Pixelated Crumb

The coupon for $15 off at Ceia Kitchen and Bar in Newburyport, MA that I got at the Techmunch conference a few weeks ago was all the motivation we needed to make a day trip. Joseph and I headed to Newburyport for my first real excursion since knee surgery and I hobbled around town moving from one bench to another (luckily Newburyport has a lot of benches!). It was a beautiful day and I was so excited to be out of the house that my mood was absolutely jubilant before we even sat down for lunch at Ceia and things only improved from there.

We knew we were going the panino route and they only had four panini on the menu, so you’d think it would have been an easy choice, but it really wasn’t. I suggested we split the sandwiches because I really wanted to try all of them, but we still had a hard time narrowing it down to just two. The decision was made both easier and harder after our server explained that the bifana panini was written up by Boston.com as being one of Boston’s best sandwiches (easy choice) and that the special of the day was a lobster BLT panino (you’re giving us another option?!?). We decided on the bifana and the lobster BLT and and as wonderful as lobster BLT sounds and as good as it was, it didn’t even come close to the amazingness that was the bifana. I was absolutely in love.

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This is another one of those recipes that I passed on to Joseph and helpfully suggested that he could make it for me if he wanted. Actually, I found this recipe through the same Food 52 e-mail as those killer ribs, so I’m clearly onto something, because these shrimp burgers were pretty amazing too.

While Joseph was in the kitchen working on the shrimp burgers, I was sitting on the couch resting my knee (recuperating after knee surgery) and perusing David Lebovitz’s blog. On a recent post he talks about how he’s learned that the French don’t really eat a lot of garlic, but he likes it so he was grating raw garlic into his salad vinaigrette. One of the readers yelled in ALL CAPS  in the comments about how she couldn’t believe that Lebovitz was putting two whole cloves of garlic in the vinaigrette. All I could think was Lady, it’s a good thing you’re not coming over to our place for dinner. If you are similarly inclined, you may just want to skip this post and read about how I met Chef Jonathan Waxman last weekend instead. If you love garlic as much as I do, then stay tuned because we are bringing it.

Well, I hope we didn’t lose too many people there, because it’s not like these shrimp burgers are obnoxiously garlicky, they’re just garlicky enough. And while you do roast an entire head of garlic, you don’t actually use all of it in the recipe. We weren’t going to let that leftover freshly roasted garlic go to waste, however, and ate it straight up. Sure, we could have slathered it on some bread or something, but who am I kidding? I like obnoxiously garlicky food. It’s just a good thing I was working from home the next day because I’m sure I was still exuding garlic from every pore.

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I don’t know about you, but I am so incredibly ready for spring.  Winter in Boston was brutal with 38 inches of snow in January alone.  The snow has finally (mostly) melted and they’re talking about temps in the 50s this weekend.  I’d like to say that I’ll be out enjoying the weather, but I’m not particularly mobile with my post-surgery knee.  I am bound and determined to make it outside for a least a little bit, even if it’s just to the back porch.

If you ask me, the only upside to all the snow was working from home and having Joseph make me panini for lunch.  My office doesn’t have a whole lot of lunch options nearby, and besides, I’m generally happier saving my money to go out for a nice dinner  rather than buy a mediocre sandwich because I didn’t bring anything for lunch.

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I was vegetarian for several years and ate enough veggie burgers to keep Gardenburger and Boca in business.  Then, when I was eating poultry again, I went on a business trip to Atlanta and a coworker ordered a turkey burger.  I was sort of shocked by the idea (turkey??), but since after about 10 years of nothing but veggie burgers, I was intrigued and ordered one as well.  I loved it.  My coworker told me about some good turkey burgers back in DC, but I kind of forgot about it by the time I got home.  It wasn’t until I moved to Boston and starting ordering turkey burgers at Sunset Grill that I became completely hooked.

But with Joseph working full time on his PhD at Tufts, well, suffice it to say, we don’t eat out a whole lot.  I was looking for healthy recipes and found this turkey burger recipe from the Mayo Clinic.  Totally healthy!  Even though Joseph was still vegetarian, he made me these turkey burgers for our first Super Bowl in Boston and several times since.  Eventually he got tired of making these awesome burgers and having a veggie burger and he starting eating them too.  He’s modified the recipe several times and this is the most current version.  I’m sure that a month or two from now it’ll be different again. Continue reading