I do a ton of research on meals before I make them. I look at reviews, comments and assess the ingredients myself.  Once I’ve made it a few times, I’ll start to experiment, but rarely have I made a meal that I didn’t like.

Until last night.

This recipe sounds perfect for a dinner in the changing from fall to winter (finally) with warm roasted squash, toasted walnuts, and even some beer dressing!

What went wrong?! I’m thinking it was old beer. I thought it was a new beer but apparently it had been in the back of the fridge for months. I would also not put in 2/3 of a cup directly – and test out the dressing a few times while adding the liquid.

I’m a bit wary to try this recipe again, but I trust Heidi and 101 cookbooks. I feel like I’m a bit more open to messing up recipes now, although I still don’t like “wasting” good ingredients.

Keep eating and cooking!

So. Apparently I’m not very good at taking on 5 different activities and THEN writing a blog. Shocking.

However, I’m re-inspired but I’m still saving for my new camera, so I’ve been taking the terrible iPhone photos of all my meals still. I have a backlog of pictures – waiting for a simple recipe to be typed into the computer with some clever asides that I know you love reading.

Some things I’ve been up to:

1. Working as a Nutrition Assistant at a local city hospital

Sexy, right?

2. On the board of the Massachusetts Student Dietetic Association as social media chair

3. Volunteering at Cambridge Public Schools to teach children nutrition

4. Attempting to study and get good grades, see friends and actually hang out with my husband ever.

Here are some links I’ve recently discovered and are awesome:

~ Local Boston, Tufts Nutrition Communications graduate and DPD student, also a spinner at Recycle! Her blog is AspiringRD.

~If you haven’t already signed up, do it now. Pinterest is an amazing mood board/visual bookmarking your favorite things! Yes, I have a whole, giant section on food.

~Into retro clothes? ModCloth is my new favorite clothes website that I drool over and wait for the day when I’m not poor!

Be back soon. I promise

Yeah I’m mixing my accents up there. My parents came up to Boston for a visit and the husband and I drove them up to Canada to visit some friends of theirs. We explored coastal Maine on the way back and stopped in Portland, Maine for 2 nights before continuing back home.

First stop: Deer Island, New Brunswick, Canada

6 – 3 pound lobsters with individual melted butter containers. Delicious.
I think there were things like potatoes and corn on the side – but I was distracted by the giant red bugs in front of me.

The couple we stayed with turned a bed and breakfast into their home – gorgeous house with a view of the ocean and the sunset!

Their doggy ROZ!

Second Stop: Acadia National Park

View from the restaurant Jordan Pond House where we had lunch with my friend Kim and her family, along with some absolutely amazing popovers!

Then we enjoyed a beautiful view of Cadillac Mountain and headed down along Route 1 to Portland.

Third Stop: Portland, Maine

We had dinner at The Green Elephant whichwas incredible. My carnivore dad even enjoyed the vegetarian options here.

I didn’t take pictures but we also went to Otto’s Pizza (try anything with roasted tomatoes!) and Gritty McDuff’s for some burgers and brewskies.

On the way back to Boston, we stopped in Ipswich at the Clam Box for one of their famous Native Clam Plates!

FINALLY, my parents took us out for a lovely 2nd wedding anniversary dinner to Tasca in Brighton, MA. I was too busy inhaling the food to take any pictures (plus it is very dark in there).

What a foodie vacation! I didn’t even mention the other eats such as fried clam strips, scallops, ribs, seasonal salads, and homemade ice cream. Time to go exercise!

I work at Allandale Farm – the only/oldest farm in the city of Boston and love to be surrounded by gorgeous food and plants all day.

Here are some gorgeous local berries.

Want to see something I made with Allandale food?

Ingredients: Onion Foccacia (from Clear Flour Bakery, Brookline, MA)
Cucumber, Tomato, Corn, Peppers (Allandale)
Classic French Cheese (Shy Brothers Farm, Westport, MA)

Sometimes we do this kind of kitchen sink meal – especially if it’s been a long week. That’s why it is great to have fresh veggies around – you can always find something to do with them! We made a pasta with yellow and orange bell peppers with the classic French cheese melted in along with garlic, olive oil and some parmesan cheese (from Trader Joe’s).  We cooked the corn in our favorite method – leave it in the husk and toss it in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes (we do this in our toaster oven). It comes out perfect and sweet. The salad on the side is cucumber and tomato with some olive oil, salt and vinegar.