Low Country Boil Part One

The first of the Low Country Boils was last night. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and no one left with an empty stomach. We started with cheese straws, pimento cheese spread, Vidalia Onion dip, and BBQ pulled pork sliders. Then came the boil, plus sides of corn bread, mac and cheese and baked beans, I also had cole slaw, that I forgot to take out of the fridge, (Oops!).

Then dessert were choices of Red Velvet cake, coconut cake, pecan pie and banana pudding. We had to have the dinner inside, since it was in the 50's and quite windy. People enjoyed the garden for a while, then came in to get warm. I'm sure the brandy slush helped a lot.

Here is the recipe for the best baked beans ever! Thank you Kelly, for sharing this gem with me!

Badger State Beans

1/2 lb ground beef or 1 lb ground turkey

1/2 lb bacon, diced

1 small onion, diced

1- 16 0z. can pork and beans

1- 16 oz. can kidney beans, drained

1- 16 oz. can yellow butter beans, drained

1- 16 oz. can black beans, drained

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tbsp. molasses

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

Preheat oven to 350.

Brown ground beef (or turkey), bacon and onion. Drain excess fat.

In a 2 quart casserole dish, combine remaining ingredients. Add meat mixture.

Bake uncovered 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Calgon, take me away!

This is a crazy week! Today the kids didn't have school today, so we ran to Sam's Club quick, then came home. They ran around for roughly 6 hours straight, had dinner, showered and instantly fell asleep. Tomorrow is Parent Guild meeting, in which I will be introduced as the President-elect. A dubious honor. Then swimming right after school. Thursday night is J's choir concert. Then Saturday is the first of two Low Country Boils, which were our donation to the school auction. Eleven couples are coming for dinner, and I am consumed with getting the yard and house cleaned. I love our home, and don't want to move, but it might be easier cleaning a 50's ranch, rather than a hundred year old Victorian. I got three bathrooms scoured, so on Saturday they will just need a quick going over. I even took the toilet seats completely off, which I think is the only way to really get them clean. I live with three males, which makes the process disgusting. Next came dusting all the bedrooms, so a quick vacuum should finish it up. I always make B take the boys away for the day when we are having a big shin-dig. With them here, it's like shoveling during a blizzard! All these people keep telling me how excited they are about dinner, which is wonderful to hear, but, boy, the pressure. Cheese straws, pimento cheese, pork bbq sliders, red velvet cake, pecan pie, banana pudding. I hope no one is on a diet!

Auction Recap

Last weekend was the school auction, to benefit scholarships. About 150 people showed up, drank lots of beer and wine, ate lots of food and went home with some great loot. The suprise of the evening was Matt Lepay, voice of the Badgers, mc-ing our live auction portion. B and I donated a low country boil for ten couples at our house, it was so popular that we announced we would do a second dinner for ten more couples. Both parties should be fun, and I'm already thinking about the complete menu. Barbeque pork sliders, cheese straws, boiled peanuts, etc. The money people are still crunching numbers, but I hope we did as well as last year. I chaired this year, but I think next year I'll sit out.