Food Friday: 3 From the Beach House!

Happy 4th of July!

Something about the beach house inspires me to not just cook, but to post Food Fridays! Pretty often I get emails from longtime blog readers telling me how much they miss my weekly, consistent, dependable Food Friday posts. They tell me how much they miss the food dimension on this blog. It is still there (sort of), but you kinda have to read between the lines to get it. For those who miss the weekly (Friday) food posts, I just want to tell you: I’m right there with you — I miss them too! There is something about living in a dorm, trying to cook in a tiny galley kitchen, and not having good natural light in which to photograph, that is… well… pretty much an uninspiring downer where all-things-food-blogging are concerned.

And then, bam!, we’re transported to the beach house! And the South Carolina Lowcountry is a food mecca! And there is creative inspiration everywhere! And we’re hungry from days of sand and salt and adventurous exploration! And the kitchen is flooded with gorgeous natural light! And…. bam! Food Fridays!

In the past five days of being at the beach house I’ve cooked more scrumptious stuff than I typically cook in a month back home at the dorm apartment. Today, for Food Friday, I simply want to remind you of 3 awesome and easy and special posts from last summer. In the past five days I’ve made all three of these. If you haven’t tried these yet, folks, really, I urge you, try them ASAP!

1. Beach House Blueberry Muffins (click for link). Photo above. These originated last summer with me trying to make a quick, easy, ‘cheater’ muffin that would satisfy my muffin-loving-son Kyle. I now buy two boxes of the mix, and make 24 muffins at a time, because Owen and Meera have — as a result of these muffins, and these muffins alone — developed a muffin-love too. But Owen and Meera love chocolate (Kyle does not like chocolate), so I make one box exactly per my recipe (link above), but I substitute chocolate chips for blueberries when making the 2nd box (and, I will admit: I’ve somehow managed to wind up with two chocolate snobs, and they have a specific preference for Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips over all others, and I am a self-confessed foodie-enabler, so I use those). I made these Tuesday morning and they were gone by Wednesday afternoon.

2. Shrimp Scampi. Despite the fact that I made this at least once a week last summer, I never did a Food Friday post about it, but I did post a picture and mention it (click). However, I have posted this recipe to the blog way back — you can find it here (click). Braydon is a shrimp connoisseur, and he swears (and I agree) that the Lowcountry shrimp are the sweetest most tender shrimp in the world. I totally agree with him. We are so spoiled by this shrimp — on the way home from the beach we can just swing by Gay Fish Company and buy shrimp that was caught that day, from shrimpers working shrimp boats right off the shore — within eyesight — of where we swam on the beach. Seriously, it does not get any better than that. But back home I make this same recipe using store-bought, frozen shrimp. Better in South Carolina, but so good either way!!

3. Carolina Marsh Tacky (click). Oh my goodness. This is such an unusual and magnificent cocktail. So spicy, so refreshing, so perfect for the end of a summer day! We’ve graduated this year to some extremely good ginger beer, and some extremely good bourbon (photo below), which just takes these up another notch. Amazing! Give it a whirl and see what I’m talking about!