liamsaunt

Seared salmon with gochugaru sauce, crispy rice some mushrooms, and sautéed zucchini with soy and cilantro.

Fish and chips.

Tacos filled with scrambled eggs, roasted peppers and onions, montery jack cheese, cilantro and salsa.

lobster roll for some Scallop roll for me

I was until I switched purses. It was in the same purse that Liam's forgotten epipen was in. Lesson learned: only bring one purse on vacation.

I am not sure what this means, but if it means my family is weird, eccentric, or opinionated about food, then all of that is true. It will get even weirder next vacation, when my brother joins us. He eats no vegetables other than onions, garlic, and carrots, and one piece of lettuce on his bun if he eats a hamburger. I have no idea how he is still alive. We are back home now, so here's the last post for this visit. We decided to drive into Chatham because we wanted to see the "Whales in the Park" display. It used to be "Sharks in the Park" but they changed it to whales after someone was killed by a shark at one of the Wellfleet beaches a few years ago. Local artists paint whale forms and they get auctioned off for charity. The display was too crowded, so we ended up not going. It was early enough that people had not really started going to dinner yet, so we sat outside on the patio at Bistro on Main. Scallop seveche. I was not a huge fan of this. It needed more seasoning. My brother in law ate it without complaint. Fritto di misto. This was cod, scallops, and calamari. My nephew could not eat it because of his allergy, and my niece hates cod and calamari so my husband, brother in law and I shared it. There were only two scallops. My husband and I ate them without sharing as revenge for my brother in law eating all of the appetizer the prior evening. Haha! My niece and nephew shared a prosciutto plate and a burrata salad For entrees, my brother in law got seared scallops with a risotto cake, lobster sauce, and asparagus I had tuna with an unfortunately bland jicama and cabbage slaw. The tuna was good. My niece had a steak with mashed potatoes and asparagus. It was supposed to have a mushroom-veal demiglace but she asked them to leave it off as she hates mushrooms. It looked meh to me but she said the steak was perfectly cooked medium rare and very tasty. My husband tried a piece and agreed. Nephew had a wedge salad My husband just wanted some steamed clams Niece had a chocolate mousse for dessert Nephew had key lime pie Chatham light And a shot of the final sunset of our trip. It was kind of crowded so we hung back behind all the people. We'll be back in Provincetown for Labor Day, assuming they get the Covid spike under control. Until then, see you on the dinner thread.

I think his food budget is $100/month, so I'm not sure that even cheap calamari will make it as a line item. It does not sound like a realistic food budget to me, but I guess it has worked for the other people who have volunteered for the program over the years. I will be interested to hear his reports. My niece is a meatatarian. Steak is her favorite food. No ice cream in the freezer! Too dangerous! 🤣 Wednesday we just grilled at the house. We tried to go to the Cape Cod Baseball League game in town that night, but it was too peopley so we ended up back at the house after a walk on a mostly deserted beach. There was a lot of haze from the wildfires, so no sunset, or light at all, really. Nauset Beach Last night my nephew really wanted to go back to La Bella Vita. Margaritas. I know the yellow one is pineapple flavored and I don't know what the pink one is. My husband ordered a dirty martini. I am not sure why as he does not like martinis. He drank about two sips and then ordered a glass of wine. We ordered appetizers, and that was when I remembered that I left my nephew's epipen back at the house. Luckily the house was only two minutes away, so my husband and I ran back to get it. We were gone for less than 10 minutes, but while we were away the appetizers were delivered and my brother in law ate the entire appetizer that he was supposed to share with my husband and me. He said he planned to order us another one, but the waitress never came back around. Hmmm. There is a reason why this guy is still a single dude! Anyway. Moving on to entrees, my niece just wanted a burrata salad because she had arancini for an appetizer and planned on ordering dessert. My husband ordered a clam pizza Nephew ordered chicken parmesean I had a caesar salad with salmon My brother in law got the same cod I had the other night. For dessert, niece chose the chocolate semifreddo We went to Skaket Beach to see the somewhat sunset. It ended up going behind clouds, but was nice while it lasted. More pretty flowers And more ice cream! Butter pecan Red raspberry truffle chip Today is our last full day so we are just planning on relaxing at the pool at the house (there have been white sharks every day at the beach near our house so the ocean is a no go for us). I am sure the main topic of conversation will be where to go for dinner 🙂

