A White Christmas in the Vineyard

(Can you see the tree house and the chair underneath? This is the biggest Christmas Tree I have ever had :)

The weekend before Christmas I was visiting in the Vineyard and we had an absolutly beautiful snow fall. It was coined "Blizzard 2009" but I imagine it could be worse. However, I did not plan for it and I didn't bring any snow gear with me so I stayed inside by the fire all day. Not a bad gig. But I did find out that a 14" snowfall + a warm fire + 6 hungry people =

Look what I found in all places, Martha's Vineyard.

Fat Kid: Part 2

APM and I had a long glorious and glutenous Thanksgiving weekend. It all started with a beautiful flower that crossed the great Atlantic Ocean to get to me (or is it just Nantucket Sound?) From Chilmark, MA I present a hydrangea :)

We started the weekend with bread pudding from Pie in the Sky. No Photo available, however, it was delicious. But here is a photo of the bakery.

We then traveled to Whole Foods to get ingredients for Wild-Mushroom Bread Pudding. And guess who we saw?! Steve Tyler! Freaking Steve Tyler! I WISH I took a picture. I always feel stupid taking pictures of celebrities in their normal life, but now I wish I had a photo of me and Steve hanging out in Whole Foods. Oh well, he's only a memory now...

Next was dinner at Salsa's in Southie. No picture available. But please go just for their sangria.

Thanksgiving morning started with fresh toasted ciabatta bread, raspberry preserve, local honey, fresh blackberries, parmesan cheese and espresso. (sometimes I pretend we're french)

Then we had a Thanksgiving feast. And I didn't take a single picture! All that food and no proof of it. I need to step up my blogger game.

Friday was a long lazy day. A lot of laying around doing nothing. Very relaxing.

Saturday we got up early and drove down to Martha's Vineyard. It is absolutely beautiful this time of year. Few cars and only your favorite people.

I spent a few hours Saturday afternoon with Eniko. She is hands down one of my favorite people. We could chat for hours if life allowed us. She has taught me so much and I'm sure many other life lessons will come of our friendship (as well as more Spiked Cider and Pumpkin Pie we had on Saturday.)

Sunday morning was spent at my favorite brunch restaurant. Park Corner Bistro. I'm a little partial to this place because I worked here for a while, but Jesse really is an amazing chef and I love everything he cooks up. And as the owner/chef he really makes you feel welcome in his restaurant.

APM had the Eggs Benedict.

And I had Papas Platos with a side of Bloody Mary. In case you don't know, Papas Platos is a pile of fried potatoes, fresh guacamole, sour cream, caramelized onions, grilled bacon, fresh pico de gallo, and two eggs, any way you like them. a.k.a. heaven. And his Bloody Marys are The Best I have ever had. I'm not a big fan of this morning cocktail, but Jesse's recipe is health in a glass. A couple hours and a couple Nutty Irishmen later, we left Park Corner Bistro and stopped by Offshore Ale House where our friend was working. By some miracle APM was hungry again. And Offshore offers some of the best pizza on the island. Our favorite is the Potato Pizza. Basically potato skins on pizza dough.
I put this pic in because if you look really close you can see the St. Germain glass I got from Jesse. Watch out St. Germain, your stock just went up.
Offshore is a brewing company so I guess we'll show one of their bottled beers.

After this weekend, I will be eating this meal every. single. day. Butter optional.

Ol' Ray

I am extreamly excited about today. I am going to see one of the greatest artist of all time.

I'm not kidding when I say that I love him.

Let me tell you a story....In May of 2006 I went to Martha's Vineyard to waitress just for the summer. Well life happened and by the end of the summer I decided not to go back to law school. Que in my first quarter life crisis. Now, for the first time ever, I didn't know what to do with my life. So I did what any person would do and I went to Aboveground Records. Aboveground Records is a really hip local record store. And here I was, just a measly summer worker, trying to be cool. So I stroll up to the counter and ask the counter guy to suggest an artist that sounds similar to Jack Johnson. So lame! Everybody and their mother was listing to Jack by then and it was basically like asking to recommend and artist similar to Britney Spears. But low and behold, he pulls out the following CD. And my life has never been the same. Not only does Ray remind me of the storybook beginning of APM, but also, my first fall on Martha's Vineyard. The best season on the vineyard. The locals come out of their hiding places and enjoy the vineyard again. 2 for 1 meal deals actually exist and bon fires are all the rage. It's really just all blissful memories when I listen to him. He was my soundtrack of late 2006.

I have since bought all of his CD's(And I mean the actual CD, I haven't been able to catch on to only buying the MP3), and I think you should too.

All photos courtesy of RayLamontagne.com