All Things Foodie

The Wharf at the Madison Beach Hotel, Madison CT Bob and I have been having fun since last summer eating and enjoying the many Connecticut shoreline restaurants near us in Madison, Branford, Guilford, Clinton, and Westbrook.  One of our favorites, well actually my favorite, is The Wharf at the Madison Beach Hotel.  In trying to keep somewhat within a Paleo friendly menu for most of the meal, I have found a truly delectable lunch here with their signature Tuna Tartare.  Not only is it a beautiful presentation, it's a pure pleasure to photograph and it is just simply luscious.  The tuna tartare sits on a layer of silky ripe avocado, topped with a layer of English cucumber.  It comes as an appetizer yet it is easily a lunchtime meal.  It comes with a few kettle chips and Sriracha aioli that has a nice bite and is complimentary to the tuna. The New England Lobster was dressed in true Connecticut style with butter.  There was plenty of fresh, delicious lobster, claw and body me

Duck Breast and Mushroom Ravioli in a cream sauce topped with mushrooms Many wonderful meals are shared with family and friends on a Sunday afternoon or evening.  Lately, some of my favorite meals have been eaten out at some really great local restaurants in the New Haven county area.  Dalton's in North Branford, CT is one of those places where the locals can go for some classy gourmet style Italian food in a small, warm, comfortable setting, with excellent friendly bartenders and wait staff. What's interesting about Dalton's is that you can see the kitchen and the kitchen staff hard at work through the panes of glass at the back of the restaurant.  My husband and I had eaten here before and often eat at their sister restaurant, Ludal's in North Haven, CT.  We like the fact that it's low-key here and quieter.  While Ludal's has a large beautifully modern, zen-like bar area, Dalton's is a smaller quieter bar that sits open to the dining area. We ate at

I had a couple of ripe bananas that I needed to use up and a husband that wanted to have pancakes for breakfast.  Coconut Banana pancakes here we go.   He got his pancakes and we had some sausage with sautéed spinach to go with it. This recipe is a coconut pancake recipe that I made a few tweaks to from Nom Nom Paleo's site.   I added more coconut milk to get it thin enough to pour well.    And the pancakes were sweet enough to not even need any maple syrup.   I have found also that you have to make sure the ingredients are room temperature or this mixture will be a big glop of goo and you'll be lucky to get two mini pancakes out of this.  As it was I could not believe that this recipe could produce 12 pancakes but yes there are 12 pancakes in that photo.  You can also get an idea of how that is possible as you can see in relation to the egg the actual size of these.  So in essence, be prepared to eat sparingly if it's for 2 of you.  That's why we had the sausag