For someone who claims to eat out rarely, my family sure has been eating out a lot. Today, an unplanned play-date at the park turned into a spontaneous dinner in the garden at Gianni’s. It was great to reconnect with neighborhood friends now that our kids have gone off to 20 different elementary schools around the city. What a nice bunch of kids they are. The pizza was good too.
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Tornado watch & more kindergarten treats
There was a tornado watch tonight. I told my family I was going out for canned goods and bottled water, but really I was just getting celery, white beans, lemons and limes. Most of my provisions went into this yummy parmesan and celery salad from 101 cookbooks.
I already had salmon on hand for my current go-to salmon recipe, which I’ve posted about before. The tomatoes from my csa box are really wonderful this week, juicy, red, not mealy, flavorful, all you ever want from a tomato but somehow rarely get. Instead of the usual basil/olive oil combo, I cut them into chunks and added lime juice, chopped cilantro, salt and olive oil. Oh yum.
For Shane, I made crisp, oven-roasted potatoes. I learned recently that the trick to getting your potatoes crisp is to let them cook until they un-stick from the roasting pan, you shouldn’t have to scrape them off the bottom (if you do, they’ll be more mushed up and home-fry like). I cut mine into approximately 1″ cubes (not peeled), toss them with olive oil and a little salt and roast in glass baking dish at 400 degrees, until they don’t stick to the pan. Then I add a bit more salt and pepper or lemon pepper, and serve.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the latest of our ‘starting kindergarten’ after-dinner treats. Shane picked up an icing filled cookie sandwich from Billy’s Bakery. I hope my family will forgive me when I tell them that we aren’t going to have ‘starting kindergarten’ treats all year long.
A weeknight dinner by Shane
Oh me of little faith! I needed Shane to make tonight’s meal and have it ready on time. I worried that he couldn’t do it, but he did! Thank you husband, for coming through.
Shane makes a mean Pasta a la Carbonara. It’s so good that he actually won and/or tied (depending on whom you ask) a Carbonara-off competition with a genuine Italian from Venice. And that’s what we were expecting tonight, Shane’s famous Carbonara. Unfortunately, our entire neighborhood was out of pancetta, so we had a sort-of meatless version. Sort-of in that he considered using pork bellies, then reconsidered but some of the fat may have remained. That’s all I’ll say, since I didn’t cook tonight.
Kindergarten Eve
My daughter is starting kindergarten tomorrow. She’s a bucket of nerves. I let her pick a dinner place, she chose Jahn’s and I forgot my camera. I guess she’s not the only one who’s nervous. I let her have a giant black & white cookie for dessert, which thankfully, she didn’t finish.
Dinner planned by a kid: not what you might expect
My almost five year old, Rose, planned dinner tonight. This morning she was telling me how interested she is in all the stuff I’ve been doing with pictures of food. I read to her from the blog for a good half an hour (at least), while she listened intently. Afterwards she told me what she’d like to have for dinner, stating that it would make a nice picture.
We had a roasted grape tomato, mozzarella and basil salad (below), grilled chicken and an interesting salad made with cabbage, chick peas, lemon juice, olive oil, roasted poblano peppers & toasted almonds. I think the cabbage dish could use a bit more work and will post if I improve it. For the record, Rose just asked for a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad, a green salad and chicken, I elaborated based on what we had on hand. The miracle of this meal was that Rose, usually a picky eater, willingly tried everything. I think this was because she had a hand in the meal.
• Mozzarella, Roasted Grape Tomato and Basil Salad •
1 container grape tomatoes
1 small deli container (8oz) of bocconcini
a handful of basil leaves washed and slivered
olive oil
salt
Preheat oven to 350. Wash the grape tomatoes and halve lengthwise. Toss well with olive oil and salt to coat. Lay tomatoes on a baking sheet, cut side up, and roast until wilted and slightly crisp, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile toss the slivered basil and bocconcini with olive oil and salt to taste. Let tomatoes cool slightly and add to bocconcini mixture.
Sushi & bowties
A long car ride brought us home to an empty fridge. We ordered takeout from Spicy Shallot and had some bowtie pasta on the side. Rose will only eat Salmon roe or Flying fish roe sushi, which is better than no sushi. I think the salty round eggs are the draw. You should try it with your picky eater, it might be worth the three dollars.
