Do you chew or swallow?

Everyone knows I love food, going out for food and cooking in. If you know me well you know I LOVE sea food. My most recent sea food binge has been with the slippery, pink, salty, squishy, juicy, delicious, RAW oyster. Only 10 calories each!



If you land on the side of humans who love to eat oysters (as opposed to the side of people who find them disgusting), then you are aware of the many ways to eat an oyster. Restaurants offer oysters prepared differently and individual people like their raw oysters prepared in specific way. Horseradish only, cocktail sauce only, a little lemon with tabasco sauce, or like me - just salt. I find them perfect just as they are with a little bit of salt to enhance the flavor. Second question is, do you chew or swallow? I saw on T.V. (the greatest of all knowledge resources) that the TRUE way to eat an oyster is to let it just slide down your throat. And I ask, where's the fun in that??? If you like oysters you like the taste, and one can hardly get a good taste if you just let it fall down your throat without chewing. I chew. I chew the hell out of them. It's the one food that I really love to savor (which may be hard to tell considering how fast I eat them).

So Fred and just went to our first all-you-can-eat-oysters night at Oysters on the West End in downtown Greenville. YUM! I disappointed myself by only being able to eat 3 dozen, and must retract any aforementioned desire to participate in oyster eating contests. I'm still up for all-you-can-eat, but the time constraints would just stress me out. Oyster eating is relaxing and I don't want to associate stress (or barfing half way through a 10-dozen challenge) with oyster eating.

So honk if you love raw oysters! And don't go through life without at least ONE all-you-can-eat-oyster night.

Winter

Nothing gets me through a long winter better than great company, cold winter walks, and hot pizza! This has been a snowy winter, as winter's go in the valley of WNC. What's great though is that I only have to travel 5 miles from home to find snow that is inches deeper than the snow on my own back porch! It's great! Snow is cold, damp, and gross when it turns brown from street dirt and car exhaust. But just minutes away there are quiet forests of white wonderful goodness. It takes me less time to drive to these magical places than it does to dress for the journey. Long johns, hiking boots, two pairs of socks, multi-layered tops, and of course a very, very old London Fog jacket.



Fred and I stopped into Blue Mountain Pizza to store some energy for the high winds and blistering snow pellets against our faces. Not long ago it was Stacy and I that took the same hike in the snow and filled up with Chai tea and goodies from the Well Bred Bakery. And toward the beginning of winter I went on a few hour long walks through the woods with Jessica (sun setting). Winter walks are 100 times better when they start with yummy food from local businesses, include good conversation, and end with stripping off wet jeans, throwing on pjs and sipping red wine. Here are a few pictures from my winter walks, worth the cold, wonderful memories, good company, beatufiul pictures. Must love the mountains.