liamsaunt

Okay, here is my garden. For context I live just outside Boston. Don't laugh. This is my first ever in the ground vegetable garden. I lived in the city and then a small home for a long time and only had container gardens. We moved to my current home in December 2013 and a selling point for me was the established garden plots in the yard. The prior owners were a multi-generation Greek family and the grandfather was a big gardener. When we moved, I had cancer and so was not well enough to plant last year. Here is the main garden Yeah, I need to weed badly! It is hard to keep up because I work in the city during the week. The garden has squash, cucumbers, 21 tomato plants, green beans, eggplant (being eaten by something) there kinds of peppers, nastursiums, and sunflowers. The only thing I have actually growing fruit so far are the peppers The plum tomato vine has really taken off. All of the heirlooms are kind of lagging. I have a secondary garden with squash and watermelon but it is getting eaten because it is not securely fenced. My house is surrounded by woods and we have a lot of wildlife. I am looking out my window and see a hedgehog (eating poison ivy so good for him) and a bunny (eating grass so hmmm) I also have a separate in-ground herb garden which is doing well except for the dill which was eaten by someone. Here is what I am better at. Container gardening. Thai basil because it is impossible to find in the store regular basil and other herbs container tomatoes and the prior owner's mint patch. I can make mojitos for 100!

We had a pretty traditional cookout for the Fourth of July yesterday. I made red white and blue sangria for the imbibers and a standard pasta salad There were regular cheeseburgers and hot dogs, but for the non-red meat eaters I made black bean burgers with guacamole and then there was strawberry shortcake for dessert I bought corn also but decided not to cook it as I thought there would be too much food. We will have it today.

Clams bulhao pato. This recipe was in the Sunday magazine of my local newspaper. Sometimes their recipes are hit and miss, but this one was really tasty, and only took a couple of minutes to make.

The bowl is handmade by a ceramicist on an island that I visit frequently for vacations. I usually pick up a piece or two every visit. I have a collection of his serving pieces, as well as some tableware and lighting fixtures. You can see some of his work here: http://donaldschnell.com/studio/

Thai-style fish cakes in lettuce wraps with sweet chili sauce. Very satisfying. I made chicken lettuce wraps for the niece and nephew, and pineapple fried rice for them also

Sauteed yellowtail flounder on a cucumber gazpacho. The recipe is from the Babbo cookbook (the recipe called for tilefish but flounder was what came in the fish share this week). I thought it was really tasty and can see myself making a lot this summer.

A much more typical lunch than the restaurant meals I posted recently. Hummus, carrot, arugula, and leftover grilled chicken wrap with some cherries. Eaten at the credenza behind my desk with a book. Work meals are not as interesting as vacation ones.

It is just a Fiber One 80-calorie wheat wrap. I would not say it is wonderful, but it was acceptable. I toasted it in the skillet to give it some crunch.

Egg and cheese wrap. Would have been better with bacon I also made belgian waffles for the niece and nephew but they were scarfed before any photo could be taken

JoNorvelleWalker, how was that eggplant dish? I was just looking at the recipe yesterday, and picked up pomegranate seeds, but there was no eggplant at the store. Maybe next week... blackened shrimp with quinoa salad

Blackstrap rum glazed grilled shrimp with couscous and salad. The tomatoes in the salad are the first I have gotten from my patio plant this year. I have a real vegetable garden too but should talk about that in the gardening thread.

Our final Wellfleet lunch for this trip was at Winslow's Tavern. Cocktails Butternut squash flatbread smoked mussel flatbread scallop roll crabcake apricot clafouti chocolate mousse My husband and I are now in Chatham for a couple of days. Not sure what will be happening on the lunch front.

Yesterday we went to Provincetown, It is our tradition to walk through town and browse all the shops, then go to lunch and debate what we should buy. Provincetown has provided a lot of my home decor. We had lunch at Mac's Provincetown. I am having a little trouble connecting so might not be able to get all the photos in this post. Sweet heat margaritas (drinks help with the shopping debate!) Salmon tartar (niece's hands hovering in background waiting to dig in) Stoplight roll Tuna poke Zen roll tuna tataki rangoon roll Not pictured, my nephew's boring cheeseburger :-) I ended up buying a triptych painting of an octopus for over my family room TV. It is pretty cool.

It was just ground up chicken stir fried with a couple of shallots, a few cloves of garlic, chopped chiles, a cube of palm sugar, a glug each of rice wine, soy sauce, and oyster sauce, and a big fistful of thai basil leaves. I did not measure anything. I think pork is more typical but I don't eat pork.

Back at Wellfleet. I made a veggie scramble with tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach for everyone. Much tastier than my usual workday breakfast of greek yogurt and fruit or a green smoothie. There was bacon too but my doctor says no bacon for me for the moment. My niece ate my share and hers also.

Lettuce wraps

Soy braised pollock. You can't really see it, but there are udon noodles, snap peas, carrots, onions, mushrooms etc under the fish.

Friday night pre-dinner cocktail: watermelon-blueberry-lime rickey. Forgot to take a picture of dinner, which was just pasta with a raw tomato sauce. Excuse the massive amounts of pollen on my deck table, pollen has been crazy this year. Last night for the weekly three-generation family dinner, an antipasto platter. I also made an eggplant gratin and grilled bruschetta

poached eggs on a buttered english muffin

FauxPas, we had Greek salad last night too. I served mine with grilled chicken because I don't eat red meat. I bet my husband would have preferred your ribs though :-)

sole with lemon sauce, crispy potato cake and fava beans

It was a pretty basic crab cake recipe. Sometimes I make Rick Moonen's crab cake which is delicious, but no time for that on a work night. It just was crab, an egg yolk, some dijon, a little worcestershire, a dash of old bay, and a couple tablespoons of brioche crumbs, just enough to hold things together. I don't like crab cakes with lots of filler. I turned it into a burger because I really need to go food shopping and have almost no vegetables in the house right now. As you can tell from the picture I did not even have lettuce. Normally I like crab cakes with salad rather than as a sandwich.

crab burger. I had some crumbled proscuitto leftover from the prior evening's scallops so used it to coat one side of the burgers. It added a nice crunch

Anniversary dinner. There is something blah about an anniversary falling on a Monday evening, especially a rainy one like yesterday (and today). We were both too tired to go out. I made broiled clams with bacon jam and chives followed by seared scallops on asparagus risotto

I missed recording a couple of Wellfleet lunches because I forgot my camera when we came back out Wednesday night. Luckily my sister stopped by my house and brought it out with her on Friday evening. Yesterday we went back to Winslow's Tavern. Tabasco-lime broiled oysters Miso broiled oysters proscuitto sandwich pear salad burger kale caesar salad with shrimp sliced salad chocolate mousse salted caramel tart we are back out here in three weeks. My waistline says that it is time for home cooked lunches in the interim...