Out the door

For those who mostly cook and eat at home, it is an essential treat to get out the door once in a while.   A night off from the preparation and clean up of a meal and a change of scenery offers a rare and much appreciated break from routine.

But lately, as the in-season, grown/raised-locally food revolution infiltrates restaurant kitchens, those of us who regularly stock our refrigerators from CSAs or farmer’s markets have faced a new, unanticipated challenge.  The simple, elegant fare on the menus of restaurants we might enjoy, offering fresh ingredients altered minimally, can sound a lot like what we might prepare at home.

So H and I have found ourselves more and more heading out the door, with a picnic basket in hand, to hit our favorite, very fresh, very basic, very local, lobster co-op in Round Pond.  We pack a bowl of greens from the garden with a dressing prepared, a hunk of bread, a block of cheese and a bottle of chilled wine.  Then we hit the road…