Beaufort 2018 | Part Two.

aka "the one with the food and a cocktail". and note I am writing this post on Friday afternoon, to be sure it lands in your feed reader at just the right time 😉.

As I shared last week, our dining routine has been fine-tuned over many years. We did add in two new meals this year and we're planning to repeat them:

First, Thursday night - I picked up a ready-to-heat pasta/spinach/sausage casserole and a caesar salad from Costco (before we left). It was nice to settle into the house, visit with Charlie and not have to think about going out. Also, the meal was delicious!

Second, Friday's lunch at Lowcountry Produce. I'm not quite sure how we managed to miss this one for so many years - except that there are lots of great restaurants and we only have a few meals there! We all shared the housemade chips with blue cheese and bacon to start

and then Lydia and I shared a slice of tomato pie and the pimiento cheese trio.

This is hands-down the best tomato pie I've ever had. Of course lunch out with four foodies (three of whom actually cook ... um yep, all but me!) means trying to deconstruct the recipe and all I can say for sure is that it was chock full of tomatoes and cheddar cheese and maybe no mayonnaise. It might be next year before I get to have it again since all my recipe searches have yet to turn up anything that looks close. If any of y'all have a suggestion, please share!

...the rest of the weekend followed in the steps of previous years...

Friday night's dinner is Emily's. for tapas. Here's our first course - oysters, bruschetta, smoked salmon and tuna tartare

it was followed by two more, with lots fewer dishes ... and sadly no photos, but I think we all have very fond memories of the single plate of soft-shelled crab that was the most perfect "dessert".

Saturday's lunch is Wren's. because of the big round table in the back, I think. This year I had the fried green tomato stack - the tomatoes are layered with goat cheese and that's bacon onion jam drizzled (?!) over the top. This is a recipe I would never even try to make at home!

Saturday's dinner is Old Bull Tavern. because lamb shanks, which are my mom's favorite. We started with cocktails (see below) and smoked mullet dip. Then Lydia and I shared this delicious gnocchi with shrimp and a pizza (they have a huge brick oven and the pizzas are A-mazing).

and somehow, we all managed a few forkfuls of tiramisu for dessert.

Sunday's brunch is takeout from Blackstone's. because crab cakes benedict. Only on Sundays, they make crab cakes and the crab cake benedict is (for those in my family who love eggs) the best. Charlie told us that the original owner had retired and sold the restaurant, but we certainly couldn't tell from the food or the service. We did arrive a little later than normal this year to place our to-go order and they'd just run out of crab cakes! Still, I had a tuna salad (not pictured). Lydia had Saturday night's leftovers (also not pictured). The rest of the crew had good reports about Eggs Benedict (without crab cakes - also not pictured). I do however, have a photo of my mimosa and knitting.

Sunday's dinner is Saltus River Grill. Charlie is friends with the restaurant's owner and we are most jealous he gets to dine here more than once a year! The menu is a seemingly odd mix of sushi and low country dishes; I guess it all works because it's fresh and predominately seafood. We shared a round of specialty cocktails

and two sushi rolls to start.

We were midway through that first course when we learned the kitchen had run out of shrimp (?!?) Lydia, Karen and I had all planned to order shrimp and grits so we had to re-group. We landed on the crab cake, with a side of grits. It was a great choice.

Beaufort is not a big town, but it's a very popular destination. If you go - and I hope you do! - be sure to make dinner reservations. We saw folks turned away all three nights. Lunch isn't quite as necessary - unless you have a special table and/or time in mind!

And now the cocktail. Saturday night, I ordered "Snoop Juice" from Old Bull Tavern's specialty cocktail menu. It listed grapefruit juice, gin, cocchi american rosso and rhubarb bitters as ingredients and of course it had me at grapefruit juice and gin. It was delicious; I had two (and then of course thought "I can make this"). I got home and googled "snoop juice" hah! (clearly not in my comfort zone). But I have the four listed ingredients in my liquor cabinet and with my sister's help, I present

Gin and G-juice 
(inspired by Old Bull Tavern)

1-1/2 oz gin
1 oz amaro
3 oz grapefruit juice
rhubarb bitters

Fill a double rocks glass with ice. Add the gin, amaro and juice and stir well. Top with two dashes of bitters and a squeeze of orange peel.

Cheers and Happy Friday!

