liamsaunt

Indian food last night. We could not decide which paneer dish we wanted so I made two: saag paneer and mutter paneer. With basmati rice and naan.

Mozzarella stuffed chicken milanese with salad and homemade focaccia. I used the edges of the focaccia loaf to make the crumbs for the chicken and it came out especially crispy.

Barley flavored with pomegranate molasses, cinnamon, cumin, chopped pistachios and golden raisins, topped with sautéed red onions, orange pepper and kale, and broiled eggplant marinated in mint and garlic. Plus some feta cheese, cilantro and pomegranate seeds.

Crab cakes with horseradish aioli, green beans with almonds and rosemary and a mix of roasted sweet and yukon gold potatoes with mustard because I did not have enough of either to make for everyone.

Korean-style fish stew with hake from my fish share, daikon radish, shiitake mushrooms, and spinach.

Back in the kitchen after a week's vacation. Parmesean crusted chicken, garlicky spinach and lightly caramelized onion rice

Last installment for this visit. We went to the furthest point of the island to go snorkeling It was good but we were not able to stay out too long because my wetsuit is too large for me now and I got cold. I need to get a smaller one when we get home. lunch was back at the same place as earlier this week. fried plantains more conch fritters (of course) crunchy grouper sandwiches all around Afternoon beach time later that night we went to Longboard for some light bites. Drinks for husband and sister fried calamari wahoo seveche torched salmon crudo Vietnamese rice noodle bowl with local tuna salmon poke bowl tropical poke bowl with more tuna mahi mahi sliders and that concludes this trip. I am heading home to a broken heating system 😞. Nest tells me my house is 45 degrees 😑☹️ Luckily my mom is meeting the heating company for me in a few minutes and hopefully it will be fixed before we get home. Final picture: one of the two rescue kitties we are transporting back to Boston on my flight. My niece is lobbying hard to adopt them!

I do not have any beach photos from yesterday because we were lazy and stayed at the house. We usually do at least one “villa gravity” day on our trips. It is nice to just sit out, look at the view and read books. I did go down for a couple of shoreline walks as the day went on, so here are some views from that. My niece really enjoys steak, and my husband heard about a newish steakhouse in town, so we decided to try it. It was empty when we got there but filled quickly Shared cheeseboard My husband and I shared some coconut shrimp with chipotle aioli. The menu said it had local salad greens with it. I guess that lone leaf counts haha. This was really tasty. My sister and I do not eat red meat so got fish. She had a special of coconut crusted mahi mahi with lentils and chimichurri I had local tuna with coconut brown rice, Thai shrimp sauce and mango chutney. This was excellent. My niece and husband got rib eyes, plus some truffle mac and cheese and a salad to split. My husband added a local lobster tail to his order as well. niece wanted dessert so we got two to share, a pineapple apple crumble and an orange crème brûlée with chocolate cookies. The ocean swell has been up all week so we are driving to the other side of the island to see if we can finally snorkel on our last full day. I am coming back with just my husband for two weeks in May-June so if it does not work out today I will not be too upset.

At home they are more like pancakes made with cornmeal. Here, they resemble fried dough or fry bread. They are deep fried and there is no filling. They are served with melted butter and honey. The exterior is crunchy and the inside is soft and fluffy. Last night, we had dinner at Zozos at Caneel Bay. Caneel still has not been rebuilt since the hurricanes in 2017, but one area near the beach has been redeveloped for the restaurant. You have to park at the outer gate to the resort and take a shuttle down to the restaurant—you cannot walk though the grounds. You also still cannot walk down on to the beach as debris has still not been cleared. It was really sad to see the remains of the resort and the damage to the one beach area we could see (there are seven beaches on the property). My husband and I made many happy memories there over the years. I am still hopeful that it will eventually reopen one day. The dock is still standing, though it is closed to the public. You can be dropped off if you have a dinner reservation, but not to visit the beach or grounds. This was our view when we sat down. The menu is a four course prix fixe, and it starts with a shared antipasto Next course was a choice of salad or pasta. We all chose pasta. Niece got the carbonara Everyone else had the wild mushroom pappardelle At this point we saw a lovely sunset. An egret on the beach Peach sorbet palate cleanser. This was really intense and delicious. my niece had a braised short rib with cabbage and polenta My sister and I both got branzino with white asparagus, lemon risotto and chimichurri And my husband had lobster panzanella For dessert my niece opted for the chocolate cake (of course) Everyone else had the coconut mango panna cotta I need to go for a very long beach walk today to work off this meal!

I stuck that there because there is also a St. John Antigua. People confuse the two often. In fact this trip at the airport the ticket agent questioned why my sister did not show her passport since we were traveling to an international destination (no passport need for here but yes for Antigua). This summer my niece’s approval to enter was held up because they thought she was somehow coming from St John Antigua! Yesterday’s beach The setting for yesterday’s lunch Niece’s johnnycakes More conch fritters. We are firmly in the “love them” camp Crunchy fried grouper sandwich West Indian fish fry plate. My niece filched one of my plantains, the bugger.

