Ack, today has gotten away from me — it’s just been action-packed with laziness 😛
Before I get onto today’s food, though, look at what I found last night hidden in a cabinet behind some dishes!
This was perfect since we were all pretty stuffed from the big grilled dinner but still in the mood for something sweet. I split the Hershey’s truffle and the Newman’s bar into three pieces so that mom, John, and I could all take part:
To be honest, though, that chocolate bar was weirdly sweet. I like my dark chocolate to be somewhat bitter — the extra sweetness kind of gave it a fake chocolate taste.
For breakfast this morning, I made us all carrot cake oatmeal:
For the three of us, I used 3/4 cup dry steel-cut oats, 2 cups water, 1 egg, 2 shredded carrots, 1 shredded apple, 2/3 cup fork-crushed fresh pineapple, and lots of cinnamon. (I put a giant spoonful of freshly ground almond butter on top of mine, too, in case you missed it.) I also made about 1/2 cup each of healthy cream cheese icing for the side to be added on at the last minute possible — I wasn’t trying to have any more chemical reaction disasters taking place in my food!
Cascading icing:
After breakfast, we pushed off toward Wareham, a little town near the Cape where my mom bought a marsh-shack (though she calls it the “little house”) a few years ago. It’s just a few teeny rooms, but mom and John are working on completely gutting it and making it liveable — it will be a nice renovation project to keep them busy for, ohhhh, the next 25 years or so. While John did something with tools and ladders and some cementy compound in the “bathroom” (which now boasts a toilet that flushes — yayyyyyy!!) mom and I went for a walk on the “beach.” Here she is looking for pretty rocks:
More scenery:
My dad was nearby on the Cape with my stepmom at my step-grandma’s house, so he came over for a visit post-walk. We had brought some goodies from home for entertaining purposes, so alongside our afternoon tea (unpictured), we each had a slice of random rhubarb pie that my mom made yesterday (with my assistance, of course).
I’m not going to give a recipe for the pie since it was SO random (part of the fridge clean-out mission), but it included all of the following and more: part-skim ricotta, verrrrrrry iffy fat free ricotta (it was gone enough that I wouldn’t eat it straight, but mom was convinced that it would be fine for cooking), eggs, garden-fresh rhubard, dried Asian dates, a way beyond ripe avocado, 1/2 banana, erythritol (my mom is diabetic-ish, and this is her sweetener of choice because it doesn’t have a wretched aftertaste like splenda), and a crust made of pre-cooked whole grains (a blend of every grain under the sun that mom made last week in hopes of using them for a batch or seven of kitchen sink muffins).
I wasn’t sure how this pie would be given all of the iffy ingredients (my doubt says a lot because you know how lenient I usually am with food iffiness!), and the taste didn’t knock my socks off when I tried it right out of the oven yesterday. I have to admit, though, that it was pretty tasty today after a night in the fridge! I guess mom knows what she’s doing after all.
After pie, we also shared a package of Anna’s ginger thins and rye crackers with seed butter I made yesterday:
The seed butter came about because, during fridge clean-out yesterday, I came across a ramekin full of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and sea salt that my mom had been saving since we made everything bagels together when I was home in March of 2008. Yes, she’d been saving these seeds for 14 months. I just could not handle the thought of them taking up space in the fridge for another 14 (or 28 or 42 or 56, etc.). We soaked the seeds in warm water to dissolve and eliminate the salt and then toasted them, along with some pepitas that mom had around, to dry them out. All grinding took place in the coffee bean grinder, but I think I over-toasted because the finished product was pretty bland. I immersion-blended it with a couple tsp of miso paste and about 3 tbsp of almond butter to add “depth,” and that helped quite a bit. Mom has plans to doctor it further with Ghirardelli cocoa powder — no complaints here!
After tea-time, dad headed back to step grandma’s house, John returned to compounding the bathroom with ladders and tools, mom pretended to do some work paperwork, and I took a nap. When I awoke, it was nearly time for dinner! We droveout to Turk’s Seafood in Mattapoisett. My mom has been raving about this place to me on the phone for months, so I was excited to have the chance to experience it first-hand!
