liamsaunt

Some quick dinners. Sunday we had rigatoni with turkey meatballs Monday we had a runny brie with salad and baguette And last night I made a vegan version of kimchi fried rice

Crab cake with horseradish remoulade with a fennel, apple, and arugula salad. All recipes from The Row 34 Cookbook: Stories and Recipes from a Neighborhood Oyster Bar

Thanks for sharing your trip. It was nice to spend part of a Saturday morning looking at your delicious food and lovely scenery. As another owner of the Zuni Cafe Cookbook, I can report that the Zuni Cafe chicken is indeed very tasty, and it's not at all hard to make. You just need to be able to find the right size chicken. It used to be on regular rotation here, but I have not made it in a few years for whatever reason. I need to pull that book out for a re-read.

I have done that before but pickled won't solve the quantity problem I am dealing with right now. Luckily they last a very long time, so I am sure I will come up with something eventually. Ricotta gnocchi with burst cherry tomato and spinach sauce

Continuing my quest to use up the long storage CSA vegetables that have been languishing in my fridge for lack of ideas, last night's dinner was a soup that was 50% potato and 50% small white and green daikon radishes. When treated like a potato, the radishes blended nicely into the soup. I prepared it like a mashed potato soup with cheddar, bacon and chives to make sure my nephew would not notice the radishes and complain. Everyone really enjoyed it. I made a loaf of crusty bread to have with it. My next long storage vegetable to try and use up are watermelon radishes. I have a gallon sized ziplock bag full of them, and more are coming in today's box. There's only so many radishes on salads that one can eat!

Lo mein with a 50-50 blend of ground chicken and mushrooms, various peppers that needed to be used, and an entire head of cabbage. Only four more cabbages in the crisper to conquer (until the next one comes from my CSA).

Nephew had yesterday off from work so he offered to cook dinner using recipes from a YouTube cooking channel he likes to watch. He made chicken tikka masala, garlic naan, and a curried rice with fruit and nuts. I contributed the saag paneer because I have a lot of spinach to use up, and helped with kitchen clean up.

My husband's Easter plate: roasted rack of lamb with asparagus risotto and roasted broccolini. Nephew skipped the risotto in favor of mac and cheese with his, and my sister and I skipped the lamb in favor of extra broccolini.

Sicilian style swordfish stew

Tuesday we had a simple Macomber turnip soup. Last night was chicken, broccolini, and pepper stir fry

Sandwich night: Flour Bakery's recipe for souffled egg with bacon, red onion, greens and tomato jam. Some oven fries on the side. Here's the egg recipe: Joanne Chang's souffled egg sandwich

@Shelby I am so sorry for your dental woes. That sounds so frustrating. I hope the next round of treatments is successful. Miso salmon ramen soup with oyster mushrooms and spinach

My CSA has started offering an add on box of products from a Turkish bakery/cafe run by the wife of the farmer. She also has a high end restaurant but the products in the box are ones you can get at the cafe. We decided to give it a try every other week for a while and had some of the contents with dinner last night. From the box, there is a bulgur and broccoli salad with a spiced tomato sauce, fava hummus, and beet labne on the front of the plate. I made the farro salad in the back and the flatbread (this is my plate so I had to take the first aka worst flatbread. The others had nicer char). We really liked all the dishes we got. There were some sweet items included as well: chocolate baharat shortbreads, Turkish ravani cake, and a bottle of pomegranate rose sharbat meant to be diluted with water.

Mutter paneer, Meera Sodha's chicken curry, Maharajah rice, and naan

Braised short ribs with parsnips and carrots over potato and Macomber turnip puree with roasted broccolini for my husband, niece and nephew And the vegetarian version with braised oyster mushrooms and spinach for my sister and me

Fish and chips

Chicken fajitas

Chicken katzu with cabbage, smashed cucumbers, and rice

You are right! It is a papaya tree. Thank you for clarifying. They are in most of the places we have rented houses from, but we have never been able to get a ripe one. The fruit rats always get to them first (fun fact: fruit rats also love to eat shampoo and soap in the outdoor showers that people think are such glamorous additions to the villas). Here are a few photos from underwater. I hope it's ok to share. Grunts Octopus swimming Octopus clinging to rocks Hiding in their den Yellow trumpetfish Coral garden Blue tang Reef squid I'll update this thread again when we return in May.

Yesterday after breakfast (yesterday’s frittata was feta, mushroom, spinach and roasted pepper, and that’s avocado toast in the back) we had a pretty chill day just hanging out on the deck of our tent (that’s a mango tree next to our tent) enjoying the view We went back down to the beach for snorkeling and sea glass hunting (success on both fronts). Once again we had the beach to ourselves. I guess everyone else was on the other side of the island at the pool. We had not planned to go back to St. John, but decided on a whim to head over for dinner. (The resort provides shuttle service as part of your stay). The concierge got us a reservation at one of our favorites, La Tapa. But first, we stopped in at Drink for, well, a drink. View Husband’s margarita and my very exciting Diet Coke 😂 La Tapa setting Menu Drinks. Husband had a martini and I had sparkling water we shared a scallop seveche special appetizer. Then I had the tuna And he chose the mahi. We skipped dessert. Afterglow from La Tapa Back to Lovango We are flying home today, but will be back on St. John in May. We are hoping for smaller crowds and warmer water. We also made a pledge that we would only try new places to eat in May. Will we succeed? Only time will tell. Thanks for following along, and see you on the dinner! thread starting tomorrow!

