liamsaunt

yesterday we went to a late lunch/early dinner at The Beachcomber. Margarita and a Goombay Smash My niece just wanted mozzarella sticks The Beachcomber has a separate fryer for their french fries, so my nephew ordered a basket along with a jalepeno-onion pizza on a Boboli crust. The things teenagers will eat... The adults all had seafood. Steamers to share Fried clams to share Then two adults went for the fishwich And three adults chose the oyster po boy--it was huge! Most people went home last night, so it's just me, my husband, and my nephew out on the Cape now. We went to the Wicked Oyster for breakfast this morning. Tall stack of pancakes with real maple syrup The Nester--eggs with hollandaise on arugula and tomatoes, with home fries Smoked salmon bagel plate

Last night we had dinner at an old favorite, Mac's Shack. We went out with my whole group, so lots of meals to share. A couple of cocktails, on the left is a Mrs. Mia Wallace (Farmer's Gin, Aperol, lemongrass, lemon, soda), on the right a Nesky (Patron Silver, Grand Marnier, sour, lime, extra salt): Wellfleet oysters Clam fritters with Old Bay aioli Rite cracker crusted bluefish Grilled swordfish with roasted vegetables and rice Black bean-quinoa burger for my nephew who won't eat fish unless it is fried, and he can't eat anything fried at this restaurant since they only have one frier and he has an anaphylactic allergy to crustaceans Udon noodle bowl with raw fish Lobster enchiladas Cheesecake

Yesterday for breakfast we went back to the Captain's Table. Roasted jalepeno omelet and then it was goodbye to Chatham and hello to Wellfleet. Here's the view from the house we are staying in No lunch yesterday, because my husband and I were going to dinner at my favorite restaurant on all of Cape Cod: Ceraldi. https://www.ceraldicapecod.com Everyone eats the same meal at this restaurant--when you make your reservation they ask for any allergies or preferences, and they will tailor the menu to fit your needs. I always say that I prefer a pescatarian meal. My husband eats anything. First course: Loagy Bay petite oyster, garden arugula pesto. Paired with 2005 Domain Haut Bourg Muscadet de Grandlieu 'Origine' Second course: Wild one year pickled lotus tempura, poppy seed, invasive green crab brodo, In the Weeds farm greens. Paired with 2014 Leduc Frouin Anjou Blanc Third course: Longnook Meadow Farm panisse, speck crisp, spiced walnuts, Great Hill Farm Blue buttermilk dressing. Paired with 2012 Agricola Querciabella Batar IGT (my salad had pickled onions subbed for the speck) Fourth course: Seawind Meadow Farm meatball, Parmigiana Reggiano fonduta, balsamico, truffle potato stick (my course was beet ravioli instead of the meatball) Fifth course: Chequesett Chocolate risotto, Hillside Farm mushrooms, rosemary, matsutake ricotta creme, cacao nib. Paired with 2014 Cantine Aston Grangnano DOP Sixth course: Donna Marie Boat scallop, saffron burst allium ash ravioli, chive blossom, garlic chive and wild seabean chimichurri. Paired with 2006 Radikon Ribolla Gialla IGT Final course: Capri Farm goat cheese panna cotta, Back Yard Garden rhubarb, Surrey Farm honey and pink pepper pistachio. Paired with NV Cremant de Loire Rose Methode Traditionnelle What a delicious dinner this was for a special occasion (our 20th wedding anniversary)

Weather was better this morning Breakfast was takeout from Chatham Cookware. Strange name and I am sure there is a backstory but I don't know it. Egg bacon and cheese sandwich on a Portuguese roll, with an iced tea (unsweetened, lemon) Lunch at the Impudent Oyster. Husband and I ordered sandwiches and split them to share. Shrimp po boy Scallop roll Aside: I want this house. I walk by it every day on my trek into town (I can't afford it!) Dinner at Del Mar Bistro Oysters with uni butter oysters rockefeller flounder with crab and (totally out of season??) corn halibut with celeriac puree

More Chatham dining. Breakfast at the Captain's Table. We were the only people in the restaurant other than staff so I left my camera in my bag and used my phone. This is still slow time on the Cape and it is rainy to boot. Omelet with bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese Cinnamon raisin bread pudding with blueberry sauce Lunch at the Chatham Squire. Lobster roll with lobster bisque the blue plate special: fried shrimp Dinner at Bistro on Main. I forgot my camera so excuse the phone pics again. Smoked fish dip: Local mussels in garlic-white wine sauce Linguini with clams Scallops with vegetables and potato cake

