liamsaunt

Yesterday was a mix of walking, birding, beach, and food. My husband and I went walking over by Marconi station. There are trails that go through a white cedar swamp (mostly dry yesterday) and then out to the dunes and views Marconi is the site of the first wireless transmission in the country! Later we drove up to Provincetown To have dinner at Pepe's Wharf Oysters Rockefeller Crab cake (only OK, but the salad was good) My niece wanted burrata And a steak frites I had blackened swordfish Sister had cod with tomato stew and my husband chose halibut We shared a slice of their famous coconut cake for dessert. A long walk on Herring Cove beach after helped digest dinner. Unfortunately there was no sunset to speak of due to heavy fog rolling in.

We have not. As far as I know, there are no fishermen who sell at the docks in Wellfleet. There is a fish market at the pier, as well as one in town, both of which sell the local catch. There's also a local scallop boat that sells their catch on the side of the road on Wednesdays (I think). I'm not cooking this visit, but will be cooking a lot when we come back to a different house with a better kitchen next month (the range in this one only has one working burner at the moment). Yesterday was a wash, weather wise and food wise. We had dinner reservations in Provincetown and plans to see the 4th of July fireworks after, but severe thunderstorms made it unsafe to travel. I did call the restaurant a few hours before our reservation, but they still charged a $25 per person fee and marked us a a no show on open table. I can understand the fee, but the no show thing is annoying since I called them and told them we were not coming and why. Oh well. It stopped raining around 9, but I don't know if the fireworks ever happened or not. The fog was awful all night. We ended up just grabbing food at a place down the street. It was terrible and I am going to forget that we ever ate there! No pictures because I don't want to look at them 😂 We did go to Gelato Joy after for dessert, which salvaged things a bit. Here's the "red white and blue" special gelato for the 4th (sweet cream, blackberry, and strawberry) We were at home relaxing around 11PM when I heard a car roaring along at high speed and then what sounded like an awful accident on the road right above us. I called 911 but they already knew about it. My husband walked up there this morning, and the driver knocked over two large pine trees and destroyed the entire fence of the house where the trees were. Hopefully the car occupants survived. So basically, it was a bad day. On to today! It's still foggy, but the weather is set to improve. Here's a view of the tidal marsh taken from the porch And oyster fishermen working the flats in front of the house in the fog earlier this morning.

Oh, the history of the house is extremely interesting! It was built by son of the man who was the first major importer of bananas to the continental United States. It was originally built as a changing house and guest accommodations for his family and friends. The roof is newer, I think it was replaced about 10 years ago--but you are right, the siding is cedar shingles. The tower area is a small bedroom accessed by a spiral staircase that goes off of another bedroom. My niece is staying up there but she said I could take a few pictures. The small bedroom The view Here's a view of the covered porch at low tide. The boats in the picture belong to this house, and the long rectangles are oyster cages. The oyster farming lease is also owned by the family, but somebody else tends to the actual farming of the oysters. The porch from outside with the tower and lower bedroom. The closest windows in the photo are the kitchen area. My sister went over to PB Boulangerie to buy some pastries for the house. A representative sample: My niece wanted to visit the used bookstore in town, so of course I obliged. The cooking section had an unused copy of 50 chowders, by Jasper White for $10. I almost bought it because my copy is falling apart from overuse. If it's still there next time I visit, I might pick it up. My sister and niece had tickets for a play last night, so we decided to do an early dinner at the Pearl. It was crowded but not terribly so While we waited I went for a walk down the pier to look at the osprey nest. They have babies now Cocktails for my husband and sister. My sister ordered a Cape Cod margarita, and I don't know what my husband's was We were all starving so ordered some garlic fries to share and an order of wasabi pea encrusted tuna sashimi My sister got a cod sandwich. I am not sure how one was supposed to eat those two giant cod filets on a sandwich! She just ate one. Niece ordered a tuna poke bowl. I had the same thing, but with shrimp Husband had fish tacos My husband and I went to the sunset while the others enjoyed the play Full moon from the porch

