liamsaunt

Yes, it is the Southampton Princess golf course. Yes, the Four Ways is still open. We are not going there this trip, but my husband and I are coming back in September (so many pre-covid trips that we booked years ago are being taken now that things are opening up again) and I think we are going there then. Not much has changed since your visit. My first trip was in 1987, when I was a teenager. I think the biggest change is that the large cruise ships come here now (I am looking out my window at two of them right now). Horseshoe Bay is jammed when the ships are in, but it's easy for us to just keep walking to the other beaches beyond Horseshoe, which are still usually deserted or close to it.

I am back in Bermuda. We are staying in a private house with views of the sound. Here's the view. The house is located right next to one of the largest hotels on the island, which is unfortunately closed at the moment for renovation. When we booked this stay pre-Covid, we were planning on using the hotel's access path down to the public beaches, but it's now locked off. Since the only vehicles for rent on Bermuda hold two people maximum, and there are five of us (there were supposed to be seven, but my brother messed up his passport renewal, and my husband's brother is unable to fly at the moment due to an ear issue), we are relying on pre-arranged taxis to get around. Today is our "villa gravity" day. No beaches, just relaxing and swimming in the very large pool. The house is very large, with lots of spaces for relaxing and entertaining, but the kitchen is insanely under equipped for a house this size. There are no cutting boards, no knives for preparing food, and though there are some pots and pans, there are no utensils for cooking food on the stove! I had planned to cook some meals at "home", but it looks like we will be dining out. It is honestly the least equipped kitchen of any vacation house I have ever rented, and we have rented a lot of vacation homes. I think the tourism authority equipped the kitchen to ensure we would be supporting Bermuda's restaurants 😂 The hotel is closed, but their golf course is still open, so we walked over yesterday to have lunch at the golf restaurant. Here's the menu. Pretty basic, but it was a two minute walk from the house, and we were exhausted (4am wake ups will do that to you). On Sundays they also have a smoker going. Here's that menu Drinks. I neglected to ask what was in the cocktail everyone ordered Restaurant view Nephew ordered the elotes as an appetizer Niece had the chicken wings My sister, husband and I shared the trio of dips For entrees, my niece ordered ribs Sister and husband both ordered the fish sandwich. Neither of them enjoyed the thick crust on the fish. Nephew ordered the brisket sandwich from the smoker menu. He said the brisket was tasty but the barbecue sauce was much too sweet for his taste. I ordered the fish tacos. Everyone agreed that mine was the best choice. The fish was cooked "Bermuda style" (aka overcooked) but was very fresh. Bermuda is filled with lovely flowers and plants. This hibiscus plant was growing on the side of the road Last night's sunset from the point on the house's lawn

Naan, and it is homemade. Recipe below It is so simple. I just dump everything in my stand mixer all at once: 2 1/4 cups flour 2 1/4 tsp. yeast 1/2 cup full fat yogurt 1 tsp each salt and sugar 1 tbsp. softened butter, ghee, or other oil 1/2 cup milk (sometimes I need a little more. I used to use water, but switched to milk, which makes the bread very tender ) Mix everything with the dough hook for 10 minutes, and then let rise for one hour. Divide into four pieces for large naan, or eight pieces for smaller. Roll into balls and then roll out flat. Heat up a cast iron skillet on medium heat until nice and hot, then cook the naan one at a time until spotty browned on both sides. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with salt when they are done. They are best eaten the day you make them, but in a pinch you can reheat them.

Another unattractive curry that tasted good. This one had chicken, cauliflower and cashews. My nephew especially enjoyed it. He's not usually a big cauliflower fan but he liked this preparation enough to ask for the recipe.

