Friday the beach and dinner out

It was cold yesterday when we got up (in the 60’s) so we opted for a hot breakfast. We had oatmeal with wild blueberries, cinnamon, powdered ginger and walnuts. I was so “not with it” that I completely forget to take a picture until I was more than half finished. Thank goodness everyone knows what oatmeal looks like. ;-)

Friday morning started early with a 9am appointment. Have I mentioned that I am not a morning person? I really shouldn’t do anything that requires thought that early in the morning.

After the appointment we had a few other errands to run and then we decided to head to the beach. We went to a cute little park on the Eastern Shore of Maryland called Terrapin Park. It is tough to find unless you know where it is but it is not well utilized which makes it a great place to go to get away from everyone but enjoy the water. There is also a paved path that is great for bike riding. We are going to take our bikes next time and check that out. It is separate from the path to beach.

It is a little bit of walk to the beach but it is a beautiful winding path with a meadow restoration project on one side.

The path itself is quite nice so I took a few pictures.

There are also lots of wild flowers.

Here is a little tidal marsh complete with a bird that flew away before I could get a close up. Clearly he was camera shy.

The entrance to the bay is over a small sand dune that leads to the beach.

We were there at high tide so there wasn’t much beach. This is picture looking north to the narrowest part of the bay. It is a decent size body of water as you can see.

The water was still quite chilly but we had the beach mostly to ourselves except for one sailboarder and a couple fishing.

While we were walking along the beach we found a few horseshoe crab shells. They are an odd creature that you don’t see often so I thought you might find the pictures and link interesting.

I loved this little bridge that went over the tidal basin emptying into the bay.

After the beach we tried to find some lunch. Little did I know that healthy vegan food would not be so easy to come by on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We tried a Chinese restaurant first and there wasn’t anything that seemed healthy enough to either of us. Then we tried the Crab Deck at the Kent Narrows. Unless we were willing to eat onion rings, hush puppies and French fries the choices were very limited. Every salad had seafood or cheese on it and there wasn’t a single entrée without seafood. We did find one salad that we thought would be okay without the tuna but when we asked about the price without the meat they were only going to take $3 off. Really? We wanted the most expensive piece eliminated and you are only willing to go from $14 to $11 and it didn’t really sound “great” to begin with if you know what I mean. This didn’t seem like a great plan so we tried the Fisherman’s Inn which was next to the Crab Deck. Finally, we found someplace that we could work with.

We ordered the tri-colore salad, hold the gorgonzola to split. It contained mixed greens, strawberries and maple glazed pecans. It was a bit overdressed but otherwise it was good.

Next we had a whole wheat pasta dish that the chef created for us with a bed of marinara, steamed cauliflower and broccoli and topped with mixed mushrooms. More carbs than we wanted but overall not bad considering the trouble we had finding vegan let alone healthy food before this. We would definitely stop there again the next time we are on the Eastern Shore. The restaurant is just off Route 50 at the Kent Narrows.

After lunch we did a little shopping. We ended up in Marshall’s and this was incredibly fortunate for me. I found two pair of slacks (one khaki and one charcoal) from Talbot’s original marked at $109 at Marshall’s for $19.99. You know I grabbed these quickly they were my size, even petite (yay for no hemming). One of the women that worked at Marshall’s said they had just started getting quite a bit of clothing from Talbots. If you are fan of that store, but not the prices, check out your local Marshall’s. I was very happy with my purchases.

I also picked up an 8 lb medicine ball. I can think of so many fun ways to torture myself with this. Yay? LOL

After shopping we met our friend Louis for dinner. I bet you know where we went, LOL. Yes of course Ian did the cooking. How could we not stop there he always does such a great job and willingly makes any crazy vegan thing I can dream up. As wonderful a chef as Ian is he is not comfortable coming up with vegan dishes. I can’t say I completely understand this but I suppose he uses so many French sauces for flavor that cooking without them takes him too far out of his comfort zone.

For any appetizer we had a whole wheat pizza with butternut squash puree, thinly sliced beets, finely diced Granny Smith apple, roasted chunks of butternut squash, sliced shitakes, caramelized onions and Brussels sprouts. Not only was this beautiful to look at but it tasted fabulous. We took a dish that Ian had on the menu to be served under scallops and made it into pizza with some added Brussels sprouts for crunch and color. Even Ian agreed that this was a good pizza idea. Dan and I shared the individual pizza. I had one slice he had three. With all the carbs we had today (oatmeal, pasta and then this) I didn’t need two slices. *rolls eyes* What would I do without a hubby to share food with me?

Our entrée came completely from Ian. When we arrived I went into the kitchen to say hello and get my hug. I can’t have dinner without my hug from Ian, LOL. Ian and talked about what he had in the kitchen that I could play around with for dinner options. When he said he could whip up a little something for our entrée I told him to go for it. We also love whatever he comes up with and this was no exception. The main dish ended up being a medley of edamame, shitakes, carrot, peanuts and onion in a spicy sauce (but not much to keep the sodium down). He also included crispy tofu and sesame seeds. This was served over spicy greens. We thought it was great. Why Ian says he can’t cook vegan is beyond me. We think he does a great job with vegan food.

Ian had a chance to come out to the table and sit down and chat for a while before he headed out for the evening. It is always great to spend time with him and catch up. I told him he had fans on my blog and he thought I was kidding. He is so modest it is adorable.

We also chatted about sodium. I asked how he knew we were trying to reduce our sodium since I had not mentioned that to him and he said, “you have eliminated everything else I assumed sodium had to also be on the no list”. We all agreed that American’s eat far too much sodium. When I mentioned that I had given up coking with sodium he quickly said, “using a lot of lemon juice are you”. Well of course I am, that and vinegar. You can see why I like to talk to Ian. There is always a little food conversation, which I love, as well as general catching up on family and life events.

When we got home I had so much email to respond to I thought I would never get through them all. By 2am I had gotten through most of them. Yesterday was a very long day but it was a good one. I hope your weekend is starting out well. Talk to you again soon.