Hungry Times Two

In the 13 months Scott and I have lived in Oregon, we've done our best to visit the varied landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. To mark our 12th wedding anniversary in April, we chose the coast. Or, as the highway signs here redundantly declare, "the Ocean Beaches." We've twice day-tripped to Astoria, camped at Bullards Beach State Park near Bandon, and spent a terrific weekend in Pacific City . On that last trip, we visited Neskowin's Ghost Forest on one of the lowest tides of the year, and we were eager to return.  We tend to be procrastinating trip planners, so we we decided to go about 10 days before our anniversary, which fell on the Easter holiday. A quick Airbnb search later, we had a condo with a kitchenette reserved at Proposal Rock Inn in Neskowin, a funky creekside condo complex with views of the Pacific Ocean and, of course, Proposal Rock. The Inn allows dogs, so our pup Loretta came with us.    The view from the condo balcony As a Sout...

So I'm being a little dramatic with today's post title, but uh, Scott and I are both ill this week. Between his strep throat and my sinusitis, we're a sniffling, hacking sorry sack of sickness. What kind of tasty treats have we had this week? Unless you count OJ and hot mint tea as cocktails, cough drops as appetizers, or  comfort foods like tomato soup and Mac & Cheese as five-star dinners, it's been pretty lame. However, no less than three local peeps have offered to bring us the ultimate comforting cure of chicken noodle soup. If it wasn't 102 degrees outside folks, we might have a deal. My plans for canning strawberry jam were dashed this week due to illness and I'm not even sure local berries are still available in this sweltering climate now. I did, however, snag a tasty cantaloupe. It's been a healthy, cool treat that's soothing to our aggravated throats. ********************** Boo to sickness. Want to know what didn't suck recen...

Ever the fan of a playful pun, I came up with several on our 45-minute car ride this past Saturday to Deale, Md., which is pretty much in the middle of Backwater, Nowhere. What's the big Deale? I can Deale with that. I hope we're getting a fair Deale. Deale or No Deale? You get the picture. Luckily, bad puns were the only poor thing we endured during our trek out to Skipper's Pier Restaurant & Dock Bar.

Just at the moment when both parties in HTT feel like they're crawling out of their skin and going insane in their membranes, a kind friend issues an invitation to their house share at Dewey Beach. Thank you, dear friend. You know how to cure what ails us. Aptly described by another friend as "Do Me Beach," it's quite the meat market/rowdy beach to which many in the DC Metro area flock. I visited for the first time in June and well, it's no Charleston or low key NC-style barrier isle, but the area does have its charms. I'm thinkin ' a crabcake somewhere in Rehobeth and a first-time trip for Scott to the Dogfish Head Brewery - I'm gonna get my Namaste on. Grilled fish. Icy drinks. Dips in the water. Come on, quittin ' time! Hope everyone enjoys this first weekend in August - how did it get to be August already?!

A friend sent me this link today about the DC area's best crab cakes. Somehow I think I should totally take a day (or two) off and just visit them all in a whirlwind feast of crab goodness. I do love me some crab. Right now I am fantasizing about a crab and avocado salad... I have never had one but I have seen many recipes for them and even on menus before and I never took the plunge. Something about the soft flaky crab meat joined with the cool and creamy avocado just seems decadent and absolutely wonderful. Methinks I need to make that happen. I am in the land of crab, yes? Over the weekend I visited the Delaware coast and hung out in Dewey Beach ( paaaaaarty on, man!) and Rehoboth (both family-friendly and a gay mecca). In Rehoboth I enjoyed a great crab crake at Claws Seafood House - not too bready , broiled instead of nasty fried, and plenty of substantial lump meat). We also lunched at Dogfish Head Brewing and Eats , where our incredibly witty waiter told us their cr...

