Simple Food and a couple of resto plugs

Hi Everyone!  Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots to be thankful for.  We were lucky enough to have our boys home for an entire week - a wonderful gift, considering they are 27 and 25 and have their own busy lives away from Atlanta.  It was good family time.

The first thing they did was displace Henry from his "room" (the one with that ridiculously oversized TV).  Out came the XBox, off went the lights, closed went the blinds and here came the video games.  And if they weren't doing that, they were watching movies.  Or sporting events.  The "BOOM BOOM BOOM" sounds reverberated from the darkened depths of that man cave all week!

It was just like old times.  They were probably texting each other while they were in there, too.  (It's been known to happen before).  Guess there are things I am too old to understand!

And of course we ate too much.  Friends invited us up to their farm for Thanksgiving dinner and it was memorable.  It began as we gathered around the wood burning oven in their outside kitchen and feasted on roasted fois gras and freshly foraged oyster mushrooms.  I'll leave it at that so you won't know how much I really ate, but I will tell you that it just kept getting better from there... 

Here are two pictures of the beautifully decorated tables:

Friday brought the long-standing tradition of a riotous dinner here when all of their friends show up, drink a little too much (don't worry, they spend the night) and reminisce about old times.  We learned WAY too much about some of their prior escapades in high school (oy vey!) and some of their current ones (let's just say "Cubs and Cougars" - not my kids, fortunately, but double oy veh!!).  Anyway, it was a good time with too much good food.  That would be BBQ ribs, pulled pork and brisket from the recently opened Community Q BBQ here in Decatur.  If you live in Atlanta, you want to beat a path to their door as soon as you can.  It's really, really good.  Here is the link:  http://www.communityqbbq.com/

Dinner at Miller Union was Saturday's highlight.  OMG - if you live in Atlanta (or within a 50 mile radius, even) GO, GO, GO!!!  Steven Satterfield, formerly of Watershed and Float-a-Way, is the chef-owner and his business partner is the very savvy Neal McCarthy who is well-known from Sotto Sotto.  Beautiful space (industrial, yet warm and cozy - an oxymoron, I know) and beautiful, yet simple food.  The staff rocks, too.  Here is the link:  http://www.millerunion.com/

Okay, so back to the simple food concept.  Folks, I am TIRED.  I spent most of the day taking back my house.  It was a disaster after all those guys and all those kids hanging around.  I will not describe the lingering (beer and sweat) odor in the man cave.  "Disgusting" doesn't even come close.

And now it's time for dinner.  This is going to be simple beyond belief.  I have a plethora of farm-fresh eggs, courtesy of my weekly CSA.  I have some beautiful fresh arugula from the same source.  Looks to me like baked eggs and a simple salad are on the menu.  I can throw it together in no time.  And it will be really good.  No more fois gras for me in the forseeable future!

BAKED EGGS

For each serving:

2 farm fresh eggs
2 T. half-and-half
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 T grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Preheat oven to 400-degrees.  Carefully break eggs into a ramekin.  Add half-and-half to just cover whites.  Sprinkle over with salt, pepper, rosemary and Reggiano.

Place in oven and bake until whites are just set - 10-14 minutes.

Serves 1

If you are really a good person and not the food police like I am, you will serve this with some freshly toasted baguette.  Sorry, Henry!

Obviously, this was bread-deficient.

Trust me, he survived!