In a Nutshell: Uncle Jimmy’s Dinner, Gold Status and Baby C

Happy Friday! We made it. Phew! This was a long week, and I am happy to rub it in a bit that I’m taking a few vacation days to enjoy an extra long weekend so bring on the sunshine and 10am happy hour, I’m ready. I’m still trying to get a good cadence for these nutshell posts, but this summer has been jam packed busy so forcing myself to sit down and write the posts has become a bit challenging, but I owe it to you my faithful readers (mom, and my friends’ moms) to keep you updated! The past two weeks has been a combination of more work travel, obscene amounts of delicious food and a big arrival!

  • Uncle Jimmy’s Annual Dinner: Every year my Uncle Jimmy comes to the Cape to cook up a culinary masterpiece, while we eagerly taste test all of his new delicious creations while enjoying bottles of wine lakeside at sunset. Not a bad life at all. It’s a marathon not a sprint, so you’ve gotta get your stretch pants on and pace yourself on the vino if you’re going to last the entire 6 plus hour event. It’s always one of my favorite weekends of the year that I look forward to all summer. And I get to pick one friend as my guest of honor each year, so this year I went with one of my most mature friends who I knew could last through dessert like a champ – Allie.  Also, because we needed to start prepping ourselves and training for this upcoming bachelorette weekend. TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-3This year’s appetizer was fresh figs stuffed with goat cheese and mint, wrapped in prosciutto and popped on the grill for a bit. This is a shot of Uncle Jimmy in action!

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Up close and personal with the goat cheese stuffed figs. So good!
TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-2Another appetizer was this grilling cheese from Narragansett Creamery, which literally was this delicious cheese that Uncle Jimmy sliced up and grilled up in a nonstick pan. I cannot even describe to you the deliciousness of this invention. Go find it, make it, and thank me later. TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-4Dinner was Chicken Scarpariello with roasted baby potatoes, which had a nice light sauce and a lot of kick from the cherry peppers. TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-5And for dessert, boozy grilled peaches with fresh ricotta. Forgetaboutit!TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-6

  • STATUS IN CHI-TOWN: Woo, that food coma lasted for a few days! But so worth it. The following week I flew back out to Chicago for some work meetings. I’ve spent lots of time in my career in the O’hare airport, questioning what I’m doing with my life, but most recently I’ve gotten to take two work trips to downtown Chicago and actually have a little spare time to enjoy the city at night. And I’ve been totally lucky with amazing weather which has made exploring the city really fun. This over-the-wing-shot might seem just like all my other ones to the naked eye, but through the eye of a consultant you can see this segment finally earned me status on American Airlines/US Airways, which in the world of consulting is the real measure of success. Hello priority boarding, free standby and upgrades! It’s the little things that make all the difference when you’re racking up double digit segments on the regular.
    TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-7One of my Philly coworkers was in Chicago with me last week for training, so we made a girl’s night of it after the first day and went in search of some delicious deep-dish pizza. We ended up at Giordano’s and shared this delicious deep dish pizza, which was ah-mazing.TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-8After all that pizza we decided we needed to walk it off a bit, and ended up over the river right around sunset and snagged this cool view of the city. TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-9The next morning I still felt like I had 10lbs of cheese in my stomach, so I opted out of the hotel gym and decided to take the scenic route for a sunrise run by the lake. Not a bad way to start the day at all. I could totally move to Chicago! (Probably not the same experience in -200 degrees in January, but the summertime I’m all about it). TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-10
  • SUPER CORPORATE BONDING: Friday we had a day of forced corporate bonding, because who doesn’t love that? It actually ended up not being as bad as my snarky self thought it would be. Mostly because I signed up early for the good activity – Cooking Class at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. It was actually pretty cool because we split into three groups and all cooked different type of food — grilled meats, asian-inspired vegetarian dishes, and mexican food — and then had a giant buffet at the end. I was surprised that you stick 40 consultants in a room who spend most of their life eating on the road and that we were able to cook food that didn’t kill anyone on the spot. TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-11
  • GIRL SCOUT MARTINIS: And because I hadn’t consumed enough food that day, I met my friend Caitlin out Friday night for an indulgent evening in the North End. I haven’t been to the North End all year, and the weather was perfect, so we walked up Salem Street and landed at Bacco. After sharing some delish eggplant parm, we got these Girl Scout Cookie (Samoa flavored) dessert martinis and mini cannolis. Yes, a Samoa flavored martini exists and it’s better than the real cookie if you thought that was ever even possible. TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-12
  • SWEET TREATS: My friend Amanda was hosting a dinner for family at her new apartment on Saturday, so I offered to provide the dessert as my housewarming gift. Mostly because I had a great idea for a new easily transportable dessert I wanted to test out. So I made these trifle fruit mason jars which were a big hit! I took some pics, so pending how they came out I’ll write up the recipe soon. TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-13
  • BABY CARTER! And last but not least … the best part of the past few weeks … the arrival of Baby Carter! A big big big congratulations to my brother and sister-in-law on the arrival of the first baby of the family, and a giant cutie patootie. This is my very happy brother getting Carter ready for Boston College Class of 2037! TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-15I am heading to NYC early this week to eat those baby toes and cuddle Carter with all of my Auntie powers. The only thing I really need is for Amex to put a block on my credit card against any Baby Gap or Pottery Barn Kids purchases. Tiny baby things are irresistible to me! But just look at that face! Of course he needs custom monogrammed bathrobes, shark towels and every color of Baby Gap hoodie that has teddy bears on it. Are there AA (Aunties Anonymous) support groups for things like this?TSC_Aug_14_In_a_Nutshell-17So that’s it, in a nutshell! We are kicking off Allie’s bachelorette weekend, so I’m sure there will be lots of debauchery (PG-13 of course) on Instagram this weekend. And then I’m NYC bound next week! Happy Weekend!