liamsaunt

Thinly shaved and fried yucca root. It was really tasty. I've been meaning to try and make yucca fries at home, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Here is my exciting breakfast. If you ever wonder why I rarely post breakfast pictures, this is why. Yesterday we went to one of our favorite beaches, Francis. The water was like glass. You can see how green the island is right now. They have been getting a lot of rain recently. We encountered some curious deer at the entrance to the beach. They were not bothered by us at all. In fact, we had to wait for them to move out of the way. The beach was quiet, which was nice. Trunk Bay was just voted the #1 most beautiful beach in the world on one of those annual polls, so I guess everyone was over there. Fine with me. After beach we had to go to the grocery store to get stuff they were out of when we shopped Saturday. There hadn't been any deliveries yet, so they were still out of everything we needed. Island time. We'll try again today. The gelato store is in the same shopping plaza as the grocery store so we stopped in to see what they had. They make everything in small batches and the flavors change every day, so it's luck of the draw as to what (if anything) they have. Did one of those make it back to our villa to share? You know it did. For dinner we decided to try the Lime Inn. They had recently switched their menu over from a prix fixe multi course menu (we tried it a few years ago, and really disliked it), to an all taco menu. You cannot go wrong with tacos in my opinion. They have all the same tacos that you can get at the Lime Out floating taco boat I have posted about before, plus some additional options. Here's the menu. And yes, those prices are per taco. Food is pretty expensive here. Our drinks. Husband got the harbor cooler and I had the dane juice. We shared the grouper seveche to start. Very tasty! My tacos. I chose the tuna matata and the g'day mate Husband also had the g'day mate and the Mr. Worldwide Restaurant We split a dessert taco too. Why not, it's vacation. It was stuffed with frozen key lime filling. They had a chocolate one stuffed with salted caramel filling too, but we thought we could only manage one. And now it's off to the beach for some snorkeling. If I see anything interesting I will share the photos.

Oh hahaha! That was a taro chip. Sorry I missed that!

We are back on St. John. This trip is a rescheduled visit from last November--we had to cancel then because my husband was sick. The property management company, airline, and jeep rental all let us push our dates to now without any penalty, so it's kind of like a free trip. Except for all of the money we are about to spend on food haha. We arrived Saturday, and are staying in the same house as the past two times. We had to get up at 3:30 AM to make our flight, so we were both exhausted on arrival. We had some time to kill before being able to head to the villa for check in, so went up to the Windmill Bar to take in some views All that haze you see is Sahara dust. I don't think I have seen it in May before, it's usually more of a summer thing. The bad news with the dust is that it makes it hotter than normal (and it is indeed hot!), and it's also bad for allergies. The good news is that the dust suppresses development of tropical weather. If it's this hot and dusty now, I cannot imagine what it is going to be like when we come back in July. Menu cover. I was so tired I forgot to take a picture of the rest of it. Sorry, @rotuts! It's a small menu--just a few kinds of tacos, taco bowls, and burgers/hot dogs. The bar. It was around 2PM when we got there, and it doesn't start filling up until happy hour and live music starts at 3. We just ordered a plate of shrimp tacos to split. Pretty basic but did the job. After getting unpacked at the house, we headed out to find something for dinner. We were just really tired and neither of us felt like eating much. We ended up at Rum Hut. Menu Husband's cocktail. I believe it was a ginger martini. And our selections to share: the Cruz Bay roll and tuna tartare tacos And dessert. Irie Pops of course! Yesterday we spent the day at Cinnamon Bay. I did not take one picture of the beach! It was lovely. We went over to the food truck to get some cold water. They basically sell sandwiches, nachos, and ice cream For dinner, we decided to try a new place, The Refinery. Menu Cocktails. I ordered a no-jito and my husband ordered a Singapore Sling. The bartender came over to deliver the drinks and to confirm that he had made mine without alcohol. I thought that was nice. We ordered a couple of appetizers: the peppered shrimp--this was spicy! I could have gone even hotter but my husband said it was at the upper level of what he enjoys for spice. And the crab and corn fritters with pineapple salsa. The fritters were essentially a jumbo shrimp wrapped in crab fritter batter. They were delicious but I could only eat one. I just ordered a salad with more shrimp on the side for dinner And husband had the coconut poached wahoo with cassava cake. I really wanted to get the Caribbean ice cream sandwich for dessert, but the heat is slaying my appetite and I could not even finish my dinner food. We brought home most of my dinner shrimp and half of the fritters to eat today. And yes, we are eating lots of shrimp since we normally cannot have it at home because of my nephew's allergy. He's coming with us in July so we have to get all the crustaceans we want to eat into this visit. 🙂 Not sure where we are eating today, but our plan is to find as many new to us places as we can.

The dish was whipped tahini sauce, the tuna, a slaw, and the last thing on the plate is an orange slice.

