A good time was had by all during the family’s weekend trip to the coast. Son-in-law Mark turned out to be a fiend with the sledgehammer. Katie enjoyed throwing stuff from the second floor landing onto the dumpster below, and Andy just loves destruction, period. I myself single-handedly did away with the kitchen cabinet doors–and I did it old school–with a manual screwdriver. Mr. Mary Kay hammered and sawed and between the five of us, we stripped the old kitchen down to the naked block walls, and reduced the second-floor bathroom to a pile of rubble. Although–the old bathtub still has to be carted off. The birthday portion of the program was nice too. My friends down at G.J. Ford Booksellers in St. Simon’s Island had given me a gorgeous new cookbook, called Screendoors and Sweet Tea by Martha Foose. I read it at night, after I finished writing, like a novel. Really, this is my favorite new cookbook to come along in years. We fixed the Shrimpboats for the birthday dinner Friday night, to rave reviews, with fresh caught wild Georgia shrimp. My friends Diane Kaufman, of Mermaid Cottages, joined us, as did old buddy Jacky, who brought two different crab dishes, a hot crab dip and crab pie, fixed with the crab she catches and picks out from her own dock. Mmmm, Aunt Bea! Saturday, the family went fishing, but I stayed on land and just kinda piddled around, visiting my favorite junk haunts. We did more demo in the afternoon, during which time I fixed oven-baked barbecued ribs from the Screendoor cookbook. Best of all–we had TWO chocolate desserts–chocolate cheesecake donated by my friend and real estate agent Sue Bentley, and chocolate frosted brownies dropped off by Diane. We were lucky enough to stay in a gorgeous house at Tybee this time, the old Fort Screven bakery, which has been lovingly restored by the Smith family. Talk about a sweet treat! It will be sad to have to come down in the world to stay anyplace else after spending a weekend at the bakery. My family returned to Atlanta on Sunday, but I hung around to finish some beach house related chores. And to toilet shop. You haven’t lived until you’ve toilet shopped. Who knew there were so many options? The nice folks at Sandpiper Plumbing Supply were a huge help. So now I’m back in the real world. I have a Barq’s Root Beer basted ham in the oven for dinner tonight–courtesy of the Screendoor cookbook. It smells divine!