Last night we decided to try a new restaurant, Casa del Cabo. This went into the space that used to be Karoo, the North African restaurant we used to like. I am not sure why it closed as it was always busy. Casa del Cabo has been open for about a month and has good reviews, plus it is sort of Mexican, which is my nephew's fave, so it seemed like a good choice. I called and reserved a table on the outside deck. Most people got margaritas to start: either a standard or what I think was a jalapeño watermelon flavored one My niece wanted the burrata over toast with anchovy aioli and salad to start. I know, this is not even remotely Mexican! I had a bite and it was tasty. The adults shared a seveche made with salmon. It was very fresh but improved with just a pinch of salt There was also calamari with a spicy dip. I was not in the mood so did not sample. My nephew ate my share. He has discovered on this vacation that he likes calamari. Too bad for him that he is moving to Montana at the end of next week! I doubt calamari will be a dinner option for him out there given the food budget he has to stick to. Luckily rice and beans is his favorite food so he will be fine 🙂 My sister and my husband's brother both ordered the grilled swordfish with mixed greens salad and chimichurri sauce. I was regretting having swordfish for dinner the prior night as this sounded really good. They both enjoyed it. My niece and nephew ordered pork tacos with salsa verde and queso fresco. They were devoured in short order. I couldn't decide what to get so went with the fundido chicken tacos. They were HUGE. I could only eat one, but my brother in law was standing by to chomp the other one 🙂 They were really tasty, but my favorite part was the salad. I don't know what they used for dressing but it was delicious. My husband seated himself at the furthest point from my nephew and got the grilled lobster (his lobster allergy number is actually zero but given his shrimp number we did not want to take a chance). He said it was perfectly tender and he worked to extract every bit of meat with great success. Niece and nephew shared a slice of tres leches cake for dessert. The adults skipped. But dessert was not done! We stopped at an ice cream stand to sample the wares. I am on a mission to find ice cream I like this trip. This was the second place we have tried so far. We tried Smitty's in Orleans earlier this week, which was pretty good but not worth eating more than a few bites of. My husband went crazy and ordered jelly donut ice cream (????) I took a picture but was laughing so hard it came out blurry. As you can expect, that flavor of ice cream was horrible. I did not like my flavor either--salted caramel--the ice cream was creamy but it was too sweet--so he trashed his and ate mine. My niece ordered cookies and cream soft serve. She said it was OK but "cookies and cream is better as hard ice cream, and vanilla is the best soft serve flavor anyway." Ice cream hunt continues... My sister had to leave early this morning to head back to work so we are down to five people for the remainder of this visit. I also wanted to show a picture of last night's "sunset." The haze in the sky is from the wildfires happening all the way across the country on the west coast!

Provincetown has moved to an indoor mask advisory even for vaccinated folks. There are 132 new cases this week, most in vaccinated people. Really unsettling. Yesterday was a bit of a flummox for dinner. Most places are closed on Mondays and those that were open only had indoor dining. We ended up driving up one town to Eastham, and having dinner at a newish place called Caroline's, which is mostly outside. Most of us ended up pleasantly surprised by our meals. We ordered baked oysters and fried calamari to share The calamari was really good--very tender and the sauce was a zippy lemon aioli which was a nice change from tartar sauce. My sister, niece, and nephew all ordered the fish and chips. It was HUGE My niece didn't like it, but she really only likes homemade fish and chips, so that was not surprising. My sister and nephew said it was good. Nephew was just happy he could have something from the fryer for a change. My husband's brother ordered a sesame tuna noodle bowl with bok choy, mushrooms, and a lobster broth. He said it was very tasty and way more food than it looks like. (Side note, the lady at the table next to us sent this dish back to the kitchen because the "fish was not cooked." I am not sure what she thought she was getting...) My husband had a warm lobster roll. He said the lobster was very fresh and the roll was loaded. I had a grilled swordfish with baby vegetables and lemon beurre blanc. This was good. The fish was fresh and I liked that the portion was not massive, though I would have eaten more vegetables if they were there. No dessert, too full! My husband has to work remotely today (boo!) so before heading to the house's pool for the day, my sister and I took the teens to the Fairway for breakfast and waited for a table on the outside patio. The food was good but it was SLOOOOOW. The restaurant is probably short staffed, as so many places are. Nephew got his usual pancakes Niece got french toast. They used to have cannoli stuffed french toast here, and she was sad that it's no longer on the menu, but she enjoyed the plain kind. My sister ordered a vegetable omelet focaccia sandwich. She liked it. I ordered fried green tomatoes benedict with spinach and avocado. True confession: I had never had fried green tomatoes before today! I liked them a lot.

There is a whole cluster of vaccinated positives in Provincetown right now. I read it is the delta variant. The state is tracking it. At least three restaurants are closed, maybe four. I heard Mews and Fanzinni's, not sure what the others are. AND Wellfleet is inundated by a historic deluge of millions of mosquitoes right now! The hotspot is right by the house we rented for a month last fall, and the beach we usually go to for sunset. Apparently it is so bad that you cannot go outside without being swarmed. We did see a bunch of mosquitoes while waiting to be seated at Mac's but had doused ourselves in Deep Woods Off in anticipation. I was kind of sad that we ended up in Orleans this trip initially, but I am pretty content to be here now. We went to Nauset Orleans beach yesterday for the first time ever, and it is beautiful. I only took ones with my family in them yesterday, but will try and get some more scenic pictures of the beach later. 🙂

