liamsaunt

The weather has taken a temporary downturn. We are having a nor'easter and are under a gale warning. The waves and wind are supposed to pick up by the afternoon. We'll be generally staying at the house today. Last night we ventured back to Mac's Shack. If anything, it was even busier last night than it was on Saturday night! Where are all these people coming from haha. Drinks for my brother and husband: We shared some littlenecks steamed in garlic, ginger, scallions and soy as an appetizer. These were delicious, and I wished we had something on the table to soak the broth up with, or at least a spoon. Niece got sushi again. A salmon poke bowl this time And then she ordered another roll with cream cheese in it. I guess that's the way she likes her sushi. This is the Philly roll. Brother ordered fish and chips. The cole slaw went untouched of course. Husband ordered halibut with mashed potatoes in lobster broth and I had swordfish with roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes. Not sure what we are doing for dinner today--I am pretty sure I am cooking, though I doubt the fishing boats went out last night. We'll see what the market has. If it's not too crowded I will take some pictures of the counters in there today.

I'm not really sure what the purpose of cream cheese is in sushi. I used to only see it in salmon rolls called "Philadelphia roll" which mimicked a bagel I guess, but now it seems to be in a lot of different ones. She likes it though, and I wasn't eating it, so it was OK with me! I cooked at the house last night. My brother grilled tuna for himself and my husband, but my niece did not want any since she had tuna for dinner the prior evening. She picked out a piece of salmon at the market, so I ate that with her. I just did it on a sheet pan with some summer squash and zucchini and an oyster sauce glaze. I also cooked a pot of rice. I made corn on the cob and a tomato salad for my husband to have with his tuna, but I only took a picture of the salmon Here are some photos of last night's sunset. Afterglow

Where we are staying has beautiful views, but I do wonder how many more years it will be here. Erosion is a big problem on this part of the Cape. I found a couple of not so great pictures to compare. Here is a (blurry) picture I took last June of a moonrise with the home's flagpole in the shot. The dark line you see running behind the bottom of the flagpole is the edge of the dune the house sits on. And here is that same flagpole just over one year later, teetering on the very edge of the dune. I would guess there is about 20-25 feet between the end of the house's foundation and the edge of the cliff. My sister had to drive back home and go in to the office today and tomorrow, so she asked to go out to dinner again last night. She chose the Wicked Oyster. I remembered to take pictures of the specials and the front page of the menu, but not the back page. Oops! Specials Appetizers and salad My niece wanted the bread basket and my sister and husband wanted to try the lobster dip with truffled potato chips. The chips were a bit stale (hard not to be in the humidity out here) and the dip only tasted of shallot, so that was a bit disappointing. My niece and I both got the entree size tuna tataki from the appetizer section of the menu. It was fine--but a little boring. My sister had the scallop special. They were beautifully seared on the other side, so I don't know why they presented them upside down! Anyway, she said it was delicious. Brother ordered the grilled halibut. He left behind the broccoli of course, but enjoyed the fish and potatoes. My husband got the lazy lobster. He enjoyed it. We were too full for dessert or any ice cream, so went for a long walk after dinner instead. Here's the sunset afterglow from the house.

Well, we are back in Wellfleet. The timing of rental availability has us here this week, then home for a week, then back for two more weeks, all in the same house. This place has a decent kitchen and grill so I will likely be cooking at least half of the time. Here's the view. We stayed here last year. There is access to the beach via a long stairway. No swimming for us though, at least not in the ocean. It's cold and there are sharks. We have a beach sticker to swim in the kettle ponds in town, and we all enjoy a good beach walk. This week the group is myself and my husband, my sister, my niece, and my brother. My husband's brother is coming for a couple of nights at the end of the week. First night's dinner had to be at Mac's Shack. We all (except my brother, who does not eat appetizers) started with a spicy tuna mango martini. I forgot to take a cocktail picture, but that's my brother's mezcalito to the side. It's like a margarita but made with mezcal. I tried one back when I still drank alcohol and thought it was too smoky, but he and my husband really like them and order one every time we come here. I also forgot a picture of the dozen oysters. I am sure we will order them again. We also ordered some halibut seveche, which was terrific. My sister and niece got sushi. Sister had tuna poke and niece got a poke special which was made with toro Then they got my niece's two favorite rolls, the gon jah mon and the big kahuna I ordered a blackened salmon special, which came with a salad of black lentils, brussels sprouts and peppers, and a roasted red pepper sauce Husband got the classic ritz cracker crusted bluefish with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach and brother ordered the blackened swordfish with cilantro rice, watermelon-fennel-cucumber salad and sweet potato. I have had this before and think it is really tasty. He eats no vegetables or fruits other than some citrus, herbs, white potatoes, cooked onion, and the occasional carrot, so did not get the full experience by leaving almost all of the sides on his plate (He is weird about food, and I don't know how he remains alive with his limited diet, but he has made it this far, so I have given up trying to change him). He did enjoy the rice and fish. We were all too tired to go to the sunset, but we saw a beautiful moonrise from the deck after we came home from dinner.

