Blood Farm

By popular request, the inside of Blood Farm in Groton.  Not exactly much to look at, but boy, does it ever deliver.  (and as far as deliveries go, 30 pounds of steak are going to be in my carry-on baggage on this year's trip to Minnesota...happy father's day, dad!)

Fourth of July!

The day dawned rainy, and I crept out of bed at 6:30 am.  I dressed silently and headed out of McCormick into the drizzle, though not before heading upstairs to peer at the fireworks barge on the river.

You know the definition of deserted?  MIT on a federal holiday.  Seriously, the only person I passed through the entire walk to work was a member of the overnight cleaning staff. 

So yes.  Working on a federal holiday.  At 6:45 in the morning.  This is because my life is basically PhD comics:

Advisor:  "project goal project goal new controls protocol ....15 minutes later....controls project.  Oh.  Since tomorrow is a holiday and we won't have our usually weekly meeting, just send me the copy of the full updated protocol tomorrow sometime and we can go over it on Thursday morning."

...

So I worked.  And worked.  And finally finished around 11, heading back to scrounge for some lunch for a picnic in the Penthouse to watch the Blue Angel and F-14 flyovers.  (==awesome!)

We set up the tables and party in the Penthouse, and spent the day lounging, our hardest decision being whether to drink another glass of mint iced tea.  We watched the boats come in and take their places on the Charles, from yachts to what looked like inflatable mattresses.

My pride and joy of the evening, the layered jello dessert.  I've had it for breakfast three times now, and boy, does it ever satisfy.  Also, canning jars are my new favorite thing ever.  I bought over 100 8 ounce canning jars last year, but they're currently empty due to an extremely busy June...but they will be busted out for a cocktail party I'm co-hosting at the end of July.  

 

My mother taking cucumber sake shots with a friend.  I love this picture.

The sky begins to darken.

Now, what you can't tell from the pictures is the whole weather incident; the esplanade was actually evacuated due to nature's firework show that started around 9:30 pm.  Lightening raced across the sky, drawing oohs and ahhs from the crowd.  But the fireworks were finally back on, and thirty seconds into the show, it started to pour.  And it poured for most of the show, as we all huddled beneath the eaves of McCormick's penthouse, trying to avoid the downpour.  I tried, but ended up soaking wet.  Thank goodness for cotton dresses.  It was definitely a fourth to remember. 

The High Line

An urban oasis in Chelsea, covered with greenery and lovely views.

I loved this.  I kind of want a print on my wall.

Vestiges of train tracks

From a viewing platform...classic New York City. 

Chrysler Building

The High Line Zoo

 Car park on steroids.

Dancing at the Jazz Age Party

A live look at some of the dancing from the Jazz Age Party (not my own videos, thanks youtube!)

Three Tarts Bakery

A special post goes out to a lovely bakery just a minute walk away from our hotel...cute packaging, adorable little store, and a great location (close to the high line, absolutely!).  I decided to bring some back for the lab, and the gentleman staffing the register took my $20 and turned it into some delicious treats:

Petit fours

Pine nut with wildflower honey caramel and chocolate espresso ganache tartlets (apparently they're made in Switzerland!)

Marshmallows (strawberry basil, especially!) 

Crunchy hazelnut pralines

 Cookies

(photos from the Three Tarts website, being on the run pretty quickly from there to our bus did not leave much time for oogling)

Our choice for eating in?  A pistacio macaron and a mascarpone tartlet...delicious.

A BBQ and a cute dog.

Good eats in Chelsea

After our busy day doing the Charleston, we headed back to Chelsea for dinner at a local tapas place, Tía Pol.  While a bit on the loud side, we lucked out an ended up in the back room, both lighter and quieter than the front! 

We tried the ensalada de alcachofa, a tasty salad with fried artichoke bits, something I spied on a review in Serious Eats (a favorite place to look for recommendations, honest reviews lacking in pretension).  We also had the pinchos morunos (lamb meatballs), pan con tomate (bread with tomato, but so good!), huevos rellenos al pimentón de la vera (hard boiled eggs), and motadita de creaman de habitas con beyos (bread with three spreads, including a guacamole-like fava bean hummus), and one of the specials, a scallop dish.  

And of course---the sangria!

 

 
They say that New York City never sleeps, but I have to say that's not quite accurate...Chelsea was deserted on Sunday morning at 10:30 am.  We were slightly worried about not having brunch reservations, but we were the only people at the restaurant just as it opened at 11 am.  So strange.  Here in Cambridge, there's quite the line outside of Cafe Luna at 10 am when it opens, and Flour/Area Four are also packed early in the morning.  Obviously, we here in Boston don't stay up so late...

Brunch at La Promenade des Anglais turned out lovely, my fellow traveler had crepes, and I enjoyed
the poached eggs with their salad and fancified homefries.  But the panisse was kind of odd...it's not a food I'd ever had before.  It's a fried chickpea flour cake.  Frankly, I'd save my for-fried-foods calories for many, many, other things...Dixie Crossroads fritters, anyone?  But perfect poached eggs, love.

The last food of the days was bagels at Murry's (baygulls, not baeglls a la Minnesota).  The best part of the whole experience was asking the guy behind the counter for toasted bagels.

"Oh we don't do that here."

I'm sure he's asked that at least ten times a day by tourists, and he must live for the moments of being a smarmy and contrarian New Yorker.