It’s Valentine’s Day in April! Since E and I didn’t get to celebrate on February 14 because I was in Boston and he was in Milwaukee, we had a belated Valentine’s Day yesterday. We started the day by going to one of our favorite restaurants in downtown Boston: UFood. UFood is a healthy fast food restaurant with super yummy baked un-fries! We both ordered new things this time—E got a salmon sandwich and I had the salmon caprese salad. We split the un-fries! Then we walked down the block to my gym, where we went to a vinyasa yoga class and went swimming. Both of us worked on the butterfly—aka, we made giant splashes in the water and hoped we reached the other side of the pool! I also worked on my crawl and breast strokes while E worked on swimming down the lane and back in one breath.
After some chilling in the minty steam room and showering, we headed off to Hynes Convention Center where there was an anime convention E wanted to see. It was quite the sight—tons of teenagers and young adults dressed up in every variety of costume imaginable. Our favorite was a guy dressed in black carrying a cross covered in white over one shoulder while lighting a cigarette! We kept thinking, “All of downtown Boston must be so confused about why all these wildly dressed people are on the T!”
From there we walked to The Melting Pot, a fondue chain restaurant. E and I split the classic swiss cheese fondue, lettuce wraps, and an entrée called The French Quarter. It came with shrimp, chicken, steak, and andouille sausage (which was my fave—E liked the steak). It was also accompanied by broccoli, mushroom caps, and red potatoes that you could cook in the trans-fat free canola oil with herbs. Along with all of this was a slew of flavor combinations—there was a tempura batter and a sesame batter you could dip your meat/veggies in before you put them in the oil (I had this mission to make a tempura broccoli throughout our entire meal. My Aunt Donna used to make them when I was little, and they were my fave. I can’t say these were as good—especially the first one where the oil wasn’t hot enough and all the tempura just slid off—but they brought back happy memories, and by the end, I did manage to make one respectable specimen.) Anyway, there was tempura and sesame and then a bunch of dipping sauces—a curry yogurt, a teriyaki, a Thai chili, a gorgonzola blue cheese, and an herb and cream cheese one. Our waitress recommended stuffing the mushroom with the herb and cream cheese and then dipping it in the tempura. I was too busy perfecting my broccoli, but E tried it and loved it!
Then for dessert we split a small amaretto disarrono dark chocolate fondue that came with strawberries, two kinds of marshmallows (one dipped in graham cracker and one dipped in Oreos), cheesecake, rice krispy treats, bananas, brownie, and pound cake. It was absolutely delicious! We capped off the night with a trip to Trinity Copley Square to ring in Easter! (For my church friends: They did a terrific job with the vigil—they used “Go Down Moses” instead of the reading about the Exodus and said “The Word of the Lord” when it was done. Oh, and theu used Ghanaian drums when they said Easter was here! And they had people in the congregation with bells, so when they rang in Easter, the bell players chimed every few stanzas; it was really cool!) So that was Valentine’s Day. It was pretty special to have our very own holiday. It felt fun and secretive—after all, we were the only people in the world, probably, celebrating St. Valentine on April 3!
But we are one of millions celebrating Easter, and it’s a very special Easter for us because we hosted our first Easter brunch! Our friends Tasi and Kristen came over after church for waffles in our new waffle maker (thanks Koffler family!), rosemary bacon, fruit salad, and Peeps for dessert!
Tasi and E break out the new waffle maker!
The batter for our first set of waffles was a Norwegian recipe I got while visiting a family in Bergen, Norway, while studying abroad (that was the same trip where I first met E). Since waffles are the national treat of Norway, I had several while there. They are cardamom-flavored and usually accompanied by lingonberry preserves, which we made sure to have.
Our first Easter brunch!
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