I actually, surprisingly, had a fantastic time. Usually, I get a bit stressed making sure everything is going as planned that I don't allow myself to fully enjoy my own parties. Yesterday, it was different.
The lemon centerpieces turned out well and one of my guests took all of them home with her. This particular woman loves freezing the zest and juice for year-round use. She told me there is tangerine in the genetics of these particular lemons (murphy or murray lemons?)but since they are more prone to disease and have a thin, sweeter skin, they are not sold in stores.
People are funny. Some people really amuse me.
One person, in particular, was amusing the hell out of me yesterday.
The couple came (I had met them once before, briefly), and his wife was carrying her own wine glass to the party. I thought to myself "wow, she doesn't like drinking wine out of plastic either", but to bring a glass, well, okay. She looked surprised when she saw our table of glasses and I helped her husband to a glass and a wine charm, I mentioned to her that she may not need a charm since she'll clearly know which glass is hers (it was actually a "tasting" glass from a wine function she had gone to and our glasses were the large red wine kind - I'll be childish and bitchy now to say that our glasses were better. there.)
So, this lady is a bit snooty. She is originally from Beverly Hills and lets you know it within the first 5 minutes of talking to her.
Now, I was busy, there were a lot of people here and everyone else was amazing and delightful. I guess there has to be one in a crowd.
Mrs. Hills asked me where I was from and when I told her South Carolina, she said: "I have never been to the south before. I have always been afraid. Do you think it is safe for someone like me to travel to the south?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, seriously.
"I wonder if I would experience hostility from locals because I am not 'one of them' and then, I just picture getting pulled over by a highway patrol and suddenly disappearing because I don't belong there." She went on to explain.
"People are like me, but friendlier. It is not like 'Deliverance'." I said.
I can imagine the conversations this lady has had about "people like me". Honestly, being married to a Yankee has its advantages. If I was married to another Southerner, she would be able to talk about the "hick" party she went to over the weekend.
The big hit of the party were not my satanic eggs, but my hush puppies.
Hush Puppee Fixin's
I actually get my hush puppy mix from Hyman's Seafood in Charleston. A lot of people had never eaten hushpuppies and I served them hot. These are made with beer and are the best I have ever tasted. I actually made 3 different batches throughout the evening because they are best hot out of skillet.
Pretty Pups
The history of hushpuppies is that when farmers/hunters cooked outside (ex: frying catfish) the hunting dogs would bark and bark from the smell of the food so what they used to do, is put spoonfuls of batter in the hot oil and then they would throw those to the dogs to keep them quiet.
Now, two batches had already made their rounds earlier and everyone was lovin' 'em so, for my last batch, a friend said she would pass them around for me. I was busy cooking away and my friend came back and said Mrs. Beverly Hills wanted some honey.
"What does she want honey for?" I asked.
"She said the hush puppies need honey." My friend told me.
So, I went over to Mrs. Hills and said, "you want honey? with the hushpuppies? have you ever had hushpuppies before?"
"No, they are good. I just thought it would be nice to serve them with some honey." she said. "You don't have to run to the store and get me some, they just remind me of a Mexican dessert and I thought honey would be a nice touch."
Good that she stopped me from fetching my car keys.........yeah, right.
So, good times were had by all, except, possibly, Beverly Hills. I had ordered a cake and put some candles on it, just because that is what you do with cakes like that and then I thought, what are people going to sing and before I could get the last candle lit, one guest started up singing "Hit The Road Jack" and everyone chimed in, it was hilarious. "Don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more............" for a going away party!!!
I have been cleaning most of the day. I had two dishwasher loads of wine glasses and guess what, Mrs. Hills left me hers.
As the evening went on, and people were getting more loose (read: tipsy), I walked around with my deviled egg serving dish and asked "would you like a kissmyass deviled egg?" and when I told the story of how many hours it took me to make them the day before and I wanted people to be kissing my ass while they were eating them, I heard other horror egg stories. Apparently, brown, fertile, organic eggs are notoriously difficult to peel and everyone agreed, they need to be old and not so fresh. They were delicious, just the hush puppies were outstanding.
I loved walking up to Mrs. Hills and asking her, "would you care for a kissmyass deviled egg?". She said she can't eat eggs. Too bad.
Deviled Egg Recipe
Eggs - old, white, non-organic, non-fertile (we'll call them Julianna eggs)
Mayonnaise
Dry Mustard
Sweet pickle relish
Beau Monde
Pepper
Olive slice/sliver to garnish
Paprika to garnish
Boil eggs by placing in pot with cool water, allow to boil for 10 minutes. Place in ice water. Peel eggs when cool and slice lengthwise. Place the yellows in a bowl. Start with one tablespoon of mayonnaise (depending on number of eggs) and add teaspoon of relish, teaspoon of dry mustard, teaspoon of Beau Monde (or salt), pepper. Mix vigorously with a fork and keep adding mayonnaise until fluffy. Lot of stirring to get the fluff going. Taste and add more relish if desired.
Place in center of egg halves. Add paprika just before serving (gets mushy otherwise) and put a sliver of olive on each one if you so desire.
