Last Day Away

Today was the last day away, returning to the city in the evening.
A fun day though!! Relaxed with the Sunday Times, sat at the beach for a bit, enjoyed the chicken wraps (the ones I showed cooking from yesterday.) Not bad at all! I always use dark meat because it tastes better, but the chicken I bought on my way out was spoiled when I opened it! Thankfully Allegra had some chicken breasts in the freezer which I substituted!

As promised, here's the chicken recipe. I've adapted it from a recipe I found years ago on the Food TV website. I'm sure it's still there if I took the time to look. There's recipe was a bit more fussy.

SPICED CHICKEN WRAPS
serves 3-4

1 14oz. can either whole tomatoes (you chop them) or chopped tomatoes
1lb dark meat chicken (thighs, legs) *Using chicken on the bone provides better flavor!*
1-2 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon Cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne dried hot pepper flakes (or liquid) to your taste
Hot pepper flakes or liquid to your taste
*I often use a spicy chili powder in place of the cayenne AND hot pepper

Wraps (I like whole wheat)
Avocado
Lime
Cucumber
Cilantro
Salt

Melt the butter and brown the chicken a little. (Cook for just a few minutes.)
Pour the contents of the can of tomatoes, including juice, cumin and cayenne into a pan with the chicken and left it cook for about 40 minutes. Add the hot pepper if you are going to add it...a little goes a long ways! Cook a further 10-20 minutes.

Turn off the heat. Remove chicken parts. I use two forks and shred the chicken off the bones, returning the chicken to the pan. Cook down a further 10-20 minutes, watching as the liquid cooks off. It will disappear suddenly, so keep an eye on it. When liquid is gone, remove from heat and add salt to taste. (I use very little.)

I cook this up a day in advance and put it in the fridge overnight to let the flavors mix.

To serve, I mash up an avocado and juice from 1/2 of a lime and spread it on the wrap. I peel and thinly slice the cucumber, lengthwise, and toss it in a bowl with the other 1/2 of the limes juice.

Put some chicken mixture in the middle of the wrap. Add some cucumber strips and some cilantro leaves. Wrap it up (the avocado can also be used as the glue to help the wrap stick together.)

Yuuuuuum!
Enjoy!

After lunch and some beach time, we wandered to the next town over for some ice cream and chatting while Dan wandered around taking photos. I really like this photo Dan took of Allegra and I.
Now it's back to city life and work! (Which in iteself isn't all bad either!)

Time to Relax?
Although I was awoken at 6:37am by the fire house alarm (I hope the fire they went to was not serious!), today was day one to relax.

It feels good to be out of the city and to smell the salt on the air.

I started the day by putting tomrorows lunch on the stove. It's a spiced chicken dish that's served in a wrap, cold. I'll post the recipe tomorrow. Thankfully Allegra had some chicken in the freezer. The chicken I'd brought was SPOILED when I opened it! I JUST BOUGHT IT YESTERDAY! There's no way I'm lugging it back to the city though. Blah.

Next task?

Head down the the ferry to meet Dan! Yeah!!! He was able to wrap up all of his school work and come out for the weekend. He certainly could use a weekend away with how hard he's been working in school! Columbia certainly doesn't skimp on the amount of work when they put together their 1-year Master's degrees. Of course he had school work in his bag!

A quick lunch of salads and dips laid out by our hostess (yum!) and we headed to the beach.

Dan was toting his camera too and took some of these photos in the loop below. Some great shots of both Allegra and I having fun and laughs!

He caught me sunbathing and then covered from it's hot rays! Yes, that's me under that hat and towel! Funny! Obviously those of him were taken by me! Thanks Dan for snapping them! (More photos click on his name.)

Beach Calling
I dashed from the office, packed, food shopped and hopped the early train to get me out to Bay Shore, Long Island to catch the ferry with Allegra to Fair Harbor for the weekend.

Why the early train

I needed THIS: Steamers from Nick's Clam shack. They are SO GOOD!!!

I was ordered and awaiting their delivery when Allegra arrived. Sadly she's allergic to shellfish and simply could comment on how good they smelled.

The sun treated us to quite a show on the bay side while on the ferry ride out and before we knew it we were relaxing with a plate of dinner (a simple pasta with zucchini, tomatos and basil) and a nice glass of wine enjoying an evening of girl talk.

We took our last glasses of wine for a walk down to the beach on the ocean side of the island and saw THIS:
How beautiful!
Tomorrow marks the full moon!
We'll have to come back and look!