Thirty Month Anniversary

As per our anniversary tradition, Andrew and I attempted to go to Parish Cafe for dinner tonight, only to find that it had closed early today for one week of renovations. Le sigh.

So we turned around and headed back home to one of our local favorites, Apgujung. Nothing says comfort food to me than Korean food, and fitting enough - as Andrew pointed out - it's one of the places where we order the exact same meal - one order of the asparagus tempura maki for both of us, followed up by a spicy pork okdol bibimbop.



We followed up dinner with dessert at Chill with two orders of natural frozen yogurt with blueberries, strawberries and almonds as we've been on a huge frozen yogurt kick lately.

While it wasn't Parish cafe (we'll go once it reopens as our "official" anniversary dinner), it was a nice way to end a busy and at times, stressful weekend. As I told Andrew's parents today, while I've loved our dating anniversary traditions, I can't wait to celebrate our wedding anniversaries as well! Happy 30 months Andrew, I love you!

Anniversary Tradition

As readers of the blog know all too well, a great night on the town for Andrew and I involves dinner at the Parish Cafe followed by killer martinis at Bar Lola. We follow this tradition for every anninversary and halfway mark and last night was no exception. Not including times we headed to the Parish Cafe after the Boston Prostate Cancer (two years in a row) and when we celebrated our engagement, this marked our fourth straight anniversary dinner - a streak we intend on maintaining!

A shot of my fine dining companion who is patiently (!) waiting for me to finish my picture-taking so he can dive into his sandwich or perhaps its displeasure at learning that Parish Cafe's summer menu doesn't include one of favorite appetizers, the onion rings:

No surprise here, his choice is Rowdy's Famous Chicken Sandwich with their delicious chipotle aioli:

I tend to bounce around with my menu choices but I stuck with an old favorite, the Zuni Roll:

Afterwards, we headed to Bar Lola. Andrew noted that it's definitely picked up in popularity since when we first started going, as the place was packed. We scored two seats at the bar and spent the next two hours savoring Bar Lola's potent martinis:

Happy Two Year Anniversary!

Andrew surprised me with white roses and a balloon for the anniversary for our first date:



Can you guess how many years it's been? I love the fact that he drove all the way home with this thing bobbing along next to him.

Yer Really Something...

Saturday marked my 18 month anniversary with Andrew (yay!) Andrew and I had already agreed that we won't give gifts for anniversaries or Valentine's Day, choosing instead to celebrate by doing something together, like having dinner. That being said, I told him baked goods from me doesn't count as a gift. So I decided to surprise him with something featuring Heath Bars, since that's one of his favorite flavors.

I found this great recipe for Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies with Heath Bars and Pecans through a Google search.

It calls for two 1.4 ounce Heath bars - I went with three Skor bars from the Walgreens around the corner (since they didn't have heath bars).

As a warning, it is ridiculously hard to resist eating candy bar bits while you're making this recipe so I think going with an extra candy bar is a great idea.

Here is what the batter looked like with half the Skor bars and pecans dumped in:




Ready to go in the oven:


Sliced and ready to eat (excuse the bad photography skills, I was in a rush):


These were really good, even though I was disappointed by how little you could taste the Heath bar flavor. Despite adding a half cup of Heath bar baking bits to the recipe, on top of the three chopped Skor bars, the strongest flavor from the brownies is still the cream cheese and the pecans. Andrew had no complaints - I was going to have a picture to illustrate this point, but he wouldn't hold still long enough while eating them!

I made these on Wednesday night while he was in Plymouth, and borrowing a page from his Mom's book, hid them in plain sight in the covered pan he gave for my birthday last year. I'll admit it, I was glad when Saturday rolled around so I could try them myself!

Saturday night, we headed over to the Parish Cafe, site of our first date and where we've gone each anniversary to have dinner. It's a great casual place on Boylston Street, right next to the Public Gardens, that features sandwiches that have been designed by local chefs (check out the menu here to see what I mean).

We got an order of the Bowl-O-Rings as a starter. These were incredible, not so much because of the onion rings themselves, but due to the chipotle aioli that accompanied them as dipping sauce. I would dip anything in this sauce and eat it! For our main course, Andrew went with his usual, Rowdy's Famous Chicken Sandwich, served with the same great chipotle aioli and I decided on a new sandwich, the Burke. It was delicious, but I have to admit, I stopped using the spicy pepper relish that accompanied it and dipped my sandwich in the aioli instead.

It was a wonderful day and I look forward to spending many more anniversaries there.