liamsaunt

Here is this week's delivery. In the front, the short ribs and mashed potatoes are in a large container because my brother and father both plan to eat this meal together tomorrow. The middle left is basically the same chicken meal I posted in the dinner thread on Friday. The middle center is another serving (frozen) of the Guinness beef stew I made last week. He'll have that with some more of the bread I made and sent over last week. The right middle is the bratwurst meal I made for us last night, but with spaetzle and spinach instead of potato pancakes. He already has some of my applesauce in his fridge. The back row is a bag of spicy turkey meatballs portioned, vacuum sealed, and frozen (no sauce, because there is still some sauce my Mom made in his freezer, and he prefers her recipe to mine), plus purchased ciabatta rolls (for meatball sandwiches) and cranberry bread (for breakfast) from a local bakery that he likes. The salads for this week did not make it into the picture, other than the Greek salad that goes with the chicken meal.

Bratwurst and sauerkraut, potato pancakes and applesauce.

Chicken and red onions marinated in yogurt, garlic, and lemon, served with tzatziki sauce, rice pilaf, salad, and flatbread

Last night we tried a new recipe from the NY Times cooking section; roasted cauliflower with sweet chermoula and yogurt. roasted cauliflower with sweet chermoula I served it with flatbreads that I made. The reception was mixed. My niece said she liked it, but did not eat much of it (translation: she disliked it but did not want to tell me), my sister said the flavors were good but the room-temperature yogurt made the dish too cool on a chilly day. My husband enjoyed it but thought it needed something like roasted lamb to go with it 🤣

Crispy lemongrass salmon from Andrea Nguyen's cookbook Vietnamese Food Every Day. Served with rice, pickled purple radishes and carrots, shaved cucumbers, chopped peanuts, herbs, and savoy cabbage, all dressed with nuoc cham.

I have different containers for different types of meals. Like FauxPas, I have some of those three-section containers with lids. I use those for meals that have separate components that can be entirely microwaved. For meals that taste best reheated in the oven/toaster oven, I have individual serving-size ceramic dishes that are freezer and ovenproof, as well as foil containers with disposable foil-lined paper lids that can have their contents written on them (lids discarded before reheating of course). Finally, I have different sizes of leakproof plastic containers with lids for saucy stuff. For noodle dishes like the stroganoff, I usually cook and package the noodles separately, and then my brother puts them on a plate, tops them with the saucy element, and reheats the meal in the microwave. The pork was sent over in a three-section container, and I assume microwaved like that. My brother does replate everything on regular dishes with real silverware to make it seem like a "normal "meal for my Dad. For the salads, I have two sets of different sizes of lidded round plastic bowls and a set of small Tupperware containers for their dressings. My brother washes all of the Tupperware and ceramic and returns them to me once a week. I should mention that we only live 15-20 minutes away from each other, so frequent drop-offs of food and dishes are feasible for us.

I have been batch cooking in recent weeks because my Mom is in the hospital and my Dad is mobility and memory impaired and cannot really cook for himself. I am expecting this to continue for a while longer--until my Mom gets discharged, out of inpatient physical therapy rehab, and is strong enough to start cooking again. My brother is living with them and working from home, but he does not have time to cook from scratch during the day when my Dad likes to eat dinner, so I've been making meals in batches and bringing them over for my brother to heat up when my Dad is ready to eat. This week I made batches of Guinness beef stew, chicken enchiladas, homemade pizza sliced and stored in individual portions, and chicken pot pie. I generally bring two servings of each meal over to my Dad's house and then keep the remaining servings in my garage freezer to rotate back into later weeks. I bring over more food if I am going to be away for some reason, but try not to clog up their freezer too much since I have the space to store stuff here. Other popular meals so far have been saag paneer with rice and naan, chicken curry, beef stroganoff with egg noodles, mustard glazed pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes and green beans, penne with homemade meatballs and marinara sauce, chicken and vegetable stew, and vegetable lasagna. My Dad also eats a salad every weeknight, so I make a couple of different ones of those for him and package them in five containers with dressing on the side for Monday delivery to his refrigerator. This has been going on for seven weeks now with no end in sight. My brother cooks for him on the weekends (and he makes his own food for the week then too, as is his preference due to his dietary restrictions, which are too many to list). I'll be watching this thread for new ideas, and will post some pictures of my packing materials and completed meals once I do the next batch of food.

Crispy chicken with a big salad on top.

Coconut salmon curry with bok choy and rice

We were seated on the lower level. It was completely packed so they are still doing quite well. Finally back home for dinner last night: cascatelli with roasted winter squash-sage sauce and bacon.