Another season, more Cape Cod food. I am currently in Chatham for work, but will be in Wellfleet soon (not soon enough). Next weekend I will be in Provincetown, and then back in Wellfleet for the 4th of July week and again in October for Oysterfest. A return to the Impudent Oyster. Salt cod "tater tots" Shrimp with garlic and chiles "Low country grits" with shrimp and scallops and roasted tomatoes and an okra which I ate. I have never eaten okra before. This pickled one was pretty fine. I shall leave no comments regarding the grits. pasta with shrimp, scallops, lobster, broccoli, etc

@patris, that is so annoying. I am glad you got a credit, but it is so irritating if you are trying to avoid a trip to the store. That's the whole point of these things. @Anna N sorry the delivery schedule did not work out for you. Based on our admittedly small group of people posting about meal kits, it seems that "deflect and credit" is the customer service go to way of dealing with issues. I think I am starting to get bored with the meal kit thing. I changed two of the three meals enough that I posted them in Dinner! instead of here. Tonight I cooked the final meal for this week according to the recipe (sort of): red lentil puttanesca with rotini and marinated vegetables. The ingredients (I forgot the recipe card, sorry): I actually randomly had a broccoflower in the fridge thanks to a meal that did not happen over the weekend, so bulked out that sad little piece with part of mine. Completed dish: Verdict: this is not puttanesca in my world. I added more red pepper flakes and salt, but for me, puttanesca means anchovies and lots and lots of olives, red pepper flakes, garlic and tomatoes. Lentils just make sauce gritty and are frankly no substitute for tomatoes. Grumble. And there is so much leftover! Argh. I already cancelled next week's box. I am not giving up, just traveling. I'll post my Cape Cod eats on the New England board.

Last night: Faroe Island salmon with red rice, guacamole, sautéed plantains, and a poblano-chipotle-tomato salsa

@liuzhou, it's the thought that counts? I guess? That steak looks pretty grim. Glad you were able to find a noodle stand after. Last night, flounder reuben and garlic-dill oven fries

flounder stuffed with mushrooms, local asparagus, and crispy potatoes

Ooh that is disappointing. I have to confess that I am worried about this as summer approaches. If I start getting wilted produce I am going to pause for the season. I travel a lot in the summer so that may end up happening anyway. I agree with @patris, you probably got bumped to a different delivery box schedule and will be charged again as the delivery date gets closer. Last night's meal was for a savory grain bowl primavera with swiss chard and green garlic butter beans. The grain provided was oats, and the idea of a savory oat bowl for dinner did not appeal to me, so I swapped the oats for quinoa and made the oats into overnight oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast. This was perfectly fine but not exciting either.

According the recipe card, tonight's meal was to be Korean jackfruit bibimbap with spicy kale kimchi, garlic-sesame spinach, and carrot-edamame slaw. Here are the ingredients. I remembered them all for the picture tonight! Well, I had some other stuff in the fridge I wanted to use, and a family member eating with us off schedule, so I added some stuff to bulk it out. I had some acadian redfish from my fish share to use up, and I also added a Tom Brady-disapproved fried egg. I also swapped out the included brown rice for white rice because my husband prefers white. I like brown rice, so will just cook it up sometime when he is traveling for work. This is my brother in law's plate. He eats a lot, but is very fit as he works out intensively. Unlike me!

Another week, another TB12 Purple Carrot box. All of the produce was in excellent shape this week. Last night I made green falafel with celery-pomegranate relish, pickled cabbage, and tahini. The ingredients (minus the head of lettuce that was provided to wrap the falafel in--I always forget something in the ingredient photos!) And the finished dish. The ratio of kale to chickpeas was rather high, so the falafels fell apart a little in the pan, but the flavor was good.

@patris that looks really tasty! Last night I made the last TB12 Purple Carrot meal of the week. I saved it for Friday night because my niece wanted to eat it and my husband was on a plane home from Italy so I knew there would be enough for my sister, my niece and me. My nephew had chicken parmesan :-) Vegetable pad thai with kelp noodle salad and sesame roasted broccoli. I plonked the sambal on top of my bowl and my sister's bowl rather than putting it in the sauce since my niece is sensitive to spicy foods. We all loved this, and there is TONS left over for lunches on Monday.

I got an email this morning that they are crediting me for the full retail value of this week's box due to my dismay at some of the produce quality in this shipment, so I am satisfied with that resolution. Tonight I made yellow beet posole with salsa verde (additional beet obtained on my lunch walk since they only sent me one small beet in the shipment). The stew used both hominy and amaranth to thicken it. There are plenty of leftovers for lunches. My main objectives in using this service are to 1. give me interesting ideas for vegan meals that I can pull off quickly during the week after getting home from work pretty late and 2. cut down on mid-week food waste. I am actually saving money, and am definitely throwing out less food, but I am very aware that my situation is different from most folks in that I feed more people Friday-Sunday than I do Monday-Thursday. I have basically eliminated shopping for weekdays completely (well, except for that beet today haha), and now just shop for the weekends. However, once the local summer produce starts coming in, I will pause this service for a while to take advantage of that.

