McGruff, Mary, and Mamie

The day started out at Coker Creek Elementary School to see Adam as Officer McGruff. Although Adam is one of the least gruff people we know, he somehow got selected to be the canine crime fighter at the health and safety day at the school. They sure didn’t create this much excitement when I was in grade school. Every community hero group and their equipment, from a fire department ladder truck to Tennessee National Guardsmen in uniform were available. I learned more than I hope to ever need to know about meth from a presentation shown on a huge inflatable movie screen in the school gym. Josie was in attendance take pictures. We got to talking about marrying some of her photos to my blog and creating a book.

Richard and I have been talking about having Mamie to our house, and Adam had been asking me to cook some Cajun shrimp for him. Mamie’s ninetieth birthday will occur while Richard and I are out of town, so it semed fitting to have Mamie, Josie and Adam over for dinner before we leave town. Upon my arrival home from the school, I found an email from Mary me with an invitation to stop by her place for some of her apple rum cake.I called and invited Mary and Don to join us for dinner. They agreed.

Teamwork prevailed. Richard drove to Tellico Grains for great bread, baked a caramel cake, made salad, and set the table. Adam and Josie chauffeured Mamie, and Josie presented me with a sampling CD of her Coker Creek photos. Mary and Don arrived with Mary’s apple cake.

In honor of Mamie’s birthday we began with an appetizer of banana peppers from Jack’s garden stuffed with a taco stuffing that Richard had made for Bluegrass. We followed this with Richard’s remarkable salad, served tableside by its creator. The main dish was New Orleans style barbecue shrimp which are traditionally served with the heads and shells intact, but I removed all but the tails because serving food with eyes and whiskers seems to freak out inland dwellers. We served the shrimp over warm bread from Tellico Grains, and accompanied it with Cajun dirty rice and some of the maque chou that my followers have read so much about.

Mamie commented that she should have known something was up when I asked about her favorite cake and invited her to dinner. The truth is that we had already invited her and Richard had already begun baking a cake when it occurred to me that we’d miss her birthday. This was a spontaneous celebration, but I am known for being the “wing it” queen.

We added ice cream to the dessert menu, and after singing “Happy Birthday” to my mountain mama, gorged ourselves on two homemade cakes from two different kitchens and Mayfield vanilla ice cream. Mamie’s twinkling blue eyes began to droop, so Adam and Josie departed with the guest of honor. Mary and Don sat to chat a while before their departure.

When the guests were gone, I was tempted to turn the lights out on the mess, but I had no good excuse to be such a slob. Mary had rinsed the dishes, so I put as much as I could in the dishwasher and retired for the night -- with great memories to relive as we face tomorrow’s kitchen clean-up.