I don't think the plastic ones are dishwasher safe, are they? I don't like eating out of plastic anyway. I like the hefty weight and the rougher texture of the ceramic ones.

I have these bowls from amazon too, though I chose the other color they offer (or used to offer, which is more of a beige color) and they are really great. They are very sturdy and can go in the dishwasher too. Last night, ziti with a raw tomato, garlic and spinach sauce with some chunks of fresh mozzarella cheese added for my husband, sister, and me. My niece dislikes tomato sauces so she had a ginger ramen soup with spinach added in one of those big bowls posted about above.

In theory, that is how my freezer is organized too. The second door shelf has ziplocks of various stuff such as coconut milk, pesto, chipotles in adobo, tomato paste, compound butters, etc. It's just that I often forget that I have coconut milk in there and then I end up with multiple ziplocks of the stuff. I got a huge bunch of Thai basil and various types of peppers in yesterday's CSA delivery, so we had Thai basil, pepper and chicken stir fry.

I actually do that too, but then I end up finding little bags of frozen coconut milk in the far reaches of my freezer. Never when I actually need them, of course! I actually bought some of the Aroy-D brand of coconut milk based on a recommendation from you earlier--it is good, so thanks! @Shelby, ugh, poison ivy! I hate that stuff! I hope you feel better soon, and that the steroids work quickly. One time, my husband and I got terrible cases of it that required steroids (from clearing off a dormant vegetable plot next to woodlands). Mine cleared up after one course of steroids, but my husband had flare ups that came back occasionally over the next three years! Now he refuses to garden at all 🤣 Last night, more dinner salads. This one had a creamy avocado and buttermilk dressing. I put leftover steak on top for my husband and niece And breaded sautéed chicken for my sister and me.

My rice cooker is a Zojirushi but it does not have a GABA setting. I had never even heard of GABA rice before reading the end of this thread! That said my rice cooker is at least 10 years old. It does have lots of settings I have never tried, like semibrown rice.

I riffed on this recipe: https://www.recipetineats.com/eggplant-curry-south-indian/ I used half the cloves, coriander and cumin called for, upped the Indian chili powder a little bit to get it to the heat level we like, and used all coconut milk instead of coconut milk and water because I hate opening a can of coconut milk and only using 3 tbsp! I also swapped in a fresh tomato chopped up and some tomato paste from the freezer for the canned tomatoes called for. Last night, we had a salad in a blueberry vinaigrette with salmon, nectarines, blackberries, red onion, and toasted almonds.

Eggplant curry. It does not look great but has a lot of flavor.

Last night's dinner was nephew's request: he headed back to Montana this morning for another year of service on the Crow Reservation. He wanted homemade American style Chinese food since he cannot order it in restaurants due to his allergy. My sister, niece and I all cooked together and made sesame-soy chicken wings, chicken fingers, ginger garlic fried rice, vegetable egg rolls, crabless crab rangoons, and some broccoli with oyster sauce. I don't think I will be frying again for a while 🤣

Seared scallops on corn risotto with cherry tomatoes, chives and prosciutto

Fish and chips (haddock)

It was too muggy to turn the oven on yesterday, so we had a wedge of brie and a piece of a baguette from a local cheese shop. I made a kale-blueberry salad too.

Bean burger with a thick slice of local tomato and oven fries

Miso salmon with gai lan, assorted mushrooms and summer squash, rice.

