Happy Tuesday, sweet friends! I meant to post this yesterday, but life got in the way! But I can’t wait to share with you something fun my husband and I did over the weekend. Want to see how to throw an oyster party? Come check it out!
We’ve been planning this get together with some of our oldest and dearest friends for months and finally settled on a weekend night when we could all get together. We chose last Friday evening because we were all free and the guys didn’t have an early tee time the following day. (They ended up playing on Sunday afternoon after church.) My husband decided the theme should be an oyster and shrimp fest in honor of the Oyster Festival we did with the same friends a few years ago in Charleston.
So, Brad (my hubby) ordered four dozen different types of oysters from a company called The Fulton Fish Market based in NYC. (@fultonfishmarket ) They deliver fresh catch within 48 hours of ordering (versus 2 weeks in a store.) The oysters arrived at our lake house on Friday afternoon several hours before the party. The oysters come packaged in a cooler-type box with dry ice and cooler packs. We simply put the entire box in the spare refrigerator until it was time to eat. Prior to the friend’s arrival, I set the table on the deck. (Which is the perfect place to shuck and eat oysters!)
For the centerpiece I used an inflatable buffet. The buffet is only about $12 on Amazon and makes for a great gift! As you can see from Amazon’s ad, you can use it for beverages or anything you want to keep cold. In our case it was oysters and shrimp!
We keep this large table on the deck year round and pulled in the Pottery Barn chairs from the kitchen for the party. We positioned the chairs around the table so the food was within easy reach of everyone at the table. (The shades were lowered to reduce the glare and to help keep the deck cool. Of course as soon as the sun began to set we raised them back up)
When it was time to eat we filled the buffet with a few bags of ice. After the guys shucked the oysters, we arranged them by type and sprinkled in some cooked shrimp that I bought from the local grocery store. The ice kept the shrimp and oysters nice and cool while we ate. My husband made homemade cocktail sauce which was spicy but oh so good!
And even though this was not a lobster party, I couldn’t resist using these adorable plastic plates and bowls for the occasion. (I bought them on eBay a few years ago.) The bowls were perfect for individual servings of cocktail sauce.
After the first course of shrimp and oysters, it was time for the second course. Deep fried shrimp and hush puppies! Brad set up the fry station downstairs on the patio earlier in the day so all we had to do was turn on the burners and heat up the oil!
Before hand I made up a batch of Rachel Ray’s homemade hush puppies and put the batter into the fridge. However, the guys decided to “tweak” the recipe while the oil was heating up and added a bunch more corn meal and flour. (And who knows what else?) I must say they were still good despite the recipe alterations!
Here are the three besties cooking….
Brad breaded and deep fried the shrimp and cooked the hush puppies in a separate pot. Honestly, you can fry anything and it will still be tasty. Especially with cocktail sauce, right?
And here’s another look at the shrimp and oyster buffet! The friends brought in sides of homemade cole slaw and roasted asparagus to round out the meal. For dessert we had fresh mini-pies from Carolina Pie Company. Yummy!
We capped off the evening by the fire and said goodnight late into the night. The next morning we had coffee then went by boat for brunch at a restaurant called,” Hello Sailor”. It was the perfect ending to a lovely weekend! I wish you could have joined us! Hope y’all have a great day and I’ll be sure to share the actual Rachel Ray hush puppy recipe soon! Take care! xoxo Dell