(I'm doing this post early, as I will be sans computer at the beach in just one day. Yes, I am counting down the minutes til 5 pm!) The oh-so prestigious James Beard Foundation recently awarded the Best Blog of 2009 to Serious Eats , a very cool site full of all kinds of exciting food news, recipes, photos, videos and more. I added them to follow their posts and I am incredibly glad I did, or else I might have missed this gem: Peanut Butter Sushi. Yes, please. I am a lover of peanut butter. I think it's genetic; my late dad, a man of zero culinary skills (not really his fault; he came from a Southern household and generation where women knew their place in the kitchen, thankyouverymuch ), had one solitary game plan when it came to making something: a peanut butter sandwich. Hell, he didn't even need the bread. Oftentimes, there would be four spoons resting in the sink, all covered in crunchy or creamy smears of peanut butter. Give the man a jar of Jiff or Peter Pan and he...

Erin was kind enough to load these photos, therefore making this post "by Erin." Trust me though, it's Scott writing. Over Thanksgiving at Sullivan's Island, SC, we scored 1 lb. of local brown shrimp by beheading and shelling about 15 lbs. for several shellfish-hu ngry family members. "Shrimp at Thanksgiving?" you ask. Well ... yes, why not? Actually, we had shrimp the night before, but our Thanksgiving is still heavily South Carolina-influenced to include butter beans and rice. If you grew up landlocked, or coastal-and-lazy, here's my tutorial on peeling shrimp - including NOT wasting tail meat , a crime I've too often witnessed at restaurants, etc. Step 1 Take your right hand (NOTE: If you're a lefty, just apply all directions to that hand) and firmly hold the tail section of the shrimp. Step 2 Use your left hand to grip the body-section immediately adjacent to the tail-section. Step 3 Split the body-section from the tail-section, first by ...

Thus far in our married life routine of juggling family time, Scott and I developed a pretty awesome and efficient holiday routine - Thanksgiving with his clan, Christmas with mine. It works because it boils down to two things: Thanksgiving is about food, which the Adams Family has down to a big ol' literal gravy-covered T, and Christmas is of course about all things red, green, and white with Santa and Baby Jesus guest-starring, the lot of which my Mother Margaret smothers and covers all over the damn place. I love Thanksgiving at the in-laws because of the sheer number of them. Growing up, it was my parents and me, the only child, with widowed grandmothers and the occasional aunt, uncle and cousin thrown in the mix. I became used to the holidays being pretty intimate, but now that I have a wealth of in-laws, it's so fun to see all the personalities and the food preferences gel and collide. This year, the in-laws hosted at the family house at Sullivan's Island, South Carol...

Just a wee bit of the month of May remains and thus I finally broke my self-imposed barrier from the farmers markets. During a visit to Asheville this long holiday weekend to celebrate my mother's magnificent self turning Sixty-Somethin', Mamma Mia and I checked out the offerings of the Western North Carolina Farmers Market. This was the market that begat my love for all foods fresh and fantastic during my college years at UNC-Asheville. I recall summer days spent tasting the liberal samples of fresh yogurt cheese and assorted nuts and snackies (Roasted Pepitas, Cuban crackers, dried papaya) from one vendor and buying Coates Brothers produce like it was going out of style (green beans, squash, beautiful fat tomatoes, and strawberries). And oh, the strawberries -the ruby of the Southern Spring Season. They're only so good for so long, but I relish this fruit like no other. My friend Beth the blogger brought some berries from her area of the world, Raleigh, NC, to our beach e...

We're at beautiful Sullivan's Island, SC this week and I actually have time/energy to write on this blog. Foods consumed so far include kabobs (with local Shem Creek shrimp, the first time I've grilled shrimp), sandwiches and chips seasoned with a hint of sand and my mom's knock-out good breakfast casserole (sausage, egg, hashbrowns and cheese, all cooked together, yum!) I picked up another bag of local shrimp today at Mt. Pleasant Seafood http://www.boonehallfarms.com/departments/mtp_seafood.php , although the freshest of the freshest is at Magwood's . I also snagged some crabbing gear, as I'm hoping to catch enough 5"+ (the legal size) blue and stone crabs tomorrow via the highly technical method known as "noodling." : ) That entails a stick, some string, a lead weight and turkey necks that have been sitting out in the sun for a few hours (crabs love carrion). Overall, crabbing is just as much about the effort/process that goes into it as it...