Happy Birthday!

Thursday was my birthday and Craig took me whale watching to celebrate.  Before we could set out, however, he needed to prepare delicious sandwiches to eat on the boat.  He used a good baguette from Seven Stars, my favorite bakery, and filled it with prosciutto, chevre, roasted red peppers, red onion, and roasted red pepper dressing.  They were delicious and all the other whale watchers swooned in envy.

We worked up an appetite watching all those whales swim around, so we found a coffee shop on Beacon hill to relax in.  The lemon blueberry tart was so good, very lemony and not too sweet.

For dinner we met Cora and Allen at Jacob Wirth's in the Theater District.  I feel too weird taking pictures in restaurants, but that place is great!  A bajillion beers, mainly imports, pretty good prices, and great food.  Craig and Allen had the smoked pork chop, which came on some delicious red cabbage, Cora had the boursin burger, and I had crabcakes and gazpacho.  Everything was delicious!  What a great birthday.

Clambake

Craig's sister Lisa hosts a clambake every year to celebrate the 4th of July.  Everyone in the family helps out, and Craig's job is to catch the fish.  The past couple of years, though, he's had a tough time getting the catch, so this year he decided to bring in the big guns.  Thank goodness Dave came through!

My contribution to the party.  The Jicama was a huge hit, as was the Caesar dip.  Now that it's all been eaten, I can give it away--there were anchovies in it!  See, they're not so gross.

And finally, the meal we wait all year for.  The lobsters were delicious, as was the corn and the sausage and the clams and of course the fish.

That was a whole lot of rich food though, and Sunday night Craig and I had Penance Dinner, grilled veggies in a wrap.  Not a bad way to pay for your sins.

Fish Tacos!

As promised, we made the leftover fluke into some awesome tacos on Wednesday night.  We accessorized our tacos with yogurt mixed with garlic scape pesto and lemon juice and with a chopped mixture of herbs and cherry tomatoes (our garden) and radishes (CSA).  A little rice and they were perfect, especially after we heated the tortillas on the grill.  Behind the taco is grilled yellow pepper, onion, and portobello mushrooms.  Gin and tonic and a beautiful hot evening made it perfect.

Fresh Fish

On Saturday Craig went fishing and was very successful.  The new limit for fluke (summer flounder) is pretty big, so even one keeper is a lot of food.  On Sunday evening I grilled one of his fluke.  I sliced green garlic from the CSA and heated it gently in olive oil, then covered the fish in the oil.  I then placed a buttered sheet of foil on the grill and set the fish, skin side down, on that.  It worked pretty well, although I would have preferred something sturdier (and more reusable) than foil.  Here it is just off the grill:

And on the plate.  The garlic was delicious!  I served it with stir-fried tat soi from the CSA and snow peas from our garden, and over brown rice tossed with a garlic scape (CSA again) pesto.  And we had enough fish left over to make fish tacos tonight!

Quinoa Pilaf

I'm still looking for ways to use my preserved lemons, and I found this one on Food Network.  It's red and white quinoa (prettier than just one or the other) with olives, artichoke hearts, currants, and of course preserved lemons.  I liked it a lot and it was really quick and easy, but Craig did not like it so much.  Maybe I'll make it when he's not home.  The Swiss chard is from the coop, picked Friday  morning according to Brendan behind the counter.  Delicious--chard is definitely one of those things that's WAY better from the garden than the grocery store.

Chicken Alla Diavola

Cora and Mary Kate came down for the afternoon yesterday and we had such a nice time.  We lunched on salad made from CSA greens, and for dinner we had chicken alla diavola from Cook's.  It's a favorite recipe of mine.  The chicken is butterflied and brined, then you rub a flavored oil under the skin before grilling it.  We ate it with the rest of the saffron-red pepper rice from Wednesday and grilled asparagus.  Unfortunately, the camera we used to take pictures was Mary Kate's, so hopefully she'll send some shots for the blog.  The chicken was great though, I really recommend.

Shrimp with Arugula and Couscous

Our CSA started on Thursday!  We got a bunch of wonderful things, lots of greens and peas and radishes and garlic scapes, to name a few.  On Friday Craig made a recipe the CSA had sent us, couscous with arugula, and he topped it with grilled shrimp.  The arugula is sauteed and then added to the cooked couscous.  We agreed that the couscous needed more flavor, maybe by using broth, but the shrimp were really good, as were the asparagus and the snap peas.