High Cotton

*********pics to follow**********c'mon Christi, you'll enjoy this anyway...

Peter and Ellen came for the weekend so that Pete and I could go to Charleston for our annual Valentine's Day trip...we left after Scott's funeral (deep heartrending sobs but incredibly beautiful service...the Whetstones sounded like ANGELS). We checked in to Lodge Alley Inn on Thursday and stayed til Saturday noon. Soooooooo needed and sooooooo awesome!!

We saw The Blind Side and loved it...want to know WHY I adore the awesome man I married almost 26 years ago????? About halfway through the movie, he leaned over and whispered, "She reminds me of you". I looked at Sandra Bullock in her tight white skirt and glanced down at my 270 pounds and knew he wasn't referring to looks but still... I am not that nice nor that good of a person but HE thinks I am...and so I adore him (one of a billion reasons).

ANYWAYS..I said dinner deserved a whole post so here it is...

We ate next door to Lodge Alley Inn at HIGH COTTON . I wore my new black dress in my new high heels (didn't fall and that is saying something!) with my gorgeous pearls and Ninna's blinga bling diamond ring and felt I belonged in that high falutin establishment...actually, growing up, we took those kind of places for granted because Ninna and Granddaddy DID belong there and took us along for the ride quite often! Yet, they were and we are just as comfortable at an oyster roast eating off plywood makeshift tables with sand between our toes...anyways...I digress...THE Dinner...

So we started with the domestic artesian cheese plate...I wanted the High Cotton Charcuterie plate but I can only push Pete so far with french cuisine...anyway, it was a huge plate with a little mound of fig preserves in the center holding up 6 thin slices of green apple (think fan) and surrounded by 6 wedges of gourmet cheeses...from very mild to very sharp...all white to yellow...all DELICIOUS. Strawberries and candied pecans were artfully displayed on the plate and a sweetgrass basket of thin sliced grilled baguettes made it devine! That could have been the entire meal...but no....

After getting all new cutlery and napkins and our table whisked clean with a switchblade the waiter flipped out (hey, that's what it looked like anyway...), I enjoyed a wedge of cold crisp iceberg lettuce topped with julienne slices of thick bacon and drizzled with buttermilk bleu cheese dressing...oh it was scrumptious...Pete was already full from the cheese plate...MEN!

Next, we had another sweetgrass basket filled with hot crusty rolls and our entrees....so gorgeous I itched to take a picture but refused to be that redneck (for Pete's sake...but it was hard!). I had surf and turf...Grilled Bison and jumbo (as in as big as my hand) shrimp wrapped in prosciutto...not a fan of the prosciutto even though I LOVE country ham...totally diff flavor...but the Bison was absolutely divine!! and it came on top of linguine carrots and sour cream potatoes...So delicious! Pete had boring old strip steak and potatoes but he swears it was great...looked good anyway.

YES, we were stuffed but a girl's gotta have dessert, especially for Valentine's Day Dinner...and High Cotton has yummy souffles...order them early in the meal because they take time to prepare but they are WoRtH iT!!! We chose a praline souffle and it came in this pretty dish with the souffle rising really high and the waiter poked a hole in the top and poured in chocolate sauce out of this darling teeny white pitcher...and I can't even describe the heavenly light sweet taste...you just MUST taste it!

and believe me when I say there is something to be said for experiencing such a dinner in a centuries old building with high ceilings and exposed brick and crisp white linens and candlelight and everyone in suits and dressy dresses with the muted tones of conversation and tinkling silverware in the background as snow falls outside of the foggy windows...I mean it was just sublime...

and I aint just whistling dixie!!

We were in HIGH COTTON, for sure!