Maple Pumpkin Pie with Brown Sugar Crust

Peter's family was in town this weekend, and since we won't all be together for Thanksgiving this year, we decided to have an early celebration. We made roasted turkey roulade, celery root and apple puree, Swiss chard gratin, and maple pumpkin pie with a brown sugar crust.

Every single recipe was a new one, and there wasn't a single clunker! Do you know how rare that is?! I'd happily add any of them to the real Thanksgiving celebration next month.

Maple Pumpkin Pie with Brown Sugar Crust
Crust adapted from Martha Stewart
Pie filling adapted from New York Times

Crust
2 tablespoons packed dark-brown sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons ice water

Filling
15 oz. can unsweetened pumpkin puree
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons Amaretto
2 large eggs
½ cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a food processor, pulse brown sugar and 1/4 cup flour to combine. Add salt and remaining flour; pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until the mixture forms pea-size clumps - this took many pulses for me. Add the lightly beaten egg yolk and water and pulse until the dough starts to come together. Wrap it up in a piece of plastic wrap and form a disk. Refrigerate about 30 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, maple syrup, and brown sugar. Add the cinnamon, ginger, salt and Amaretto. In a small bowl lightly beat the eggs and cream, then combine with the pumpkin.

Roll out the chilled pie crust and place in a 9 inch pie plate. Pour the filling into the crust and cover the pie edges loosely with foil. Bake on the lower level of the oven for 15 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350 degrees and bake for 30 to 40 more minutes, until filling has set (mine took 35 minutes).

Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream.

Looking, Playing, Wasting

Making: Excellent use of our new island - it makes our kitchen such a happy place to hang out in
Cooking: This perfectly autumnal mushroom lasagna
Drinking: A splash of wine nearly every night after Lizzy goes down for the night
Reading: This should say "slogging" since I've been working on this since August, but Longbourn
Wanting: Track pants, real bad
Looking: Oh so tired these days - I need an industrial strength eye cream or something :)
Playing: On my new iPad (I've become one teeny tiny percent more hip!) 
Wasting: Time searching for the perfect baby Halloween costume
Sewing: A new valance for my kitchen window (a total cheat answer because my Mom actually did the sewing for me!)
Wishing: I felt more clear headed
Enjoying: The evening routine we've worked out, which involves playing with Lizzy for a few hours when I get home, then her bath, stories, and bed, followed by dinner, a TV show, and dessert - always dessert - for Peter and me
Waiting: Until the October madness calms down in Salem before checking out this lovely looking exhibit
Liking: How settled our house is feeling these days, even as I make plans for a few more adjustments
Wondering: If we'll be able to pull off a big trip in 2015
Loving: My little clan more and more each day
Hoping: To make a batch of this in very near future
Marveling: At these awesome floating babies in Houston
Needing: To get some dates on the books with friends - we've been somewhat hermetic 
Smelling: Lizzy's head every night at 5:00 p.m.
Wearing: Ballet flats as much as possible before the endless season of boots begins
Following: The new-to-me blog Aspiring Kennedy
Noticing: How beautiful Boston looks this fall - the leaves have exploded in color in the last week
Knowing: Some Top 40 songs for the first time since college, thanks to a lingering Sirius XM subscription in our new-to-us second car (my current fave)
Thinking: That our new normal is starting to feel just that
Feeling: So excited to tag along with my sister to do some wedding dress shopping tomorrow
Bookmarking: Tons of recipes from Jamie Oliver's magazine - it's been a treasure trove of inspiration 
Opening: The windows just a smidge to get some of that delightfully crisp fall air in the house
Giggling: Over Lizzy's seemingly deep voice - it's seriously just like this when she laughs
Feeling: Lucky, lucky, lucky 

This post was inspired by Meet Me at Mikes!

Boston Date

On the last Friday of my maternity leave, Peter, Lizzy, and I went to Row 34 for lunch, and then walked around the seaport. I'm not sure I'd call it a "workingman's oyster bar" - we were next to a darling couple bemoaning the fact that Facebook was down during our first visit - but it is a delightful, delicious spot. And totally baby friendly, thanks to its large, open dining room (that's Lizzy's stroller in the foreground of the pic above). 