Mezze rigatoni with roasted red pepper sauce, a mix of arugula and baby spinach, and fresh mozzrella cheese

My nephew wanted to cook dinner with me last night. Indian food is one of the most popular choices for his household in Montana because all four of them eat it and the leftovers are always consumed, so we went with that. He wanted a paneer dish, and my niece inexplicably hates paneer so I knew we were making two dishes at a minimum, plus he wanted to try to make chapati since he cannot cook it in MT (one housemate has celiac). I did the non-paneer dish myself since nephew was not interested in eating it. Keralan vegetable istoo from Meera Sodha's Made in India (veggies swapped for what I had in the house) And nephew made a paneer dish and chapati from a YouTube cooking video. We all agreed the chapati was pretty decent for a first try but could use some practice. The paneer dish was really good and quite spicy.

Chicken and cauliflower shawarma, chopped salad, spiced rice, flatbread

Well, we are stuck in limbo at the airport. Our flight home is delayed in Boston for maintenance and you cannot check in to US Customs until your flight takes off in the USA, so I thought I would take advantage of the fast and free wifi to finish this report (unless we get stuck here overnight, which, given 1. that we are flying JetBlue and 2. there is severe weather moving into Boston this evening, is a distinct possibility). Here are some pictures of the beach we spent our last day at. The Bermuda government cleans some of the beaches in the morning, hence the tire tracks For dinner, we returned to Sea Breeze. We ordered a mix of repeats and some new stuff. Drinks Nephew wanted TWO breads for appetizers. Garlic ciabatta and the bruschetta we had before We also got another order of the calamari and the tuna tartare My niece chose a sushi roll for her appetizer. For mains, my niece and nephew both got the same thing they had last time: pasta carbonara and pasta with roasted tomatoes, arugula and ricotta salata My husband, sister and I all got the local catch (red snapper) cooked with tomatoes, caper, and basil over crushed potatoes We split two desserts: another salted caramel butterscotch panna cotta, and a chocolate almond cake with vanilla ice cream And that's it for this visit! My husband and I will be back to Bermuda in September for a long weekend. Until then, see you on the dinner! thread.

Yesterday was another busy (for Bermuda) cruise ship day on island. The big ships only started coming back very recently, once Covid restrictions were eased a bit. Financial services are the main moneymaker in Bermuda, not tourism, but residents still seem happy to see the ships back. We avoided the ship people by going to another less traveled beach This spot has a bit of a trickier entry for swimming because of the rock shelf you can see in the above picture, but once you are over it it's fine. You just need to time getting out of the water carefully so you don't get dragged over the rocks by a wave. There's also decent snorkeling here, if it's not too surfy. That evening my nephew wanted Italian food for dinner, and my niece wanted to go book shopping, so we decided to go to Hamilton, the capital city of Bermuda. My niece found three books she wanted to buy, and my nephew got pasta for dinner, so they were both happy. I eyed some clothing while shopping but did not buy anything. In general, I find that everything I purchase in shops while on vacation seems like a good idea at the time, but then I get it home and think "why the heck did I buy this?" Downtown Hamilton: On to dinner. My nephew browsed menus online and chose La Trattoria, because they have Bermuda's only wood burning pizza oven. Here's the menu pasta pizza main courses We ate early, before they got busy (and they got very busy!), so the chef offered to heat up a pot of oil separately and safely fry anything my nephew wanted to have. So, of course, he got calamari! He was very happy. We also ordered an antipasto platter to share My nephew chose the orecchiette with sausage and rapini My sister had the ravioli My husband chose the fusilli pesto with seafood (they omitted the shrimp due to nephew's allergy so I think it just had calamari and octopus) I chose the eggplant pizza And my niece had a pizza special with speck and taleggio Dessert options were tiramisu, sticky toffee pudding, cannoli, creme brûlée, almond sponge cake, and flourless chocolate cake (I think?). Nephew got sticky toffee pudding. I had a bite and it was really good. He ate the rest of it in about five minutes to prevent anyone else from having some haha Niece chose creme brulee. It was huge! We got back home just in time to catch the end of last night's cloudy sunset

