Spring Getaway

Last weekend, the fella and I went to Boston to spend Easter with his family and visit a childhood friend of mine. Those of you stuck in the same polar vortex of prolonged wintery hell as us will empathize with the hefty portions of cabin fever we've both built up this year. It's pretty bad. So we decided to muscle through the cold and celebrate this Someday Spring by taking a wee trip to Newport, Rhode Island.

It was EXACTLY what my mind, body, and soul needed. Sunlight. The sound of waves. The smell of salt. Pure magic.

Winter may be doing it's damnedest to keep us in an iron grip, but slowly and surely we're thawing out. There's nothing like some strong sunlight after deep cold, and it started to really bring me back to myself.

On our way back up to Boston we stopped outside Providence at a pretty awesome vegetarian place, Garden Grille. Funky decor, delicious food sourced from local farms, and a vegan Brandy Alexander? Yes, please.

We started with some root vegetable cakes, which were to DIE for. Carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, corn meal, and a little bit of heaven. Then I got seriously killer butternut squash and black bean quesadillas:

...and the fella had an open-faced BBQ seitan sandwich that, to be honest, left a bit to be desired, but has inspired me to start making barbecue sauce ASAP.

After a coffee and quite tasty raspberry whoopie pie at Wildflour bakery next door, we headed back to Boston to meet with good friends of mine. Good because I've known one of them since I was eight, and extra good because they took us to Trina's Starlite Lounge.

Oh. My. This picture doesn't do it justice to what was A) a veritable feast, and b) AH-mazing.

The meat eaters among us went with Starlite dogs (a must for first-timers and veterans alike, I'm told) and the dog of the day, which was topped with caesar salad. I had undoubtedly the best tofu pup of my life, and did cheat with a couple bites of non-vegan cornbread and parmesan tater tots that transcend the category, and are more accurately described as somewhere in between the perfect tater tot and a heavenly potato hush puppie.

All in all, I couldn't have wished for a better weekend. I'm not remotely religious, so an Easter sunday celebrated, not within the stifling confines of a liturgy, but at home, with the fella's lovely family and some seriously good food, completely relaxed and renewed me. I can almost believe it's Spring!

Happy Thursday!