Pasta with raw tomato sauce and with long cooked zucchini and basil for my tomato-hating niece

I joined my CSA when the pandemic started. It's once weekly for the basic share, and at various times of the year, they offer add ons for an extra cost: mushroom share, tomato share, sweet corn and fruit share, and sunflower share. Overall, we are happy with it. The delivery day varies based on the season, and this season it is on Fridays. Here's what I got this week. I detest kohlrabi and green bell peppers, so will be giving those to my mother. She's probably getting the cucumbers, lettuce, and mushrooms this week too, because we are going out of town on Sunday (assuming everyone passes their covid tests to leave the country--we all had it a few weeks ago so there's an outside chance we will still test positive on the test though we are all recovered). Most of the other veggies are going into a curry I am making for dinner tonight.

Tacos, cilantro rice and beans

I was debating making this for dinner tomorrow night as I have a bunch of squash to use up. Do you recommend it? How was the provolone in it? I was wondering if it might overpower the squash. Last night, we had lots of different vegetables to use up, but in small quantities, so I made vegetable lo mein. It has napa cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, bell peppers, green garlic, garlic scapes, broccolini, carrots, cilantro and chiles. My sister made the "no crab" rangoons to go with it. The filing is just cream cheese, shallots, chives, and sriracha. I think my nephew ate 15 of them.

Last installment for this visit. The house we rented was pretty quirky. Here are a couple of funny things from the house. This hanging from when the house was part of a girls' summer camp was on the wall of the kitchen--it's about five feet high The instructions for the toaster oven made us laugh As did the list of what was available to use in the kitchen. At the bottom of the list, it said "rock, paper scissors, top right drawer." I opened it, and indeed the drawer contained nothing but a huge rock, a pad of paper, and a pair of scissors! Strangest book found in the house award goes to.... After we left the house, we stayed one more night in a hotel to avoid trying to drive home in traffic on Sunday. We spent the extra day in Chatham. Breakfast was had at the Captain's Table Smoked salmon benedict French toast Breakfast slilders BLAT After breakfast we walked up to the town center to check out the whales on auction. Every year local artists decorate these and then they are auctioned online for charity towards the end of the summer. They used to make sharks, and the event was called Sharks in the Park, but they stopped that after a young surfer was killed by a shark in Wellfleet a few years ago. Now the artists decorate whales and it is called "Art in the Park." I'd really like to have one of these, but the bidding usually gets crazy. Some of this year's whales and a few of my favorites My husband's brother went home in the late afternoon, and the rest us of who were staying at the hotel had dinner at La Bella Vita. Drinks Calamari My niece wanted fried mozzarella. She ate almost the entire thing She also had a salad with strawberries and burrata My husband got risotto with shrimp, scallops, salmon, broccoli, and bacon. He said it had too much bacon. Is there ever such a a thing? Apparently so. I chose shrimp pasta in a cream sauce. Most of the pasta got left behind, but the shrimp were good Sister chose linguini with clams We were all too full for dessert. One last sunset at the first beach we ever stayed on out on the Cape: Thumpertown Beach in Eastham. The house we used to rent directly on it more than doubled their rental rates and is too expensive for us now, but the beach is open to anyone.

Yesterday my nephew headed back to our house to attend a barbecue at one of his friend's homes. My sister, niece and I went to town for breakfast. The Fox and Crow recently reopened in a new, larger location, so we decided to try it. Menu pictures My sister and niece both got the Fox breakfast sandwich And I chose the gravlax plate, which actually came out as a sandwich. The cream cheese on it was goat's cream cheese, which I like, but I was glad my sister did not order it, because she hates goat cheese! I brought half home for my husband. I hope they do well in their new location. For dinner, we went to Mac's Shack since my husband's brother had not been there yet. Specials (we did not get any) Drinks. Oysters Halibut seveche. This was excellent My niece wanted to get the spicy tuna mango martini again I really wanted a salad, so chose one with peaches, blue cheese and bacon Husband's brother chose cod in a cream broth with clams Sister had scallops with corn, gnocchi and bacon Husband had ritz cracker bluefish I had spicy swordfish with cilantro rice and watermelon relish Niece had some sushi After dinner the sunset did not disappoint

