My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. Morning coffee with Robert at Flora and Fauna, the coolest little coffee bar/supper club here in Savannah.
2. Youngest granddaughter Isabelle, one on one with Santa.
3. Mindfully recognizing and appreciating that I Feel Good whenever I Feel Good.
4. Christmas Day Supper with just HR and me. (We do a bigger Thanksgiving with family, but fam is scattered across the state, so now everyone does their own thing for Christmas.)
This year I told HR uber-enthusiastically that “I am making OYSTER DRESSING for the first time!”
He looked at me as I had just told him there is no Santa. (He still believes. See recent blog for proof.)
I got quickly to work, convinced that I could win him over. Even though he doesn’t accompany me when I have a hankering for …
… at one of Savannah’s fabulous oyster houses. “Neal, what must have been wrong with the first person in history who somehow—probably by freak accident—cracked open an oyster and said, ‘I’m gonna eat that slimy thing right now.’”
But I got him to like Susan Boyle, so how hard could a little mollusk shellfish be?
I opened up my two pints of oysters …
Prepped my other ingredients …
Fancy HR tells me this part of kitchen work is called “mise en place” (everything in its place).
All ready for the oven …
Forty-five deliciously anticipatory minutes later …
(I managed to place NOE—Neal’s Oyster Extravaganza—in the center of our little buffet in an attempt to make it the star.)
And guess what? (I’m sure you’re a nervous wreck by now wondering if he liked it.)
He did! He did! The joy bells rang triumphantly through Historic District Savannah!
(Although I have to confess that he took most of his dressing from around the edges … to avoid the possibility of slimy you know what. And covered it with his yummy mushroom gravy. But still, I declare Victory!)
5. The Seasonal Pause of Quiet and Calm that seems to occur each year between Christmas and the New Year (at least in my mind).
May you find some Quiet and Calm this final weekend of 2024.
NealEnJoy 
My dad usually made breaded oysters that I’ve never been able to duplicate in taste. I regret never asking for the recipe. I agree with HR though….you’ll never see me eat a raw oyster
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Aww. Too bad you don’t have that recipe!
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Everything looks fabulous, Neal. And Isabelle, oh, my. What a cutie. She whispered something very important to Santa.
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Thanks. And I asked her mother if she knew what Isabelle said to Santa. She said no, and she did not dare ask.
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