We went again last weekend for dinner when my parents were in town. Still delicious, still a-okay for Lizbert.

My Secret Ingredients

When I told Peter I was putting together a post with a few of my go-to "secret" ingredients, he said his list would just be lots of butter and salt. "Always more than you think you need." Ha!

My secret ingredients are fish sauce, Meyer lemons, anchovy paste, and smoked paprika. Each one is added to all kinds of things, but is never the main event - they just give dishes a little hint of something curious.

I add fish sauce to my peanut sauces for rice noodles, and also as a quick marinade for pork or chicken. The Meyer lemons are a finishing touch on all kinds of things like pasta, risotto, rice, and seafood. The smoked paprika goes in potato salad and sweet potato salad, chicken marinades, and lamb ragout. And the anchovy paste! I use this in soups and stews when I want a little something extra in terms of salt and complexity, but it also goes into tapenades and pasta sauces.

What are your secret ingredients? Butter and salt?!

Swordfish with Grilled Nectarines and Avocado Salsa

This is one of those dead simple dishes that is so good. Peter grilled swordfish, Nantucket-style (basically, drenched in mayo :). We also put a halved firm nectarine on the grill, which had been brushed with some olive oil.

When those were finished, I cut cup an avocado, the grilled nectarine, and mixed them both with the juice of half a lime. This would work equally well with peaches and plums.

Happy summer grilling and eating to all!

Soba Noodles with Salmon

A few weeks ago, I went over to a girlfriend's house for lunch who is also at home on leave with her sweet baby girl. She made this incredible salad with soba noodles, which I'd strangely never eaten before. So good!

Gorgeous wild-caught sock eye salmon was on sale at the grocery store, so that got added to my re-creation of her salad. If you use prepared smoked salmon, this would be a nearly no-cook meal since you just need to boil the noodles for 6 minutes or so!

Soba Noodles with Salmon

You will need:
3/4 lb salmon (or prepared smoked salmon - see above)
1 lb package soba noodles
1 cup arugula
1 diced avocado
1/2 English cucumber, sliced into half rounds
Scallions
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
Juice of half a lime
Salt and pepper

Grill the salt and pepper covered salmon. Peter's been making little foil packets with water soaked wood chips to put at the back of the grill, and the grilled the fish at the front over indirect heat. Delicious! It does take about double the amount of time this way - our cooked for about 20 minutes with the cover on to trap the smoke from the chips.

Meanwhile, boil water for the noodles, and cook for 6-8 minutes. While the noodles cook, prep all your toppings. I also think slices of pepper, carrots, shredded cabbage, and cilantro would work beautifully in addition to or instead of arugula, avocado, and cucumbers.

Whisk the sesame oil, rice vinegar, lime juice, a bit more salt and pepper, and chopped scallions together for the dressing. Toss with the cooked noodles, and assemble the salad. This tastes great warm, at room-temperature, or cold, making it my new favorite summertime meal.

Old Manse

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we headed up to Concord to check out the Old Manse and the surrounding grounds. This had been on my to-visit list for a while, so it was a nice surprise that they were having an open house that afternoon!

The trails and gardens behind the house are stunning. Everything is in bloom right now! And, an important battle happened on that little bridge. (I think it looks way too small for an important battle, right? Peter assures me it occurred there.)

Afterwards we went into the town center to hit up the Cheese Shop and a few other favorite spots. Lizzy was snoozing in her Ergo, so we took our chances and ordered a drink and some snacks on the front porch of the Colonial Inn. As soon as our drinks arrived, she started crying a bit (how do they always KNOW?!), but Peter walked her around for a few minutes and she settled right down, and we were able to toast to successful little adventures!

11 Questions Answered

A few pictures of life lately! The most delicious lamb ragu with feta and peas; Lizzy suffering through tummy time; a walk in the wood; and a photo my sister took of Lizzy and me on Mother's Day.

Melissa invited me to answer a few questions she posted to her blog, and while my answers are far from riveting, it was fun to put together. You should totally play along!

1. What has been your most favorite vacation to date? 
Paris! It's hard to beat Paris. 

2. Do you prefer big city life, suburban life, or a life in the country? 
I love that I have a quasi-suburban life right now. We are still super close to the city (10 minutes to Cambridge, and just a bit further from Boston), but I love our little house and neighborhood and yard. 

