Visit's Almost Over...Diary of Eats

Well, it's almost time to take my brother-in-law (BIL) to the airport and it was a great visit...lots of sightseeing, lots of eating...eating out and eating in. For those of you interested...I thought I'd share a few perfect day trips . Since I've written often about the places themselves, this time the focus is on food...like that's a first! Check out my Honey (on the left) and BIL in the requisite photo at Peggy's Cove.

Tuesday: BIL arrived around noon so we ate some pizza at Salvatori's in the Hydrostone Market, down the street and, since Joanna, Ezra & Boaz were, ironically, heading off to Toronto for the week, supper was the only chance to visit. Plus our plans for the week were to be spontaneous and follow the good weather. So I packed the pantry with tins of tuna, lots of pasta and grilled some sliced eggplant, zucchini and red peppers...you never know what you'll be in the mood for... right?!

I made a fantastic Montreal-style Deli Rye bread because it's so easy (and very impressive if I do say so myself). Thank you to whoever introduced me to Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Serendipity meant also that the postman dropped off another great book for me to review - The Healthiest Meals on Earth(more about the book at another time) and after a very quick flip I chose a simple, fast (Jo & Ez were heading out to meetings and Bo was staying for a visit) meal of...

Roasted Salmon with Tamari-Orange Marinade


Beans with Toasted Almonds & Pomegranate Dressing

And a simple dessert of yoghurt with fresh Hubbard Market berries and homemade lavender honey syrup.

Wednesday: my Honey worked so BIL walked around our cool neighborhood while I did a little work too. We all met up for lunch at a nice Thai/Vietnamese Restaurant near the waterfront. But the real star of the day was the LOBSTER DINNER(note the capital letters) I made at home.

My Honey isn't a lobster fan and this was a last minute plan (I had sirloin strip steaks defrosting on the counter), so I also grilled all three steaks...leftovers would be awesome used somehow.

Thursday: Off to Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay and...most important...lunch at The Magnolia Grill in Lunenburg. The pan seared scallops were truly fresh from ocean...the trawler was still in the harbour after dropping off the day's catch when we were having lunch.

The day was leisurely...lunch didn't happen until 3 and of course we had to have some tasty ice cream before heading home from Lunenburg. So supper was a quickly thrown together wrap...leftover sirloin, roasted veggies, arugula and a slathering of Stonewall's Kitchen basil pesto mustard in a wrap...and pretty darn fantastic...at least we all thought so!

Friday: Our next fave visiting tour...Annapolis Valley with a lovely visit to Tangled Garden...my pilgrimage (and BIL loved it too). He bought apple sage jelly to take home and I picked up some basil wine jelly - awesome! and basil wine vinegar - can't wait to try it out.

Lunch was in Wolfville, home of Acadia University and, naturally...lots of students. So we had ate at Paddy's Pub which has its own microbrewery (although we passed up on the beer this time). My Honey had fish & chips, BIL had pan-fried haddock and I had this delicious seafood chowder - the pinky-red garnish...finely chopped lobster meat.

Dinner back home was also easy...Nova Scotia lamb turned into very tasty Greek-style Lamb Burgers

Dessert was a droolingly delicious local wild blueberry pie we bought at a farmers market just outside of Wolfville.

Saturday: After a breakfast at home...Mushroom & Chorizo Frittata

We decided to see more of Halifax itself...hiking through Point Pleasant Park (old post about it here) and lunching at Minato Sushi...because...if you love sushi, why wouldn't you want to eat some so close to where tuna and salmon, in particular are caught...so "fresh fish" has real meaning to it. Minato also serves some interesting Korean dishes too, but we stuck with sushi this time.

Time to head home and just relax before dinner...

Lemon-Pepper Linguine with Spicy Mediterranean - inspired Shrimp

and Apple Crisp for dessert

I didn't pick these apples, but I couldn't resist buying them when we were in the valley.

Sunday: Best part of the day...brunch at Jane's on the Common. Everything is delicious there, but I only know that by sampling everyone else's meals...personally, I can't imagine passing up the opportunity to eat their out-of-this-world shrimp cakes with eggs.

Scenic drive up to York Redoubt (15 minutes outside of Halifax), some shopping...must find something for our fabulous niece waiting back home for her daddy...and hungry again. What would a trip to Halifax be without eating some of Phil's fish & chips.

Tired out from all that sightseeing squished into three days and grey, sort-of-rainy weather...we opted for renting DVDs and munching left overs instead of a real supper.

And that, my friends...is the end of a lovely visit.

I'm curious...what kinds of food do you have on hand when visitors come to town?