Last installment for this trip. Our last meal for this visit was at Bleu, which is one of the best rated restaurants in the area. Unfortunately, it was by far our least favorite. Cocktail for my husband. I checked their online menu, and whatever this is was not listed. He said it was really unbalanced, both too sweet and too bitter. Cotuit oysters. Tuna tartare. This was fine, just a little bland. Halibut with asparagus and rice in a pineapple beurre blanc. The piece of halibut they gave me was the folded over tail, so naturally it was overcooked. For almost $50, I would have appreciated a better cut of fish. However, it was better than my husband's roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and carrots. I think they cooked the chicken the day before! It was completely dried out. The carrots were wildly overcooked too. We considered sending it back, but I knew I was not going to finish my dish and my husband liked it enough to have some, so he just ate the thigh off the plate and then we swapped. A lady at the table behind us ordered the chicken too, and I heard her saying "the sauce is delicious, but the chicken is horrible!" So I guess it was just an off night. We ordered a trifle to share for dessert. It was....fine. We won't be back to Bleu if we return to this area. Falmouth is very pretty, but the Outer Cape is where I like to be. Sea glass haul for the week Menauhant beach

Yesterday was pretty gray all day. I managed a few beach walks, but didn't take any pictures. Dinner was at another Italian restaurant in town, Osteria la Civetta. The menu is pretty small. The interior, kind of cave like. I took this picture as we were getting ready to leave. The restaurant had been full earlier, but it emptied out rather quickly as we were finishing up, for reasons we would soon discover... We shared some olives and whipped gorgonzola cheese Husband had the swordfish pasta and I chose the eggplant pasta. We shared an affogatto for dessert We heard rumbling in the sky as we were heading to the car. Luckily, our house was not too far from town, because about five minutes after we got home, the sky lit up and it started roaring thunder and slamming lightning down. There was golf ball sized hail! I had been offline all day and had no idea that the weather was coming. When I opened my weather app, the area we were in was purple surrounded by red on the radar! I had never even seen that before. Luckily we did not lose power and it was over in about an hour. Crazy weather. It's back to calm today. Here's a couple of pictures from my morning walk.

Another note of possible interest about the huge house I posted a picture of yesterday. I was wondering if perhaps it was an old home that was being restored, which is why it is so close to the beach, so I did some research last night. It is not, it is new construction. The current owner tore down the old house that was there (an 8,000 sqft house!) and replaced it with this one. It's essentially in the footprint of the old house (though the new house is even larger), which is why the town approved it. I cannot imagine building new construction so close to the ocean in this day and age, but I guess people can do what they want with their money... Yesterday was actually a sunny and warm day, so exploring was in order. We went to Woods Hole and visited Nobska Lighthouse There was a pretty lookout point across the road with a good view of the ferry to Martha's Vineyard Beach walk and then an ice cream stop. Coconut macadamia and coffee heath bar Which necessitated another beach walk, so we drove to the largest beach in Falmouth, Old Silver. People were swimming! That's just crazy For dinner, we went to town for silly sushi. We decided to pick two share plates and two rolls to split. Tuna carpaccio Crispy rice with spicy tuna And then I picked a jalapeño toro roll and husband chose a tempura shrimp roll with tuna and pineapple It's back to gray and rain today, but the sunny day was an unexpected treat.

Yesterday was another gray Cape Cod spring day. I went out and did a little exploring while my husband worked. This is the beach that you get access to with the house. There is a lot of sand dredging happening in town right now to clear the channels for increased boat traffic and replenish the beaches before the tourist season starts. The dredger was working directly behind the beach. I found a handful of sea glass for my vast collection back home. I picked up a couple of shells too, though I usually only look for sea glass. Here's a house under construction near the beach. There is a lot of new construction happening in town, and all of the houses I have seen being built are quite large. Osprey I decided to try a different ice cream parlor. Peanut butter caramel. Too sweet and not worth eating. Oh well! We decided to go out for Mexican food. Husband had a margarita I had cod tacos And he had lobster enchiladas. Post dinner walk on another beach in town

