New Year's Eve

I hope everyone is having a great New Year's Eve!!

We decided to go low key this year. We didn't really want to do anything. Friends invited us to go out to dinner, but we had already planned to stay in. We had a busy day with errands and chores. We decided that once we got home, we'd stay home. Does that make us OLD!!! I guess I don't care!

Turns out my plans went awry. Steph and Mindy's friends who were to be the drivers to a 1920's style gangster costume party flaked on them. I told them I'd drive. They're getting a cab home. Not only was the party in East Nashville, it was in East Timbuktoo Nashville. I bet it's going to cost them $100 for the cab back home. I'm no fool. I wasn't volunteering to go out and pick them up. That's not to say I'm not worried. I try not to think about the drunks on the road that do not plan their rides.

Due to the driving commitment, I had to "up" our dinner plans. I made king crab legs and mussels. I've never done mussels before and asked the seafood specialist for guidance. They were flown in fresh this morning. He told me how to remove the "beards." He then said that when we got home, I needed to open the plastic bag in the refrigerator so they could breathe. He said, "after all, they are alive, you know." Well, I didn't know. That kind of freaked me out. I said, "I didn't know I'd be killing them." If they weren't already measured and wrapped, I might have backed out.

When it came time to prepare them for cooking, I asked Butch if he wanted to clean the mussels or unload the dishwasher. He chose the dishwasher. I decided I had to be brave about it. I pictured the mussels snapping at me while I handled them. They were totally benign. I cooked them in butter, white wine and garlic---per the seafood guy's instructions.

You just cook them until they pop open. They were very good---and so cheap, only $3.99 a pound. As we were eating them (and the trick is to NOT look at them when you eat them), it occurred to me that they looked like those things stuck to the bottom of boats. Butch confirmed that they were. Now I'm not so sure I like them anymore.

After I got home from my taxi job, I settled in my chair with my bottle of champagne (by the glass, of course), in front of the fire. Add my new favorite series (I got season 1 and 2 for Christmas) Downton Abbey and I am one happy girl. Let my New Year's Eve begin!!!