Beach Livin

What an amazing weekend in Charleston. Driving home yesterday from a long day of beach, sun, and boating in the lowcountry, I realized that I honestly live in most people's idea of vacation! Every weekend of the year is full of great excuses to get outside, enjoy the beach or an evening grilling out on the back deck with friends. I will say it is also slightly de-motivating however when it comes to things like house chores... while the weekend was a fun one, didn't get too much done. Our Friday night routine has recently consisted of a trip to Whole Foods, cooking dinner for two over a good bottle of wine. This week it was crab legs with drawn lemon butter, an arugula salad full of dried cranberries, candied pecans and crumbled gorgonzola and a bottle of Veuve Cliquot champagne. (a wedding gift that we've saved for 2 years) We have an amazing screened in back porch where we spend many an evening listening to music and the choir of tree frogs that live behind our house. We've found that the majority of our social plans are now revolving around this peacefully relaxing setting- for those of you who have fallen prey to the late nights on the Lacy porch, you understand what I'm sayin. After a long day at the Beach on Saturday we decided to do a low country boil for a handful of friends- also referred to as frogmore stew. John has absolutely PERFECTED his boil recipe. The corn deliciously sweet, the red potatoes buttery soft without being mushy, the sausage plump with the juicy flavor of the crab boil seasoning and the shrimp cooked to perfection. He says he uses the Coastal Living recipe as a guide for cooking times though he's tweaked it to his own. http://www.coastalliving.com/food/entertaining/lowcountry-boil-00400000001984/ Beyond the traditional cocktail sauce, I've also added my own twist with my Old Bay Butter accoutrement. I melt one stick of butter with a heaping tablespoon of Old Bay Seasoning, a big pinch of salt and the juice of half a lemon. Spoon it over the corn and potatoes and I promsie you, you won't ever attempt a boil without it. A shrimp boil is really a one-huge pot-meal. No sides are really necessary however we served a huge plate of fresh watermelon on the side and finished off the meal with a key lime pie from Simmon's Seafood shop on Isle of Palms. We religiously buy our boil shrimp from Simmon's. They are fresh off of the boat that morning and always local caught just off the Carolina shore. The pie is an added incentive of course to make the drive. Hands down THE BEST KEY LIME PIE around. Turned out to be another wonderful early-summer evening on the back porch. Looking forward to many more of them over the coming months!