Sunny and Raining - Healthy Southern Food

Sunny and Raining. Healthy Southern Food. Dogs and Sparkly Silver Toenails. Jalapeno Vodka and Basil. Funny and Colonoscopy.

These are words that don't seem to go together but they do.

After a couple of weeks of work and working out and having the "when you turn 50 years old medical test" that I had put off for 5 years, it was time for a break to Isle of Palms. I won't go into the ins and outs of a colonoscopy, but it was nothing like my fears thought it would be. If you need one and haven't had one, please go ahead and do it. It's a life saver and a breeze. If you want to know exactly what it is like, read the funniest column ever written about a colonscopy. Dave Barry wrote it in 2008 and it is still the best article out there. If I knew how to link I would, but you will have to google Dave Barry, A Journey into My Colon.

In the words of Forrest Gump, "And that's all I've got to say about THAT!"

So, Susan invited me to Isle of Palms to what we affectionately call Barbie's Dream House to help babysit granddog, Stella. Stella belongs to Susan's daughter, Allie, and may be one of the cutest dogs in the world. And one of the most pampered. She even has sparkly silver toenails. Our dog, Dingo, and I have lived in our house full of males for so long, I guess we never thought about having sparkly silver toenails.

But they are perfect for Stella. She wears them with pride. The same way she rides in her little basket on bike rides. We took several long bike rides with Stella in her basket and had a great time. Stella makes friends wherever she goes.

The weather was crazy with beautiful blue skies and sunshine one minute and then dark clouds full of torrential rain the next minute. Honestly the entire weekend we could only truthfully describe the weather as Sunny and Raining.

But we knew we wouldn't melt so we took Stella on long bike rides and long walks on the beach. She even watched part of the Panthers game with us. Stella is a true Southern girl who appreciates football.

We didn't take Stella into Charleston for an interesting historical harbor tour around Fort Sumter, Patriots Point and the Battery. Maybe boats and history just aren't Stella's thing. But Susan and I enjoyed the relaxing, informative boat tour and watching dolphins frolic around in the Charleston harbor.

We also enjoyed healthy Southern food. I think you could eat out three times a day for more than a year and not go to all of the amazing restaurants in the Charleston area. We were trying to stay on our health kick so we did not eat out every meal. For breakfast we fixed Blueberry Yogurt and Cascadian Farms Granola parfaits. (recipe blogged on August 17, 2010) We typically fixed a fairly light dinner at Barbie's Dream House on one of the breezy Southern porches. One night we had a great salad with pears and blue cheese. Another night we had crabmeat quesadillas because we can't do a trip to Isle of Palms without that. (blogged April 16, 2010)

Our plan was to try some of the restaurants out at lunchtime. This is a very good plan because 1) lunch is less expensive 2) we had our big meal in the middle of the day which saved the mornings and evenings for exercise and sipping something at Barbie's on the porch.

We had some great lunches out with lots of fresh seafood (Long Island Cafe - great waiter and Water's Edge - snarky waiter), Thai Shrimp Soup (Basil in Mt Pleasant), and even a great hamburger (Poe's Tavern). But the most interesting lunch was at Husk. Husk has been given the award as Best New Restaurant in the country by somebody who knows restaurants. I meant to look up who gave this award but whoever it was has to be right.

The location is awesome on Queen Street and the atmosphere is in an old house that has been redone with very good taste. It is a wonderful blend of old Southern and new Southern in both decor and menu. As Susan explained, "Everything in the kitchen at Husk is local and seasonal, grown or produced in the South."

We had a great Tomato Salad with yellow and red tomatoes, sweet white Trigger Fish with squash and zucchini, and what may be the best Shrimp and Grits ever. I am something of a Shrimp and Grits snob so that's saying alot. They served the creamy yellow grits, spicy sausage, fresh shrimp, with local corn and tomatoes in a neat pottery bowl.

I have always thought no one could do cornbread like we do it in Lattimore. But Husk comes pretty close. They serve crispy crusted cornbread in a small cast iron pan and they have put some bacon in there that is very Lattimore like. Sometimes we add what Daddy calls cracklins to our cornbread. Cracklins are tiny cut up pieces of real country ham which is mostly the fat part of the ham. They are fried till crispy and make the best red eye gravy ever. When you put them in the cornbread you have Cracklin Cornbread and it is a real treat. Husk Cornbread with the bacon flavor is very close to Cracklin Cornbread. Not quite there, but close.

The most unusual thing we had at Husk was the Southern Screwdriver. This concoction included jalapeno infused Vodka, a fresh basil syrup, fresh squeezed orange juice and orange bitters. Talk about words that don't usually go together.

Recently I had been out to my own garden and the main things growing are jalapenos and basil. Somehow I never thought to put them together in a cocktail. I don't know the exact ingredients but I think it might be fun to experiment with this idea.

So it was something of a mind expanding trip to Isle of Palms and I was surprised when I returned home that the scales didn't jump off the floor. But they didn't, so we must have had the perfect blend of food sampling, walking, biking, Panther watching, history learning and porch sitting to balance everything out.

Sunny and Raining. Healthy and Southern. Jalapeno and Basil. Some things go together better than it seems.