I did speak to the manager on duty at the time. I am sorry if that was not clear. I will say that the owner (who we know from prior visits) was not there, and she usually is, so perhaps that had something to do with it. In any case, they offered us the table and I declined it, explaining that it would be too small. We offered to sit anywhere they wanted on the patio at a larger table. They discussed it amongst themselves, came back, and offered us the same table again, moving the chairs around to show us how they wanted us to sit at the table (squashed together and with table legs between at least three people's legs). I politely declined again, they discussed again, and then they offered us the inside table. I would have preferred to leave at that point, but my nephew really wanted to eat there, so we just sat inside. I was not going to make any more of a fuss about it and make everyone involved uncomfortable. Their restaurant, their choice of how to seat people I guess. Thanks, I missed this article. There are lots of Jamaican cooks in the Wellfleet area, including where we ate last night, where, according to our server, the kitchen staff is entirely Jamaican this year. Blackfish in Truro. It's in an old blacksmithing house from the 1700s. I should have taken a picture of the outside, but forgot. Drinks. An elder 75, a cucumber martini (I think), and a ginger margarita. Plus my water of course. We got raw oysters to start, but no picture of those. We also ordered fried oysters I had a special salad offering to start. It was a caesar salad with smoked bluefish swapped in for the anchovies. It was very nice My niece got the other salad special, which was a roasted beet and strawberry salad with burrata. She gave me a bite and it was tasty. For entrees, I chose the panko crusted sole with lemon buerre blanc, asparagus and mashed cauliflower. The fish and asparagus were delicious but the cauliflower was startlingly bland. I left that behind My husband's brother chose their famous tuna bolognese. I like this a lot, but you have to be especially hungry to eat it. It's a large option and very rich My niece chose the red wine roasted short ribs with carrots and mashed potatoes. She really enjoyed this You will have to visualize my nephew's dinner in your mind, because my husband took the picture of it and it came out blurry. He had a special of Jamaican jerked chicken and gravy over pasta. One of his housemates in Montana has celiac disease, and he keeps a gluten free kitchen to keep things safe for her, so he is loading up on gluten filled foods while home this month. My husband and sister both chose a special entree of roasted striped bass and spring vegetables with grapefruit gastrique. They both said the fish was perfectly cooked, but the gastrique was overpowering. We ordered two of the four desserts on offer to share. Niece chose the molten chocolate s'mores cake. This was only OK. The center was not molten, and the graham cracker crust was way too thick My nephew chose the roasted cherry and mint panna cotta. We all agreed this dessert was more successful. The sunset was obscured by clouds last night, but there was still a pretty sky.

Fried food alert! Yesterday we went to the Beachcomber, which is located in an old Coast Guard lifesaving station on the dunes at Cahoon Hollow beach. Every year the dune seems to be a bit narrower. My nephew was shocked when he saw it. He thought it looked like it had lost 20 feet of frontage since he was last here. I'm not sure it was that much, but it definitely lost some depth. We have a house rented for three weeks later this summer on this same dune, but further down the road. Hopefully it is not teetering off the edge. Here is the beach below the restaurant. Those people you can see in the water are braver than me. A great white shark ate a seal about three feet offshore at a beach down the road the day before. Someone captured it on video and the local paper posted a link. After viewing that, I'll stay on the sand, thanks. Restaurant Drinks for my husband and nephew. A margarita and a mezcal paloma Fried whole belly clams to share Nephew wanted a cup of chile con carne and a black bean burger I got a grilled swordfish steak. The corn went uneaten. The fish was good. Husband got an oyster po boy Sister had swordfish tacos and my niece ordered a steak tip sandwich, which she devoured Beachcomber does not serve dessert. Here's the sunset from last night

Wow! Shucked lobster meat is going for $80-90 a pound in the fish markets in Cape Cod MA right now. I do not think I will be making lobster rolls anytime soon.

