trash Can Improvement Society At Work

Look Down, History Below Your Feet

Close to Nature in the City

August 17, 2012
Linking with Other Bloggers in Person!

Today's Friday Link is Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris. She did a report on our recent lunch at Sel de la Terre. If you have blogging pals and your travel schedules put you in the same city, I recommend meeting up if your schedules permit.

Our lunch began with a toast with a glass of sparkling wine from Westport Rivers Vineyard & Winery. When I mentioned that my dining companion was visiting from Paris, our very gracious waiter presented the lovely board of charcuterie shown in Mary Kay's photo (above) as a gift from the kitchen. It was the perfect opening to a leisurely lunch.

After lunch we slipped into the Salon at L'Espalier so I could show Mary Kay a spot to treat her husband to some fine cheese and wine in the heart of the Back Bay. The staff there was just as welcoming and took us on a quick tour of the restaurant, provided menus for us to review, and even supplied the current cheese list to Mary Kay.

Since she was staying in a Back Bay condo on a home exchange, we both picked up a few things at the Copley Square Farmers' Market before our walk home.

When you visit Out and About in Paris, be sure to put Boston into the search box and enjoy seeing our city through the eyes of a frequent visitor who certainly seems to love it here.

What's on your Back to School shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your back to school needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photography: Courtesy of Mary Kay, Out and About in Paris

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

Basque Country Supper: Recreating Happy Memories

Framing the Square

Boston Trash Can Improvement Society At Work

Look Down, History Below Your Feet

Close to Nature in the City

August 17, 2012
Free Fridays from the Highland Street Foundation

Fridays are special around Greater Boston because of the Free Fun Fridays admissions to museums and other cultural attractions made possible by the Highland Street Foundation.

They say, "Free Fun Fridays invites Massachusetts residents and tourists to visit designated cultural attractions every Friday this summer with free admission. No registration or tickets required. Visit and enjoy!"

We Say, "Thanks, that sounds like a Free Fun Friday Link to us!

What's on your Summer Fun shopping list? Shop Amazon Everything You Need for Summer Fun and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

Food Tips for Shakespeare on the Common

Friday Links to Free Music!

Messing About in Boats…

August 3, 2012
Free Fridays from the Highland Street Foundation

Fridays are special around Greater Boston because of the Free Fun Fridays admissions to museums and other cultural attractions made possible by the Highland Street Foundation.

They say, "Free Fun Fridays invites Massachusetts residents and tourists to visit designated cultural attractions every Friday this summer with free admission. No registration or tickets required. Visit and enjoy!"

We Say, "Thanks, that sounds like a Free Fun Friday Link to us!

What's on your Summer Fun shopping list? Shop Amazon Everything You Need for Summer Fun and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Related articles

Food Tips for Shakespeare on the Common

Friday Links to Free Music!

Messing About in Boats…

August 3, 2012
Look Down, History Below Your Feet

The sidewalks of Boston are not only a pathway to history but also contain historic coal vault covers with prism lights that were part of another time.

Click on any small image to pop up a larger view.

A few are in great condition and may still let light into spaces below the sidewalk. Others are dangerous, with holes that could catch heels or puppy paws and ugly concrete, covering what was once a thing of craftsmanlike beauty.

In the days before the electric light, these were important features. The sidewalk access meant that dirty coal deliveries did not have to come through the house. And, the beams admitted and intensified by prism lights allowed you to see in dark basement spaces.

We are just beginning our research on these and photographing as many as we can. If you'd like to share your photos of coal vault covers you can upload them to the BostonZest Photo Pool on Flickr.

What's on your Summer Fun shopping list? Shop Amazon Everything You Need for Summer Fun and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

July 31, 2012
Look Down, History Below Your Feet

The sidewalks of Boston are not only a pathway to history but also contain historic coal vault covers with prism lights that were part of another time.

Click on any small image to pop up a larger view.

