Dinner week of July 5th

Well that was a lovely weekend. Only a few entanglements with the madness of what is this city - went driving by the beach that many frequent for July 4th and thankfully kept on driving - the lines and cars and fees and private-ness of it all made me yearn for a west coast free beach with good surf. So it goes. San Diego beaches weren't that good at times either in the summer.
I was thinking a bit about the little one that's coming this weekend too. It's so exciting and yet very intimidating at the same time - and I'm a pediatrician. Apparently that doesn't help much. The only part that is reassuring that I take from work is that I have seen some completely incompetent and idiotic parents who have just lovely children - so there's a chance of success even if we screw it up royally. Erin sent me a study today about how 16 month old children make rational decisions regarding the effects of themselves on the world - basically figuring out what the problem is - them vs the world when something fails to function. This is something that I struggle with in the hospital at times so I'm not sure what that means for me.

Anywho, to food!
We stopped on the way back from the beach this weekend at Bigelow's Clam Shack and had some Ipswich clams and a beer - perfect.

Otherwise, this past week, we've had:

Fettucini alfredo with mustard greens
- now this would normally be nothing to write home about... however, this round was made with parmigiano that our friends brought back from Italy - he is from Reggio and gave us a huge chunk of the good stuff. Made the cheesy goodness with butter and milk and voila! Erin wasn't the biggest fan of the mustard greens with yellow peppers, but I liked it.

Summer squash salad with steak and garlic bread
- also a simple summer dish, nothing fancy but soooo good. The squash I got same day from a farmer's market - the salad is easy: peel the squash to the core so you just have ribbons, roast some chopped almonds, make a dressing with lemon juice, olive oil and a bit of garlic and then add that to the squash ribbons with some lettuce if you wish, salt, pepper, away you go! Steak and garlic bread as per the standard fashion.

Next week we may go back to Fresh Direct and likely more complex and dangerous food...