Last night’s dinner was at Bond St. We had reservations in the lounge and it was daaaaark. Some stuff we ordered was too dark to even attempt photoing. Menu cocktail of some kind Big eye tuna tarts tuna crispy rice crab stuffed squash blossoms mushroom donabe assorted sushi My niece ordered bread pudding for dessert Her college tour is over and she is heading home today with my sister. I am staying one more night and then going home before my husband attends a work conference here for the rest of the week. Not sure what dinner tonight will bring. Probably not sushi haha

That is why we are here! Thanks for the recommendation. She liked the school so I will keep that in mind for future visits if she decides to transfer. Last night we went to Craft. We slightly over ordered, and it was dark… mushroom risotto Burrata with plums for the niece. I did not get any. Chitarra with clams short ribs for my niece olive oil poached halibut scallops tuna with fennel We also had aligot, sautéed greens, and some mushroom dish the server recommended for sides. We probably should have ordered one less side and one less fish. Everything tasted good and was perfectly seasoned but was uniformly not hot enough. It was very strange. Niece wanted the sugared donuts with caramel and chocolate sauces for dessert. Nobody else could manage any but she finished them off. If only we all had 21 year old stomachs again.

Dinner at Sushi of Gari 46 NYC. I’m in NYC for a couple of days for a college tour with my niece. Maitake tempura kabocha tempura Maguro avocafo aji, shima aji, age kaki, and a tamago for my niece tuna of Gari (we had a couple of these) Followed by Almost Famous. I am not a Broadway musical fan but this one was fun.

Wild mushroom flatbread

Chicken, bok choy, summer squash, red onion, and pea shoot stir fry with scallions.

Yesterday dawned as another day without butter for our toast. So, we decided to head back to Aqua Terra for breakfast again. Pretty views of the hotel: My niece ordered a Belgian waffle Sister had pancakes Husband chose a smoked salmon plate And I ordered a mushroom, onion and cheese omelet with wheat toast. Here is my very sad plate. Very overcooked eggs, dry toast, and no cheese in my omelet. I should have sent it back but I was really hungry so I just ate it. Oh well. The setting is very pretty. I keep meaning to stay at this hotel and then we never do. We spent the day at the beach in front of the house. You have seen it before. Dinner was at Aurora. Here's the view. looking over the pool and harbor to Hamilton. Drinks The menu It was really hard to choose what to order, because so many things sounded good! We shared a couple of appetizers. The passion fruit seveche (delicious) Tuna tartare and the stir fried calamari For mains, my niece ordered a salmon poke bowl I chose the tandoori halibut My sister had the monkfish curry and my husband had the lobster linguini We ordered dessert The sky opened up and it started pouring before the desserts came, so we had to move inside. That was fine--the restaurant actually had corresponding tables inside for every outdoor table just in case this happened! You just proceeded to the indoor table with your outdoor table's number on it. I thought that was pretty clever. Niece ordered the chocolate souffle I chose the mango brûlée, which I shared of course and sister had the Bailey's cake. We are headed home today, so this probably concludes our dining adventures for this trip (unless we get stuck for some reason). As always, here's the oddest book I found in our rental house And a nighttime view of the beach we stayed on. Until next time!

Essentially, it is my niece's weekend--we are going to NYC so she can tour a college she is applying to transfer to. Somehow the weekend has morphed into an entire trip of things that she likes best--bookstores, sushi restaurants, and Broadway shows. I'm not too thrilled about the whole thing (other than the bookstores, ha), because I am not a big fan of musicals, and more importantly, I don't think she is going to end up deciding to transfer there, so I have not been paying attention to what the dinners are, frankly. I just know they are all sushi places. We spent the day at the beach in front of the house. And then for dinner, my husband wanted to return to Sea Breeze at the Elbow Beach complex. We ate there a couple of times this summer. View from our table: Menu (I forgot to take a picture of the sushi menu) Drinks My niece ordered a torched salmon maki roll for her appetizer My husband and I shared a Thai seafood salad. I really liked this. It had some heat to it. and we also ordered some fried calamari for the table For mains, my niece got the same truffled carbonara she had over the summer My sister chose a special offering of pasta with clams and fried zucchini My husband got a special of grilled lobster and I chose the Goan king prawns The sun went down as we were eating. We were not facing the sunset, but the sky turned a lovely shade of pink My niece got a creme brûlée with berries for dessert and the rest of us shared a warm apple galette. We swapped in vanilla ice cream for the rum raisin ice cream that it came with because rum raisin ice cream is a crime

It's never long enough. Though I keep telling myself I would not feel that way in January!