3. What is your favorite type of food?
This sounds boring because I like to think of myself to be kind of an adventurous eater, but I think my favorite would be classified as American! But maybe fancy-ish American?! Ha. My favorite type of recipe is basically everything on Food 52. 

4. How would you typically dress for a night out? 
Fun patterned shirt (like so) and hot pink flats (like so). Though it's been far too long since these items have left my closet!

5. What are you go-to accessories?
Scarves, earrings, necklaces, sunglasses.

6. How do you fix your hair?
Lately it's been air dried, but typically I give it a quick blow dry and smooth it out with a big round brush. I'm useless with hair products, so I tend to skip them all together. 

7. What make-up do you wear on a daily basis? Do you have preferred brands?
I wear tinted moisturizer, mascara, and blush every day, and sometimes add eye shadow and eye liner to the mix, as well. And always (always!) Vaseline on my lips!

8. What is your preferred workout?
I'm terrible about working out in the formal sense, but I like walking a lot, and will occasionally do some yoga at home.

9. Where is your favorite place to shop online?
Oh gosh. Predictable, but probably Amazon. I also buy things from Lilly Pulitzer online when they have big sales, and like Terrain a lot for gifts. 

10. Do you enjoy entertaining guests in your home or would you prefer to be a guest? 
I LOVE hosting people here - it's one of my favorite things. But because I know how much goes into it, I also really appreciate how wonderful it is to be a guest in someone else's home. I always pick up tricks that I want to steal from our friends who are also fantastic hosts! (The trick I'm always trying to relearn is "just relax and everyone will have fun," ha.)

11. What quality do you really value in your significant other?
Goodness, this is tricky, because is truly a very long list. Peter and I have opposite personalities in many ways (similar values, though, which I think is the key). He is patient, even-keeled, focused, and is an exceptional listener - all qualities I lack, and value very much!

Loving Lately

I got this book a few weeks ago, and have been slowly reading a few of these quirky, funny stories each day. It's perfect for these fuzzy, jumbled newborn days because each one is short, compact, and satisfying. 

I am usually very brand loyal, but after years of using Laura Mercier's tinted moisturizer, I decided to give this one a go after seeing it mentioned on Whoorl (she is so lovely, and I tend to trust her beauty product recommendations). I was a little nervous about the fruit extracts being too scented for my sensitive skin, but so far, no issues at all, and it smells heavenly. And there's something very satisfying about being able to say your make-up comes from France, right? 

Oooh goodness, we are deeply entrenched in True Detective. The chemistry between Matthew McConaughhey and Woody Harrelson is fantastic, and the whole thing is just so suspenseful and well-done. Highly recommended if you're looking for a new show to become obsessed with :)

And finally, a few good things I've read lately:

• My Early-Life Crisis - "I was born a friendless virgin."
• A Day on Long Island with Alex Lee - James Beard award winning article by Francis Lam
• The Ultimate SoWa Food Truck Guide - excited to get back here soon!
• My Other Mother's Day - from new blog favorite Wee Mountains

Just beyond

A chilly weekend away in southern Maine at the end of March doesn't exactly scream "baby moon," but that's what we called it.

Over the last eight years, Peter and I have taken many, many trips - both big and small - together. Our first was to Williamsburg, Virginia about six months after we met. The town was all decked out for Christmas, and we bopped around eating and drinking and generally feeling extremely adult about the whole thing. That Sunday afternoon was drizzly and cold, but there was a promise of fireworks once it got dark enough, so Peter got a taste of how serious I am about pyrotechnics because we stayed on that town green until the bitter, celebratory end.

Then there were the weekends in New York, before we lived there. Weekends in D.C., after we lived there. Weekends in Boston, before we moved here for good. There were wedding celebrations in Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, North Carolina. Winter weekends skiing in the Berkshires, driving into the wilds of Canada, bopping down to Newport.

And big trips. Taking off for nearly a month to roam around Brazil, and then Hawaii. Week-long stays in Paris, and Charleston.

