This week P and I are vacationing in Hatteras. His parents
have two little cabanas on the beach and have been very generous in letting us
use one for the week (for free!).
We spent most of Saturday packing up and provisioning (I
picked up that word on our sailing trip and for some reason I love it. You will
probably grow to hate it, much like one of my friends developed an intense
dislike for the word “murmur” after attempting to read Fifty Shades of Grey. I apologize in advance, because seriously,
what a perfectly apt word – I just have to use it!) Anyway, we left Arlington
around 12:50. As the Google maps it, the trip from Arlington to Hatteras is
roughly 6 hours. HA! That drive took us over 8, not including stops for lunch
and dinner. I don’t think we ever got above 40 mph on 95. On the bright side,
once we got to Kitty Hawk, the traffic wasn’t so bad. We stopped for dinner at
a great place called “I’ve Got Your Crabs.”
It was a pretty low key restaurant.
Apparently most of their business comes from carryout, but there were two
booths and two long counters for dining in. We sat at the counter that ran next
to the kitchen and ordered raw oysters, soft-shell crabs, and blue crabs. I
also indulged myself with a delicious sweet tea. That food was fantastic! They
put a big sheet of kraft paper on the bar and shuck the oysters right in front
of you, placing them in the half-shell on the paper. The crabs came out quickly after that. I can’t
speak to the blue crab, as that was P’s meal, but my soft-shell crab sandwich
was perfect, just spicy enough with a great sauce to go over it. I took only
one picture of the interior, and it didn’t come out super well, but I’ll
probably be back there soon enough.
The first day here consisted of repeated rounds of sleeping,
eating, taking a walk, reading, repeating. Also, I made bread.
I’ve been itching to do some more domestic-type things
lately, like sewing and baking and gardening. For whatever reason, I only get
the urge to do productive things like that when I’m sitting in front of a
computer screen at work or in class. Once I get home, the urge has left and I’d
rather sit on my couch and read blogs or zone out on Pinterest or watch tv.
Don’t get me wrong: These are all incredibly pleasant things that I definitely
enjoy. The problem is I’ve let myself grow really lazy about creating anything
– I’ve only been consuming.
Well, I decided this vacation was the perfect opportunity to
do a few creative things. Since we’re staying in a cabana with a full (albeit
tiny) kitchen, we are making most of our meals on this trip. P just mentioned
it’s really like a staycation, just away at the beach. I figured that since
I’ve got the full kitchen I might as well make some things I’ve been wanting to
try – like bread and jam. I got the recipes from the blog Honey and Jam. (I love this girl’s
photos, and someday I will get a decent camera so my own photos look less junky
and more professional. For now it’s just my phone camera, which really isn’t so
bad…)
The bread turned out pretty well. I found the recipe on
Honey and Jam like I said, but it’s really a recipe from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
(note: this links to the authors’ website. A new edition of the book is out in
October, which is why I’m finding their recipes on blogs for now. Once the book
is out I’ll either buy it or beg my local library to buy it). I was expecting
my loaf to be a bit crustier, and I’m thinking I didn’t create a steamy enough
environment in the oven. The baking process involves preheating a pizza or
bread stone (or in my case an iron skillet) in the oven and then transferring
the risen dough into the oven and placing a pan with water in it on the bottom
rack. The water steams in the hot oven and (I guess?) helps to create a better
crust. I’m still learning all this stuff, so don’t quote me. I have plans to
slowly delve into this world of bread-baking over the next few months. I’ll let
you know what I learn.
The jam was kind of a whim. I was reading through Honey and
Jam and the ingredients in the jam recipe intrigued me (strawberries, balsamic
vinegar, sugar, black pepper). I hadn’t really
planned on making jam on this trip, but when we were gathering provisions at
the store, I saw strawberries on sale, so I grabbed a box. I knew I already had
the other ingredients and I figured that if I wound up not wanting to bother
with the jam, we could just eat the strawberries as a snack. (on a side note,
don’t you love when a recipe is so simple that you can remember all the
ingredients after reading it only once?)
Anyway, here are some photos from the vacation so far.
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