2011!

My how time flies when you're having fun!  It seems like just a few weeks ago Stuart proposed (Oct 2009), and now we're already at January, 2011!

Stuart and I rang in the new year in a couple different ways.  First, on NYE we headed to Stix with some of Stuart's republican friends to enjoy an entertaining Hibachi dinner.  (As an aside, does anyone else feel awkward when you eat hibachi?  Honestly, the food is okay, but I get so distracted watching the guy and feel like I should pay more attention to him than my eating companions!)   Anyway, we were planning on going to downtown Fairhope to watch their version of the ball drop that night; unfortunately, they had to cancel the festivities due to the economy!  I never envisioned Fairhope as a city requiring budget cuts, but it's apparently true.  So we headed home on an unseasonably warm NYE and made a fire in the chiminea on our porch.  Being the night owl that I am, I fell asleep on the couch before the ball dropped on Dick Clark's (which is not hosted by Mr Clark, ironically) NYE extravaganza. 


NY day we woke up and broke in our never used wedding present waffle maker with homemade buttermilk waffles with a blueberry/blackberry reduction sauce!  I've always been intrigued and intimidated by reductions, what with them making them right and left on the Food Network and all, but they're pretty easy!  Basically the title of a sauce is a verb, not a noun.  You take a liquid and boil it until it reduces into a syrup.  The only trick is that hot/boiling syrups are in a liquid state, so I had a hard time telling when it was done.  It came out a little thick but it was still good!  After some football watching and novel reading, it was time to start our NY dinner!  Of course every good Southerner knows you have to have greens and black eyed peas on new years!  Last year I did greens and peas from a can, so this year I wanted to get a bit more inventive.  I did sauteed kale with garlic and red pepper flakes (super super easy and healthy!) and black eyed pea cakes.  Now, for the cakes, you have to picture a pea/pepper/onion/delicious spice mix molded together and fried like a crab cake.  It was inspired by my favorite cookbook, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea.  It sounded easy enough, but alas, my cakes did not adhere to each other and many wound up looking like fried pea stew.  Stuart spent some man time outside grilling some spicy sausage.  Topped off with honey cornbread and a glass of champagne, it was a complete and delish meal!

 The next day we realized we had stayed inside the house all day for the first time in a long time!  Stuart watched more football than I believed possible, and I knocked out well over 100 pages in the 600+ page epic, The Poisonwood Bible (buy it and read it now, its amazing).  The relaxing was so nice, but probably something we won't get to make much of a habit of  =)


Then on Sunday we splurged and went to The Grand Hotel for brunch.  The Grand is listed as one of the top 30 hotels in the WORLD, and is located just down the street from us!  Can't beat that!  Since we aren't fancy pants members (aka loaded), we just go for brunch once in a while when we save up some extra money.  And boy, hidey!  That is a delightful meal!  Belgian waffles, blintzes, pecan crusted fish, cheese trays, smoked salmon, the list goes on and on.  If I'm lucky, we go at a time when they make up fresh banana's foster.  To top it off, the service is fabulous, and they have a brass band made up of cute little old men!  The highlights of this trip were (1) dropping a huge bite of unknown sea creature smothered in tomato sauce onto my brand new sweater dress while the waitress dashed across the room saying "ohhhh honey do you want some club soda?!?!?!" and (2) running into a surgeon from South.  Not just any surgeon.  The surgeon that strikes fear into the heart of every medical student.  And she's a lady!  We were walking up to the buffet when I spotted her loading down her plate with cocktail shrimp.  I thought I saw little horns protruding from her hair, but it could have just been the light reflecting.  I stopped dead in my tracks, causing Stuart to run into the back of me.  He said, "What what?!" and I said, "Don't talk!!!!!!  She doesn't like it when you talk!!".  We narrowly avoided her so as not to have to exchange pleasantries.


All in all, it was a great and relaxing New Years!  I hope you all had a great one, too!