liamsaunt

Not food, but a couple of food adjacent gifts I got this year. I have a menu board in my kitchen. I used to put the week’s meal plan on there, but it led to many disagreements over what to actually have. So then I just started putting the day’s dinner on it. This still caused disagreements between various family members, so my nephew got me this cover for it for it for Christmas. It’s great. Now I only uncover the board and write what I am making if I am open to suggestions. Otherwise I leave this cover on and people just show up and eat what I decided to make. Nobody actually cares enough to go ahead and make themselves something different for dinner, they just like to complain 😂 And then my husband got me this cute little painting of an ice cream cone from a gallery in one of our vacation spots because I love ice cream.

Christmas dinner was risotto with roasted broccolini, wild mushrooms and slow roasted beef tenderloin The vegetarian version for my sister and me A simple chicken and bell pepper stir fry for the 26th And last night I didn’t feel like cooking much so just took the leftover Christmas risotto and reheated it with added peas, ground sautéed chicken sausage, and the leftover wild mushrooms, roasted until crispy

Roasted salmon with melting cherry tomato sauce over spinach

We get the salmon from our fishmonger. He brings a truck to the farm stand near my house on Tuesdays and Fridays. They go to the fish pier in Boston every morning and just bring what looks the best to various markets around. They email a list of what they are anticipating being able to bring two days before the truck comes. You can request items that are not on that list as well, and he will bring them if he can find them. That was my mistake with the cod. He did not have it on the list, and did not buy any to sell from the truck, but picked up the pieces I asked for. Next time I will just ask for “best available.” Last night we had rice and bean bowls with guacamole, salsa, peppers and onions, cabbage slaw, low fat cheddar cheese, etc. That white line behind the bowl is the veining in the black soapstone counters I have in the smaller kitchen off my dining room. My nephew is home from grad school for the winter break and is staying in the room where I usually pop the dinner plates for photos, so the lighting will be wonky on my plates for the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday night is usually miso salmon. Last night we had it in a ramen bowl with peppers, scallions, and cilantro

Cod in a spicy tomato olive sauce with spaghetti. The cod was from our fishmonger but did not taste as sweet and fresh as usual, which was disappointing.

I’m keeping it small and simple this year with a slow roasted rosemary crusted beef tenderloin for the beef eaters. I am also making an herbed risotto with a roasted wild mushroom topping for the mushroom eaters (me!) and a few roasted vegetables- probably broccolini, carrots, and maybe winter squash. I don’t feel like baking bread, so I am not going to. We don’t do appetizers or dessert either. My niece bakes cookies every year so there will be some of those around if anyone decides they want something sweet.

Sunday we had extremely garlicky spaghetti with spinach and toasted bread crumbs. No vampires approached the house that night! Last night, broiled chicken paillard with a honey mustard glaze, rosemary roasted potatoes, and broccolini

Some dinners from this week: Miso salmon with roasted broccoli and rice I had a bunch of slices of garlic bread in the freezer leftover from various other dinners and wanted to get rid of it, so I made pappa e pomodoro. I blended it up with a stick blender which is not traditional. Sweet and sour eggplant with garlic chips, from NYTimes cooking. Served with rice.

Swordfish braised in a spicy tomato sauce with capers, olives, currants, and Israeli couscous. Garlicky bruschetta for dipping

Sunday we had a NY Times cooking recipe for roasted carrots with whipped tahini. I roasted some yogurt and lemon marinated chicken thighs with the carrots, and added garlicky spinach. I also made some cilantro-garlic flatbread. Yesterday I made another NYTimes cooking recipe: winter vegetable curry with apple raita. The original recipe had potatoes and chickpeas but I eliminated both since I thought it would be too filling with the rice. The apple raita was a little strange on its own but tasted good mixed into the curry. I added pomegranate arils just because I had them in the fridge.

Same! Your meals all look great. Here are some recents from my kitchen Penne with slow cooked broccoli and lemon chicken Carrot, white bean and turnip soup with garlic croutons Miso salmon ramen bowl with spinach Sheet pan roast of potatoes, Brussels sprouts and chicken sausages with honey mustard Soy glazed hake with broccoli and rice

Not too many photos from Monday, as we did exactly what I said we were going to do: sit on the deck and take in the view and read books. Here’s a picture of the sunset from our deck. And the afterglow, looking towards the hotel Dinner was at Solaris again. Unfortunately, we did not like it as much this time. Amuse bouche of smoky gazpacho. This was really tasty. Husband ordered the rockfish. It looked pretty, but was a little bland. I had the catch of the day, which was grouper. This was better than the rockfish, but still a little bland. The pickled parsnip salad on top was the best part. We shared a dessert of pavlova with pistachio cream and strawberry-basil ice cream. This was our favorite part of the meal. And that ends our quick visit to Bermuda. We will be back.

I do know they are actively hunting them and the meat is featured on many menus. I like the taste of it, very mild and sweet. I am surprised there does not seem to be more of an effort to catch and serve them in other places we visit. I have only been able to order it once on St. John, though I see lionfish frequently while snorkeling there. I am aware that dealing with the spines can be problematic. On St. John, you need a special certification to hunt them. I am not sure what the rules are here in Bermuda.

I’m on a very quick jaunt to Bermuda to celebrate husband’s birthday. Flying time is under two hours, and it’s warmer here than at home. We arrived yesterday, and only plans we made for this fast visit were to sit on the deck and take in the view, go down for occasional beach walks, and eat fish for dinner. We have been successful in following the itinerary so far. The view from our condo at the Reefs Looking towards the hotel from our deck and a sliver moon view from our arrival evening. The sun sets just after 5 at this time of year. There’s a new restaurant at the Reefs. Here’s the menu We ordered a special of lionfish crudo to share. I would have preferred the fish to be sliced a little thinner, but the flavors were good. Husband had the grilled lobster. He said it was delicious i had a special of coney fish, which came with carrot puree and the same asparagus sauce that was on the lobster. I really loved this Mini cannoli dessert We enjoyed our dinner so much that we cancelled another reservation elsewhere to come back tomorrow night. Today’s beach—Church Bay. The water was too cold for me to swim though other brave souls were in the water A light lunch at Coconuts Wahoo tacos. We just split this pate since we were going to dinner later. Tonight’s pre dinner deck view We went to Aurora for dinner. They have a new sushi menu, but we were not in the mood. Tuna tartare to share Husband had lobster and shrimp spaghetti. I think he orders this every time we eat here. I had a special of herb crusted turbot with potato purée, minced vegetables, and fish jus. We split a slice of coconut chocolate cake with coconut sorbet to continue the birthday theme