They were actually thick plastic reusable plates. But, perfectly fine to eat on in that setting. My sister and niece decided that they had too much sun and did not want to go to the beach yesterday, instead opting to stay back and read books at the house. My nephew, husband and I ventured out. This is Horseshoe Beach. It's where all the cruise ship people go because you can rent chairs, umbrellas and towels, there is a snack bar, restrooms and showers. The secret is, though, if you walk beyond this beach, there is a trail that leads to an entire chain of perfectly deserted coves where you can swim. To give you an idea, here is the first one beyond Horseshoe. Four people! We walked to the second one. Deserted. None of us were in the mood for anything in particular, and my nephew wanted to be back at the house for 8PM for an online D+D session with his friends, so we walked back to Henry VIII pub and got some Indian food. My sister and husband got the vegetarian saagwalla My nephew chose the chicken jalfrezi And I chose the butter chicken We all asked for it to be spicy, and it was very nicely hot. My niece, of course, got sushi. She ordered three rolls. Crispy spicy tuna, rising sun (yellowtail, avocado, cucumber, salmon in and out) and the Excalibur (yellowfin tuna, chili garlic sauce, mango, avocado, tobiko, yellowtail, eel sauce). I was surprised that she ordered three rolls, but she must have been really hungry because she ate all but three pieces. Niece and nephew wanted dessert They split a bread and butter pudding. They said it was good and ate most of it. One advantage to an early dinner is that we got back to the house in time to watch the sunset.

Yesterday's dinner was a beef barbecue on the sand at the Reefs Hotel. It runs every Thursday in the high season. It was a buffet setup, which I usually do not enjoy, but I figured the setting would make up for it. Here's the dining arrangement There's no written menu, other than the wine list, so here is that And some cocktails chosen by my nephew and sister. I wish they used reusable glasses rather than the one off throwaway kind. I understand not wanting breakable stuff down on the beach, but they certainly make nicer reusable plastic glassware these days. I am a pretty pathetic person at a buffet. Here are my choices. Salad and marinated tomato-cucumber salad Mahi mahi skewer, wahoo steak with chimichurri sauce, a plantain, and some roasted potatoes Vegetable skewers with more chimichurri sauce (I missed those the first trip so went back for a couple once I found out about them) My husband offered up one of his plates for a better picture 🙂 He had steak tips, wahoo, jerk chicken, veggie skewer, green salad, tomato-cucumber salad, artichoke salad, and bread. They had other savory food which nobody chose: baby back ribs, baked beans, rice and peas, beets, potato salad etc. A selection of desserts. mango pudding, rum cake, and coconut-guava cake. The mango pudding was good, the others were not worth the calories. They also had some chocolate desserts, carrot cake, and a fresh fruit display. Overall, I would say the experience was mixed. The setting was superb. My husband and nephew really enjoyed their food. My sister and I were neutral. My niece HATED it. Everything about it--eating on the sand while the sun went down, the food offered, the fact that it was a buffet, the musician that was playing, just everything. We missed the sunset (the hotel beach faces the wrong way for sunset), so here is the beach we went to yesterday instead: Warwick Long Bay. It's one of my favorites, and has the pinkest sand on the island.

Nice!! Warwick is my favorite parish. We usually stay there or in next door parish Southampton. So, yesterday was compromise day. We choose one day where my nephew gets to pick everything we do, and one day where my niece picks. Yesterday was nephew's day. He chose sleeping late, swimming in the pool, and dinner at the Frog and Onion Pub at the Dockyard because it's one of the only places on the island that brews their own beer. I am an early riser, prefer the beach to the pool, don't drink beer, and don't like the Frog and Onion because it is touristy and there were three cruise ships in so the Dockyard was sure to be crowded, but that is why we call it compromise day. The Dockyard is actually a pretty cool place to visit when it's not crowded. They have a wonderful museum of Bermuda's maritime history (we didn't go because it was not on nephew's itinerary), there are shops (a mix of tourist stuff and handmade art), and places to explore. The Frog and Onion menu (sigh) The reason for the dinner here: nephew's beer flight My sister and husband got margaritas Nephew could not have the fried calamari here, but my husband wanted it anyway. We al agreed that the breading was too thick and the squid needed salt Nephew chose the German pretzels, which he shared with my niece. They looked like those frozen pretzels you buy at the supermarket to me, but he was happy. For mains, my sister and husband both got the fish and chips. They were happy with them I got the local catch of the day, which was tuna. It was grilled and served over couscous mixed with apples, red bell peppers, scallions, and cucumbers, with a mango ginger sauce. It was cooked rare and very fresh. Some more vegetables would have been nice, but overall it was actually pretty decent My niece and nephew both got curries. Niece chose the vegetable masala, which she enjoyed (minus the peas) And nephew had the chicken makhani The kids (well they are both in their early 20s now, but still kids to me) chose dessert. Niece had the lemon tart Nephew had the sticky toffee pudding We got back to the house in time for sunset. Here's a panoramic picture of our view Sunset