Rest & Relaxation (and Eating)

Jake...with lunch?

Each year for quite a while, we take a week of vacation with my parents, sister & her kids in Primehook Beach, DE.  We rent a house owned by some friends of ours and it's great--the Delaware Bay is right out the back door and the kids love spending the day in the water and sand. 

As is usually the case with vacations, we eat way more than we usually do.  Each of us takes turns making a big breakfast (we had waffles, sausage, scrapple, fruit, French toast, egg bake, danish, cinnamon buns, eggs, milk, juice, coffee...and that was just the first day [kidding]).  Then, after a hard day on the beach, it's time for lunch--sandwiches and more. 

We each take turn with a dinner, too.  We had veggie lasagna, chicken and biscuits, tacos, etc.  We usually buy seafood and I cook up a feast, but we decided to go out this year.  We visited Big Fish Grille in Rehoboth Beach.  We recommend it if you're in those parts--a HUGE menu with something for everyone.  We shared tender and tasty fried calamari as an app.  I had red snapper with wild mushrooms and lobster sauce over mashed potatoes.  Delish.  MB got salmon (surprise, surprise) with some sort of sweet glaze.  Also very good.  My parents got a grilled combo--beef fillet, scallops, shrimp, crab cake & 2 sides.  Jake got fish fingers (fried, but tasty) and fries, as did one nephew.  The other got chicken fingers.  I forget what my sister got.  A good place to go for a good, but casual meal in a very relaxed atmosphere.

We hit the Rehoboth boardwalk one night as we usually do and grabbed some dinner at Grotto Pizza.  Grottos on the boardwalk are kind of like CVS around here--there seems to be one every 10 yards.  Expensive, as you would expect, but good food.  Frozen custard, Boardwalk fries (wonderfully greasy and salty) and mango water ice slid down our throats at some point during the night. 

Oh, I also made a ground cherry pie while there.  If you've read my posts about these little fruits, you know that I wasn't sure how it would turn out.  My dad and MB liked it.  I think I did.  Not something I'd want all the time, but I like the ground cherries better in a pie than raw.  This version was turned out sort of like a pecan pie-type of thing--goopy with lots of brown sugar.

So now we're back and trying to regain our normal eating habits.  At least until we head to Maine in about 3 weeks!

Ground Cherries

Ground cherries in their husks.

Back in May when we bought the plants for our veggie garden, we found ground cherry plants.  Neither of us really knew what they were, but it was something different, so we bought a few.

The overwhelming response I get when I mention ground cherries to someone is: "Oh, my mother (or grandmother) used to make pies out of them.  I haven't had those since I was a kid!"  But no one seems to know exactly what they are.

Well, ground cherries are not cherries at all.  In fact, they're a relative to the tomato, tomatillo and gooseberry.  They're called ground cherries because when ripe, they fall from the plant--onto the ground.  Like tomatillos and gooseberries, the ground cherry grows in a husk that protects the little yellowish-orange berry inside.

They continue to sweeten if you let them sit in their husks for several weeks after harvesting.  They keep very well and can be stored for up to 3 months if left in the husk.

Ground cherries with the husks
pulled back (sorry it's blurry).

Most people do make pies from them, but you can also make jam and marmalade from them, poach them to be eaten over ice cream, put them in salads and muffins or even dip them in chocolate.  They can be dried and eaten like raisins.  And they freeze very well so you can use them year-round.

Their taste is kind of hard to describe: strange, complex, slightly sweet.  There's a bit of a sweet tomato taste there and kind of a tropical flavor--like a papaya.  Some say that they taste pineapple and even a hint of vanilla.

I'll let you know what I make from them and how it turns out.  It's said that they reseed very easily, so I guess I'll have ground cherries next year, too!

Down on the Farm, Part II

Back at the end of May, we planted our garden.  You may remember my previous post about it.  Well, not much more than a month later, things are looking pretty good!  In fact, it's the best our garden has done in a long time--maybe ever!

A mix of nice garden weather--hot and humid--and our using mushroom soil this year are the causes of our green success.  Already, we've picked more zucchini and squash than we can use--there are about 7 or 8 in our fridge and we've made muffins and fried & grilled squash.  Gotta be creative.  Our tomatoes aren't getting red yet, but they will.  We've had a nice dinner with our beans and there are eggplants, peppers and watermelons starting.  And there will be loads of ground cherries.  If I only knew what to do with them.  Hello, Google!

As you can see from the pictures, the plants are growing like gangbusters--almost growing too much.  The squash plants that ate Blooming Glen!  I'm worried that the plants in the middle won't get enough sun, but I'm sure they'll be OK.

Mary Beth deserves pretty much all of the credit for our gardening success.  She's the one who spent so much time pulling weeds and getting the beds ready.  The least I can do it make her some dinner.  Something with squash, perhaps.

Have a great holiday weekend!