Birthday Ruckus, Part 2 (the middle)

Here is the start to a very good (and easy) dinner. Since I didn't want to be actually cooking anything, we decided to do a low country boil. It started with this stuff and this recipe.


Add a little of this.

And you get this. I love that I used my husband's old Financial Times newspapers to protect the table in true low country boil fashion. It made for a really quick clean-up! Just tossed them in the trash. And sadly, that is all they are worth, in this current economy.


Please excuse the Nemo plates in the background. We had some 2 year olds in attendance. I only eat off of my Wedgewood china for a dinner, don't you? For the vegetarians in the house, you could probably adapt this by omitting the sausages and adding some peppers or vegetarian sausage.


Cornbread, pre-guests. We had to test it out to make sure it tasted okay. It was accompanied with butter, peach jam, and spicy apple butter.


Homemade bleu cheese cole slaw. It was very good but got a little overlooked with all of the other goodies on the table.

And for my special drink...a drunken Arnold Palmer. Not quite sure how it got its name, but it sure packs a very dangerous punch. A regular Arnold Palmer is half lemonade and half iced tea. The spiked version requires a new-ish libation called Firefly. It has spawned articles from Gourmet Magazine and the New York Times and it is, well...I will leave it to you to discover for yourself.

I can't quit you. Well, actually I can and I did stop at just one, but woooooo-weeeeee! It was slap your mama good. Not that I would slap your mama. Only if she slapped me first. Or if she tried to take my Firefly. Or my shortcake.

Yo' mama. Or Yoyo Ma.