That would not really be practical right now. Although my husband is 99% remote for work, he does have to go in occasionally, and Wellfleet would be 3-4 hour drive from Boston on a weekday because of traffic/congestion. Plus, we both have elderly parents that are still alive and in easy driving distance from our current home (my parents live one town over, and his Mom is an hour away). Yesterday we went to an early dinner at Winslow's Tavern at my nephew's request. We arrived at opening for a table on the patio, which is first come, first served. Things started off on a sour note when they insisted that as a party of five, we had to sit at a square table that was meant for a party of two or four. This was the first time in our many, many times eating here that they tried to make us sit at a table like that. Normally they just push two tables together, but they said they would only do that yesterday if we had six in our party. It would have been cramped and uncomfortable to sit at the table they were offering outside, so we ate inside instead, where they were willing to seat us at a larger table. I'm still annoyed about it this morning, to be honest, so these pictures are the last photos of food at Winslow's Tavern that I will be posting for a very long while. Nephew wanted an order of veal and pork polpettino as his appetizer. Nobody else wanted to try them. but he said they were tasty. My sister and husband shared an order of lobster croquettes. My niece and I skipped appetizers. For entrees, my sister got the braised zucchini pasta with ricotta salata. She said it was too salty and only ate half. Nephew got short rib pasta. He also said his was too salty, but he ate it all anyway 🙂 My husband, niece and I all got the sweet corn risotto with scallops. This was very good, and not too salty. We skipped dessert. Here are a couple of sunset pictures from last night. That's my niece, me, and my sister heading down to the beach. I am the shortest as you can see haha Glorious sunset

The bread was weird. Texturally, it reminded me of a quick bread, rather than a crusty bread like you normally use as bruschetta. From a taste perspective, it reminded me (in a bad way), of this cottage cheese dill bread I used to bake in college. In fact, I just looked at the cookbook to confirm, and it was a Moosewood recipe from the Enchanted Broccoli Forest! The vegetables on top were fine, I guess. The cheese was bland. Last night my nephew requested that we drive back to Eastham to go to a Mexican restaurant, Casa del Cabo. Traffic was extremely heavy, so I doubt we will be heading back that way again this week, unless my niece convinces me to go used book shopping. Drinks: two spicy margaritas for my husband and nephew, one plain margarita for my sister, and one sparkling water with ice for me. Appetizers: my niece wanted tuna sashimi (at a Mexican restaurant?) My nephew ordered fried calamari with marinara (???) My sister, husband and I split some seveche. The fish was salmon and swordfish For main dishes, my niece opted for a special of ribs with rice and beans Nephew ordered chicken tacos I had cilantro lime chicken thighs with rice and beans Husband had swordfish on a salad with chimichurri sauce And my sister got a roasted salmon with a yogurt dill sauce and roasted potatoes We split a couple of desserts. They were both excellent. One of the best flans we have ever tasted And a warm churro bread pudding with melted chocolate inside and vanilla ice cream The sun is trying to peek out, so we might actually go to a beach in a bit. Not to swim of course, none of us even brought bathing suits!

I used to make the enchanted broccoli forest recipe all the time to bring to family gatherings where I was the only vegetarian. Nobody else ever ate it haha. I'll have to look inside to see what else I used to make when I get home. The recipes you mention do not sound familiar to me. We were able to get parking in Provincetown, so we had dinner at Ciro and Sal's. It's Italian, which is my nephew's favorite type of food, and he's only home for a month, so we are catering to his tastes this month. We sat outside in a beautiful garden area, surrounded by flowers. Drinks. My sister had a Pompei, which had vodka, lime juice, and pomegranate. Husband chose a lemon drop, and nephew had a black Manhattan. I just had sparkling water, which they only had in a huge bottle, and they brought it out at room temperature with no ice, which was annoying. For starters, we got two orders of fried oysters And a pesto bruschetta topped with tomatoes and eggplant The oysters were tender and creamy. None of us liked the bruschetta that much. Everyone chose pastas for their dinner. Niece got carbonara My sister had a spicy calamari spaghetti. Everyone tried it but me, and they all agreed it was very spicy (in a good way!) The calamari was very tender. Husband had spaghetti with clams, which he enjoyed My nephew chose bolognese. He said the one he makes is better haha. I think he uses bison out in Montana. I chose a ravioli special stuffed with wild mushrooms in a pesto cream sauce. It was good but kind of small. That's an appetizer sized plate in the picture. I think I would have liked one more ravioli. Niece and nephew got desert. Tiramisu for the nephew Cannoli for the niece My sister, husband and I went for kiddie sized ice creams from Lewis' Homemade while waiting for the fireworks. I chose mint oreo, and the other two had salted caramel Here are some bonus fireworks pictures The weather is overcast today so not sure what we will get up to, but food will definitely be involved!

