An Historic President's Day in Cambridge

Lots of exciting things happening in the world of the HF!  The new space & time website was launched, we had friends visit over President's Day weekend, and bonus: said friends brought us Gimme Coffee--boo-yeah!  It has been a long, lonely winter and business achievement + amazing friends + high quality food and coffee = one happy foodasaurus.  

It just so happens that our guests are amazing cooks and even made us dinner (we love you forever).  Who could ask for more?  We trekked around Cambridge and Boston visiting notable places like: MIT, 1369 coffeehouse, Lyndell's (red velvet cupcakes, you rock my world), The Garment District (vintage finds for $1/lb, yes, please!), Flour Bakery (curried tuna sandwich, hooray), the Institute of Contemporary Art (Mark Bradford exhibit is stellar), The Boston Commons, Quincy Market for clam chowder, Pavement (too stuffy for our liking, shame cuz the coffee was great), Giacomo's (try the mussel and clam linguini with their special blend of a fiery red mixed with cream sauce), Durty Nelly's, Mike's Pastries (amaretto and florentine cannoli, oh how we longed to have more when you disappeared) and of course, Trader Joe's.  It is a rare day that I don't stop at TJ's for something or other.

As predicted, there was a medical emergency on the T (you have to experience that when in Boston) and so we had the great pleasure of a cab ride home through the city, which was actually cool because it gave us the opportunity to see the sights when we would have otherwise missed the scenery.

Our home-cooked meals included build-your-own flatbread pizza night, bagels with lox and cream cheese, our guests' special recipe for roasted chicken and veggies and spinach arugula salad with prosciutto and balsamic vinegarette, bike shop bagels (a creative contribution from our guests involving roasted red pepper paste, pesto, cream cheese and spinach (or arugula, in our case) on bagels, and our final meal together: omelettes loaded with veggies and fontina cheese with a flashback of MTV's the State and Singled Out.  Does anyone remember how awesome these shows were?  

Here are some photo highlights.  Thanks for a memorable visit!

Quick Meal Using Only 3 Ingredients!

I was absolutely starving after yoga on Monday night and this was the perfect dinner.  All you need are 3 basic ingredients:

1) Whole wheat pasta (or any other type you like)

2) Pesto (pop some out of your freezer or use a quality brand from the store)

3) Sun-dried tomatoes (I used the diced kind packed in olive oil)

This was so easy, fast and delicious.  Follow these steps to have a flavorful meal with nice texture and beautiful color during this dreary time of year.  Unless you live somewhere warm, in which case, please don't tell me about it because in the words of a friend's grandchild, "I can't like that."

Tip: If you want to whip this up in less than 30 minutes, cook the pasta in advance until al dente, drain, and rinse with cold water to stop cooking and sprinkle lightly with extra virgin olive oil.  Store in the fridge in an airtight container until ready to prepare the full meal.

Prepare the pasta, pour into a medium sized pot on the stove top.  Add desired amount of pesto and sun-dried tomatoes.  Stir everything together gently over a medium heat until everything is heated through.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese if you like.  That's it!  

You can alter the quantities depending on how many you're serving.  I used about 2 cups of uncooked pasta, 1/3 cup of pesto and 3 Tablespoons of sun-dried tomatoes to serve 2 people which was more than enough.