In the middle of our Brazil trip, which we took off on just days after getting engaged, we went to different beaches all the time, ate so much grilled meat, brought cards everywhere we went to play gin rummy because everyone around us seemed to be doing the same, and I remember one night, probably about halfway into the trip when Peter and I were out at bar where the floor was covered with a thick spread of sand underneath our feet, he said very casually, "It's so lucky that I get to spend all my days with you."

In celebration of these days together, when it is just an us, we ate fried sea food, and took a long walk by the steely grey water, perched as gracefully as possible atop bar stools, and toasted to this lovely, lucky life we have together, and to all the lovely, lucky things that await us, just beyond our line of sight.

Surviving a Kitchen Re-model without Living on Take-Out

We are two and a half weeks into our renovations, which means we've also survived for two and half weeks without a real kitchen! This was one of the most nerve-wracking aspects of the remodel for me, so I thought I'd share a few tips.

The first is that if you can do your remodel during the warmer months of the year, it will make your life a bit easier so that you can grill or throw together quick no-cook meals. I'm hoping that over the next few weeks, we'll be able to grill a bit, too (the giant snow flakes currently swirling around outside might suggest otherwise, but I'm going to maintain my delusions).

Our cooking set-up relies heavily on our slow cooker and microwave - two gadgets I didn't use at all before this. I know many people use their slow cookers all the time, but I have trouble working out the timing of it. Why are so many recipes 4-6 hours long? If I had a fancy slower cooker with a timer, this wouldn't be an issue, but alas, I stole this one from my mom and I think it's probably 20 years old. To work around this, I've been focusing on recipes that require 8-10 hours, or just 2 hours, so that I can either start in the morning before I leave for work or throw it together immediately when I get home around 5:00 p.m.

These are a few of my favorites so far:

• Slow-cooked brisket and onions (8-10 hours on low)
• Easy chicken marbella (2 hours on high)
• Creamy chicken and mint curry (8 hours on low)
• Bourbon maple slow cooker baked beans (I added cut up kielbasa to this, too - 8-10 hours on low)

I've had a few failures, too, including this slow cooker mac and cheese (totally gluey). To round out these meals, I bought frozen pre-cooked rice, brown rice, and quinoa at Trader Joes, as well as some of their frozen risotto, gnocchi, and Indian meals for nights when a 2 hour slow cooked dinner isn't going to cut it. These actually remind me of the early days dating Peter, when we made these kinds of things all the time (and thought they were delicious! ha). 

The worst thing about the remodel is the lack of a sink. Our accessible bathroom is upstairs, so we do all our dishes there (and obviously have to go there to wash hands, fill up a water glass, etc.). Every night, we fill a giant water pitcher and bring that downstairs, which helps with a bit with the back and forth, and I've started using some disposable plates and bowls, though I feel kind of guilty about it. To minimize dishes, I've stopped making salads and simply through extra vegetables (fresh or frozen) into the grain when it's microwaving or near the end of a slow-cooked dish, like peas, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, kale, or arugula (which I treat like spinach). 

I think that's everything I've learned so far, which looks long, but is admittedly not that revolutionary! If I'm missing something genius that made your kitchen renovation more bearable, please let me know! I've still got at least 3-4 more weeks of this...

Our Week in the San Diego Area

We had the best time on our trip to San Diego! I collected our whole week of activities into one big post. 

Day one: We met up with my parents, my sister, and her boyfriend Joel at our rental car place at LAX (to pick up our awesome minivan!). I convinced everyone that we should stop at In-N-Out Burger before driving down to Escondido. We made it to our resort, and then grabbed dinner at this yummy Argentinian spot (though the manager did have an annoying habit of asking repeatedly if we'd like to pose for a picture on their Facebook page. Thanks for asking, but NO.)

Day two: The gentleman in our group were particularly excited about the plethora of craft beer s in this area of the country. We went to Stone Brewing for a drink in their amazing gardens while waiting for a table to have a late lunch. The gardens are deceptively small, but are so well laid-out that every table and seating area feels private and special. We made a quick stop at Stone Farm on our way home. They grow food for restaurants, including their own, and there are chickens and goats and such. They sell beer, and people just seem to hang out (we came across lots of spaces during our trip that seemed conducive to that!).

