Breakfast with friends – part of the Annual Blogger Get-Together + We’re Moving Again

As you know from my last post about the 4th annual blogger get-together at the home of Larry of Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings and his wife Bev, we spent the weekend partying with fellow bloggers and friends at the lake. You might recall that Penny of Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen’s husband David told Bev & myself about the special treat that he and Penny had in store for us for breakfast the next morning following the luau – and it was going to be shrimp and grits. If you have been reading My Carolina Kitchen for a while, then you know how much I love shrimp and grits.

I can’t wait to taste David & Penny’s version of shrimp and grits with andouille sausage. Andouille, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, is a coarse-grained, smoked sausage most often associated with Cajun cooking in the US. It originated in France and was taken to the US by French immigrants to Louisiana. Pronounced ænˈduːi/ an-doo-ee in US English and in French ​[ɑ̃nduj]. To me it is a spicy, smoky sausage that brings a lot of flavor to the dish.

While David browns the andouille and bacon and sautés the chopped onion that will go with the shrimp,

Penny grates the cheese for the grits.

David & his helper Meakin put the final touches on the stone ground grits

While the shrimp simmers on the stove.

Here’s a bowl of the finished shrimp and grits, Penny's recipe here, along with her post about it with lots of great pictures. Notice the beautiful 10 to 15 count shrimp they found at their market.

Larry offered to fry an egg for anyone who wanted one on their shrimp & grits – several did.

Penny brought beautiful cranberry orange scones (Penny's recipe here) that she had prepared earlier,

And delicious chocolate biscotti (Penny's recipe here) for dipping in your coffee.

While David was cooking the bacon & andouille, I put together a big bowl of orange slices, red grapes, lightly sugared blackberries, and slices of fresh local mountain strawberries.

Everyone is seated around the table and ready to dig in to their bowl of shrimp and grits. Thank you Penny and David for this awesome gourmet breakfast. What a wonderful ending to a great get-together with friends and family. And a big thanks to Larry and Beverly for hosting the event. You guys are the best.

As a side note, we’re on the move again. We sold our condo this past January to the first people that looked at it and we’re currently remodeling and refreshing our new house where we’ll spend our winters. During our forty three years of marriage we’ve remodeled more than a dozen houses and really enjoy it. As we get older, we’ve come to realize that we can’t do everything ourselves anymore and have hired people to help us on this project.

If you follow me on Pinterest, then you know that I have as many or more decorating boards as I do food, France, and fashion (my first career). My favorite part of redecorating is choosing the colors and feathering the nest, but I also love to change the layout and re-arrange some of the walls in rooms when it’s called for. See the master bath below.

Our new house is an older home in an established neighborhood with lots of character, older trees, and established landscaping. Like any other older home, it needs plenty of updating. Here’s a preview of what’s going on right now with the crew in the master bedroom and bath.

This is our dining room waiting for the trim carpenter to put down new baseboard down and install cove molding as will be done in all of the rooms. Trim makes all the difference in how a room looks. The sheetrock crew has already been in and removed the popcorn off of the ceiling. Popcorn is a bumpy ceiling finish that was once popular, but now makes a room seem dated.  It is one of the first thing people notice about your house and can affect its value. The reason the popcorn finish was used in the first place was that it was easy for builders to apply and also helped to hide a multitude of sins. It is also a gigantic mess to remove as you can see from this article and best done before you move in while there’s no furniture in the rooms. After the popcorn was gone, the ceilings were lightly skip-toweled in preparation of the painter’s arrival in a couple of weeks.

As much as we would like to re-do the kitchen, it will have to wait until next year. We will really miss our remodeled kitchen in the condo with all of its built-ins and drawers and new appliances. Below is what the kitchen looked like when we first saw the house. It doesn’t look too bad, but with a fresh coat of white paint and the removal of the previous owner’s blue bric brac and valances, it will do for now. We have plenty of time to plan for new appliances and we want a wall oven and hopefully a gas cook top and of course new cabinets with lots of drawers and storage. Fortunately the kitchen offers a great view of the lanai and the pool. We’re also excited that the house faces south, so the lighting should be good all day long in the kitchen (and for taking food pictures).

Kitchen when we first saw the house

As you can see, I will be very busy for the next month or so. I have a couple of posts prepared, but we will be without internet service part of the time. I hope to visit your blogs and continue to post as much as possible, but if you notice my absence, you will know that I’m temporarily up to my ears in projects. Once the remodeling is complete, we’ll pack, move, unpack, and get the house set up for next season. Once we get things back to normal here we’ll return to the mountains to enjoy some cool weather and take at easy during the summer.

