Island Hopping

What can I say, I’m a lucky girl this summer!  First I was able to spend a week on Martha’s Vineyard with my bff and her family, and just recently Brian and I returned from 3 days on Nantucket!  This time we were able to stay with my aunt/uncle/cousins who rented a house for a few weeks :)

My aunt & uncle used to have year-round house on the island when I was growing up and I was able to go much more frequently.  However, up until last year when Brian and I visited Nantucket for our first anniversary, I hadn’t been in over 10 years!! 

With only 3 days on island, we were always doing something fun and there was never a shortage of delicious food.  I know I’ve told you that I come from a family of great cooks!  That includes on vacation :)
I LOVED the house!  It was Nantucket meets French Countryside as far as decor goes.  I snapped some photos but you’ll have to excuse the mess…we were rolling 12-13 people deep at any given time!

 
LOVE LOVE the countertops…

That little wooden “shed” out there is actually the outdoor shower.  A MUST on a Nantucket vacation.  There is nothing like taking a nice hot shower out in the fresh air!  Wish I had one at home!!
 
Food!
Fresh bluefish we cooked for dinner with grilled veggies


The remains of clams “casino”…actually it’s clams “(my aunt/uncles’s last name)” as they are their version made with prosciutto!

Famous tomato basil eggs

The gist of this dish is: 

• Heat some olive oil in a pan with a little garlic/herbs/salt+pepper
• Add fresh sliced tomatoes, cook for a few min
• Crack fresh eggs on top, cook to desired doneness
• top with fresh basil
• serve with toast

Wow.  This is Brian and my new favorite breakfast.

It reminded me of bruscetta + eggs.   SO good!


Monster-sized sandwich at the beach, from Something Natural

Brian and I split that, it was roast beef on six-grain bread with all the fixin’s.  They make all their own bread…delicious. 
Salad on the ferry ride home

Sadie and my cousin!  Sadie made Bromley seem huge when we got home!

Brian

Rolling 10-deep in the Suburban

Beach

The water was actually REALLY nice!  Usually too cold for me, but I went in :)

And last but not least…The Brewery!  You can read my full recap about Cisco from our trip last September.  One of the best spots on island!


That was their Pechish Woods!  The newest member of their “Woods” series.  Like the Cherry Woods, it’s also a sour ale, but the peach wasn’t as prominent as the cherry is.   Still loved it.
Also fell in love with their Triple 8 Distillery’s Blueberry Vodka.  This is unlike any “blueberry” vodka you’ve ever had.  It tastes like fresh blueberries, and that color is all natural.

Perfect with club soda and a splash of lemonade.  Definitely bought a bottle to bring home. 

 
BYOFood.

Well I think that about sums it up!  Fun, family, food, beach, beer…am I missing anything? 

Till next time…

An Everything Pesto

First the winner of the Eversave giveaway is fellow blogger Susie!!   Congrats!  Hope you have fun buying some delicious meats at McKinnon’s!

Usually when I think of pesto, I think of the classic version with basil, pinenuts, parmesan cheese, garlic, and olive oil.  Simple yet incredibly flavorful and delicious.  Also a great way to use up an excess of basil growing in the garden.

My “problem” right now is that I have an excess of multiple herbs in the garden!!

Also some older hunks of cheese that I’d like to use up.

Lucky for me, Pesto is actually incredibly versatile and came be made from many different ingredients. 

Even in it’s classic form I almost always use walnuts over pinenuts, as I usually have them at home already.

First I grated approximately a cup of cheese, maybe less.  I used some aged gouda as well as Pecorino Romano.  

3 – 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped in half (they will later go through the food processor).

Fresh herbs!  I used basil, oregano, parsley, and thyme!   I even added some baby spinach that I had in the fridge.  You can use as much or as little as you want…I used small “bunches” of each, and a “handful” of spinach.

