liamsaunt

There is a rope to hold on to. Walking down the dunes is illegal except on designated paths because of erosion. Ceraldi is still in business! He opened for the season last week. This year he is serving coffee, pastries and pizza in the mornings as carry out in addition to the usual dinner service. We are heading over to check that out at the end of the week. Yes, we usually stay in Wellfleet. Our repeat rentals are direct from the owner. We do not ever use AirBnB for various reasons. Sometimes we use the agency weneedavacation.com or local real estate firms to find new to us rentals. We have never rented in Truro, but we have stayed at the same house in Provincetown a few times, including this past April, and will be back there again in August. The Red Inn looks great, but we usually bring family along so it is not practical for us to stay there.

Did you see the story about the lobster fisherman that got swallowed by a whale out here the other day? Crazy! He is the guy who gets the lobster for our favorite restaurant out here, Ceraldi. (For anyone who did not see it the whale spit him out and he is bruised up but OK). Yesterday my niece and I took the stairs down to the beach. They are...challenging. There are 95 of them and some of them are angled backwards. Yikes. Here is the house on the dune. I am expecting great muscle definition in my calves at the end of this trip 🙂 I stopped by the bakery down the street to get some desserts for the teens to enjoy over the next few days. You can place an online order with them and pick up the next day in a designated spot to skip the line, which is nice because the line is always long and slow. Starting bottom left, we have a chocolate tart, an opera cake with white chocolate, almond sponge cake and raspberry, a chocolate bombe, a coup de soleil with blueberries and vanilla marscapone, a hazelnut stuffed coronet, a blueberry tart, a strawberry tart, and a brownie with caramel mousse. The bakery is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so I had to get a couple of days worth. We tried to go for sushi last night but all of the outside dining was booked with reservations until 9PM despite their website saying they are not taking reservations. The hostess told us last night was the final night for reservations and they are going walk in only as of today, so we decided to come back another night instead of eating inside. Instead, we went to the patio at one of our favorites, Winslow's Tavern. Drinks. A Peeper beer on the left and a summer in a glass on the right (basically vodka, lemonade, and sparkling water). My drink is in the center. I am not drinking alcohol at the moment, so chose a shrub with raspberry, rhubarb, and hibiscus. It was kind of weird tasing (everyone tried it and thought it tasted like celery). I swapped it for sparkling water. I do not like most flavored drinks so should have known better 🙂 Appetizers. Foccacia and ricotta My husband and brother in law shared some lobster croquetas with saffron aioli. They really liked these. Niece ordered a burrata with prosciutto, roasted tomatoes, and olive tapenade. I ate her tomatoes and olives since she does not like those Niece had a bacon cacio pepe for her entree Nephew chose gorgonzola pasta with carmelized onions Brother in law had squid and corn pasta. The rings are the pasta. I thought it was a cute presentation. I had seared scallops with corn risotto Husband had swordfish au poivre with roasted cauliflower, roasted wood ear mushrooms, and romanesco and au poivre sauces Nobody wanted dessert as we were all too full, plus there were the pastries back at the house.

