the weather is cooler now that fall has arrived, but if you go to the cape, the summer continues! well, maybe for a few more weeks. i really think the invention of the "long-weekend" is probably the best thing, aside from ice cream and bbq. this weekend, i was lucky enough to spend my first end-of-summer long weekend at my friend alicia's summer home in cape cod. its the first time i've ever been, it was relaxing and full of food! i think i brought back a 8-month-old food baby...
such is life! it could be worse!
we (alicia, me and my colleague claire, la francaise!) arrived late friday night and settled into our "home" for the next few days. saturday morning we made omlettes with ingredients we had already. red bell pepper and tomato with tomato and basil cheese... yummo
saturday was followed by a trip to provincetown, in the cape, or as locals call it, p-town. p-town is only about an hr away (according to google), but we drove on small country roads with a speed limit of 50, plus stopping at yard-sales, other towns such as dennis, chatham, and lighthouses, the trip took a bit longer...
when we arrived in p-town, we were greeted by the lively and colorful gay community who both reside there but also vacation there. we were told that a local restaurant bubala is a great spot for fresh sea food and local catches... so, away we went! flossie also was in the cape so we all met up for a meal and to pick her mind about all the great history she's gathered about the cape!
for dinner, i started with clam chowder (a must have in the cape of course!
followed by a helping of oysters on the half shell, caught locally in falmouth, a cape cod town famous for their oysters. according to flossie's research, the cape is full of small fishing villages and towns. even today, fishing and catching "fuit de mare" or aka sea food is one of it's main sources of income fot locals. not only so, a lot of immigrants from irland and other european countries have immigrated here, hoping for a better life for their children and future generations! the great food, great scenery and gentle waters have been loved for years by numerous famous americans (the kennedy's have a complex there and martha's vineyard was the vacation spot for the obama's). i can't blame them, what a beautiful place!
after the appetizers, the main course followed, i had fish and chips, i think the catch of the day on sat night was bass.
alicia, had a spinach salad with spicy/sweet beets! they really were pretty spicy! not only was the aftertaste sweet but there was a hint of a peppery spice that lingered in your mouth!
it was served with a slice of bread with fresh goat cheese spread and peppers it was really good. i forget what type of dressing she had, but it was pretty delicious! fresh, healthy and makes your iron deficiencies disappear!
claire had a tuna tartar with caviar... the serving of the tuna was very generous and as you can see the presentation was simply beautiful.
last but not least, floosie. flossie decided to go for one of the daily specials, pan-seared scallops with fettuccine and a pesto sauce.
i stole several bites through out dinner and i can tell you that the pasta was perfect al dente, the pesto sauce, fresh and... basily? haha. the scallops were fresh and seared perfectly, mmm... soft with a great texture. all in all, we had a wonderful dinner, bubala is definitely a great place, with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating, perfect for summer, winter, fall, spring! any season!
we parted p-town, after a long day of touring, we were all exhausted! we returned home for some rest and of course, saturday night live! i love breakfast/brunch. amazing amazing and amazing! next morning, we decided to make oatmeal. oatmeal? yes, but not just ordinary oatmeal, oatmeal with a healthy serving of fruits and vitamins :)
all of our oat meals were slightly different. in mine, my fruits were separated, i preferred to spoonful each individual berry/berry slice with a spoonful of oat meal. but... alicia on the other hand, decided to mix hers up! honestly, i do think hers looks much better than mine! but both were equally tasty :)
after our healthy and delicious breakfast (which we ate on the deck in the backyard, facing our beautiful pond and forest! yes, there's a forest and a pond in the backyard!
anyways, after breakfast, we decided to go shopping for our next meal (yes, we love eating and we're not ashamed!) we decided to have a bbq for a late lunch and headed to trader joes, under the guidance of alicia's trusty GPS, named sebastian :) he's french, btw. it took us a detour to "the christmas store." a gem of a store. where i bought a bunch of different things for my kiddies. i won't say much about our bbq, i'll let the photos speak for itself, with a few words of narration :)
seems like i've made a fair share of caprese salads lately. my favorite is the small cherry tomatoes, the multi-colored kind at trader joes, it just makes the salad so colorful! a trick i learned is to cut the tomatoes, add olive oil and toss with a gentle sprinkle of pepper and salt. mix all that together and then put it on the basil and mozzerlla. when served you can sprinkle a bit of balsamic to taste. i actually prefer the caprese with otu the balsamic because then you can truly taste the flavorful-ness (is that a word?) of the tomatoes! diff tomatoes really do taste different and diff combinations just makes it more exciting! we had three salads for the bbq, the caprese was followed by a macoroni salad.
we decided to go with something easy and semi-healthy.
we decided to go for annie's bunnie white cheddar!!! we made it "healthier by putting in sweet peas! yumm :)
last but not least, no bbq is complete with out an all american favorite! potato salad! i've made this recipe a few times before. but this time, i forgot to put in a few secret and key ingredients! i forgot to put in celery and apples! i love puting apples
in potato salad, it adds a chrunchy texture, a "surprise" for those who don't expect it and a burst of sweet flavor amongst the dijon, mayo, salt and pepper :)
and... drum roll please... alicia tended the actual bbq with hot dogs, corn and grilled veggies! what a wonderful meal!
ahh... just to "spice" things up, we also added a local cape cod favorite! cape cod potato chips! we were going to visit the factory but it was closed on the weekend! we'll have to come back and visit :)
we went a little crazy with the chips and bought several flavors! notice that each of the bags of chips has an image of a lighthouse, i'm not personally sure of the lighthouse actually exists but they're really beautiful images. enjoy.
i wish there was some way to add chips onto the blog, so my readers can actually have a taste! they taste great! everyone should run to their local corner store and buy a, no, three bags! GO!
we washed all this delicious food down with nothing else but a wonderful bottle of wine, from my favorite state, california. we came a far way to have a bottle of white zinfandel, bottled in napa valley.
now it was diner time...
(haha, how fast time passes when you're
eating!). for dinner we decided to have some of the left overs and we also made a vegetarian fried rice, with vegetarian hot-dogs, a spinach
salad with fresh heir-loom tomatoes and garbonzo beans and also a zucchini and bell pepper with hummus dip.
now for the "piece de resistance." there are several ice cream shops on the cape, but one of the famous ice cream shops is in centerville, near
osterville, it's called "four seas" it not only made with fresh ingredients but is known to be the ice cream shop where jacqueline kennedy served to her guests at her wedding, the flavor is: peach. which is one of the two flaors we got! yummo! it was rich, smooth and full of flavor, but i would have prefered a few pieces of peach inside the ice cream! i perfer my ice cream with.. stuff, in it!
the weekend is not over yet! one more meal to go! it is now, monday, labor day morning, claire generously offered to
make us
crêpe. mmm... we made several
crêpes and each had several, both savory and sweet
crêpes. delicious! we enjoyed our last meal outside with freshly blended watermelon juice :)
here are some more photos of the end of our fabulous weekend! i can't wait for another great weekend :)
fatten him up!! maybe it's impossible... some people just have these body types and motabolisms that they just are the same size... forever... don't we all hate these people?