This will be shared with Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farms, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday, Foodie Friday at Simple Recipes, and On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Luau at the Lake - 4th Annual Blogger Get-together

The 4th annual blogger get-together was held again this year at Tellico Lake in east Tennessee on the dock of Almost Heaven South at the home of Larry, Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings, and his wife Beverly. I can think of nothing finer than to spend Memorial Day weekend at the lake with friends. This year the theme was a Hawaiian Luau. Chris of Nibble Me This served as the menu coordinator for the event. Other bloggers in attendance included Penny of Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen and her husband David, Dave of Big Daddy Dave and his wife Laurie, and the third Dave of My Year on the Grill and Inspired by E Recipe Cards and his wife Jackie, who traveled all the way from Kansas, plus my husband Meakin, the event photographer and other friends and relatives. We all missed Katherine of Smoky Mountain Café and her husband A. J., who are part of the threesome who plan this event, but weren’t able to attend this year.

Grab a plate and join me and the others as we sample the offerings.

For appetizers, Larry prepared a sweet and spicy pineapple pork ribs that were “fall of the bone” delicious (more about it here) and Dave made an appetizer of grilled shrimp & pineapple.

For the main course we started with Kalua Pork, which were pork butts wrapped in banana leaves that Larry smoked over Koa wood, details here.

Chris made Huli Huli sliders with chicken that had been brined and was served with a tangy, sweet, almost teriyaki sauce and topped with ponzu slaw on a slider roll. Here’s a link to his post and more pictures of how the fabulous the slider looked assembled.

Penny brought an authentic Hawaiian macaroni salad, recipe here, and wrote more about the party here with lots more pictures.

I made a sweet and spicy pineapple salsa to compliment the pork. My salsa recipe was adapted for the Hawaiian theme, substituting pineapple for the nectarines in this post for a salsa seen previously seen on my blog. Link to recipe here. I also added quartered slices of peeled kiwi for more color.

For dessert my brother-in-law Stuart made a pineapple upside down cake using his wife Sandy’s mother’s recipe, one of their family’s favorite recipes.

Here’s Larry with his plate displaying a nice selection of food for you.

And later showing a sample of a banana leaf that he used to wrap his Kalua Pork.

Of course a party isn’t complete without drinks and lots of visiting. Larry makes some of the best margueritta's on the planet and he also whipped up a Blue Hawaiian special for the occasion.

More to follow on my next post with a very special breakfast the next morning prepared by David and Penny, so don't miss it. Here's David telling us more about what he has planned for breakfast.

Obviously you can see a great time was had by all. If you would like to join us next year, please let any of us know and we'll be sure you get the details.

This will be shared with Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farms, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday, Foodie Friday at Simple Recipes, On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable, and Oh the Places I've Been at the Tablescaper.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Blogging is all about the friendships you make

Dale, moi, Susan

One of the best parts about blogging is the friends you make. I’ve found that you really get to know someone well when you read their blog, but it's even better when you get to meet them in person. Meakin and I have been very fortunate to have met some of you. In fact over the last three years we’ve met thirty-one of you, counting spouses. If you count children, we’re in the high thirties.

Susan and Dale, of The Schnitzel and the Trout are two of our most recent. They were visiting family near us and were able to come to lunch at our house. Meet the Schnitzel and the Trout, photo above. I’ve known Susan for almost the entire four years I’ve been blogging. We had a great time visiting with them about their European adventures, the best websites for lodging in France, and of course, food and trout fishing.

You know we’ve made friends with Larry & Beverly of Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings because we toured north Georgia wine country with them recently. But we also know them from the fabulous parties they host in the spring at their dock at Almost Heaven South on Lake Tellico along with Chris from Nibble Me This and his wife Alexis, and Katherine from Smoky Mountain Café with hubby A.J., a.k.a. the Cajun crawfish chef.

Larry

Chris

A. J. & Katherine

Penny of Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen and her husband David of Riding with Dave were also at the party. I’ve known Penny almost from the beginning of blogging. This year David rode his motorcycle all the way to Alaska where Penny met him for the ride home. Now that’s an adventure. They had just returned from France and we were delighted to hear all about their trip.