Hello from Wellfleet. I am back at the beach for the next two weeks. This time we are staying directly on the ocean side. Here's the view Winter storms erode the dunes on this section of the Cape quite badly. A few years back, a single storm took 30 feet off this dune further down the road. This house is currently set about 25 feet back from the dune edge. I'm estimating it will be lost to the ocean in 10 years or so. There is no room to move it back further from the dune edge as some owners do when erosion happens--the front of the house basically butts against the road. Last night we decided to go to a restaurant for dinner, our first time dining out (not including takeout) since Covid started. We are all fully vaccinated, and sat at an outside table. I am not sure that we will venture to inside dining this trip, but you never know, I guess. The restaurant is called C Shore, and we have tried it a couple of times in prior years with mixed results. Last night everyone but me enjoyed their meals. My niece started with pork dumplings with a peanut dipping sauce My husband, brother in law and I tried the clam fritters and my nephew got the strawberry, goat cheese, strawberry and arugula salad. I almost got this for dinner and ended up wishing that I had. My niece and nephew both got macaroni and cheese for dinner (hey, it is vacation, right?). Niece opted for plain Nephew got his topped with linguica sausage My husband and brother in law got fish tacos. They said they were tasty. They came with rice and beans that my husband really enjoyed. I got a vegetable poke bowl. It came filled with pineapple which was not noted on the menu, and was far too sweet. There was no sriracha etc on the table due to covid (understandable) so I could not doctor it up. I picked out the veggies and left the rest behind. I'm adding condiments to my purse for the rest of the trip 🙂 Everyone was too full for dessert except my niece. She ordered cannolis, and ended up sharing with anyone who wanted some. I don't really like sweets so cannot comment on the taste. I'm heading to the fish market in a bit to see if they have anything I feel like cooking for dinner. If it is not too crowded I will get some pictures.

Chicken paillard topped with clean out the fridge salad

Eggplant and bell pepper stir fry with Thai basil and scallions and rice. The sauce was fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, garlic, and ginger. I had to use regular basil for the garnish because I put all the Thai basil in the stir fry. My nephew hates fish sauce so he freezer dived and had a tray of black bean enchiladas and cilantro-tomato rice.

Grilled chicken skewers marinated in Moroccan flavors, tzatziki sauce, chopped salad, flatbread, and an Israeli couscous salad with dried apricots, pistachios, and mint

Miso salmon with noodles seasoned with oyster sauce and maggi sauce. The vegetables added were napa cabbage and choi sum, with mixed mushrooms cooked in sake, soy and mirin added to the adults' bowls (no mushrooms for my niece). I chopped up an entire large head of napa cabbage and an entire bunch of choi sum and as usual the greens cooked down to nothing. Next time I am going to cook a wheelbarrow full. My fish hating nephew had leftover Indian food from the other night.

Fish and chips. The fish is grey sole from my fish share.

Grilled chicken salad two ways. My sister, husband and I had it with olives, tomatoes, onions, and red wine vinaigrette Niece and nephew had theirs with strawberries, blueberries, and a strawberry vinaigrette

The kale is a mash up of two Meera Sodha recipes. The base is the sauce from her Bombay Eggs recipe, minus the eggs and spinach. The rest of it is her paneer kale saag recipe, except without the paneer because I already had paneer in the other dish. Both recipes are readily available online. It was very tasty, and used up two bunches of kale (and then of course I got more kale in my CSA 🙂 ) Last night, a very brown meal. My nephew has been asking for homemade pupu platter food since his crustacean allergy means he cannot eat at the local Chinese-American restaurants. Here is his plate: vegetable fried rice (I swear there are vegetables in there: bean sprouts, chopped up scallions and greens, ginger and garlic. No peas because my niece hates them). Crabless rangoons (just cream cheese, scallions, and sriracha in the filling). Beef teriyaki strips, and egg rolls. I was tricky and put his uneaten pork larb from the other night mixed with sautéed napa cabbage and carrots in them and he devoured them hahahaha. I made vegetarian egg rolls also, for my sister and me.

I did not take pictures on Monday or Tuesday. Monday we got Acadian redfish in my fish share, which is my least favorite fish other than pollock that we get. I made it into Thai flavored fish burgers. They were not enjoyable. My niece ate the whole thing, but commented that the texture was like chickpea fritters, and that about sums it up. My nephew ate the leftover fried chicken from Sunday. Tuesday I made salmon laarb, which everyone but my nephew enjoyed. He hates salmon so I made him pork laarb, but he only ate a few bites, claiming that those flavors are "not his favorite." Considering that his favorite is basically anything fried or a burger, I did not get too concerned about his lack of gusto. Last night I made mutter paneer, chicken tikka masala, and kale tomato saag, along with maharajah rice and naan. This is one of about five meals that everyone at the table likes equally, so it all got eaten 😀

Fried chicken. It was good but the bigger hit was an arugula, feta, and watermelon salad that I did not get a picture of. I also made a pan of cornbread.

