friday links

With the warmer weather coming up, here are a few quick meals I've come up with using foods from Trader Joe's.
Some you might like, some not so much, but it should give you other ideas for quick and simple meals.


I'm seriously addicted to these little rice balls. I've used them in many a stir fry dish. They are so good with this sweet chili sauce--I use that sauce on almost everything.


Have you tried the creamy polenta?


One of my favorite snacks.


An excellent sandwich--trust me on this one.


Another winning sandwich combo.


You simply must try this salad dressing--it's that good. Very gentle pear flavor, with the just the right amount of gorgonzola. So good!


This is what I use for ALL my pizzas. Thanks to Esi for turning me on to it. I buy this in bulk.

From around the web:

The perfect lunge

50 awesome pre and post workout snacks. Great list.

Outside Magazine breaks down some of the best diet plans. Well I shouldn't say diet but more of a lifestyle eating. They were tested for a year.

Chicken & cashew lettuce cups (bookmarked!)

Bratwurst foodporn. Bratwurst in pretzel bun (from serious eats)

Mini taco salad bowls!! (thanks Pam)

Houses on their own tiny islands.

Anyone tried the Tracy Anderson method?

New York's state prisons (now closed) for sale as a home? Hmmm.

30 minute chickpea, coconut, cashew curry.


Chocolate cupcakes with biscoff buttercream! (from the little kitchen)


Hot Dog cookies! I just love these. (from CakeSpy)

Double dark chocolate granita.

How to make a succulent sea terrarium. So cute.

How to make Chaat. A lot easier than I thought.


One of my friends turned me on to this ginger beer. It's so good. If you love ginger, then you're going to love this.


Anthropologie, one of my favorite places to not shop at because of the high prices. But I do love admiring their new arrivals from afar. I just adore this dress for summer.


Everyone needs a long black skirt. This is perfect for almost any top; casual or dressy.


This bathing suit is so retro it's adorable. I'm tempted to get it.


They are lounge pants, but I would totally wear them as regular pants since the colors are so summer.

Have a great weekend kids!

spring 2011 on cape cod

I thought I would switch things around and give you some photos of what's happening over here in my world. It's finally spring, soon to be summer on cape cod, which means things are coming back to life. No more snow! Typically spring on cape cod means lots of rain and clouds with short surprises of 70 degrees sunny days.

I could easily live here....have

my morning coffee sitting right there

water temp 58 degrees, not quite ready....yet.

Pretty soon the charter fishing boats with be slammed with business.

Dingy had a bad winter.

Isn't that peach color fabulous?

Someone's rustic office

west dennis

east dennis

A good place to sit and do nothing

Hello, can I live with you? I'll cook for you.

One of my favorite places to go and chill out on cape cod when my life gets stressful is cape cod national seashore. The sound of the waves are empowering and massive. Once there you forget there is another world; it feels as though this is the only place on the earth--it's magical.
"A man may stand there and put all America behind him." Henry David Thoreau (his quote describing the CC National Seashore)

You can walk for miles uninterrupted

and miles....

Another place I love is provincetown. Ptown is a world of it's own. It's perfect, has some of the nicest people; everyone is always happy; always something going on, never a dull moment with tons of great places to eat. It is one of the places hubby and I wanted to live, but his commute would have been brutal during the wintertime on the ferry's. The ride up along scenic Rt. 6A is breathtaking. There are so many little beaches and some of the cutest places to stay overnight, but you have to look for them and you have to call early! I have to also give a HUGE shout out to my favorite radio station WOMR. This is the radio of Ptown. Has the best jazz around and the sweetest DJ's ever. If you're coming to Ptwon please tune into WOMR radio.

Now that's a view. To the right is the tip of provincetown, about 5-7 miles down the road.

See the tower of provincetown?


Little inn on truro that I'm dying to stay at. Look at that view?

Let's get to the food already.



I go to twin acres in sandwich, a lot. It's a bad habit of mine to eat a ton of ice cream in the summer. It's all I crave, and they really have good ice cream: ice cream filled with lots of stuff in it. Like this one: pb chunk chocolate ice cream.


Or a soft serve with that crazy coconut hard shell stuff. Man that's good.