Penny with Larry in the background

David

Other bloggers were Dave of Big Daddy Dave and his wife Laurie in the background enjoying the crawfish. They live near Larry and Bev. And one more Dave - Dave of Year on the Grill and E-Recipe Cards with his wife Jackie, who drove all the way from Kansas for the get-together in the foreground.

L to R, Dave, Jackie, Dave, Laurie

Rebecca from Chow & Chatter and I have tried to get together several times. This past winter she was visiting in Florida with her adorable young family (the wee one is on her lap), and we met Lyndsey of The Tiny Skillet and her husband and daughter for lunch in Sarasota at a restaurant catty-corner from Whole Foods & Sur La Table. Talk about location, location, location. Guess where we went after lunch.

Lyndsey, Rebecca & the wee one

Last but certainly not least, a couple of years ago Penny of The Comforts of Home, hosted a get-together at her home for fourteen bloggers (names of everyone here). Along with the blog The Comforts of Home, Penny has just started a food blog – From Harvest to Table. Penny cooked a delicious lunch for all fourteen of us, plus some spouses, and afterwards took us to her favorite antique stores for an afternoon of shopping. Somehow you knew when fourteen ladies got together that we were going shopping didn't you?

Penny, first row, second from the right

It is such fun to meet friends face to face. Who will be next?

An Authentic Cajun Crawfish Boil at the Lake

For Memorial Day we attended the 3rd annual east Tennessee/North Carolina blogger get-together at Almost Heaven South’s dock on Tellico Lake. Each year this get-together is hosted by Larry of Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings on his dock at his house at Almost Heaven South, Chris of Nibble Me This, and Katherine of Smoky Mountain Café.

This is probably the longest post I've ever done, so grab your hats and buckle your seat belts. But don't worry, it's mostly pictures and it's not nearly as long as it seems - you'll see.

The theme this year was an authentic Cajun seafood boil and the chefs were A. J. & Katherine of Smoky Mountain Café.

A. J. & Katherine are the real thing – New Orleans natives, and who better to introduce the group to an authentic Cajun Louisiana crawfish & Gulf of Mexico shrimp boil than these New Orleans natives. Please click over to Katherine's blog to see steps 1 and steps 2 on how to do an authentic crawfish boil including great step by step pictures.

Here’s a close-up of a live Louisiana crawfish. I think we’ll call him "Mud Bug Billy" Boudreaux. After he got cooked in the spicy crawfish boil, he was a tasty fellow, but getting the meat out of him takes a bit of skill.

A. J. with a tray piled high with boiled Gulf of Mexico shrimp to be added to the cooked crawfish already spread out on the tables.

Our host Larry of Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings and his lovely wife Beverly enjoying a morsel of crawfish.

Chris, another host and author of Nibble Me This, grabbing a shot of the seafood boil, and his wife Alexis and me chatting before the festivities.

Penny of Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen visiting with Larry of Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings. We were thrilled Penny & her husband David could join us this year.

Dave of My Year on the Grill & E-Recipe Cards, his wife Jackie, who traveled all the way from Kansas (a very long way), & in the blue shirt Dave of Big Daddy Dave and his wife Laurie, who live nearby on the lake, and Meakin, my lovely photographer, in the background with is camera around his neck.

Courtesy of Penny of Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

Penny’s husband David and my brother-in-law Stuart & his wife Sandy.

Group shot of a table of guests picking crawfish and peeling shrimp Louisiana style. Tables were covered with butcher paper to make life easier.

We were not able to get a shot of all of the pictures of the food people brought, but here are a couple of samples. Penny's delicious and refreshing dessert of watermelon & pineapple cream cheese stuffed celery.

I made a Bahamian pigeon pea and rice salad. It's cool flavors were a perfect foil for the spicy seafood boil.

Photo courtesy of Penny of Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

Larry makes the best margaritas on the planet and did a demonstration on how to make them including the secret ingredients. Penny got great pictures of the entire thing and check out Katherine's step by step "how to" make Larry's famous margaritas. My photographer was out on a boat ride with Jim, who offered a ride around the lake in his boat after the seafood boil and some of the younger guests water-skied.

As you can tell by the photos, everyone had a fabulous time. Thank you Larry, Chris, and Katherine for hosting this fabulous get-together. Larry & Bev's Almost Heaven South once again lived up to its reputation. Dock parties don’t get any better than this.

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This post will be linked to Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farms, Foodie Friday at Not Your Ordinary Recipes, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday, and Stone Gable’s On the Menu Monday.