liamsaunt

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.

Not the whole grilled lobsters that they have on lobster nights. I am assuming that the lobster in our fritters was made from lobsters that went unsold on the previous night, which was a lobster night. I know the menu says lobster is available, but every time we go there on non lobster nights, they never actually have any. The lobster they serve is caught here and I assume the guys who dive for it have a catch limit.

Last night we had dinner at Morgan's Mango. This is one of the most popular restaurants on the island. I called 30 days out to try and get a reservation for lobster night but all of the tables were already booked, so we ended up going on a non-lobster night. I find this place to be hit or miss. Sometimes it is fantastic from start to finish, and sometimes it is mediocre. Last night was a mixed bag. My husband's birdbath margarita They only had the frozen slushy sweet type of mocktails, so I stuck to water. The menu. Appetizers Entrees The restaurant interior We started with two shared appetizers. The cajun shrimp, which were juicy and delicious and a special of lobster and conch fritters. I don't normally like lobster much, but I am not completely opposed to it either, and my husband really wanted these. They were quite good (though I would have liked them better as just plain conch fritters). That's a curry sauce under the fritters. It was tasty. For our entree, we got the fish special of the evening, which was wasabi pea crusted wahoo on Caribbean rice with a roasted pepper cream sauce and spinach. This was a disappointment. The wahoo was woefully overcooked, the crust was thick and somehow bland, I disliked the cream sauce (my husband thought it was ok), the spinach was salty, and the rice was greasy. I ate less than half, and I love wahoo. We call fish like cooked this "Bermuda style" because that's how they cook every fish except tuna there. Sad fish picture: Such a shame because it was a huge piece. Speaking of huge piece, we rallied and split a piece of their famous key lime pie. Husband got a grand marnier and I had a double espresso. So, a mixed bag at Morgan's Mango. Two out of three courses were good, so I won't complain too much. For food related interest, here is a picture of the banana tree in our villa's yard. I love the banana flower. It's so strange looking

We find ourselves in a little bit of a pickle at this time of year. The ocean is too cold for us in the morning, but by the afternoon (when the water still feels cold but somewhat tolerable haha), the parking spaces at the north shore beaches are full. That's where the white sandy beaches are. Yesterday's rocky beach was the Haulovers, located on the far east end of the island. We tried Haulover North first, because it has some of the best snorkeling on the island when conditions are right. First peek through the trees And out to the beach. Nope. It's hard to see from the photo but there was a strong current running, and you have to be careful here because it's easy to be pulled out into the open water (and the boat channel!). So we headed across the street to the beach facing in the opposite direction, Haulover South. Nice and calm, so we spent the afternoon snorkeling here. It's not as exciting as the diverse sea life and corals over at Haulover North, but we still saw some nice fish, sponges, and coral. Back to food. On a whim, we decided to have a late lunch at Johnny Lime, a BBQ place in Coral Bay. It's very casual: you order at a counter and they bring the food when it's ready. They make their own barbecue sauces and hot sauce, and serve vegetables and greens grown on the only farm on the island (which is around the corner from the restaurant). Restaurant Menu We ordered a mahi sandwich, yuca fries, and a salad with passion fruit dressing. Everything was delicious. The piece of mahi on our sandwich was massive. It was nice and juicy too. The yuca fries were delicious, and the greens were a welcome addition to everything else. There was only one other table with customers when we were there, a small group of full time residents. (You can tell the full timers from their cars. All the tourists have shiny new Jeeps and Broncos, and the full timers often drive cars that are beat up and usually covered in about a thousand bumper stickers) I could not understand it, because the food was so good. When I looked up their website at home I realized that they were not even open when we were there! They served us anyway, and never said anything about the fact that we were there an hour before they actually opened. Oops. After lunch we stopped by Trunk Bay for a swim. It was late enough that most people had already left for happy hour in town. It was pouring rain offshore, but not on the beach. Lunch was so filling that we skipped dinner. There are many, many cruise ships in port on STT today, so we are planning on sticking close to the house. We might try snorkeling in front of the house so that we don't have to drive anywhere. We are heading in to town for dinner, but the ship people should be gone by the time we get there.