Weekend Mash Up

After getting back late Friday night (Saturday morning) from California, Kristin and I did spend much time around the house this weekend because of plans we had made to go to beer fest Saturday and our errands today.

We had to drop Cha-Cha and BOB off Saturday morning at the bus station in New London so they could get the bus to NY for their cruise. After dropping them off, TaTa and I went to Starbucks for our morning coffee before heading home. When we got home, Kristin went to bed, while I did some things around the house. We left around 3pm to head up to Providence for the 2nd annual beer fest. We met up with Kim and grabbed something to eat at Joe's before meeting up with Paul, Lauren and a bunch of other folks. The beer fest was great. There were roughly 30 or so brewers from all over the US. The link to the website is: http://www.beerfestamerica.com/...check out all the different brewers, who offered several of their beers to sample.

As soon as you walked in, you were given a small cup for sampling. If you lost the cup, they would not give you another one. Thus, the tasting cup was your lifeline for the evening. Once getting to the convention floor, there were booth set up for each of the brewers. Each brewer had several beers to taste, shirts and pint glasses to buy and various other trinkets to take. They were also giving out coasters for each of the beer types so you could remember which ones you liked knowing that after spending 4 hours tasting beers, you would be lucky to remember your name!

My favorite beer company was Birkshire Brewing Company. I discovered this brewery this past fall when Jared, Amanda, Kristin and I went to Yankee candle. Jared and I had tried a lager and a porter, which I loved. Last night they served three beers, one of which was a coffee porter, which was incredible. I think I went back to the guys there for samples 8-10 times. By the end of the evening, they were making me black and tans despite violating security guidelines of not filling the sample cup above the red line. The other beer I liked was Honey Moon, which is made by the makers of Blue Moon. It was a nice light, smooth beer with a hint of honey. There were several other beers I liked, however, the two above were by far my favorites...err, or at least the ones I remember!

In addition to beer, they were serving free subs and pizza all night. They also had live music and other food you could purchase. The guys stuck with the beer and the girls went and sampled cheese!!!! Cheese and beer do not seem to mix, but oh well! They also had girly drinks, like Mikes and Parrot Bay wine coolers. I myself was hoping there would be a Zima stand!

If you look to the right, I posted a slideshow of pictures from last night. If you want to see the pictures larger, double click on them. First, I look like a Mexican compared to everyone else! Second, the pictures of the groups of people at the end where of no one we knew. Trish, Kim's friend, decided it would be fun to invite everyone there for a group photo. Drunk people and cameras always result in candid photos! Notice Kristin trying to lick someones ear...hmmmm....I apparently missed this last night!

After we left the beer fest, we headed over to Ri-Ra's, which is an Irish Pub that one of Paul's friends use to work at. Because of such, we got in without having to pay a cover and got easy access to the bar for service, which was packed. The drink of the evening was the Ri-Ra drink, which was a pint glass filled with various alcohols to about 1/2 inch from the top, and topped with OJ, pineapple juice and cranberry. You tasted nothing but they had an awfully bad punch! We stayed there for a couple of hours before heading home.

Today, TaTa and I did some grocery shopping in the morning. We stopped using paper and plastic bags and bought the green reusable bags. We also started buying biodegradable house cleaners made by Clorox. Better from the environment and us, not to mention it is better to use considering we have well water. From the grocery store, we came home and I roasted some red peppers on the grill. Once I roasted, I then steamed in a brown paper bag, which aides in the skin falling off. Once the skin was off, I sliced and marinated in olive oil and seasoning, which we had with our dinner tonight. Kris also put some on her salad for lunch tomorrow.

After I got done roasting the peppers, Kristin and I drove into Mystic and parked our car and went for a long walk. We walked down some of the residential streets before getting to Main Street, where we walked from one end to the other. When we got to Mystic Pizza, we walked the street in front of the restaurant, which is where the Vodoo Grill is. While walking down the street, we discovered two new small restaurants. One was Pizzetta and the other was Parisian Pomme Fries Cafe. Pizzetta is a new pizza restaurant, which only serves pizza, salads and micro-brews. When you get a chance, visit their website. They have some incredible pizza combinations and you can also make your own. The place looks great and they are also going to deliver in the summer. I think Valentino's might have some serious competition!!!



The Parisian cafe is a tiny hole in the wall type place, but you can tell it has some great food. Their speciality is pomme fries, hence the name. The fries are big and they give them to you standing up in a cup. What makes them unique is that they are soaked in water then fried twice, so they are crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. In addition to the fries, they have some salad, soup, frozen custard, clams, and burgers (make your own). They also specialize in their sauces, which they make. Out of the many, which you put on your burger and can also dip your fries/clams in, the few that catch my interest were the wasabi-lime, Parmesan pesto and curry. What I found cool about both these restaurants is that they stressed how they were environmentally conscious and outlined why. The Parisian place also recycles their oil, to be used in biodiesel cars (www.mason-biodiesel.com). We discovered another restaurant, which was on Main Street. They had an eclectic menu that would satisfy everyone taste. So, we have some fun places to try!

The other place we went to, which was a store we walked by for 3 years but never stopped in, was The Blue Horse. It was a children's boutique, that sold beautiful clothes and collectibles. All the stuff was made in America and the clothes are all hand made, thus, the quality was impeccable. After spending an hour in the store, we got Callum a few non-cloth items, which we were excited about. Once of the items was a Montgomery School House train. I remember these growing up and did not known they came in different sizes. The larger ones are collectibles and have different themes. Kristin and I decided that we wanted to start a tradition and give Callum one every year, so we started the tradition today! Each train comes with a brass plate, which you can get engraved. Exciting stuff!

Well, I gotta sign off. TaTa is yelling at me to shut the computer off. I do not know why she cares though because she is watching The Hills! Have a good night y'all.