Today is a holiday in the US and nobody had to get up this morning so last night we did pizza and movie night. Pepperoni was nephew's choice: Niece chose mashed potato and bacon: Wild mushroom and caramelized onion for myself, my husband, and my sister. Movie: Ford vs. Ferrari

Yesterday was cold and rainy. The whole weekend is supposed to be cold and rainy. So I made a roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, radishes that roasted in the pan alongside the chicken, and spinach.

@Ann_T Happy Birthday to Moe! Your celebration dinner looks beautiful. Last night, bucatini with a creamy mushroom, asparagus, and mint sauce

Eggplant dumplings alla parmigiana inspired by the ones in Ottolenghi's Flavour that @blue_dolphin posted about a week ago. Recipe here: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/apr/20/yotam-ottolenghi-dumpling-recipes-aubergine-ricotta-gnocchi-rum-currant-speculaas I did not get everything I needed for the recipe in my latest Instacart shop so had to make some alterations: instead of all eggplant, I used half eggplant and half zucchini/summer squash (shredded and sautéed to cut down on their water instead of roasted like the eggplant was). I also baked the dumplings instead of pan frying them. Finally, there was no basil at the store this week and I forgot the olive garnish, so those got omitted. Despite all that, they were very tasty and a nice vegetarian alternative to meatballs. Served with broiled green garlic toast and an arugula lemon salad to use up the last of the greens from this week's CSA box.

Chicken katzu, smacked cucumbers, rice and cabbage

The only way I have had these beans is plain as part of a big breakfast plate, and that not for years. I suppose I would try them on toast though, if the occasion arose. I remember them being pretty sweet. All the local groceries sell them in the British section.

That was what was so weird--she normally loves these types of flavors. Larb wrapped in lettuce and herbs is one of her favorite foods. She adores banh mis. Give her a bowl of rice noodles in spicy broth with lots of fresh greens and she will eat the whole thing. Maybe she was just grumpy last night 😃

Grilled salmon salad with mixed lettuce and herbs. This dinner was a mixed bag with my group. My husband, my sister and I loved it. Niece hated it. According to her, warm things do NOT go on salad, and salads should NOT be spicy. Whatever! Nephew does not eat salmon by choice, so he grilled a steak to put on top (it is so nice that he knows how to cook now!). He liked the salad too. I am going to make it again since I get salmon once a week in my fish share. I will just put niece's salmon on the side and make her a different dressing. Recipe here: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021127-grilled-salmon-salad-with-lime-chiles-and-herbs?action=click&module=Local Search Recipe Card&pgType=search&rank=2

There's no problem getting spray oils here, but weird other stuff does seem to randomly go out of stock. Last week it was butter, cereal, and frozen vegetables--all the frozen vegetables. I only wanted peas but my shopper texted me a photo of the vegetable case, and it was completely empty except for three bags of pearl onions. The butter thing happens often enough that I have taken to keeping a decent stash in my garage freezer. Produce availability is spotty too, though luckily some of the local stuff is finally starting to appear. I got seven heads of lettuce in my CSA on Friday.

Yes, it is a broth made from coconut milk. I put in shallots, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, kaffir lime leaves, green curry paste, fish sauce, chiles, cilantro, a little palm sugar, scallions, and lime juice and simmered it until it tasted good to me. The fish, bok choy, and extra herbs went in at the end.

Hake stew with coconut, lime, cilantro, and bok choy

These look really good. I am going to make this on Wednesday, assuming I actually get eggplant in today's grocery delivery (Mondays are dicey for food deliveries around here). Last night, chicken kebabs marinated in yogurt, ginger, and lime juice, grilled and tossed in a lime-mint butter, with yogurt sauce, flatbread, rice and salad.

Roasted vegetable tacos (sweet potatoes, bell peppers, corn, onions) with guacamole, crema and queso fresco.