Tag Archives: prosecco

January Recap

I can’t believe it’s already February! I (mostly) have let blogging get away from me so far in 2017, so I decided to write a post recapping what I’ve been up to so far this year (aka in January). It’s honestly not anything different than what you might expect, but what can I say, I’m fairly predictable. Let’s go.

Cooking

I’ve continued to experiment in the kitchen with fun recipes that both Jeff and I can enjoy. I used this recipe to make some super easy meatball sliders, and made my best round of calzones yet – one buffalo chicken and one Hawaiian. I also made some of the “usual suspects”, like taco salad and tater tot trash dip (on Jeff’s birthday).

Capo’s New Lounge

I already was a fan of Capo in Southie, but last Thursday I had the chance to attend a media event for their new lounge, and I have to say it may be the coolest space I’ve ever seen in Boston!

Picture your grandpa or uncle’s old wood-paneled basement, and you’ll be able to picture Capo’s lounge. The walls are decorated with kitschy decor like taxidermy animals and light-up booze signs. Corners with couches and coffee tables make visitors feel like they are actually hanging out in someone’s home.

Photo Credit: Mike Diskin

Photo Credit: Mike Diskin

Photo Credit: Mike Diskin

Photo Credit: Mike Diskin

And best of all, Capo does not ruin the vibe of this lounge with a DJ. Instead they bring in live music like brass bands, which fits the atmosphere perfectly.

Photo Credit: Mike Diskin

Did I mention the cocktails are fantastic, and that eating in the restaurant upstairs gets you easier access to the lounge downstairs? I know what my game plan is for the upcoming weekends!

#VibeWithATribe

I have been visiting Recycle Studio through ClassPass for awhile now, but was still excited to attend RPR‘s #VibeWithATribe blogger event at the studio this past Saturday. A group of bloggers took a spin class taught by one of my favorite Recycle instructors, John. We followed up our good sweat with bubbles courtesy of Champy and snacks/juice from Pressed.

I received a pretty awesome Recycle gift bag, which has become my new gym bag! Inside were lots of goodies including a gift card from local Boston fitness brand Crane & Lion. I’ve already used it to order a pair of leggings and can’t wait to try them out!

The bag I received (photo courtesy of @Recycle_Studio on Instagram).

The leggings I ordered! They’re on sale right now, FYI.

ClassPass Debate

Speaking of ClassPass, I’m still not sure what I want to do fitness-wise after my next cycle with them ends. Right now I’m getting 20 classes per month for $120, which is a great deal and pretty much the amount of classes I’d want to use in a month. But I’m only getting 20 classes to “ease” me into their new structure of 10 classes per month for $120, which I definitely can’t stick with. I’d need to buy a membership elsewhere to supplement that! Right now a few options I’m looking into are FitReserve, a similar platform to ClassPass that could offer me 20 classes a month (yay!) but at an increased price of $185/month (boo…but still a good deal when you look at price per class). Or if I want to keep my monthly fitness fees the same, I could join Turnstyle for $120/month and get unlimited access to spin and bootcamp classes. The only issue with that is, I really like how platforms like ClassPass and FitReserve give me location flexibility. Turnstyle has a few locations but none of them are as convenient for me as some of the studios on ClassPass/FitReserve, like Charlestown Cycling Club. My head is spinning just as I type this…what’s a class-addicted girl to do?

Wine

I wanted to give a shout-out to a Prosecco I recently discovered. I usually don’t drink Prosecco because it’s too sweet for my palate, but my parents gave me a bottle awhile back and I found it in the fridge this week. I decided to open it when I made our calzones because it would pair well with the spicy buffalo chicken, and was pleasantly surprised by how dry it tasted! Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a champagne girl through and through, but this $10 bottle of Prosecco is more in my price range.

Food, going out, fitness classes, and wine. Yup, I’m pretty sure that this is all standard stuff. Still it was a good January overall (with temps that weren’t TOO frigid – yay!) and I’m excited to see what February brings!

What was the best part of your January?

Any recommendations for what I should do after I leave ClassPass? Has anyone tried FitReserve?

Any recommendations for another cheap, dry sparkling wine?

Five Things Friday: Yup, It’s Me Again!

Happy Friday! Three days of posting this week – a recent record for sure. But I’ve had more downtime thanks to learning my lesson last week about wearing myself out. I was home last night after work for awhile – enough time to write a blog post, watch an episode of Breaking Bad (STILL working on season 4), and catch up on my celeb gossip on E! News (my favorite mindless TV). But I’m getting ahead of myself – Five Things Friday hasn’t even begun yet. It will after Clare‘s charming graphic:

Oooh. Aaah. Link up!

1. Everyone should listen to this amazing song and take its message to heart. EVEN if you’re not a fan of country music or the show Nashville. The song is about not throwing away all the beautiful gifts you have been given. Often I listen to it whenever I’m feeling tempted to restrict, base my self worth on my appearance, or just hate myself in general. In the worst of my eating disorder I was throwing away everything I’d been born with and all I’d worked for my whole life. This is the kind of song that can pull me out of a funk and make me re-evaluate what’s REALLY important in life.

2. My left shin has REALLY been bugging me. I’ll see how my new shoes (post to come on those next week!) help the situation but I don’t think I can shrug off the left shin pain I’ve been feeling during my runs any longer. Even though I haven’t done a “long run” in almost two weeks now, I still am feeling it both during and after my runs, no matter the distance. I’ve been running 3-4 days a week since I started training so I think that next week I’m going to do just 2 runs. Hopefully that, plus my new running sneakers, will send improvement my way. If not I will have to get serious about the left shin pain because I don’t want an  injury sidelining me from the half marathon, or fitness in general.

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Girl’s Night Out at GEM

It occurred to me after hitting “publish” this morning that I could’ve made today the day for an April Fool’s blog post. But those get old pretty quickly so I think I’d rather show this post to you guys today! 😉

Last Thursday I was invited to a Girl’s Night Out event at GEM Kitchen & Lounge, a restaurant that was already on my Boston restaurant to-do list. Talk about convenient! And though I received an invite, the girly soiree was open to the public and even came with a free glass of bubbly or sangria, free blowouts and makeup tutorials, and a super awesome goodie bag!

3-27-14-gem1

DJ Malyna O provided music and plenty of local Boston businesses came out to make it an evening to remember. My coworker Jeannie joined me and after we’d grabbed some bubbles, we decided to check out the vendor offerings while waiting for our turn for blow drys.

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MIMM (Heavy on the Friday)

The winner of the Talcott Mountain Music Festival ticket giveaway winner is Tiffany! Your tickets are in the mail 🙂 Thank you to all who entered and remember that you can still purchase tickets to the next two shows here!

Happy Marvelous In My Monday! Last night I was COMPLETELY wiped from a weekend of fun…and still felt wiped this morning (hello, Monday). I had one night of not enough sleep (Friday) and one good night’s sleep (Saturday), but that good night was not enough to make up for Friday. Friday was definitely the most energy-exerting, fun, friend-filled, delicious part of my weekend. The rest was great too, but you will find today’s MIMM post heavy on the Friday.

Thanks Katie for the marvelous mindset!

Marvelous is…a chef’s tasting at Pond House GrilleMy good friend Jill and I had the privilege of experiencing a tasting of small plates, prepared for us by Executive Chef Jordan Stein, for dinner on Friday night. We also sipped on some magnificently crafted cocktails and experienced a floral course, involving dry ice! I will be doing a full blog post this week about the experience so stay tuned. For now I’ll be a tease (though some of you may have gotten a sneak peek of more photos on Instagram).

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