Eight Crazy Nights!

Here we are again. The season of celebration.

This year we decided to shake things up a bit. Since we are a interfaith family, this year we decided that our holiday celebration would represent each of our cultures.  Then a Cajun Hanukkah was born.

What is on the menu? Gumbo, red beans and rice, corn bread (jalepeno-cheese), and latkes. Delicious! Our signature cocktail was Jeff's fabulous Bloody Ceasar.

To be completely honest, I have never made a gumbo (even though I am a Louisiana girl). My fabulous friend, Rose, has been feeding me her gumbo and red beans weekly for the last year in Dallas. So I turn to her for recipes and guidance. Rose swears by Savoie's  already prepared roux. If I could have gotten my hands on some, I would have used it. However, we didnt have enough time to order any, nowhere in Virginia sells it and even though Rose said she could, it seemed insane to have her over night it to me.

In Louisiana, you can pick up necessities like gumbo file' on every corner. Here in Virginia this is not the case so you will understand my joy when I found a seafood market around the corner that had file'! I took that as a sign that a Cajun Hanukkah would be super successful.

I decided that the only option was to be a big girl and make the roux the old fashion way. I was nervous but confident in my skills in the kitchen. I decided to start the feast on Thursday night so I could slow cook everything over night and make sure it was going to be fantastic.

You know how the story goes: On the second night of Hanukkah, she sauteed the holy trinity (onions, peppers and celery), boiled the beans and started the roux. And so it begins.

This is a time consuming process. To insure peace and quite you will need to send the man folk outside to play with their fancy grilling machines. This will buy you a little time to peacefully sip your cocktail and stir your roux.

 After about an hour,  we have ourselves a roux, not too dark and not too light, just right. I am very pleased with myself to pulling this off. First you make a roux, that is how you start off any special occasion, at least thats what they say. I was a little intimidated because from what I had heard, making a roux is not hard. It is time consuming and takes patience, not my strong point. Since the roux is the base for our main entree, there is alot of pressure to make sure it is perfect. I have to say I am pleased with my first attempt.

I put alot of love into it:)

Around 11pm, we have all the prep work done. Since I have 3 slow cookers ( I told that dude I needed all 3), this was the perfect time to put them all to use simultaneously. Then the magic happens. We slow cooked all night Thursday and half the day Friday. Just as I had planned, it was delicious. Now the next step was to let her rest overnight, because everything is better the next day.

Good thing we started early because Friday night we had plans to enjoy Comfort for Drew's birthday dinner. Saturday morning I woke up and started phase 2. Baking. Cupcakes and corn muffins.

On the 4th day she bakes and makes latkes.

 I have to confess that I planned to blog this and post it on Friday or Saturday. Then follow up with pics from the party and full report of good times had by all.  I will work on that now. Happy Hanukkah to all! More to come.

Decade # 3

Thanks for the treat Bruce & Rona!

Right smack in the middle of the move from Dallas to Richmond, I up and turned 30. I know what you are thinking, "Why, Emily, you don't look a day over 23!" I couldn't agree  more, but according to public record, myself and Nicole Lloyd turned 30 on October 23.

I was actually very much looking forward to this milestone. I had looked forward to turning 28, for some reason for a few years before that I had decided that would be when things would come together. At the end of my 27th year, I was back from L.A. and started working for myself full time. I had a great apartment and was living with my girl, Jasmine.

Then right before I hit 28, I met this dude.  Then he swept me off my feet and the next thing I knew he blinded me with a big ol' diamond and there I was planning a wedding. Just as I had planned, 28 is when it all came together. I wasn't as big of a fan of 29. It just seemed kind of a lame age. I just wanted to be 30 already.

The day before I turned 30, I was on the road again. All of my possessions (except one suitcase, my doggies, my wedding dress and my herb garden were in the car) were on a big truck bound for Richmond. We had about a week before we needed to meet the moving truck at our final destination. Since we were road tripping, we decided to spend few days in Memphis, this is where I would celebrate the big day.

We stayed at the Peabody Hotel. What a magical place, famous for the duck march, since the 1940's. The whole place shuts down at 11 am and 5pm for these ducks to parade down the red carpet.



After 29 years and 364 days, I finally made it to Graceland. I seemed to have been ahead of the game, since most of the other guests had gotten the AARP discount that day. Nonetheless, I was totally impressed by the King's diggs. How could you not be?  

My Favorite Room



Down in the Jungle Room

I spent the actual day of my birth, doing only things that I enjoy and that I am very good at. First the gym then spa, next a nap, then dinner. We had dinner at Flight. If you are ever in Memphis, GO TO FLIGHT! Given my indecisive nature, this is my dream restaurant. They serve everything in a flight (hence the name) of 3 minis. So the salad/soup/wine/dessert/entrees are all in mini servings of 3, so you don't have to choose between the corn and crab chowder, or the seafood gumbo, or the butternut squash bisque. You get all 3! Same with dessert, as you can see I am blowing the candles on my flight of birthday cake.

To end the night, we took a carriage ride around the city. Jeff said, a princess needs a carriage ride and I couldn't agree more. I think this year will be better than the last.

Post carriage ride, we had a night cap at the hotel bar. We found ourselves chatting with 3 very nice ladies, a 90 year old lady and her 2 daughters. The 90 year old lady was celebrating her birthday (that had been a few months before) and all she wanted was for her daughters to take her to Graceland. The next morning, we laughed at how we had retired before the 90 year old lady, who was still at the bar at 1 a.m., when Mr. Sandman came calling to me.

The next morning we waved hello to these ladies who had taken our recommendation to have breakfast at Cock-a-doo's, across the street, where we had the BBQ omelette and peanut butter banana French Toast two days in a row. Very good stuff. I like Memphis.

And I think turning 30 is pretty cool. I don't understand why so many people think this is a bad thing.