Day three: Using Eater for guidance, we went to Mariscos El Pescador for lunch. It's in the parking lot of a mostly abandoned strip mall, but they had the most delicious fish tacos - for $1.25 each! We spent the afternoon at the San Diego Zoo. I loved the set up there - each new animal habitat felt like a happy discover because it's so lush and green, and the paths just wind along.

These flamingos were among my favorites.

That night, we met up with some long-time family friends for a drink at the lovely Hotel del Coronado (which the Grand Floridian in Orlando is based off of!). There's a giant patio in the back that looks at the ocean, with couches and chairs set up around fire pits. It was heavenly. For dinner, we ate waaaaaay too many chips and queso at Miguelito's.

Day four: My parents, Peter, and I spent the morning golfing at the course on our resort. Super hilly, but views were great and the holes were short (my favorite!).

Our beer tour continued with a visit to Ballast Point, where I tried the most incredibly crisp, light wheat beer (don't worry, I only had a sip!). My mom, sister, and I spent the afternoon shopping while the guys went on to do another tasting at Green Flash. We made fantastic guacamole at home and grilled steaks that night for dinner. I miss those avocados!

Day five: We stopped at Campini's Deli to grab sandwiches and snacks to go, and then went to Hart Winery. They have picnic tables on a patio outside of their tasting room that looks onto the (currently dormant) vineyards. Little grey lizards crawled along while we ate a lazy lunch with a bottle of their wine.

We later visited Wiens and Marimar - both lovely spots that are much more of a production than Hart was. Bigger tasting rooms, lots more people, large outdoor spaces. All the vineyards are very easy to bop around to - they're all basically off of the same road in Temecula.

For the afternoon, we shopped around Old Town Temecula, with a fantastic stop at the Temecula Olive Oil Company for an oil and vinegar tasting. (I was jealous of everyone else's wine and beer tastings, so I really went for it with those oils :) For dinner that night, we drove out to Carlsbad for sushi at Blue Ocean. This was one of our favorite meals of the week. In addition to sushi, they serve robata, which is basically grilled meat on a skewer. Delish.

Day six: The end of the week was unusually warm (around 80 degrees), so we spent the entire day by the pool, grilling burgers and eating more guacamole made from those unbelievable avocados. I had brought this book along with me for the trip, and I found it be terrible! Could not get through it. I'm now thoroughly caught up on the March edition of every magazine on the shelf, though.

Day seven: We started the day with a crazy drive up to Mt. Soledad. The views of La Jolla were stunning, and the memorial was touching. To round out our fish taco eating, we went to El Pescador Fish Market for lunch - also amazing, and the setting is a bit of an upgrade from the strip mall parking lot.

We spent an amazing afternoon Cabrillo National Monument to see the tidal pools. There are easy walking paths and beautiful views everywhere you turn. We went up to the top to see the lighthouse afterwards, which was very cool - you really got a sense for how isolating it was to be a lighthouse keeper.

For dinner, we were back in La Jolla to go to Whisknladle. Oooh, this place was so good! Everything I tried - which included bone marrow, my main dish with pork, olives, and asparagus, and a chocolate peanut butter confection - was wonderful. Highly recommend if you're looking for a fun celebratory dinner in that area.

I really, really didn't want to come home from this trip. Being outside so much in the sunshine, eating so many delicious things, getting to spend so much time with my family - it was just a perfect mix. California, I can't wait to see you again someday.

Winter Cooking

We've been cooking so many good things lately, but I've been terrible about sharing! This post is a giant collection of yummy things that have come out of our kitchen in 2014. Up above was our New Years Day dinner - Hoppin' John, corn bread, and Ina's broccoli rabe with garlic (a Northern's version of greens?!). I think it's bringing us luck so far.

Next was a fantastic dish Peter made - toad in the hole. He remembered an au pair making this when he was a kid, so it was fun to recreate. There were a mix of spicy and sweet sausages, which I highly recommend.

Remember when I told you I had a pineapple hanging around? Part of it went into this gingery stir fry with sugar snap peas, broccoli, shredded carrots, and left-over beef brisket (I don't have pictures of that, but Peter used these tips from Chow Hound to make it).