I did not take a picture of the contents of this week's TB12 Purple Carrot box because I was running late and also was annoyed that some of the produce was not up to snuff and/or was in wrong amounts. I sent a message to customer service so I will see what their response is. The first box had one not so fresh vegetable (which I complained about and they got back to me quickly). All the other boxes have been great, quality-wise, so this box really surprised me. Anyway, by default, I made the one recipe for which enough of the ingredients were in good shape (actually, the cilantro was not but I happened to have cilantro in the fridge anyway, so it worked out): Chickpea dumplings with curry spiked tomato sauce and mustard greens. The dumplings are made with garbanzo flour, vegan yogurt, cilantro, onion, oil, baking powder and salt. They were very tender. I did not think I was going to like this, but I ended up eating almost the entire plate of food. I have more for lunch tomorrow. More mustard greens would have been nice but I had to really pick through what they sent me as about half of them were wilted/slimy/yellowed. Hopefully this is a one-time bad week for the produce with this program. Oddly, the photo on the recipe card shows green peas scattered over the top of the dish, but there is no mention of them in the recipe! Maybe the recipe developers decided peas are too polarizing :-)

That fish looks delectable. I'd love to taste it!

So, the project I mentioned earlier is finally happening this week. Well, this week and next week. Floor to ceiling built in triangular bookcases with bottom cabinets, and a fireplace refacing. The bottom cabinets will hold the cooking magazines I keep. I lost the battle with my husband to have a rolling ladder to access the top shelves of this project so I will probably put decorative items on the very top. In his defense, I am very accident prone. Here is the project site, cleared and ready to go And all of my exiled books, piled up in my weekday dining room. Haha in this picture in addition to books I use often I see books I have not opened since college (Moosewood) and ones that were gifts that I have never even looked at (ahem, Robuchon). They are mine though and I like them, and they are about to get an awesome new home. This project is the first part of what will eventually be a complete gut to the studs kitchen renovation, as the main kitchen in my home is open to this family room.

grilled sandwiches. There were three kinds: chicken, nueskes bacon, avocado and brie; prosciutto, fig jam, and gouda; and caprese. Not a typical Sunday meal but my kitchen area is under construction.

So this week I only prepared one of the three meals using the ingredients as they were meant to be used. Here's the ingredients for the first meal, Crispy tofu with pumpkin seed mole, Spanish rice and chayote squash (minus the garlic--I forgot to put the garlic in the photo again) I don't eat tofu, so swapped in some fish. The tofu got donated to the community section of my office fridge. People bring in unwanted unopened food and leave it in a specific spot for anyone to take. It was gone at the end of the day. The plated meal: Verdict: pretty tasty. I forgot to put the sour cream on the plate, and am glad I did not use the full amount of chipotles included--2 whole peppers plus about 3 tbsp adobo sauce. That would have made the sauce much too spicy for my taste. There was far too much mole sauce for two people, so I now have a bag of mole sauce in the freezer. Meal number two: Cauliflower steaks with smashed potatoes, asparagus and roasted red pepper pesto. I remembered the garlic this time :-) Plated result: This was very easy to pull together. It also made way too much food! I could only manage half of this plate. The red pepper pesto was really garlicky so I could not take the leftovers to work for lunch. I'll use them up in a sort of salad this weekend. My husband cheated and made his meal non-vegan with some leftover lamb from Sunday: The third meal was meant to be cannellini bean burgers with tzatziki sauce and carrot fries. I saved the beans for another day and made salmon burgers with the recipe ingredients instead. That result is posted on the Dinner! thread.

salmon burger with tzatziki sauce and pickled onions and a mix of potato and carrot "fries"

Staff meeting catered lunch. Boring...

I am saving money because I am not buying any meat during the week, and I am also not buying so many vegetables and herbs that things go bad before I have a chance to use them. I like having a wide variety of veggies to choose from but when cooking for two it's hard to use everything up. I would not like eating from kits exclusively. It's fun a couple of nights a week but I want to do my own thing the rest of the time. I also don't necessarily use the ingredients as they are meant to be used. For example, last night's meal was supposed to utilize tofu, but I don't eat tofu so I swapped in some fish from my fish share.

scallop roll and tater tots

Union Square Cafe racks of lamb Chicken piccata for the non lamb eaters (which includes me) Pimiento cheese stuffed potatoes Not pictured: the first local asparagus of this season