We are back in Wellfleet for the week. We are staying at a kind of crazy house that used to be a camp for girls at the turn of the century. The building that we are in is the only remaining structure, and it used to be the camp counselors' dorm. It's been updated and expanded over the years, but still has some of the original stuff from the camp, which I'll show at some point. The house is filled with books, and has a cookbook shelf. Here's a picture of that: I own three of these at home: Fish Without a Doubt (very good), Food and Wine Pasta (have not cooked out of it for years, but their tomato sauces used to be my go to recipes) and the Enchanted Broccoli Forest (I have not cooked anything from it since college, but still have it for sentimental reasons) Here is a menu on the wall of the kitchen. I think that the american cheese and peanut butter sandwich on offer here is one of the worst ideas I have ever heard of. We had dinner last night at Mac's Shack, our traditional start to every visit to Wellfleet. Halibut turadito Jalepeno yellowtail sashimi Spicy tuna mango martini My sister, niece and husband got sushi for dinner. Toro poke bowl Big kahuna roll Maki special. The outside was toro with roasted pineapple, and the inside was hamachi, avocado and cucumber. They got two of these rolls. My nephew tried a piece of the yellowtail and a maki roll but they were not his favorites, so he got some Mexican street corn to start. Then he ordered clams and mussels on sun dried tomato pesto fettuccine. It turns out that he is not a fan of mussels, but he did enjoy the clams. I had salmon with a poblano cream sauce, corn pudding and tomatillo corn salsa. This was really good. my husband filched some. After dinner we went for ice cream. The line was very long! This morning my sister, niece and I got up and walked in to town for the 4th of July parade. We stopped by Winslow's Tavern for some coffee and yogurt-granola parfaits Some parade pictures What is great after a parade? Gelato! My niece opted for an affogato (no picture). My sister and I got raspberry and coffee We have dinner reservations in Provincetown this evening. Parking is going to be a challenge, so we will see if we actually get to eat there!

Nephew is home for a month, so he got to pick the dinner menu. We made hummus and falafel from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem, plus flatbread and a chopped salad. My sister made the muhammara in the front of the picture. The sauce on the falafel is a spicy tahini that I had in the fridge from making cauliflower shawarma a couple of weeks ago.

Yum, I have not made fish chowder in a while. I am surprised you wanted chowder yesterday. It was so very hot! Sandwich night: tomato, fresh mozzarella, and pesto

My niece picked the dinner menu last night: macaroni and cheese gratins with a local strawberry and lettuces salad.

Miso salmon ramen bowl with baby bok choy, napa cabbage, garlic scapes, green garlic, harukei turnips, oyster mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms all from this week's CSA box. Plus red chiles and cilantro from the grocery store.

My sister went to the farmer's market on her lunch break and brought home some sole. Sole roll ups in coconut, lime, lemongrass and ginger broth with carrots and summer squash, chopped peanuts, cilantro and the last of the chive flowers from my CSA box.

Chicken tinga tacos

Creamy corn spaghetti

Yes, chicken I ground up in my food processor. Edward, if you find a bag of money.... gosh I love that movie. Chicken shawarma