Over the years, I've figured out how to rework lots of things to avoid tomatoes, but ragout always stumped me. A few weeks ago, we had both left-over lamb stew that had lots of carrots, and also a mixture of sausages cooked with onions and peppers. I pulled out the meat from both dishes and chopped it up very finely (it basically fell apart since they'd both been cooked before), and then put all the vegetables into the food processor. I combined the meat and vegetables with some butter and let it simmer for a while, and then added a blob of goat cheese right at the end. Not AT ALL traditional, but it was seriously amazing. I'm not sure I'll ever have that weird combination of left-overs again in my life, but it's worth trying to recreate it. We had a kale and arugula salad with red pears to go with it.

And finally, Ina Garten's baked shrimp scampi. Shrimp is one of those weird foods that inexplicably scares me to cook (for years I didn't like it, so maybe that's why?). I was flipping through one of her cookbooks, though, and this caught my eye. Peter had been on a grading tear, so I peeled and de-veined the shrimp myself (not my favorite job), and even still, this dish was totally worth it. It would be a great choice if you're making a fun dinner at home for Valentine's Day this year - it's even pink!

What are you cooking this winter?

Getting Out of a Cooking Rut

This is a totally random post, but thought I'd share since this is notoriously one of the most difficult times of year to get inspired by cooking - at least in New England, where stocks of squash, onions, and cold-storage apples dominate the produce aisle.

My simple tip is add something different and slightly unusual to your grocery cart. In the last few weeks, I've gotten pineapple, sugar snap peas, pear infused vinegar, and uncured bacon. None of these are too off the beaten path, but individually, they aren't things that I'd usually pick up without a specific use in mind. But throwing something somewhat random into the mix is the perfect way for me to try new things, or remember old recipes I loved but haven't repeated for whatever reason.

In that last category, here are a few old favorites that I'm excited to make again soon:

• Warm butternut squash and chickpea salad
• Sugar snap pea and cucumber salad
• Nearly spring lamb stew
• Carrot and avocado salad
• Arctic char with gnocchi

Winter Trip to NYC

It already feels like a lifetime ago, but earlier this week, Peter and I popped down to NYC for a fun overnight. We drove right into midtown so that I could wait in line for rush ticket to see Waiting for Godot while Peter parked the car and checked into our hotel. The timing worked out perfectly - just when I finished up in line, he met me!

We had about an hour and a half before the show started, so we went to Benoit for brunch. On this trip, we wanted to force ourselves to try a few new places (it's so easy to just return to old favorites!), and this was one of them. Generally, the Eater 38 list is great for some direction since there are just so many restaurants. Benoit is delightfully French and charming, and the location couldn't be beat for proximity to the theater.

Broadway theaters are so beautiful, no? This show, featuring Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart, was such a pleasure to watch. I wasn't familiar with the play beforehand, and was surprised at how accessible it was (though I'm sure there was quite a bit I missed, too!). 

After the show, we were able to meet up with a smattering of old friends at the Headless Horseman in Union Square. It was nice and open, and could even accomodate a cute baby and all his gear! We've been so lucky to meet a lot of new friends in Boston, but I still miss all those NYC friends so much, particularly my girlfriends, so it was amazing to get to catch up for a little bit. 

For dinner that night, we went to Gramercy Tavern, an old favorite. We ate in the tavern part (and actually have never been to the dining room - maybe someday!). Everything was still decked out like crazy for the holidays - I love the decor there almost as much as the food and service. I had two dishes I'd like to try to recreate at home: an amazing grilled radicchio and apple salad with pistachios, and a smoked potato chowder with mussels, fish, and octopus (I'd probably skip the octopus at home!). 

The next morning, we left our downtown hotel and caught a peek at the Freedom Tower - very impressive! - on our way to MOMA. We came here years ago on a packed free Friday evening, and even though it was still quite busy, it was lovely to return.

After exploring the museum for a few hours, we headed to Kin Shop for lunch, another new-to-us spot that had been our list even before we moved. The space is serene and cool, and the food is fantastic. We shared fried Brussels sprouts with Chinese sausage and the stir fried Dungeness crab noodles - both incredible. As we were leaving, Peter realized we were very close to Amorino, so, of course, we had to pop over there for a bit of gelato.

We made one final stop at Gorilla Coffee in our old neighborhood before hitting the road back to Boston. In fact, I'm sipping that delicious coffee as I type!

NYC, it was so wonderful to see you again!