As our family does every year, we took our annual trip to Boston’s South Shore this summer. It’s a bit North of the more well-known Cape Cod. It’s quieter and lazier. My husband grew up spending his summers there, so a zillion of his family members are still around. We rent the same rustic little house every year, we love our beach house neighbors, and the food is irresistible. I tend to cook and bake a lot, and we sample the local food too. Here are some of my favorite eats from this summer’s New England Vacation.
Recipe to share: Peach and Blueberry Coffee Cake
Blueberries are plentiful and fresh in Massachusetts, so I eat loads of them! This is a great, simple coffee cake that is stuffed with peaches and blueberries. We ate most of it before we even thought to add the glaze.
Recipe to share: Tomatoes with Asiago Cheese and Fresh Herbs
Pick up the best tomatoes you can find- heirloom, beefsteak, vine-ripened or home-grown… and make this recipe. Simplicity at it’s best, these tomatoes are adorned with just a little bit of cheese and fresh herbs, which allows the flavor of the tomatoes to really shine through. I loved this and ate it for dinner with a hunk of bread.
Recipe to share: Clam Linguine
I’d like to say that I utilized the abundance of fresh clams that Massachusetts has to offer. I used the canned clams for this recipe. But we still loved it 🙂
Recipe to share: Bacon Burgers with Bacon- Balsamic Caramelized Onions
This one was based on a recipe I had seen in Fine Cooking magazine. Raw bacon is mixed into the hamburger meat to make the bacon burgers. The onions are cooked down in bacon fat until they are caramelized, and then they’re mixed with balsamic vinegar and more bacon. This burger is heaven. No additional condiments are needed.
Recipe to share: Lobster Rolls
I shared this recipe last summer, but we made them again this summer. I can’t stop eating lobster rolls when I’m in Massachusetts.
And then there’s more… these are all of the other eats that we experienced outside the house!
In the North End of Boston… we can never resist Mike’s Pastry. We picked up a large box of Italian cookies and my favorite: a chocolate chip cannoli! And we ate at Giacomo’s for dinner (a must!)
Fried Clam Rolls are my husband’s favorite. He likes the full belly kind.
We tried fried green beans with marinara sauce. They were pretty good. I would have liked a different sauce though.
This is Lobster Macaroni and Cheese. It’s a completely decadent and diet-busting dish. SO good, but definitely a once in a while treat.
35 lobster met their fate at our family’s lobster boil.
These are Stuffed Quahogs. Anyone know what a quahog is? It’s a variety of clam. You don’t see these on the West Coast!
I’m not always Gourmet… I make Mac n’ Cheese on occasion (the boxed kind), and hot dogs too. This one was made especially for my son, with a “B” spelled out there right on top. He loved that.
Only in New England, you will find ice cream devoted to Red Sox fans. It’s our favorite!
On one sweltering hot day, I escaped to the mall and found Orange Julius. I can’t even remember the last time I had one of these. SO yummy. I need to make these and add the recipe to the website.
The local General Store has a penny candy section that is frequented by kids. Okay, the adults are lured in too. I discovered GIANT smarties there. Smarties are among my favorite of the penny candy variety.
When I was a teenager, I worked in a small-town ice cream shop. That’s where I fell in love with soft-serve ice cream. I find it hard to resist… especially when rainbow jimmies are involved. By the way, we call them “sprinkles” in California.
It was a great vacation, and I adore New England… but it’s time for a diet.
Glad you had a culinary adventure while enjoying the lovely coastline. And, who doesn’t covet a chocolate chip canoli, the best are definitely from the North End! However, I live in Rhode Island where the (stuffed) quahog is one of our state’s trademark delicacies. Smartees, a candy I grew up with and sweet also to see a reminder of our beloved Sox. Ah, summer vacations at the beach, our family always returned to the same cottage on the Cape every August, memories that will always be with us.
this makes me so thankful to have grown up in New England, but now i’m wondering what i’m missing out on your West coast! love the lobster rolls!
Jealous. I’m in a food coma just looking at this! haha
Can I please vacation with you next time? Please?? 🙂
I love the smarties photo – here in Canada….the candies you showed are called rockets and smarties are candy coated chocolates…..all still yummy!! Love your website!! I’ll be making the cinnamon roll pancakes for my family (OK…I’m making them for me….) this weekend!