My favorite is the mint oreo chocolate chunk. Obviously I never order a small anything.


There is a french bakery that is fairly decent. It's cafe boulangerie owned by pain d'avignon. I was not so impressed with their croissants, they were ok, not quite authentic. The almond croissant was very close to being the real thing. Ham and cheese was tasty, but had a trace amount of ham and cheese. I will say they do have fabulous breads. They had horrid customer service when I was there--all the help was over talking at the bar and could care less that people were in line. Sad. But it happens.


Almond was the best tasting. Chocolate was bad, just a tiny piece of chocolate in there, but one could tell they used high quality chocolate. Ham & cheese ok.

Ahh the infamous Marions Pie Shop. A well known landmark of cape cod located in Chatham. This place has grown from just a few pies to now well over 50 sweet and savory types of pies. It's a small hole in the wall joint with large impressive menu's. Display cases are kind of empty and may have muffins or other sweet rolls. I was hoping their cases would be filled and overflowing with fruit filled pies, slices of pies to tease and wet the appetite of customers, but all the pies are in the back stored in fridges sadly.

One wall of the pie menu--it's huge.

The bacon quiche. Very good, the crust was fabulous. Each little or big pie comes with directions for reheating. Love that.

Shepards pie. Fabulous. Lots of cheese on top,ground beef could have used a bit more seasoning.

Hands down the best seafood at reasonable prices with huge portions is Lindsey's Restaurant in Wareham. Not the best cape cod town, but well worth the drive. The food is exceptional, high quality, big portions, reasonable prices and always fresh. Hubby and I go there a lot. It's gets packed there so go early. The waitstaff is the nicest around. They do have impeccable takeout service too. When I do do the takeout, I sit in the back part of the kitchen where the diner part is and I always see the big pencil sketch drawing of the owner prominently displayed in the middle of the kitchen. IN the drawing is the owner with the saying "keep everyone happy". So true. And he never ever steered away from that, even when his kids took over. If you go, get the infamous seafood bisque, it has the perfect amount of sherry, filled to the brim with seafood; a bowl is a meal (and I mean that). Broiled, stuffed scallops are highly recommended too.






Yes, you get all that for a meal. Amazing.



Some of the best pizza that comes very very close to NYC pizza is found not on cape cod but off at Mamma Mia's in Plymouth. Another little hole in the wall joint that has undoubtedly the best crust ever. I swear they must import the water in from NYC to make this the tastiest crust ever. If you do visit cape cod, on the way, stop in plymouth to make a stop at Mamma Mia's and get a large cheese pizza. Even the photo says it all.

Best place for breakfast is Keltic Kitchen. A place where you can get a real Irish breakfast or not. Either way it's like diner food but way better, and they have daily specials where they kick things up. The chef/owner is very creative (I love that) no same old same old with him, he's known to really kick things up a notch. You have to go there and see what his daily creation is. Last I saw there was a marshmallow pb Elvis french toast with bacon inside. Crazy good. It's gets packed. Get there early on the weekends--for real.





Other good eats that are not to miss on cape cod:

Emack & Bolio's of Orleans. Now this is homemade ice cream at it's finest with really foodie flavors like: peanut butter ice cream with HUGE chunks of Oreo's. And Mud Pie--don't get me started on the Mud Pie.

Bonatt's Bakery of Harwichport. Home of the infamous meltaway. You literally have to get there early to get meltaways, they only make a few batches for the mornings and then it's gone baby gone. Definitely worth the wait in line. They don't have a website only facebook page. They are on 537 main st in harwichport.

Jo Mama's of Orleans. Who's your mama? Best bagels on cape cod. Exactly like NYC bagels. Cofffee is pretty good too.

PB Boulangerie of south wellfleet. The most authentic bakery I've been to outside of france. I know that's a huge statement right there but it's true. If you go there you will see why. It's right on the way to provincetown on Rt 6. Has gotten rave reviews all around. Both owners are from france, classically trained, worked under some of the best chefs in the country, such as Daniel Boulud. Their bio is impressive, but more importantly their creations are extraordinary.

Did you have a favorite place on Cape Cod? Or better yet, is there a place on the cape (or close by) that you are curious about? Let me know--I love discovering new food joints.