Yes, no issues from Ian. The water was choppy yesterday with a lot of seaweed and some flotsam washing up, but today it is flat calm and the water is clear from debris. I can see through my binoculars that a big milk crate washed up overnight, so I am going down to clean up the beach by filling it with plastic this morning if nobody else on the bay gets to it first. I have not actually eaten the sushi rice here to my recollection! My niece usually orders some but I am more drawn to the local fish if it's available. We are going to New York City next weekend and I think all of our reservations are at sushi restaurants so the odds of my trying any this trip are pretty slim too. Bermuda fish sandwiches do not typically have cheese. It's fish (fried or grilled, but usually fried), and slaw on raisin bread. Sometimes extra slaw sauce and/or hot sauce are added. Most places offer the option of getting regular bread rather than raisin bread, but I like the raisin bread. Yesterday we went out to breakfast. We normally would not, but we have been unable to find any butter on the island for the bread I bought! Granted, we have not looked too many places, but the market within walking distance does not have any, and I had groceries delivered from the large market in Hamilton yesterday, and they did not have any butter either! So we walked over to the Reefs hotel and had breakfast at their restaurant Aqua Terra. Here's the view And the menu. They also offered a buffet, but we opted for a la carte. Three of us ordered the avocado crush. Nicely poached eggs My niece got the coconut french toast She also ordered a side of bacon. Do you think they brought her enough? 🤣 The day was very uneventful and spent swimming in front of the house and reading. For dinner, we went to Blu at the Newstead Hills golf course. Here's the view My sister and husband both got the same cocktail, a cucumber margarita The menu was eight pages long, so no pictures of that! We ordered a wahoo carpaccio to share. It was beautifully presented: We also ordered some fried calamari. Well, we ordered a Thai-style wok stir-fried calamari, but they brought us this one instead. Oh well, it was still tasty. My sister ordered the fish special, which was pan-seared local snapper with lemon risotto Husband had local lobster thermidor I ordered the seafood mixed grill (clams, calamari, snapper, wahoo, shrimp, and scallops) and, despite the large and delicious sounding sushi menu, my niece chose Mongolian beef The sun went down as we enjoyed our entrees They brought out some cookies while we contemplated the dessert menu My niece chose the chocolate souffle and the rest of us got the lemon soufflé to share Overall, it was a lovely (though expensive) evening, and some of the best food we have had in Bermuda.

I loved reading about your visit. You went to a couple of places we have never tried. Maybe next year!

I am back in Bermuda for a short visit with my husband, sister, and niece. I am always the first person awake, so figured I would update this blog while I wait for everyone else to get their lazy selves out of bed. We are only here for four nights and are not planning on doing much, so this won't be an exciting visit. First, we have always exciting airport food! Haha. We had time for a sit-down breakfast before boarding our plane, so went to Legal Seafoods in Terminal C. I had a basic egg sandwich My husband had an omelet stuffed with shrimp and avocado Sister had an omelet stuffed with vegetables and niece hated all of the choices so just got toast and bacon. A short flight later, we arrived back in Bermuda. We are staying in a rental condo that is easy walking distance to a beach. It's pretty close to where we stayed this past summer. Here is a (slightly wobbly) pano of the view: My husband and I spent our honeymoon 25 years ago on the beach below. The hotel we stayed in was washed out to sea in 2003 during Hurricane Fabian. Normally there would not be so many chairs on this beach, but they were all moved over from the beach you can see on the far right, which was inundated with sand during last week's hurricane. The hotel we honeymooned at was located on the empty point you see on the farthest right of this picture. Here's a better picture of the beach from the deck of the condo: And taken from the beach, a view towards the beach of the (currently closed for renovation) Southampton Princess hotel. That building with the pointy roof was a pretty good seafood restaurant when the hotel was open. For dinner we just walked down the street to Henry VIII. It's less than a five minute walk from the house. Drinks Smoked salmon to share My husband and sister both had fish and chips I got a Bermuda fish sandwich on raisin bread with cole slaw and my niece (of course) got sushi My niece got bread and butter pudding for dessert and the rest of us shared a bowl of ice cream, because why not? It's vacation We got back to the condo in time to catch the end of the sunset over Sinky Bay. That land is a better view of where the hotel used to be (on the point where the palm trees are). The platform out in the water was a swimming pool covered with a dome. My husband and I used to go there late at night, stand on opposite ends of the pool, and whisper to each other. Because of the dome, it sounded like you were standing right next to each other.

Chicken katzu with pineapple rice

I also made mushroom pasta last night. Mine had roasted shiitake mushrooms from my CSA box with bacon and garlic.

Here is information on the seeds they are gown from, if you are interested: https://www.row7seeds.com/products/habanada-pepper Last night, chicken shawarma

Miso salmon with sun ramen noodles and a variety of vegetables from my CSA box: bok choy, shiitake and king oyster mushrooms, cone cabbage, and habanada peppers (supposedly they have all of the flavors of habanero peppers but without the heat).