Sample Sale: Sacrilege Edition

So we have a new Pope and Easter is this weekend (Unless you're Eastern Orthodox, in which case Jesus isn't back until Cinco de Mayo.). What better time to tie your conspicuous consumption to religious themes? Oh, also: a kick-ass recipe for all your leftover hard-boiled eggs.

Donald J Pliner Viky (Zappos, $139.99 from $198) You probably can't afford to have your shoes handmade by Italian shoemakers like Pope Benedict did, but these are a lovely shade of red.

Burgundy Wool Hat (Boring Sidney, $55 on clearance) Not as fancy as the pope's mitre, but certainly jaunty!

Alice & Olivia Wrap Front Maxi Dress (Shopbop, $176 from $220) Resurrection chic!

Rose Water Syrup (Terrain, 49.95 from $14) Because I don't know about you, but religious holidays with my family always involve cocktails.

Burgundy Feathered Fascinator (Anthropologie, $99.95 from $188) I know what I'm wearing to Easter Mass next year!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs (Williams Sonoma, $7.99 from $11.95) For those days when Reese's eggs just aren't good enough.

Easter Jacquard Towels (Carte & Barrel, $3.95 from $12.95) I confess: I have a shameful weakness for holiday-themed tea towels. These aren't available online, but the website will tell you if your closest store has them.

Red Ceramic-Crate Egg Holder (Sur La Table, $8.99 from $12.95) In which to serve your bacon deviled eggs (see recipe below).

Sylvain the Little Rabbit (Land of Nod, $16.95 from $29) I would say get this for the kids in your life, but I kind of want to snuggle it myself.

Bacon Deviled Eggs

(Adapted from this recipe at Chow)

12 Eggs
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
2 teaspoons rendered bacon fat
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
3-4 slices of bacon, crumbled*
shredded cheddar cheese (for garnish)

*If you have a Trader Joe's near you, I highly recommend their Bacon Ends.

1) Hard boil the eggs. Peel, cut in half & remove yolks.

2) Mix yolks, mayo, mustard, bacon fat, vinegar, thyme, and crumbled bacon until smooth

3) Pipe or spoon the mixture into the egg whites (I cut the corner off of a Ziploc bag & pipe that way).

4) Shred the cheddar over the eggs

5) Attempt to avoid eating them all in one sitting

A Wicked Bostonian Weekend

This roughly translates to "The whole world is a Mercier world," aka my new life motto.

This post is basically an excuse to link to a bunch of things that I love. Hopefully you'll find something to love in here too!

Saturday was our first CSA pick-up from Stillman's Farm. We got rainbow chard, beets, greens, arugula, and the best strawberries I have ever tasted. They were the platonic ideal of juicy berry goodness. Baby Razor ate a dozen.When we did our first CSA 4 years ago, I could barely cook mac & cheese. That first year, the only thing I knew how to do was to sauté every veggie in butter with either garlic or brown sugar. It wasn't until last year, when I was also on a gluten-free cooking crash course, that I finally really started incorporating our CSA box into planned meals. It took more than a decade of adulthood, but I finally learned to cook.

And let me tell you, if I can do it? Anyone can. I know fuck all about vegetables. But between very patient friends and the amazing powers of the internet, I've gone from, "Roast beets. Eat beets." to "Make beet risotto." Believe me, no one is more surprised than I am.

After the farmer's market, we headed to Mr. Razor's Father's Day present: a Formaggio Kitchen shopping spree. Except my husband isn't really a "spree" sort of guy, so it was more of a "moderate concession to indulgence." So I'm going to order him this to supplement the two little hunks of cheese and tiny bit of salami he allowed himself.

I, meanwhile, could have bought the whole store. The place might as well be called Everything Daisy Loves! It's full of cheese, meat, chocolate, fancy honey, wine, spices, local veggies, beer, fresh bread, and all sorts of other yummy things that you don't need to live, but which certainly make life much more enjoyable.

I settled on garlic scapes for garlic scape pesto (I like that recipe because it uses pistachios, which I usually have around the house anyway, but you can find one with basically any nut available. Seriously, it's idiot-proof and DELICIOUS.) and beer. I'd been wanting to try the Porter Square Porter since I heard about it because I used to live in Porter Square and adding Taza Chocolate cocoa nibs to the brew sounded brilliant. It is, in fact, really freaking tasty. Here, read what the beer snobs have to say about it.

See? Idiot-proof.

On Sunday Mr. Razor and I were like, "Happy Father's Day, Razor Family! Have a toddler." Yup, we dropped the kid off with her grandparents and uncle and went to the Sowa Open Market and Vintage Market. Our first stop was Zooguu and its adorable stuffed animals. I bought a Wonder Woman print, because she is my spirit animal (duh).

At the vintage market, I bought a 1950s ad for Mercier Champagne because, again: duh. The nice British lady who sold it to me said, "Oh, it's quite a posh champagne," which made me smile. I also got to meet Keyse of Crocodile Tears, who was lovely. I always feel like a gigantic weirdo being like, "Hello! I'm from the internet!" but I really enjoy her blog, so I had to say hi.

Then we went home and our whirling dervish of a toddler kept me so busy that it took me until Thursday to finish a post about the weekend. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go make a garlic scape pesto & grilled cheese sandwich.

Self-Promotion

I'm working today in an actual office. On the one hand, there is no natural light; but on the other, nobody has pooped their pants. So far.

In lieu of my adventures in corporate America, here's some writing I did for the Boston Phoenix's Best Reader's Poll 2011:

Best Local Nonprofit
Best Barbecue
Best Burgers
Best Gluten-Free Menu
Best Pies Vs. Cupcakes
Best Restaurant, Romantic

This was very much not a case of writing for the paycheck. I honestly love and recommend all of these places. I'm just sad that I didn't get to do the Boomerangs write-up too. Although given how much of my home is decorated with pieces scavenged from there, it's entirely possible my write-up would have been, "It's terrible. Don't go there. MORE FOR ME, MWA HA HA HA."

Food Field Trip: An Doughnut at Japonaise Bakery

(Photo via Nicole S. on Yelp)

I love red bean paste, but I have no recollection of when the love affair began. I know it was after I left Martha's Vineyard at 18 (not a lot of authentic Asian cuisine off the Atlantic coast, sadly) but before I met Mr. Razor at 25, because he remembers buying me mooncakes in an attempt to woo me. (Spoiler alert: it worked.) So that's seven years, a fairly large chuck of time to remember. Plus I was drunk for a lot of it.

Anyway, the point is that I love red bean paste, from its dense, silky texture to its earthy sweetness. I also love doughnuts, though I don't get them every weekend like my family used to when I was a kid and they were bribery for behaving in church. So when I discovered that Japonaise Bakery offers the An doughnut, filled with red bean paste? Well, we dropped Baby Razor at the grandparents' and zoomed off to Brookline.

You guys, it was sublime. The doughnut wasn't cakey but sweet and doughy like a funnel cake. It was crusted with a generous amount of sugar and filled with enough red bean paste that you got some from the first bite to the last. It was unusual for a doughnut in that the filling was heavier than the cake. Mr. Razor's review was, "I would like to eat two of these every morning for the rest of my life."

Although it would not be my choice if I was only allowed to eat one thing for the rest of my life (that would be Sofra's beet tzatziki), it's probably in my top five. We'll definitely be going back, and next time we might even share the goodies with the baby. Maybe.