A Spring Cape Cod Breakfast: Hangar B, Chatham.

More from the (sort of, maybe) hurricane. Being home all afternoon is rare for me, so I've been taking advantage of the weather, cleaning off my desk & paging through my sketchbooks. Apparently I have some catching up to do.
Here's one moment I found: a breakfast, on Cape Cod, early June, rainy Saturday, at the surprisingly (why surprisingly? Because we are both really good cooks & live in Massachusetts & have developed low restaurant expectations in general I guess) excellent Hangar B. 

6.11.2011: Breakfast in Chatham. 

I had a smoked salmon, goat's cheese & arugula omelet, with avocado slices & fried potatoes & toast & Owen had the famous Red Flannel Hash (Beets, Yukon Gold Patoes, Sweet Potatoes, Bacon), with toast & poached egggs & horseradish creme fraiche.
Mine was brilliant anyway, but the avocado slices but it over the top. Owen's was the best use of beets I have ever tasted. The toast was homemade & wonderful & there was housemade jam too. Good potatoes (which is both very important in a breakfast & not as common as you'd think).
I'm very into going out to breakfast as a thing & this meal made it into my Top Three Restaurant Breakfast List. It didn't quite beat out the amazing breakfast sandwich at the Sunny Point Cafe in Asheville, NC but comes in second before brunch at the The Green Bean & I do love the Green Bean,
Despite the rain, it was a lovely Cape Cod Saturday. After breakfast, we drove to the beach & collected seaweed & shells for our garden in a torrential downpour.
Standing on a beach on the bay on Cape Cod in red boots & a dress in pouring rain with someone you love & a hound dog, holding a bucket of ocean matter, after a really good breakfast is the kind of moment that makes for a satisfying life, I believe.
Here, in Northampton, in the present, the sun just came out.

Hurricane Soup. Or Tropical Depression Soup?

See, I promised I'd be back with some actual food! & what better occasion than Hurricane Irene Sunday, here on the East Coast. After days of Hurricane Drama, by yesterday around here it seemed like just about time to give in, purchase provisions (i.e. wine & beer, food & novels), & get ready to stay home. Last night we got prepared by making a giant lentil soup, the purpose of which was to cook as many things in the fridge as possible in case we lost power today (which we didn't, by the way).

8.28.2011: Hurricane (Lentil & Sausage) Soup.

Into the trusty giant white cast iron enamel pot went chicken apple sausage, lentils, onions, garlic, potatoes, ginger, leftover chicken, chicken stock from the same chicken, the last of our garden atomic red & purple haze carrots, & lots of cumin. Since this took a while to cook, while waiting we also consumed the last of the amazing Stop & Shop frozen appetizers we purchased on a recent late night trip, the silly kind where one might by tempted by such items as mac n' cheese triangles & jalapeno poppers. Then we went dancing in the rain.
All in all it's been a pretty good hurricane. My work was delightfully cancelled, & nothing bad happened other than it was kind of anticlimatic I guess.
But it's very cozy here at home, & Owen is brewing beer in the kitchen while I get reacquainted with my blog & listen to Amanda Palmer in our room. We walked the dog over to check out the rather dramatically high Mill River, we addressed the last of our wedding invitations, & we thought it a perfect occasion to drink wine in the afternoon. Even thought the part of my soul that loves storms was secretly looking for a little action, I learned in New Orleans to not play around with hurricanes, so I'm really very happy with how today turned out. Always marry the guy you can spend a perfect hurricane with, that's what I say.

We Now Return After Our Summer Hiatus.

I suppose that I should just accept it, since this happens every year on this blog. All winter long I paint soups & meat & then spring comes & I get excited about painting vegetables all summer, & summer comes & I subsequently spend all my time outside & lose interest in indoor projects entirely. I am always so innocent, in May, planning all the gorgeous tomatoes I'm gonna paint, & instead I just eat the tomatoes & go swim with the hound dog in the river.
I guess in the future, let's make a deal-we will agree to take the summer off for garden time here at EnD, & meet up again in the fall in time to cook the first of the autumn squash harvest. Done.
Oh, & I guess there is another reason on top of gardening & swimming & enjoying summer that the blog has not crossed my mind in about four months.

Invite: Liz & Owen 2011.

Yup, Owen & I are getting married, in about four weeks. Hence, lots of time spent gluing glitter to things, & less spent on watercolors & collages & blogs. Apparently when one decides to get married, a bulk glitter & glue purchase at Michael's is required.
As befits us, being us, we & our families are providing all the food ourselves, so if I get any breaks from covering tiny fake birds with spray adhesive & glitter, I'll try to draw some of it (no promises). If I were you, I'll expect my wedding posts to show up on this blog sometime next January when I suddenly find myself with a lot of snow related free time on my hands.
But all that aside, we are having a semi-hurricane in Massachusetts, I have an expected day off, & fall & fall cooking is just around the corner. So I'd say EnD is back. I mean, right now I should be working on our bridal registry & instead I'm doing this, that's a good sign, right?