Otis and I had a fabulous and relaxing trip to Wellfleet, which of course included lots of good food and enjoyable visits with friends and family.

We drove up late Wednesday and had a terrible time with the weather-- we arrived, starving, around 9 p.m. Happily the Wicked Oyster was still serving so we popped over there for some burgers and drinks. Our burgers were perfectly cooked, and everything was lovely except the weird drink I had, which as Otis points out, was kind of predictable, given that it had vodka, coconut, and ginger.

The next day we slept super late, and then ran down to the Bookstore Restaurant for brunch. Otis is still talking about the enormous amount of lobster that he had on his Lobster Benedict, which was a reasonable $14.95 and had at least half a pound of meat, including three claws (my favorite part). My regular benedict was creamy and tasty, and the bloody mary's were truly delicious, especially accented as they were with pepperoncini. Nice touch!

After breakfast we drove down to Eastham to visit Gramma, and then came home for a rest. When it stopped raining we set out on the short walk to town, with Zeke in tow, in an effort to get some fish for dinner. As always, Hatch's fish market didn't disappoint, with some super-fresh swordfish and, of course, my favorite crab dip. That evening Otis prepared a lovely dinner and we had a nice quiet night.

Not so much Friday night-- Otis's parents came home Friday, and took us out to dinner at the new hip spot in Wellfleet, Sol. Sol is a Hawaiian-influenced restaurant which specializes in poke, a simple raw or lightly cooked fish dish. And wow, was the food at Sol delicious! We had two types of poke, both of which were incredibly fresh and perfectly seasoned. For my entree I chose fish tacos, which were simple and delicious with an avocado crema and cilantro, served with cabbage salad and white rice on the side. Also noteworthy was Walter's entree, a pulled Kahlua pork that was tender and richly flavored. Sol is BYOB, so we had a couple of bottles of wine, and Walter brought a 1/2 pint of Jack Daniels, which he enjoyed toasting to the wonderful staff. It was quite a lovely meal, with delicious food and great company. (Besides Walter and Jane, Otis's Aunt Joan and Uncle Jim came along.)

After dinner we stopped by Mac's Shack for a drink at the bar, where Otis's old friend Ethan is a bartender. Mac's has a great outdoor seating area, in addition to an expansive menu including a raw bar and sushi.

And of course no visit to Wellfleet is complete without a visit to the Bomb Shelter. Enough said there, we had a lovely evening, and I was reminded anew about how amazing the stars can be in a sky with minimal light pollution.

The next day we enjoyed more lovely walking with the doggie, and then a nice visit from the other side of Otis's family.

All in all it was a wonderful vacation, except much too short. Driving back on Sunday we both agreed that five days is simply inadequate to become fully relaxed!

We appear to be growing a squash plant under our porch. Anyone recognize it?

EDITED to add the news that it's a pumpkin! Someone threw a partially rotted pumpkin under the porch last fall and it has bloomed into a lovely plant. I am hoping I can preserve it until we get some little pumpkins this fall.

I spent all day customizing the design portfolio for Otis's website. There are still a couple of things I would like to change but I am pretty happy with it for now. I'm still planning on redesigning this site too, but of course all of this has to happen before September when I go back to school.

We hit the Allagash fundraiser for MOFGA last Monday night and had a lovely time, visiting with our friend Katey, chatting with our buddy Sean, saying hi to Rob, and meeting some of our neighbors. Allagash donates $1 from each bottle of its Hugh Malone beef to MOFGA, plus this event raised almost $5000. Very cool!

It was also really generous of Evangeline's chef Erik Desjarlais to donate his space and his time, plus lots of delicious food, including steak frites, my favorite. The staff also helped by giving their time for free.

One of the things I love about the Portland area is how the restaurant owners and servers and everyone, really, all work together to make the community better.

There's another fundraiser from Allagash this weekend, the 23rd from 2-4 at Vignola, to benefit the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Med. If you want to go call (207) 772-1330.

He's French! He has a chin cleft! He cooks gourmet meals in his toaster oven! I give you... Eric Ripert!

Life as a student has its perks, especially if you're friends with the guy who bids on cool items at the law student auction, such as 'Dinner with the Profs." Last weekend I receive the undeniable benefit of a fabulous dinner at a gorgeous location in Topsham provided by three law professors in an undeniably gracious manner-- and I didn't even have to attend the auction, let alone do any pesky bidding or layout of funds.

Thanks Joe, for the invitation. And thanks Professors 1, 2, and 3, whose names I am withholding under the theory that they may prefer to remain anonymous.

The theme of the evening was 'Greek Grill,' inspired by one of the professors whose mother, a native Greek woman, trained him in the mysterious and wonderful ways of feta cheese and lamb. And boy, was everything delicious-- although I do have to admit I didn't eat the lamb, since it doesn't agree with me. The other 4 students Joe invited seemed to adore it (Joe himself is a chicken-a-tarian).

The rest of the meal included:

- a unique and delicious salad made with sheep's milk feta. The whole point of this salad was to 'overdress' the greens so that they became somewhat limp. It sounds odd but it was truly wonderful.

- mixed grilled vegetables. very tasty. (OK, there's a point after which it's impossible to wax rhapsodic about grilled vegetables. Seriously, they were very good. But what more can I say about them?)

- a truly glorious pan of spanakopita. [beware of Greek music.] This is one of my favorite foods. When I worked at The Last Egyptian in Grinnell I ate the variation on it, which was prepare in phyllo triangles, every night I worked. Yum. The particular version we had last week was seriously one of the best I have ever had, including in Greece. The balance of spinach and cheese and phyllo was, quite literally, perfect.

- ice cream with an assortment of toppings, including hot fudge. Hot fudge is so delicious, I could eat it with a spoon. Instead, so as not to embarrass myself, I opted for a 1:1 ratio of coffee ice cream to hot fudge.

So, thanks to the professors for delicious food and wonderful company, and to Joe for the invite, and to the other students for being fabulous as well, just on general principles. Opa.

As I lazed on the couch last night, half-watching The Replacement Killers and half-reading National Geographic, I was surprised to learn that many grocery stores will soon unveil an implementation of a 100-point scale for assessing the nutritional quality of foods, in yet another effort to get recalcitrant Americans to eat better.

This scale, called the Overall Nutritional Quality Index (patent pending), supposedly takes 30+ different factors into account in its calculations, including positive items like nutrients, and negative aspects such as high sodium. The theory behind this system is that it will enable the "average" consumer (verbiage from the ONQI website) to better assess the myriad of (supposedly) overwhelming items available in the supermarket.

I was certainly surprised to learn that a fried egg scores an 18, just under instant chocolate pudding at 20. Or that sodium-free club soda scores a 56. (Is that even a food?)

Although I'm sure the developers of this scale mean well, I simply don't see that this new approach will be any more helpful to decreasing American obesity or increasing healthy eating than any of the other food crazes that have swept our country. Moreover, this supposedly simple scale is utterly confusing, given some of the ratings (condensed split-pea soup, with ham-- 32; whole chicken with skin--28. Maybe this shows my bias, but a home-cooked chicken, skin or no, is simply better for you to eat than a can of industrially processed peas,pork, and salt.)

The fact is, the best lesson for anyone looking to eat better is simple: eat from the edges of the supermarket (produce, dairy, meat) and avoid processed or packaged foods.

Unfortunately, I guess, that's not patentable.

Or, in the immortal words of Michael Pollan: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.