Mexican feast for a favorite girl
We celebrated my beautiful, wonderful, lovely sister Anna‘s 37th birthday last night with a Mexican Feast. Anna has asked for Mexican for the past several birthdays and each year we wonder why we don’t have it more often at the Cape. It was a dreamily wonderful night with excellent food, (almost labor-inducing) laughter, Cape family, best neighbors and a good friend we should really see more of.
Photos left to right from top left: 1. Salted Caramel Chocolate Fudge Cake from Sweetapolita made by Jenya & me, 2. Shane’s delicious Maragritas, 3. Ronni‘s wonderful guacamole, queso blanco & caperberries, 4. Jenya’s red salsa, Rita & André‘s yellow rice & Drew‘s green chile salas, 5. Drew’s grilled beef, 6. My plate: previously mentioned items plus grilled shrimp, Drew’s black beans and a corn tortilla, 7. After dinner mess, 8. Cake & presents table, 9. Happy Birthday Anna!
I was too busy with cake-making and beach-going to take notes on how things were made. I invite my friends and family to post their recipes in the comments section.
Lobster boil
It’s my aunt and second mom Carole’s birthday tonight, and it’s our second year celebrating without her. Melancholy though we are, Carole would have wanted us to celebrate. So, we had what she would have wanted for her birthday dinner, a lobster boil.
Photos left to right from top left: 1. The fire, 2. Wayne with the seaweed that goes into the lobster pot, 3. Waquoit Bay clams caught and prepared by Drew, 4. Potatoes cooking and lobster boiling, 5. Hanging by the fire, 6. Rita’s salad (this time she made her signature dressing with grapefruit instead of lemon), 7. The table 8. André with the “lobstas,” 9. At the table, 10. A lobster, 11. The messy table post-meal, 12. An after dinner bonfire.
Buttery burgers and bountiful salads
It was the kind of night at the Cape where everything is falls into place and all is perfect and right. Everyone felt it. It might have had to do with the fact that our core group was together again, those of us who’ve been coming here since 1986 and have been here every summer since, with the addition of spouses and a kid, and soon another kid. The only thing missing was the loved ones we’ve lost.
We had a ton of vegetables, tomatoes from my csa box, more tomatoes from Bob Luckraft (neighbor & fellow catboat association member), and arugula, peppers and cukes from the Drews’ garden. My mom had some lovely feta from Arax Market in Watertown, and made a tomato and feta salad with a perfectly salty vinegar dressing. Drew made a green salad with his peppery delicious arugula, crisp cukes and little red peppers. Shane & André made Shane’s favorite burgers of the moment, for which he mixes a stick of butter in with the ground meat. We also had bread from Hi-Rise Bread in Cambridge brought by old friends Ann & Chuck.
Quiche
I love quiche because I like eggs mixed with a lot of dairy, which is essentially what quiche is. Also, quiche is really, really easy to make.
I used my own vegetarian take on the Quiche Lorraine recipe from The Gourmet Cookbook (below). It was excellent. To make this really simple you could just purchase a pre-made pie crust and I’m sure it would come out great. I like to make my own crust, and aside from all of the putting it into and taking it back out of the fridge and oven, it really is foolproof and easy with a Basic Pastry Dough.
The last thing I had left from my csa box were the green beans. I blanched them and mixed them with a dijon mustard vinaigrette, and they were delish. We also had a cucumber salad with lime dressing.
• Vegetarian Quiche Lorraine •
Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 cups half & half
1/2 cup creme fraiche
1 tsp. salt
dash of nutmeg
3/4 cups cheddar cheese cut into 1/4″ cubes
Whisk together all ingredients except for the cheddar cheese. Pour into prepared pie crust*. Sprinkle cheddar over crust. Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes until puffed and golden brown on top.
*Note: If you are making your own crust. Roll the chilled dough out into a 13″ circle. Place in pie plate and trim leaving about 1/2″ hanging over the edge, turn edge in and crimp. Poke the crust all over with a fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Remove from fridge, cover with foil and fill with pie weights, raw rice or dried beans. Bake for 20 minutes at 375. Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes. Proceed as directed above.