We are back in Wellfleet for the next 10 days. Right now, it is my husband, my sister, my niece, and me. Later this week, we will be joined by my nephew, who is currently driving cross country to move home from Montana, and two of his three Montana roommates, who came with him to keep him company on the drive. We are staying on the beach in an old historic home, which is good because we won't have to drive much now that we are here. The house is very quirky. Here it is from the beach (I think I have posted this picture here before) Here's the kitchen area. Many of the board games up there were donated by us over the years. It's hard to get a spot at this house because it is usually being used by members of the extended family that owns it. It's a great place to hang out, but not a great place to cook, so I think we are going to be eating out most of the time. Our first dinner, per tradition, had to be at Mac's Shack. They don't take reservations (most places in Wellfleet do not) and the wait was crazy, which seemed odd because we have certainly been here when it is busier. Once we were seated we found out why: they took out at least half of the tables--I assume due to short staffing. Here's the line for the bar. It goes inside and around the bend there. After 40 (!!!!) minutes in line, my husband and sister returned with their drinks, plus a mocktail for my niece (she is now old enough to drink, but chooses not to.) All in all, it took about 90 minutes to be seated. Luckily we were not doing anything else that night. Oysters Spicy tuna mango martini A maki special of shrimp tempura with striped bass, avocado and aguachile sauce Fried oyster plate Seared scallops with green curry sauce, pickled beech mushrooms, bok choy and rice. Moon over Wellfleet harbor.

Grilled garlic chicken sausages, onions and peppers with an arugula salad.

Filet mignon with roasted asparagus and scallion risotto

Crispy chicken topped with a lemony arugula and parmesan salad, and some garlicky bruschetta.

Miso salmon with sautéed baby bok choy, shiitake mushrooms cooked in foil with soy sauce, roasted radishes and turnips with miso butter, and rice.

Broiled flounder tacos with pineapple salsa

Salad with grilled chicken and strawberries

Thursday was lettuce cups and rice Friday we had cavatelli with summer squash and zucchini sauce Saturday was chicken shawarma Sunday was crispy ricotta gnocchi with melted cherry tomato, arugula, and pesto sauce

Rice bowl with seared tuna, cucumber salad, avocados, and pickled carrots

Miso salmon with mashed sweet potatoes, roasted radishes and mustard greens with soy sauce and peanuts.

Fish and chips

Coconut crusted grouper with spicy mango salsa, curried rice with raisins, asparagus, and some of the last parsnips and carrots from my winter/spring farm share.

Ramen bowls with grilled chicken, miso roasted watermelon radishes, spinach, bell peppers, scallions, and cilantro

It is a Meera Sodha recipe from her cookbook Fresh India. Basically, it's basmati rice toasted in butter then cooked with a cinnamon stick, peppercorns, and a few whole cloves plus salt. When it's cooked you stir in chopped dates, pistachios, and apricots. I cook the dried fruits along with my rice, which is why the rice looks dark. It makes the fruits very tender, but if you do it her way the rice stays nice and white. She also calls for you to drizzle soaked saffron over the rice at the end, but I don't bother doing that.

Saag paneer to use up all the various greens I have been getting in my farm box. This one had mustard greens, radish greens, beet greens, turnip greens, and spinach. Served with maharajah rice, naan, and a sampling of some chicken curry I picked up at my farmer's market for us to try (we all thought it was very good)

Last week of the fish share delivery for the summer (it keeps going, but we stop getting it until the fall because we travel a lot in the summer), and it turned out to be one of my least favorite, pollock. Sigh. I made it into a stew with ginger and soy sauce, with baby bok choy, shiitake mushrooms and some big oyster mushrooms I picked up my my town's farmers' market on Sunday.

chicken tinga tacos

Gnocchi made from the last of the stored chioggia beets and potatoes from my winter farm share, with sautéed beet greens from the current crop of beets they are growing, toasted pine nuts and brown butter sauce. I thought the gnocchi would turn out pinker, but once peeled it turned out that the beets had pale pink and light orange alternating rings. The gnocchi ended up being pretty close in color to regular potato gnocchi.

Ramen with soy sauce eggs and lots of spinach

Yellowtail flounder rolled and steamed on bok choy with garlic and ginger sauce, with rice.

Eggplant involtini, arugula salad, and crusty bread rubbed with garlic.

White pizza with mushrooms and arugula