Tailgate party with out the tailgate and without the party

Since having a kegger was out of the question I opted for a "healthy" drink made from sweetened hibiscus tea, orange juice and dark rum. The naturally tart and flowery, fruity flavor of the hibiscus woke up with the little squeeze of fresh orange juice and the rum balanced the whole drink out like a long pole for a tight rope walker.

(I borrowed this shot from an old post)

The menu was diverse which translates to "all over the planet" as we had shrimp sushi rolls and salmon sushi rolls that were made and consumed so fast I didnt have time to take a proper photo but if you have read my blog before you will see that I make this often. (this link will prove it and it actually has a little video tutorial) Oh yeah and there was also fried calamari that flew off the plate so fast I forgot we even had it...my son made short order of that two pounds.

The star of the day, in fact lets go ahead and call this star the MVP, was the oyster. We had them raw on the half shell with some hot sauce and chopped onion.

We had fried oysters, but these oysters were fried for a reason.....

Fried oyster Po'Boy has got to be one of the best sandwiches on earth, add a little watercress dressed lightly with lime juice and olive oil, some chipotle mayo and some Zatarain's Remoulade Sauce and you are in business, big business.

Let me end this post by saying "can you believe these pictures were taken with my cell phone?" Yup thats right my cell phone! I hear a lot of people complaining that they dont have the right high-tech this or the right software that and that is why their pictures are not as good as they want them to be - I say phooey on all of that. Its the same thing with cooking, I can cook with a tin can and a heat source - if there is a will there is a way. Taking a good picture is no different than making a good omelete...it takes a certain - as the French would say "I dont know what."