Beyond Rivalry

I feel like blogging what I'm eating and making for dinner these days, I'd love to hear what other people are eating and making, too. I'm trying to incorporate more fish and fiber into my diet. A lot of that happens at breakfast (fiber -- 10 gms. in the oatmeal!) and lunch (fish and fiber) but I'm focusing on dinner here.

Last Week

I was on vacation in Boston, MA, and in Rehoboth Beach, DE. To the best of my memory, this is what I had for dinner (I didn't cook any of it):

Saturday: I attended an outdoor wedding of people I don't know with X, who does know them. Ate some appetizers like spicy cold shrimp and spanikopita (one of my favourites), along with champagne, then dinner for me was veggie kabobs and something else veggie with rice. Red wine with dinner, and lots of water. Dessert (the wedding cake) was scrumptious, moist red velvet cake. We ate outside, overlooking a meadow, and it was idyllic. I talked with my tablemates (an interesting ex-Presby pastor now working with juveniles in the prison system and his wife, an Episcopal Sunday School teacher/learning disabilities teacher) about Girard and mimetic theory! God knows what I said.

Sunday: My friend R. made dinner. It was broiled or baked flounder, baked macaroni with cheese (and maybe tofu in it?), and some veggies I can't recall but I'm sure they were good. We had X's delicious chocolate chip cookies for dessert, and blueberries and other fruit. Dogfish beer and brewed iced tea for drinks.

Monday: We (6 of us) went out to a Chinese place (Confucius) which was very good. (It was the only place we could get into at 9 p.m. without an hour's wait.) As Ch. said, it shouldn't be called Chinese; it's gourmet. I had excellent crispy fried halibut, as did Ch. I thought it was going to come with the head on and I was prepared to cut if off and ignore it, but thankfully it was headless (and more importantly, eyeless). X had sweet and sour flounder (yum), R had spicy duck that she was very pleased with, and the two vegetarians had veggie fried rice and some kind of broccoli rabe. We also shared out some appetizers, like a yummy garlic spinach. Some of us had wine, I think, and some had beer, and I had a pot of hot jasmine tea. Our only complaint with this place was that it was annoyingly loud and there weren't that many people in the room we were in. Must be the acoustics. Still, fun. I brought back half my dinner and Ch. ate it for lunch the next day.

Tuesday: R. made dinner again (for 8 people), with help. She marinated and grilled shark, mahi-mahi, and bluefish, and all were tender and delicious. We also had corn cakes with tofu (yum!), maybe ratatouille?, a tomato/avocado/? salad, fresh pesto pasta, and other veggies. Red wine to drink. Then various ice creams and X's chocolate chip cookies for dessert, and sliced peaches and plums. I had a blast with Ch and N especially, laughed to the point of pain.

Wednesday: The least best meal, at the Rusty Rudder in Dewey Beach. It was buffet for R and me, and crabcakes for Ch and X. (The kids all defected.) What was really fun was time on the deck by the canal, in the sun, beforehand, with beachy drinks (hurricanes for me), listening to Calypso music and eating a half-pound of Old Bay-spiced hot shrimp -- the kind you can't get where I live now, alas. Even the buffet was good for me, with all-I-wanted yummy crab balls (my second dose of the day), pan-battered fried shrimp, crab-stuffed flounder, lotsa veggies and green salad. We four shared a bottle of red wine with dinner.

Thursday: The best, 4 dozen large Maryland blue crabs. Mmmm! Plus those yummy corn cakes again, ratatouille, the tomato/avocado salad, and probably other things I ignored in my obsession with the crabs. I think I ate a dozen and there were 7 of us crab eaters at the table (plus two vegetarians). Drinks, thanks to J and Ch, were Modelo Especial, PBR, Blue Moon, and various (locally brewed) Dogfish beers. And iced tea. Ice creams (including cookie dough) and fruit for dessert. X shot some video of this dinner.

Friday: Before we went out to eat, we had lovely vodka cocktails at the beachhouse. Our last beach meal was at Porcini House Bistro and Treetop Lounge (they don't have a website), on 2nd St at Wilmington Ave, which I heartily recommend for nice, fairly high-end Italian dining in a casual yet elegant space. We wanted to eat in the treehouse (upstairs deck) but because it was raining buckets right up until meal time at 7, we sat in the glassed-in front porch, very comfortably. (And they contacted us in the afternoon to let us know our reservation for the treehouse would be honoured inside.) Again, it was 9 of us (including two minors, who are both vegetarians). We had two bottles of red wine with dinner, shared out some appetizers, and I had a green salad and the half portion of crab risotto for dinner. The risotto was OK (could have been more crabby -- but then, what couldn't?), but X's mushroom soup was heaven (this said by a mushroom hater), the salads (including the caprese, with ripe summer tomatoes) were fresh, the steak, flatbread and fish-eaters seemed happy with their lot, the truffled mac & cheese (using orichietti) was perfectly creamy and savory, the desserts (chocolate mousse, lemon tart, and something else) were delish, and the service was extremely attentive -- until we were charged for 3 bottles of wine (at $39 per pop) instead of 2. That put a slight damper on the evening but we got it worked out and left happy.

Saturday: I was in Jamaica Plain and ate at a place fast becoming a favourite, Alchemist Lounge. They have absinthe! X and I didn't order that this time but I got the lovely, wonderful St. Germain Champagne cocktail (then a glass of red wine) and she had the Leatherlips IPA from Haverhill Brewery. We started with guacamole and chips, and then for dinner, I had the broiled haddock (with rice and asparagus) and she had the fish and chips. (I've tried to find the St. Germain elderflower liqueur since but have not been able to ... )

This Week

Sunday: Home again. We ordered out for Chinese. Mine was shrimp cashew with white rice, T's was shrimp lo mein.  A bottle of Gritty's Vacationland Summer Ale with dinner.

Monday: More of the Chinese.

Tuesday: I made a hybrid meal of macaroni (whole wheat rotini) and cheeses (cheddar and Parmesan) with a roux/white sauce (butter, flour, mustard powder, milk -- should have added white wine, will do so next time), baked that with thawed frozen peas and a couple of cans of albacore tuna, with breadcrumbs and Parmesan on top. and served it with cooked spinach and a green salad (mesclun, red pepper, cucumber, black and green olives, shredded carrots, corn, Caesar dressing). Red wine with dinner.

Wednesday: Same as Tuesday.

Thursday: Same as Wednesday, with the addition of a hard-boiled egg in the salad. We finished up the bottle of wine we started on Tuesday, a Portuguese red wine I got cheap ($6?) at Whole Foods, Cerejeiras Vinho Regional Estremadura 2007. It was so-so. I don't think I'd buy it again.

Friday: I made the pan-fried tofu-corn cakes we had at the beach (corn, tofu, egg, milk, flour, butter, baking powder, scallions, salt, pepper), and a salad of mesclun, cucumber, red bell pepper, shredded carrots, black and green olives, garbanzo beans, whole wheat rotini, and albacore tuna, with Cardini Caesar dressing.  With the Gritty's Vacationland beer.

Saturday (ate dinner alone): Green salad as on Friday (with tuna and beans), plus a couple of corn cakes. Lots of decaf iced tea.