I keep flash off and just rely on natural light. I use an Olympus TG7 on the underwater setting, and run the photos I am keeping through photoshop to pull out any excess blue. You definitely need an external light for good dive photos. It’s just an iPhone photo. Everyone who saw it basically got the exact same picture. Every time there is a launch all my St. John Facebook groups are filled with this same photo, and a couple of panicked inquiries from people who think we are under attack. 😀

I believe it was roasted peppers and avocado. It was very tender. Yessterday we spent the day snorkeling again, this time on the opposite side of the island. We saw lots of coral and sea life, but no octopus. I have not checked those photos yet. The ones from the day before came out great. Dinner was at the fine dining area of the resort. Here’s the menu. Dinner specials drinks food setting Husband had the king crab and grits and I had the scallops They were both delicious but we got bombarded with flies. Not no see ums but actual flies. It was awful. They ended up moving our table but it did not help much. I asked them to hold our main courses until the sun went down to see if that would help. It did, but the experience was extremely irritating and put a big damper on the meal. One of the hazards of eating outside I guess. After sunset they brought the main courses. Post sunset view Husband had the mahi mahi special And I had the catch of the day (yellowfin tuna) with the chorizo eliminated from the hash We shared a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert and were treated to the sight of a Space X launch! If they had not moved our table to a different area we would have missed it. No one else dining at the restaurant saw it but us. Our server saw me pointing up and taking pictures so came over and caught some of it but missed the rocket part. Today is our last full day. We might go back over to St. John for dinner, we will see.

It’s been out for a while. In fact, before our first visit in 2003, my uncle called me to complain that he had just sold his STJ time share because the island was “ruined due to crowds.” I came anyway and it felt like we had the island to ourselves and I thought he was crazy. Now I have been complaining about crowds for years. People visiting for the first time still think it’s not crowded. It’s all perception. I think that’s more of a fan than an ac unit. The tent is screened and open to the air. There is a system over the bed called “evening breeze” that blows cold air down just on the sleeping area. I had to use a blanket last night, but then I swim in a wetsuit because I am always cold so might not be the best judge. I will be honest and say that was our least favorite item of the day. Not that it was bad, it was just not as good as everything else. Here is my breakfast and a photo of the view from the breakfast area. It is buffet style. I overestimated my appetite so took the yogurt back for a snack to have later after snorkeling (the tents have fridges, a nespresso machine and an electric tea kettle).

They are similar to the kind you have. No claws, but great big thick antennae that they use to defend themselves. Most of the meat is in the tail but there is some in the antennae also. So yesterday was our last day on St. John. We decided to be lazy and just hang around the villa and swim in the pool. Eventually we got hungry and went into town. It seemed that the island was invaded with spring breakers earlier in the day. This is not normally a spring break destination, so it was rather strange to see. We decided to just get something really fast to eat and get back out of town. Lovango Rum Bar had a table for two so pizza and salad it was (that’s all they serve here) we split a kale Caesar salad and a margarita pizza We stopped by Irie Pops for a cone before heading home. This morning we came over to Lovango Cay for our glamping experience. We had lunch while waiting for our tent to be ready. View Husband had a cocktail of some sort I had a Caesar salad with shrimp He had a lobster roll made with spiny lobster We went snorkeling and it was pretty spectacular. We found three octopi and the area was teeming with fish. I need to check the photos but will post a few if any came out. Here is the glamping tent. Interior Bath area (there is an actual bathtub in here!) View The tent as seen from the beach below. The hike was steep but doable. There are two tents and two treehouses in the picture. I think the treehouses have two bedrooms and a mini kitchen in them but don’t quote me on that. The fine dining on Lovango is closed on Saturdays, but casual dining is available, so we did that rather than ferrying back to St. John for dinner. Seveche lobster guacamole wild mushroom pizza I will report back on the tent sleeping experience tomorrow. There is already a very interesting spider on the mosquito netting in our tent, but we are going to leave him alone.

Today is our last full day on St. John before heading over to Lovango for three more nights. We are actually coming back to STJ in May, so have not felt compelled to go everywhere and do everything on this visit. Yesterday, rather than trying to get a parking spot at the beaches, we spent the day hiking. We were rewarded with these views We also visited the Annaberg plantation. On certain days there are cultural demonstrations here, but we must have chosen an off day for that. This is the remnants of the sugar mill. There is a massive honeybee nest in the top of it. The honey is gathered and sold at certain times of the year (not now). It is delicious. After our hike he drove down into Coral Bay to see what was open for a late lunch. We saw people at the Surf Club cantina and had not been there before so stopped in. Restaurant Fresh squeezed limeade for me, and a guava margarita for my husband Grilled grouper tacos blackened shrimp tacos Then we went sea glass hunting for a bit, to kill some more time before heading to the beach. When we visit St. John in the on season, we try to time our beach visits to the very early morning or the late afternoon. Otherwise it is too peopley for us. Entrance to Trunk Bay, the most popular beach on the island, and consistently rated one of the most beautiful in the Caribbean. (The lifeguard stand is abandoned. There has been no funding for lifeguards on the island since the hurricanes in 2017. The National Park is working on building employee housing on the island and I think the guards will be back once that project is finished. At least I hope so. There have been two drownings on the island in the last week). Quiet, beautiful Trunk Bay beach. All the beaches used to be like this all of the time when we started visiting over 20 years ago. The secret's been out for a while and it is a different scene now, but we still think it's wonderful.