A guest for dinner.................

See the crab. See the crab run across the counter. See the crab grab onto the grill.

We're having a guest tonight for dinner. Actually, we named him. Named him "Dinner."

Mr. Scottie Dog and I have had a full day. Made it to church on time at 9 am. Picked up our Christmas photo cards at Walgreen's and came home in time to pick up a bit, doodle away some time on the computer. Mr. Bill dressed in his tuxedo finery and drove to Fortuna where he and a bunch of other Accordionairs played Christmas Accordion music at the Fortuna Christmas Music Festival. I stayed home to make some cookie treats for a book signing later this week at our store (Thursday, Dec. 17 from 6:30 - 8 pm Pat Durbin will be signing her new book during our store Christmas Open House. YOU are invited). On Tuesday night we'll all be going to The Humboldt Accordionairs' Christmas party concert. You are also invited to that at Swiss Hall in Loleta.

After Mr. Dog came home, he got out the Christmas tree from the attic. He put the colored lights on it (I prefer colored to all white, I guess I'm not in fashion). It was 5 pm. "What do you want for dinner?" I asked. "Crab?" he queried. "We don't have any crab," I answered.

So we left for the Marina...mind you it's now dark. As we pulled onto Woodly Island we nearly hit a deer slowly crossing the road. There on our left in a small grassy area were 8 deer eating quietly. I guess that small wildlife refuge located next to the marina has been a great habitat for the deer they placed! They are multiplying.

The lights were on in the cabin of the Jenna Lee, the crab boat that sells live crab....you see, Mr. Scottie Dog prefers to cook his own crab so it's fresh, REALLY fresh.


So this is the big, 'ole crab we ate for dinner.....yum, yum. Took just a few minutes to pick the crab meat out of the shell and I had mine on a bed of romaine with green onions, avocado, celery & red pepper....Mr. Scottie Dog put his over a cheesy potato.

I guess tomorrow I'll put the ornaments on the tree.

Birthdays & Seafood

Birthdays and Seafood.....what a combination! Since I was a small girl shellfish (and seafood in general) have been on the top of my favorites list. I remember when I was about 8 my parents celebrated their wedding anniversary with a family dinner at home. The dining room was all prettied-up, good dishes & glassware. My parents said they wanted to include us in their celebration because we were such an important part of their marriage. (Who knows--perhaps they just couldn't find a babysitter!) We had lobster for dinner. UMMMM From that day forward, Lobster has remained my favorite food of all. Prawns, scallops a close second. On New Year's Day we celebrated both Christmas and my birthday with Liz, Steve & Sydney. Mr. Scottie Dog grilled prawns & scallops indoors (I don't know what we'd do without the JenAire Grill) and he'd cooked up big crabs. Yum, yum, yum!
Ok...that was my first birthday dinner! Yesterday was my birthday...my 57th birthday. Definitely still middle age. But creeping towards old, I think. It doesn't bother me this year. I woke up to a call from my Dad & Willa Mae. Dad sang to me as he has for all those years. I look forward to it. It was great to talk to both my brothers and I even got messages from the nieces and nephews on Face Book....a year ago I didn't even know about Face Book and now I hear from all my friends and relatives all the time.
Mr. Scottie Dog asked me if I wanted to go out for my birthday. I told him I'd rather stay in if he'd cook me lobster. I think he does it better than anyone else. I picked up Sydney and we went to the Zoo (I forgot the camera so I don't have any pictures).
The lobster was great and there was enough crab left for crab cocktails. Birthdays and seafood...for me they just seem to go together.