All of this food has me drooling. I used to live in Boston and when I see some of these pictures I definitely miss it. Chicago does not compare in the seafood department. At least not from my experiences so far. So jealous!
Those tomatoes!?!?!? NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!
OK I have lived in central Mass my whole life – and after reading this post I have realized I have lived under a rock for too long. New England and the Boston/Cape area have so much good and fresh food to offer that I never take advantage of. This must change – after reading your article I am ready to leave work early and take a drive for a good clam roll!!
Not sure where you were staying on the South Shore, but I grew up there in Hingham, then lived on the Cape for a few years, and you’re right about the blueberries! I could be in a car with someone and suddenly yell – PULL OVER because I smelled them. LOL. I really miss those beautiful wild blueberries. Living in New Orleans and now New York, I can usually only find the big cultivated ones. 🙁
Thos quahogs look beautiful! I’m not big on seafood, but I would always have to get one or two in the summer and steal a bite of someone’s lobster.
I don’t think we had rainbow sprinkles when I was a kid, just the chocolate, so I automatically call them all jimmies. It always makes me smile to hear someone order jimmies on their icecream when I’m not in MA.
Glad you had a nice trip!! 🙂
LOBSTER ROLLS. I’ve never considered making them at home! Looks like a summer well-spent!
I like to think that here in Massachusetts that jimmies are the “chocolate” ones and sprinkles are the rainbow ones. But then again that’s how I grew up, but I still have to explain it when I want jimmies/sprinkles on my cone!
a) that lobster roll just gave me vertigo – MAMA.
b) that lobster pasta dish just made me faint – DADDA.
c) the fact you still eat boxed mac n cheese from time to time – HIGH FIVE. I’m right there with you sista.
I love fried green beans with a horseradish-ranch type dip that TGIFriday’s used to serve. So good!
I LOVE the Giant Smarties! I discovered them while living in Florida, doubt I’d find them here in Japan though!
I’ve never seen the giant smarties – I’ll have to keep my eye out for them. That ice cream is one of my favs – hubs hates it. He thinks its too sweet but I love the giant chocolat sox and chocolate swirl mmmm so good!
My boyfriend makes the BEST stuffed Quahogs ever (than again, he IS from the Cape!) Your trip looks delicious!
Lori!!!!
Being from Rhode Island, this post made me homesick!
We moved out to Arizona about 9 years ago and still tend to call sprinkles “jimmies” – we get some crazy at the ice cream shops!
LOVE the Stuffies (stuffed quahogs), but of course, you can’t get those in a landlocked state.
I saw an Orange Julius recipe in the Food Network Magazine a year or so ago. My daughter made it and it tasted exactly like the real thing.
Here’s the link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/orange-delicious-recipe/index.html
What a great vacation filled with some pretty fantastic looking food! We love the Red Sox ice cream too and you will almost always find the Green Monster Mint in our freezer. I had no idea that Orange Julius was still around. I haven’t had one in years; but feel a craving coming on “wicked bad”. Maybe after Irene moves away, I will have to take a trip to Mass and see if I can find one. Your coffee cake is getting “pinned” to try soon along with some of the other wonderful treats you have shared. Delicious!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE your post today on Mass! I live about 20 mins from Boston and love it. My co-works son is a chef at Giacomo’s in the North End. He works their part time and works full time as a Boston Firefighter. His station loves when he is on duty. A few of the recipes at Giacomo’s where inspired by his my (my coworker!). He grew up in a huge italian family.
Red Sox ice cream and quahogs are reasons why I love New England so much. Thank you for reminding me!!
Everything looks amazing! I love that you have lobster mac & cheese and then Kraft dinner. A woman after my own heart 🙂
Looks like you had a delicious vacation! I fell in love with lobster rolls the first time I had one, vacationing in Maine 2 summers ago. So much good food in New England!
Looks like a perfect vacation and some amazing food! I seriously can’t remember the last time I had an orange julius!
Great post! I live outside of Boston, and can vouch for Giacomo’s… it’s one of my favorite North End restaurants (and totally worth the wait you will inevitably encounter). I will have to bookmark some of your summer vacation recipes :).
Oh all that food looks yummy! But you had me at Massachusetts. I left my heart there last summer after a trip to Plymouth. I can’t wait to go back!
Beautiful Foodtography…makes me hungry! Thanks.