New Years in the South

I was gonna write about this a while back, but………..

A friend invited us over for New Years Eve. He had invited another couple, we’re all good friends. He thought we could all bring a little tapas style plate and a wine to match it. He was right. Between the three of us - we kicked ass. Now I’m gonna try and tell you about it. I might forget some of the wine’s that were enjoyed as I was consuming martinis as if I had a cab reserved for 1 A.M.

That’s right.

So where was I? What the hell was I thinking?

I guess I wasn’t.

Stacey and I put together a Anti Pasta platter, of sorts. All the usual suspects and a little more. Four cheeses - a Roquefort, a triple cream that I think was Brie, and a cheese that had fruit in it, fig and orange. I liked it, some did not. We also had another I can’t rem, yes I can, it was cheddar made with Guinness Beer. This is a very good cheese and it is not expensive, seek it out. We had lots more on our Anti Pasta platter, but it would take to long. So I move on………

I’m walking through Alon’s Bakery on the last day of the 2007, time truly flies. I’m putting this Anti Pasta platter together. My phone rings and it’s our host for tonight. He’s looking for oysters. He wants to know if my local seafood joint has them in the shell or should he go to Dekalb Farmers Market. I tell him “Don’t do anything till I talk to My Chef”. I hang up and call Butch, more on Butch another day. Just so happens, [and I am not making this up] Butch tells me he is on his way to his seafood monger as we speak, he will call back and tell me what’s available and looks good. He does so, and does so, and does so and I have to stop him after three minutes and tell him the host will call him direct. Butch knows the host, Butch will help the host. Thank you Butch.

And so it goes… and we ended up with 100 oysters from the West Coast. Butch choose them for us ’cause he knew we wanted briny, salty, gulf coast flavors. He knew these had that flavor and they were the best looking. We ate most raw,

we put some on the Green Egg Grill. They were all so good and it was fun shucking them with the host and laying them on a iced platter, ready to be enjoyed.

Then we were treated to Shrimp and Grits. Not just any ol’ Shrimp and Grits. This Shrimp was done Pot Pie Style. I think there were green peas and all that pot pie stuff in a beautiful little crust, in the perfect little ramekin size. With a large dollop of Grits. Andy Griffith would have shit his britches. I remember we took the last Shrimp Pot Pie and laid it out, busted, on a plate and all had a few bites with the last of the grits.

Then my cab didn’t come and we tried calling and that didn’t work. I really thought I had it all set, but around 12:30, January 1st 2008, I started the year off like the dumb ass I am. I’ve seen the commercial ” buzz driving is drunk driving”. So I did what I had to and told our friends our cab was outside and we had to go. So we were just about to pull out of the driveway without anyone knowing the cab didn’t show. Damn, I left the car keys down stairs in the middle of everyone. By the time I went down to retrieve them, our host had Stacey out of the car and headed back in. I steered us back to the car and some how got out of the driveway.

I was having a little trouble with my phone, I couldn’t get the cab co. to answer and I was pissed I had to drive. We got home and I went to call our friends to tell them we got home ok. Phone is acting up, don’t know why, could be operator error, but I decide to throw phone at the house and pick it up and throw it at the house again. Welcome to 2008.

The food was good! The Friends are good too !