The list of ingredients is as followed, and really they are all approximate:

• 1/2 cup nuts, I used walnuts.
• big bunch of herbs – you can use 1 herb only, or multiple varieties
• 3/4 cup – cup grated aged/drier cheese such as parmesan, Romano, aged gouda.
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper
• pasta water (a few tablespoons worth)

1. Wash and dry herbs
2. grate cheese
3. In a small sauté pan, heat olive oil over med-low heat, and add garlic.  Cook garlic for just a few minutes, DON’T brown the garlic.  Cooking the garlic slightly just takes the sharp bite from it, but still leaves a strong garlic flavor. 
4. Place herbs, cheese, nuts, garlic and olive oil into a food processor. 
5. Blend until a thick sauce is formed
6. If serving with pasta, add pasta water 1T at a time, to the pesto to add some creaminess, and thin it out for easier spreading.

 

We enjoyed our herb pesto with a mix of pasta, grilled veggies (chopped), and arugula all tossed together.

As well as a caprese salad.  Enjoyed al fresco.

There is also almost always extra pesto, which you can freeze for a quick dinner another day!

Blue White and “Red” Velvet

First, since I was so busy this weekend, I’m guessing you were too and so I’m extending my Eversave giveaway for McKinnon’s Meat Market one more day!!  I’m picking a winner tomorrow!

Hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July weekend!!  We were up in NH at my in-laws house for a bbq and some pool action. 

There was also the annual Center Harbor Road Race that I somehow talk myself into each year even though it’s the most miserable 5miles EVER.   This was also my very first road race a couple years ago.

Check out this mapmyrun.com profile so you can see what I mean when I say it’s one BIG hill!!

Well this year I once again talked myself into running….BUT last minute I made an executive decision to join in the 2-mile race instead.  BEST IDEA EVER.  It was 10am, already HOT and sunny, and I have not been training on any hills really so I knew I’d be miserable. 

Best 2 miles ever :)  They don’t chip time (annoying) and I didn’t have my Garmin or anything with me…just my ipod, but it took me around 18min which is great for me!

After the race, we lounged in Brian’s mom’s pool for a while, ate some BBQ leftovers and then headed home!

Now the cupcakes (with an unfortunate sad ending):

Pretty right?

Well, this was my first (and last for a while) attempt at “Red” velvet.  You know…I was going for the Red White & Blue theme of course.

I knew I wanted to make red velvet, with delicious cream cheese frosting.  However, I really did NOT want the ridiculous amount of food coloring.

So I tried the option of using beet puree in my batter instead. 

I wasn’t all too optimistic as I couldn’t really find a great recipe online using beets that delivered a classic “red” color, but I decided I’d rather have “not so red” velvet, than food coloring cupcakes. 

The batter was nice and red, as expected, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t last through the baking process. 

I actually used this Cooking Light recipe for the cake.    I made the following revisions:

• 7 oz cake flour + 3 oz whole wheat pastry flour
• ADD: 1/2 cup pureed beets (fresh beets, boiled, peeled, and pureed)
• SUBTRACT: 1/4 cup buttermilk and 2T butter to make up for the added moisture from the beets
• LEAVE OUT: red food coloring
• Mini cupcakes baked for 9-10 min

I also used red paper liners to enhance the “REDness” of it all.

However they came out more like a chocolate-looking cake with a slight red tinge.

I made 48 mini’s and 6 regular sized

I was happy with them regardless. 

Especially because the BEST part is obviously the cream cheese frosting!!

I used:

• 8 oz Neufchatel (reduced fat) cream cheese
• 4T butter, softened
• 3 -  3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Start with 3 cups confectioners sugar, and remaining ingredients.  Blend on medium speed until creamy.   Add more sugar if needed to reach desired consistency.  I wanted mine really thick so I could pipe it. 

Mostly swirls with a few stars mixed in…

Then we needed the “Blue”.  Keeping with my naturally colored theme, I went with a simple blueberry.

So into my cupcake carrier they went!  I fit most of the mini’s in there, and put the 6 big ones, and 4 minis in another baking dish to take up to NH with me.

We arrive.  I get out of the car, grab the carrier…and then before I know what happened the bottom falls out and 40 mini cupcakes splatter all over the DIRT driveway!

This is what it looked like after we picked them up…

Now, I’m all over the 5 second rule, but not when there’s a lovely dusting of sand and gravel on my frosting!!

FAIL.

Well at least I got my nice “before” photos ;)  And we still had the 6 big ones, and 4 small ones to share!

Me and Red Velvet are taking a “break”.