We make them at home with chopped sea clams sometimes. You want a chewy texture. It usually comes with a remoulade style sauce. Some people serve the clam cakes with tartar sauce but I do not like that. Sunday got derailed because I came down with some sort of 24 hour stomach bug. I gave up and went to sleep around 4pm and did not wake up until Monday morning! I felt well enough to go to a later dinner last night. My husband rescheduled Sunday’s dinner to Thursday. I am blaming drinking the cistern water. We were told it was triple filtered but have switched to bottled water anyway. We did get to the beach for a while yesterday afternoon. The swell is up so snorkeling is not great right now. The water was nice, though a rogue wave stole my sunglasses haha Last night was the full moon. Rising across the bay from our house: We let my niece choose dinner so of course she wanted sushi. We let her pick everything and she basically only likes the tuna and salmon dishes, so not the most exciting. Plus it was very dark. Cocktails for husband and sister chopped tuna with garlic chopped tuna with avocado and dynamite sauce salmon roll Spicy tuna tempura roll volcano roll tempura lobster roll coconut cake for my niece

We are back on St. John. This trip is just my husband, me, my sister and my niece. We had to get up at 2:30 to make our flight yesterday, so some people (Ahem, my sister) are moving slow today (not me, I have been up for hours). We wore N95s on the plane and are all boosted, so we will see… We had a couple hours to kill before getting in to the rental house so had lunch in town yesterday Conch fritters were stuffed with conch My sister and husband had a cocktail. Some sort of guava tequila drink. My niece got a tuna sandwich My sister, husband and I all opted for lightly blackened mahi mahi Post lunch dessert. Niece got a vanilla soft serve in a matcha flavored waffle cone Husband went for classic vanilla Here is the bay we are staying on. The coral cones almost up to shore so I am not sure if we will ever get in the water here. My husband and I stayed on this bay on our first visit in 2003 and tried a few times without success. We are older and creakier now haha Here is a crazy unfinished house that takes up most of the land on this bay. According to our rental agent, it has been like this for over ten years. The couple building it divorced mid construction and are still fighting over it. This morning’s sunrise. The house we are staying in is on the lower right. We have a bunch of new restaurants planned for this visit, including tonight. I have been promised that I will finally get my roti from the roti truck. Time will tell.

Clear out the fridge dinner: baked frittata with spinach and mushrooms, some kumato tomatoes that were getting a bit long in the tooth on the counter, and a couple of slices of Francese bread.

Spaghetti and meatballs

Thank you! I tried the King Arthur Flour recipe a few times without success. I am sure it was operator error! Last night, miso salmon with yakisoba noodles. The noodles had bell peppers (no green ones!), cabbage, mushrooms (omitted from my niece's bowl), and were topped with some cilantro micro greens that Whole Foods randomly swapped in for regular cilantro in my last delivery.

Those both look delicious! It's funny because I would have had to make both too--I would have wanted the potato soup, and my niece hates mushrooms and loves cauliflower so she would have chosen the cauliflower one. @Ann_T, which New England Style hot dog bun recipe did you use? I have tried to make them a couple of times (I even have a New England hot dog bun pan!) but have not found a recipe that tastes right to me yet. Yours look correct. Last night, Boursin stuffed chicken, a mashed potato and Macomber turnip puree and roasted shredded Brussels sprouts (roasted broccolini for the niece, who dislikes Brussels sprouts. More for me then 😀)

I had planed to make baked lemon-garlic haddock with crispy potato cakes, but after my niece spent the entire afternoon nagging me to change the menu, I made what she wanted, which was soy braised haddock with broccoli, red bell peppers and rice. She'll be back on the college student ramen noodle diet in a few weeks so I figure I might as well make what she wants to eat now.

Yesterday was all football, all of the time, so I did not even try to make something that would make people eat at the table. Instead, sandwiches. Husband had the leftover beef in his My sister, niece and I had avocado, tomato, bacon, egg, cheddar, and arugula I am not a football fan, but made a lot of progress in the book I am reading, so we were all happy.

Seared and oven roasted one bone ribeye with roasted wild mushrooms, spinach and mashed potatoes. This is my husband's plate as I do not eat beef. The mushrooms were delicious.

Cavatappi with roasted cherry tomato and garlic sauce (pulverized after roasting to deal with the skins), mixed with some arugula. It's amazing how a giant pile of arugula cooks down to the point where it looks like I put five leaves in the sauce 😆

Chicken katzu, fried rice and cucumbers. I filled my plate last so I got all the end pieces of chicken and only five cucumber slices. I actually like the end pieces because they have extra crunchy coating on them. I would have liked a few more cucumbers though. You snooze you lose in this house. 🤣

Cauliflower, chickpea, and delicate squash curry

Yes, I poached it in the broth. I rolled it up before poaching which helped keep it together, I think. It came a little unrolled but did not fall apart. Yesterday, salmon banh mi (again). I got tail pieces in my fish share this week, so had to grind them up. I wanted to do something different but my niece really wanted the banh mi, so I made that again. I only had purple daikon radish left in my radish collection, and it turned neon pink when I pickled it.

Yellowtail flounder in a coconut lemongrass curry broth with red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, cilantro and rice

Last meal of 2021 was just pizza, with pajamas and a movie (Don't Look Up). Plain old cheese Carbonara for my niece Wild mushroom and taleggio