It’s Cape time again. Cape time! Usually we get here earlier in the season, but it’s kind of nice to start when it actually feels like summer.
We’re attempting once again to simplify dinners. Less food, fewer dishes, less waste, less cleanup, less work… more relaxing! I’m pretty sure I said the same thing at the beginning of last summer, so we’ll see how it goes, but so far so good.
Friday’s dinner (not pictured) was grilled chicken—which Rose claimed was as good as the chicken they serve at school—with potatoes and super-fat, ultra-tasty asparagus grown by the Drews.
On Saturday we ate from the sea. Drew cooked up some black sea bass and stripers that he’d caught, which we had with rice and an assortment of vegetables.
Sunday was the picture of “New Cape Simple.” Fresh-dug clams, which my mom—somehow on her walker—turned into spaghetti alla vongole. For the non-clam eaters, a double-batch of Marcella’s famous sauce, which disappeared even more quickly than the clams. And a very simple salad with avocado, tomato, lime and spinach.
There was nearly a crisis when we thought we might run out of salad, but we didn’t. Clean-up was minimal, we didn’t even fill the dishwasher. And there were practically no leftovers!
Something else we learned late last summer, and are trying to carry through to this year, is that sometimes a sit-down dinner is not the best thing when you’ve got a lot of kids around. On Saturday, we put the two toddlers at the coffee table with dinner and some toys while the rest of us ate at the big table. I think they ate more than if they’d been sitting at the table with us.
On Sunday we had upwards of 20 people, so we served dinner buffet-style and folks just got a plate and ate wherever. It was so much easier, no counting of place settings and somehow still ending up with not enough seats, no herding of young boys who really don’t want to sit down anyhow, no need for multiple serving dishes, no extra tables and chairs. More relaxing!
Wishing everyone a very happy, and very relaxing summer.
xoxo