We are back on Cape Cod this week. This time we are renting a house in Orleans. There is currently a spike in Covid cases in Provincetown, so we won't be heading up there this time. Actually, the spike there and rising numbers in general has thrown a curveball into our plans for the week. I did not bring any cooking equipment, but now some of the places we were planning to eat at are not going to work because they are indoor dining only. We are all vaccinated, but are back to masking everywhere and only dining outside. We need to go for testing to be cleared to fly when we get back home so are being a little cautious. Yesterday we drove up to Wellfleet and ate at Mac's in their outdoor area but I did not take any pictures because you have seen it all before. Tonight we tried an Italian place in Orleans called La Bella Vita. They have an allergy friendly menu and lots of outdoor tables so it worked for us. Most folks got drinks to start (I am still only drinking water, it is becoming a habit). This is a guava margarita and a watermelon margarita My nephew wanted to order the cheesy garlic bread. My niece chose the mozzarella fritters My husband, sister and I shared the fried calamari. My husband's brother tried a little of everything. My sister and my husband's brother each chose the linguini with clams. My husband had the lobster risotto My nephew wanted the bolognese I had the baked cod with mushroom and asparagus risotto My niece had a chilled avocado soup and a big bowl of pork belly No dessert--too full! Hunting in a used bookstore in town yielded this for my reading pleasure And we picked up some local chocolate for snacking The one on the right commemorates the man who got swallowed by a whale a month or so ago. Flowers in town

I thought so. My sister said it tasted like dirt, but she is just anti-kohlrabi in general. My niece and I liked it. Last night, my nephew requested mutter paneer. He is moving west for a year in a couple of weeks, so I am letting him pick most of the dinners until he leaves. My niece hates tomatoes, peas AND paneer (Why? I have no idea.) so I made her a seared cabbage coconut thoran. The original recipe called for tomatoes mixed in with the coconut but I subbed in roasted red peppers for her. She ate the entire plate so it must have been tasty.

Salad with banh mi flavors. I pickled a kohlrabi instead of a daikon radish along with the carrots just to see if it would work. Everyone ate it so I am calling it a success. One kohlrabi down, four more to go, with another one coming in tomorrow's CSA box! We still have two more heads of lettuce and two bunches of kale to get through from last Friday's box, though I did not see either in the list of what is coming tomorrow, so the need to use them is not as urgent as it would have been.

Cedar planked salmon on salad with pickled onions, grilled peaches, local black raspberries, candied pecans, and a balsamic-peach butter vinaigrette dressing. I still have six more heads of lettuce from my CSA box to use up, so it's salad again tonight...

Miso haddock on noodles in miso broth with roasted napa cabbage, loose curd cauliflower, broccolini, and black oyster mushrooms, plus the usual garlic/ginger/cilantro

Sort of Thai-ish eggplant curry with pickled cucumber relish and chopped cashews, with coconut rice. I found the recipe in Meera Sodha's East, though I swapped in fish sauce for the soy sauce (the original recipe was vegetarian), cashews for peanuts since I was out of peanuts, and lime juice for the tamarind because I could not find my jar of tamarind concentrate even though I know it is around somewhere.

Yes, panko toasted in olive oil and tossed with lemon zest and salt.

Fettuccini with summer squash and ricotta

My nephew picked dinner again last night. Grilled chicken wings, watermelon, cucumber and feta salad, and macaroni and cheese

Burgers two ways. Roasted mashed sweet potato, roasted corn, cilantro, garlic, scallions and chile with spicy kimchi mayo for the non-beef eaters. Beef burger and hot dog for the meatatarians Both burgers on homemade butter toasted brioche buns.

Last night was my niece's dinner choice for the group. Miso broiled salmon with a mix of regular and zucchini noodles in broth, with miso glazed harukei turnips, oyster mushrooms that were steamed in sake and mirin and then glazed with soy, napa cabbage, and the usual garlic/ginger/cilantro. My nephew took one look at the menu board and went to the fridge for the leftover chicken parmesean. More for us.

We are going to my parents' house. Everyone is vaccinated. This will be the first meal we have shared since Covid started, and we will hug for the first time since the beginning of that too. My Mom is cooking everything because she wants to. The menu is cold fried chicken, some sort of kale salad, cole slaw, and potato salad. I am pretty sure she made everything today so she can just relax tomorrow. At her request I am bringing some watermelon that she is turning in to some other kind of salad (not sure what kind), and a couple of bottles of rose for anyone who wants some. No dessert because my Dad has diabetes and he is not great about managing it. My sister is making a fruit tart for her kids, but leaving it at my house for them to have here afterwards.

I told my niece and nephew they could each choose a dinner this weekend (yesterday was a holiday soit counts as weekend). Last night was my nephew's turn. He chose chicken parmesan and pasta. Niece was not thrilled but her choice is tonight and nephew is not thrilled about her choice so it all evens out.

My CSA box had 1.5 lbs. of garlic scapes in it today. Last week, they gave me half a pound that I have not used yet. What did you end up doing with yours @dcarch? I am thinking I need a recipe that will store well in the freezer. I love turmeric tea with ginger added. You are lucky to grow it. The only place I can get it fresh around here is at Whole Foods, and it is expensive.

Rigatoni with raw tomato, garlic, and basil sauce, with chunks of fresh mozzarella, some sweet Italian chicken sausage, and the last of the arugula from the crisper drawer.