Vacation Dinners By The Book
Our annual trip to South Carolina has been the textbook definition of vacation. There are pools. There are beaches. There is kayaking and backhand-winner-ing and oyster shoveling. There is napping in the big chair on the patio, book splayed across chest. There is Making of a Murderer binge-watching. (OMG OMG OMG!) There is gin-and-tonic-ing. There is Cinnamon-Frosted-Pop-Tart-ing. There is running on the beach in the early morning, our attempt to outwit the scorching southern sun, which in no way is working.
By all accounts, it's been a good week. But I'll tell you what I am enjoying the most: The absence of dinner decisions. Before I left, I took photos of all our vacation meal line-ups dating back to 2004. (This is when my Dinner Diary might actually be viewed as an exercise in practicality, as opposed to a cry for help.) I did this because I hoped that all the psychic energy usually directed towards the what's-for-dinner question would be freed up to make more crucial vacation decisions, such as Pool then beach? Or beach then pool? OR Would this picture be better for regular Instagram or Instagram Stories?
The joke is on me, though, because you almost can't tell the difference between one year and the next -- the same summer classics appear again and again on the vacation menu. Instead of calling this "boring" and "unimaginative," I'm going to choose to call it "ritualistic" and "traditional." (In case you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of rituals and tradition.) I thought you might like to see the line-up (above) and their links (below) to help with your own end-of-summer cooking...
1. Gin & Tonics 2. Shrimp Rolls 3. Grilled Yogurt-Marinated Chicken
4. Burgers with Special Sauce 5. Grilled Tuna with Tomato-Peach Salsa (see #4) 6. Grilled Fish Tacos with Cilantro Pesto (page 188, Dinner: The Playbook) 7. Pulled Pork Sandwiches
8. Grilled Steak with Salsa Verde 9. Fried Flounder
11. Summer Cobbler
Hooray for no-decision dinners!