Birthday Weekend Part 2

Here are a few more food notes and photos from my birthday weekend in the Hamptons...

Sunday we made salads for lunch. I cooked some bacon, then chopped the leftover potato wedges from Friday and sauteed them in the bacon grease.

Healthy? No. Delicious? Yes. It gave us a little something warm and crispy to put on the salads...though I think we could have just eaten the potatoes straight from the pan.
Nate went to the store to get our provisions...he picked up some chicken breasts, and we marinated them in lemon, Dijon mustard, oil and spices. Then Jason grilled them. (Nate was hard at work cleaning up debris from the storm, but he did take a lunch break to enjoy the salads by the pool.)

So tasty!!

Sunday afternoon, we took the ferry to Shelter Island and planned to have sunset dinner/drinks at Sunset Beach, but we weren't the only ones with that idea. The place was mobbed, and it was a pretty serious "scene." We left and stumbled on a really cute hotel that reminded all of us of Kellerman's from Dirty Dancing.

There we had a lovely al fresco dinner -- I had grilled swordfish with pureed cauliflower. Christine called some of her friends to come and meet us. Sophie and her husband will also be at Meghan's wedding in Chicago next month, so it was fun to get to know them.

Monday morning, I thought it would be fun to make huevos ranchers, as I know Neil and Nate both love to get them at Barneys for brunch. I sauteed some onions and peppers with garlic, then added them to two cans of beans and two chopped chipotle peppers.

Everybody assembled their own plates with tortilla chips on the bottom and avocado, tomato, cilantro, salsa, beans and cheese. So tasty!!

For dinner that night, I made sauteed fish over corn, tomato, beans and basil. It's another one of my favorite recipes from Fresh Every Day by Sarah Foster. I hadn't made it this summer, and the flavors are just perfect for a warm night. Ideally, it's better with thicker fish, as these thin fillets (I believe my friend Eddie would call them "bait fish") sort of fell apart when I was sauteeing them.

We dined outside by the pool. For dessert, Jason had made some salted caramel ice cream. It was a perfect ending to a fantastic weekend.