Beaufort 2018 | Part One.

This year's trip* was maybe the most fun ... the place we stayed was perfect for the four of us, the weather was cool and breezy but dry, the food and drink were amazing (as always) and I won the weekend-long dice tournament 😉. I'm not sure if it was the fun factor, or having 1SE (movie!), or just that we are all so comfortable with each other and the place, but I have a record 70+ photos (that's the edited down number) and a video mashup #funproblems.

We love looking back on these blog posts as we plan our visits - and of course as we look back on the high (and low) lights of past years. All of this is a long way of saying that I'm going to share this year's trip in multiple posts. I decided to start with an overview - the video, my favorite "all of us" photos and a little bit more.

Here's the video

Cheers!-ing is a favorite subject (you know that if you follow my 1SE monthly mashups on Instagram), as are walking and wind chimes, but I don't often get to peek into a wedding (just as Shout! comes on) or a beautiful old church with a massive pipe organ.

One thing that I'm sure contributed to this year's trip being so fun is that we all drove together! We did have to rent a car to be sure we had enough space for everyone's luggage and knitting (and that big bottle of wine :-), but it was well-worth it.

(I promise Lydia is there in the backseat behind my big hair!)

Friday morning, we went to visit my dad. Beaufort was evacuated last September for Hurricane Irma and Charlie assured us the Memorial Garden made it through unscathed.

We thought it looked even better - there was a big (overgrown) oak tree in the middle of garden and it has been replaced with flowers and flowering shrubs.

We had lunch on Friday at Lowcountry Produce - and we found a very nice woman to take our photo.  We also had a very nice waitress who didn't seem to mind that we were there for almost two hours.

Friday night we ate at Emily's (tapas!). Here we are just before leaving.

Saturday lunch was at Wren's. We had "our table" in the back corner.

We walked from there to the Pat Conroy Literary Center. I wasn't thinking we'd have a good photo op there, but we did!

Karen is sitting in Pat's desk chair and that's his writing table. Apparently, he wrote in a similar setup on those yellow legal pads. I didn't think to ask then, but I wonder just how many yellow legal pages South of Broad was in manuscript ...

Saturday dinner was at Old Bull Tavern and we did not get a photo. Sunday night we were at Saltus. As we were leaving, I approached a group of strangers at the bar and asked if anyone would be willing to take our photo. One woman enthusiastically agreed - phew!

My last photo is one I took Sunday morning, just after sunrise, on a walk by myself.

The low country at its best!

Next week, I'll share more about the food and drink. and who knows what might come after that.

Happy Friday, y'all!

*Katie shared this article with me last weekend and I read it out loud to my housemates. We all agreed that it was a trip (family, in-laws, packing the car, groceries, dishwasher, ...) but in a most acceptable way. Maybe we're all at the age when a getaway with family is just more special.

Christmas Weekending.

I hope y'all had a wonderful weekend ... and maybe now you're enjoying a bit of quiet and a glass of wine, with Alexa playing Charlie Brown Christmas ... the perfect accompaniment to looking back on these last few days 😊.

Saturday morning I hosted the whole family (13 adults and two little boys) for brunch. All three of the non-local grandchildren (now living in DC, New York and Nashville) were here, which made it extra special. Sadly, I have no photos, so you'll just have to trust me - it was great to see everyone and it was all delicious. Much later, while Marc and Sara were napping, I wound a skein of yarn and sort of swatched for Joji's lacy Boxy.

Then we made snacks for dinner and watched Love Actually. after which Sara showed us this great follow-up (and makes me wish - all over again - that she lived closer so we could enjoy stuff like this more often).

Sunday morning, Holly and I walked to the lake (which is a nice way of saying I carried Holly on a 3-mile walk), mostly so I could take a photo to share on Christmas morning.

We had my mom over for brunch

(Marc played golf)

and the afternoon. We played Yahtzee

and started a puzzle before church. For sure, one good thing about Christmas being in December is that a 5 o'clock service is plenty dark enough for candlelight.

While I was at church, Sara made dinner ... and it was amazing. I've decided the food from the weekend deserves its own post. Stay tuned. Much later - in fact it was Christmas morning! - Sara and I finished the puzzle.

and stayed up for another 45 minutes to watch Charlie Brown's Christmas. What a lovely way to welcome Christmas Day!