A few are in great condition and may still let light into spaces below the sidewalk. Others are dangerous, with holes that could catch heels or puppy paws and ugly concrete, covering what was once a thing of craftsmanlike beauty.

In the days before the electric light, these were important features. The sidewalk access meant that dirty coal deliveries did not have to come through the house. And, the beams admitted and intensified by prism lights allowed you to see in dark basement spaces.

We are just beginning our research on these and photographing as many as we can. If you'd like to share your photos of coal vault covers you can upload them to the BostonZest Photo Pool on Flickr.

What's on your Summer Fun shopping list? Shop Amazon Everything You Need for Summer Fun and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

July 31, 2012
Vella Dry Jack Cheese: an American Treasure

We are students of cheese and admit to having a mental list of cheese we want to try. Vella Dry Jack has been on that list since we saw it on Steve Jenkins list, "American Treasures: the best American Cheeses" in his book Cheese Primer.

It is not widely available in this area. So when Penny saw it at Whole Foods on Cambridge Street, she grabbed a wedge.

This cheese has a wonderful history and others have told the story well, so we'll just link to those reports.

First, there is the family's own history on the Vella Cheese website. And, Janet Fletcher wrote about it in the San Francisco Chronicle: Vella Dry Jack's dark brown coat makes an instant impression.

The process that created that brown rind you see above is one of the interesting notes mentioned by most people writing about Vella Dry Jack. To protect and preserve the wheels, cheesemakers rub them with a mixture of oil, pepper, and unsweetened cocoa during the aging process.

This is a hard cheese with nutty, sweet, caramel tones. You can pick up a scent of chocolate, but not the flavor.

Dry Jack was originally sold during World War I as a substitute for Parmigiano-Reggiano. With the recent destruction of so much of the supply of Parmigiano by the earthquakes in Italy, we could find ourselves looking to California cheesemakers to create more of this rarer, dry version of Jack Cheese.

Related Posts:

One of our all time favorite cheeses was created by a cheesemaker from the Vella Family.

Rogue River Blue

Rogue River Blue, Amercian Cheese Society Winner

And, here are other items from our Cheese Tray!

What's on your Cheese shopping list? Here are some great books about cheese. These make wonderful gifts for a cheese lover. And, when you shop Amazon from here, they put some coins in our tip jar.

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

July 26, 2012
Vella Dry Jack Cheese: an American Treasure

We are students of cheese and admit to having a mental list of cheese we want to try. Vella Dry Jack has been on that list since we saw it on Steve Jenkins list, "American Treasures: the best American Cheeses" in his book Cheese Primer.

It is not widely available in this area. So when Penny saw it at Whole Foods on Cambridge Street, she grabbed a wedge.

This cheese has a wonderful history and others have told the story well, so we'll just link to those reports.

First, there is the family's own history on the Vella Cheese website. And, Janet Fletcher wrote about it in the San Francisco Chronicle: Vella Dry Jack's dark brown coat makes an instant impression.

The process that created that brown rind you see above is one of the interesting notes mentioned by most people writing about Vella Dry Jack. To protect and preserve the wheels, cheesemakers rub them with a mixture of oil, pepper, and unsweetened cocoa during the aging process.

This is a hard cheese with nutty, sweet, caramel tones. You can pick up a scent of chocolate, but not the flavor.

Dry Jack was originally sold during World War I as a substitute for Parmigiano-Reggiano. With the recent destruction of so much of the supply of Parmigiano by the earthquakes in Italy, we could find ourselves looking to California cheesemakers to create more of this rarer, dry version of Jack Cheese.

Related Posts:

One of our all time favorite cheeses was created by a cheesemaker from the Vella Family.

Rogue River Blue

Rogue River Blue, Amercian Cheese Society Winner

And, here are other items from our Cheese Tray!

What's on your Cheese shopping list? Here are some great books about cheese. These make wonderful gifts for a cheese lover. And, when you shop Amazon from here, they put some coins in our tip jar.

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

July 26, 2012