Saturday night we had dinner at the top rated Italian restaurant in town, La Cucina Sul Mare. We could only get a reservation at 5:30 (a lot of the restaurants close at 8PM in this town). It was absolutely packed when we arrived. We ordered four oysters rockefeller to start (one each). And an order of the warm bruschetta at my nephew's request. Unfortunately this was a soggy and not warm. My nephew took a picture of his linguini with giant meatball and said to share it with you. He said it was very bland. It's rare for him not to finish a meatball, but he left about half of this plate behind. I ordered the swordfish piccata, minus the shrimp garnish. This was also bland, and oddly lacking in lemon flavor. I think these purple flowers must be the official garnish of Falmouth-they were on all the plates yesterday too. Sister had the linguini with clams. She said it was...bland! Husband ordered a special of swordfish with clams and sausage. It came in a tomato sauce that was not mentioned when the server described the dish. Note the ubiquitous purple flower. No dessert, as once again the portions were massive and much food went uneaten. My sister and nephew returned home yesterday, so it's just my husband and me for the rest of the week. Here's the kitchen at the house. It has nice views of the water. The beach on a gray Cape Cod spring day After trudging along the cold and windy beach all morning, we decided the next best thing to do was to go to town and find some ice cream. That's what you do if you are from New England 🙂 Ben and Bill's Chocolate Emporium looked promising. I am sure we will try most of the options in town before the week is out. The options I thought the lobster flavor was probably vanilla with chocolate lobsters in it or something, so I walked down the case to check the sign for it... Um.....OK. I got mint chocolate chip, which was nice and minty but had too many chocolate chunks for my personal taste. I just ate around most of them. All the fish markets in town are closed on Sundays, so we had to eat out again. We chose Estia, a Greek place. We started with calamari, which was large enough for about six people. What we managed to eat was tender and well seasoned. I had the shrimp saganaki for my entree. I think there were 12 large shrimp in there and about three cups of rice. It was tasty but much too much food. Husband ordered the shrimp and swordfish skewers, which also came with grilled vegetables and fries. And both entrees also came with huge salads! Next time we go out I think we are going to just share something.

I don't think I have ever cooked water spinach. Sometimes my CSA box gives me greens (pea shoots come to mind) that get stringy when you cook them up, and I do find it frustrating. After having to struggle through eating big clumps of them in various soup bowls and stir fries I now usually end up mincing them really fine or blitzing them into a pesto or something. If anyone has better ideas for this type of green I would also be very interested!

Another year, another return to the Cape. We are not on the Outer Cape right now, that is coming later this summer, but I figured I would put this visit here rather than starting a new thread. Instead, we are in Falmouth for the week. We've never stayed on this part of the Cape before. My initial impression is that the town is charming, but much more densely populated than the Outer Cape. I imagine that in the summer it would be uncomfortably crowded. We arrived Friday night. The house we are staying in is right on the water, and not elevated up on a dune like the places we stay at in Wellfleet. I would not want to be here during a big storm. Here's the front yard. We can see Martha's Vineyard right off shore (not in this picture though), and can watch the ferries going back and forth from Woods Hole to the island. My sister and nephew joined us for the weekend. The rest of the week will be just my husband and me. I'm planning on doing some cooking to amuse myself during the day. This weekend, though, we are dining out. Unfortunately, this area is not known for its dining options. We are also working around my nephew's food allergy. Last night we went to an Italian place called Villagio at the Regatta. No menu pictures, unfortunately. We ordered a couple of appetizers to share. Clams casino Bruschetta Calamari (no fried shrimp or lobster on their menu, so my nephew could have some. He was excited) For entrees, my nephew ordered the bolognese (no picture). The rest of us had cod. I ordered cod picatta Sister ordered cod toscana and husband had cod limone. The entrees were all massive. If we had known we would have shared something. None of us enjoy leftover cod, so unfortunately a lot of it went to waste. I didn't even taste my pasta. We were too full to even look at the dessert menu. Yesterday morning, my husband and I went into town to check out the French bakery, Maison Villatte. This bakery is run by the original baker at PB Boulangerie in Wellfleet, and our understanding was that the two places are fairly similar. It did indeed look quite familiar. I took lots of pictures. Croissants Muffins Tarts Quiches Fougasse sandwiches pastries And our selections, back at the house. It would be very dangerous to have a bakery like this at home!

Greek flavors roasted chicken with carrots and watermelon radishes that roasted in the chicken pan, lemon roasted potatoes, and tzatziki.

I am very interested in following along! Hawaii is on our short list of potential places to visit, but the long flight has been a deterrent for me so far. Maybe your report will change my mind 🙂

Miso salmon ramen bowl with roasted cabbage, purple daikon radishes, and the first bunch of chives from the garden

Seared scallops with spinach, sweet potato puree and lemon brown butter

Ground chicken tacos

Busy week with no pictures taken until yesterday, when we went for round two with the Ooni Karu. Better results than last Saturday, but still on a learning curve. Pepperoni Margharita

Spinach malfatti pomodoro.

My husband gave me an Ooni Karu 16 for Christmas, and this weekend it was finally warm and sunny enough for my nephew to build it for me. We tried two flavors, simple pepperoni and wild mushroom with mushroom pesto and arugula. I am definitely at the start of a learning curve, but I am sure the results will improve with time. I'll attempt again next Saturday. Here are some quick phone snaps of my first effort.

chicken tortilla soup

Grilled chicken caesar salad with tomatoes

Penzey's fajita seasoning. I had a gallon sized bag of beets that I needed to use up before they went bad, so I made beet gnocchi with beet sauce and broccolini. My sister, husband and I all enjoyed it, but my nephew was absolutely horrified. He thinks beets are the worst vegetable in existence, so he got spaghetti and meatballs instead.

chicken tacos

Rigatoni with Roman broccoli sauce

Boursin stuffed chicken on creamy radish and carrot puree with roasted broccolini.