Yesterday's plans were thrown a curve ball when Marc woke up sick. Sara and I did go to Katie's

Sara gave Charlie Tinker Toys and Sam a fun puzzle with locks

but we were home before dark, which turned out beautifully.

sunset from my front porch

We extended the celebration today with a girls' lunch out. and finally, a group photo.

Lydia, Paula (my sister's younger daughter), Mother, Karen, Sara, Katie, me

It was the perfect ending to a wonderful Christmas weekend and a great way to kickoff the end of 2017. I have grand plans this week for knitting and reading ... which I hope to share tomorrow. Do you have any "grand plans" left for this year?

Snowy Weekending.

I'm sure y'all have heard the big news by now - it snowed here this weekend. An early December snow is unusual here ... and 6-10+ inches is, too. We got both! The snow started Friday morning (thankfully after our walk) and didn't end until Saturday. Marc and I spent three hours Friday afternoon assembling our new treadmill

the photos don't show it - but I really did help!

...time very well spent since it will probably be a few more days before the sidewalks are clear enough for a dark early walk. 

Friday evening we had snacks and continued our binge through Bosch Season 3 (that show has really grown on both of us - highly recommend!) Saturday we were snowed in and it was great! I did take Holly out, but otherwise neither of us left the house. I baked cookies and knitted just a little and then we had more snacks and finished Bosch.

Sunday morning

Sunday's big highlight (because boo. no church. no Christmas music program) was a family cookie exchange ("family" here being the five local women who bake). The five of us each baked two kinds of cookies to share and while we were together, we made Lebkuchen, one of my dad's favorite cookies. Lebkuchen isn't hard, but it's sure better as a family affair!

We even remembered to take group photos. 

I certainly hope this is a "new" tradition - it's an easy way to have a delicious assortment of cookies and it's fun! Are you hoping to make any new traditions this year?

Here's to Monday (evening. already. yikes!)!

Thanksgiving Weekending.

I've already shared much of Saturday and Sunday's activities, so today, I have just three more stories. First up, the food.

Our "turkey sandwich Thanksgiving" was a huge hit. I decided we needed homemade sides so I did end up cooking more than I'd planned. Going along with the sandwich theme I made kale and brussels sprout slaw and in lieu of potato salad (Marc doesn't eat them) found a delicious wild rice stuffing (gotta love the Pioneer Woman - that's prosciutto frying upper right :-) I also made blue cheese dip to accompany store-bought potato chips. We repeated the whole thing on Friday when we visited Katie. and then again on Saturday and Sunday and we have one more meal to go - pretty good mileage for a few hours of cooking. I even got to watch the parade!

The highlight of Friday's visit with Katie's family was putting up the tree in the boys' playroom. We took over the tree and box of ornaments that Charlie and I put up last year.

In spite of Sam's best efforts to eat the ornaments, Marc and Charlie did a fine job getting them up on the tree. I must say, our playroom seems quite bare this year, but I'm delighted the tree is going to see a whole lot of fun in its new home. (and I didn't make a single "suggestion" this year about anything!)

And finally, one more from yesterday. My nephew (Lydia's son Andrew) starts a new job in Washington DC on December 4. We had a send-off lunch for him at a local pub and even managed a photo.

(great food, plenty of beer ... and of course the best company!) 

Today felt oddly quiet around here. I did do a little bit of decorating; for the first time in a few years, I think I'm going to be ready when December 1 comes!  Hope your week is off to a promising start as well.

Back Home.

...but still a ways to go before things start feeling "settled" - at least on my part. Holly took all of about five minutes to find her happy place here again.

I did take a quick run to the lake yesterday; it was glorious.

This morning I sorted through a few of the photos from last week. The underlying reason we were all gathered was certainly sad, but it was wonderful to be together. This was the first time we'd met all the cousins as adults and everyone's first time meeting Charlie and Sam.

three generations, all together

the younger two generations

Sam & Justin

Friday night dinner

It was also Sara and Charlie's first time to try New Haven pizza. Needless to say, it was a huge hit!

(I'm honestly not sure if Charlie liked Snapchat or the pizza better - but his cousin Justin was a hands-down favorite)

I will say it's good to be back in this space and I look forward to catching up with all of you. As of yesterday afternoon, I still had 120+ blog posts to read, so please be patient with me!

Hope your week is off to a great start!