I love beachy seafood restaurants, and this one fit right into that category. The atmosphere inside was very casual (though, sushi is also available if one feels the need to class it up) and boisterous. The food even came on paper plates! We started with edamame to share:
I ordered the broiled haddock and crabcake with roasted vegetables:
It was delicious (even though “thawed in the oven” may have been a better description for the veggies than “roasted”). I chopped the fish and crab cake and mixed it all up with the veggies and that mango salsa (back right) and quite enjoyed every single bite.
After dinner, dessert was on the agenda, of course. We backtracked slightly to hit up Kool Kone, another fun beachy establishment, for ice cream (and we turned on the heat in the car to get in the mood!).
I had a small cup with a scoop of black raspberry chocolate chip frozen yogurt on top and a scoop of chocolate peanut butter cup on the bottom.
Some blurry pb cup chunks:
Phew, that brings us to the end of this marathon post! It’s been a very exciting food day that somehow involved a lot of doing nothing. Not a bad combination if you ask me 😛
What is your favorite beach food?
Salt Water Taffy…esp lime! To me, that waxy white box just screams BEACH. And boardwalk fudge makes me feel that way too. 🙂
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What a freaking great day!!!!
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those beach ice cream trucks at Rockaway 🙂
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Beautiful beach! I love northern beaches. I’ve only been to a northern beach in Oregon, but I’d love to go to Maine someday or the Cape.
Love the carrot cake oats. And the chocolate espresso Newman’s chocolate bar is one of my favs.
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Hmm I don’t think I have favorite “beach” foods. I guess that’s because I live in a beach town, and I’m not really a beach girl?? Cotton candy makes me think of summer though, is that the same?
I love how you and your mom just create recipes like that. I always at least have to start with a recipe…impressive, girl 🙂
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I’ve ALWAYS wanted to go “back East,” and this is exactly how I picture it 🙂 Lots of seafood! Hmm…beach foods? Lots of fruit and something crunchy to go with it…crackers and cheese maybe! I would give anything for a beach day today!
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I don’t know how I missed your carrot cake oatmeal in the passed, but that sounds awesome!! I LOVE carrot cake, and oats. Perfection!
My favourite beach foods are lobster and mussels. Luckily, my mom’s boyfriend has a cottage in Shediac, New Bruswick, the self-proclaimed “lobster capital of the world.” I would never dispute that either. You can buy it straight off the boats and cook it up fresh the same day it was caught!
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Mmm your oats look great! Sounds like you’re having a fun weekend!
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Mmm carrot cake oats is one of my favs.
The beach is so pretty. I love the Cape! Have a great Memorial Day with the fam:)
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Yum, I love your oats. I’m impressed that you and your Mom can throw together a pie without a recipe base! That takes some skill to make those crazy ingredients work. It sounds like you’ve been having a great weekend 😀
My favorite beach food: watermelon… and ice cream!
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Oh man, I’ve definitely been missing the beach this weekend!
Del’s Lemonade is definitely my favorite beach food!!!! (frozen lemonade)
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Hey just found your blog, it’s great!!
the beach is so pretty!
http://strivingforbalance.wordpress.com/
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Wow lady you are having quite the busy vacation! Sounds like you’re enjoying some quality fam-time though. And maybe just maybe your mom needed you around to put some of her odds and ends out of their misery. Well done, soldier!
Oh and holy jeepers that was a bad-ass grill in your last post. I would take some glorious charred food from there any day of the week.
Happy Memorial Day!
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Looks like you had a great time! Nothing like some relaxation!
Your family must be so happy to have you around to do all the cooking and baking!! 🙂
Beach looks great!! Any food is good to me haha
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Carrot cake oatmeal sounds amazing!
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That carrot cake oatmeal sounds amazing!!! I’ve seen a type of it all over the blogs, but I think you’ve made it the best!! Everything in it screams carrot cake, and the icing too!! Ahhh it looks so great Sarah!
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hmmmm my favorite beach food used to be soft serve ice cream.. but now i guess i would go with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.. complete with sand!
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I absolutely love getting French fries on the boardwalk, sprinkled with malt vinegar and a little bit of salt. The salt in the air really makes the fries taste AMAZING!
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