Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Dump Dinner!

Meet my sister Eileen Lovett (above). She's the one who made the optical illusion selvage quilt that you saw here yesterday. Eileen is the queen of creativity and fun. She actually owns two copies of the Fun Encyclopedia. She could have written it! Take a look at what we did for dinner Saturday night at their summer house in Holderness, NH. We had a dump dinner! The name had us all pretty curious all day.

Eileen boiled several big pots of shrimp, sausage, kielbasa, white potatoes, purple potatoes(!), pearl onions, and corn on the cob. She poured off the water after it was cooked, and then "dumped" it on the center of the table. Her husband Campbell (in the white hat) served each of us a little dab of coctail sauce (ketchup and horseradish), butter, and mustard. Then we ate the delicious dinner with our hands! The funny thing was that eating like this without a plate, I didn't really know exactly how much I ate. Twelve of us didn't finish all this. We had covered the table with a plastic tablecloth, then newspapers, and finally aluminum foil, so the clean up phase took just a minute. Everyone volunteered to wash the dishes. Eileen made blueberry pie for dessert, and fortunately we got plates and forks for that!

After dinner we all played a game called "Apples to Apples" and we laughed so much that our faces hurt. It was dark for a long time by the time we left the table. Then I sat outside under the stars and enjoyed the sound of the crickets. I love evenings like this.

In case you're curious, in the bottom photo you can see our other sister Lynne in the pink shirt on the left. Next to her is her son Oliver, then our brother Bruce's wife Jennifer, Sam in the "Halftime" tee-shirt (he's one of Eileen and Campbell's two sons), Michelle (Bruce and Jennifer's niece), Amelia (Lynne's daughter) is standing, and Campbell is on the far right. Our mom, Mary, is standing in the photo at the top. Not shown: Bruce, my husband Jason and me. I was taking the photos.
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20 comments:

Jen said...

Aah...sounds like so much fun! I'll definitely have to try that one day! I love the game Apples to Apples, for a kids game, it's a ton of fun!

Abby and Stephanie said...

Looks delicious and fun. Your "On Golden Pond" post didn't show us. Sorry to miss a sunset photo. We're a game playing family but we don't have Apples to Apples.

simplestitches said...

sounds like a wonderful casual dinner...my kids would love it!
cheers Jula

Sue said...

What a fun dinner. It gives me inspiration for next time my gang come to town. Perfect for 4 grown kids, their partners and all the grandies. thanks for sharing

Unknown said...

What a fun family day!! Apples to Apples is such a fun game, perfect for ending a family day. So glad you didn't have to eat the pie without a plate, that would have been quite messy. Thank you for sharing!

Anonymous said...

That is a FEAST and then some! And what makes it even better is sharing it with loved ones...

Have a great day!

Joan said...

In the Charleston, SC area, they call this dish "Low Country Boil" or "Frogmore Stew." I've had this yummy meal many times, but I'll admit, never without dishes or silverware!

Judi said...

What a wonderful idea. It's wonderful to sit and enjoy what God created.

Selvage Quilter said...

Stephanie, the "Sunset on Golden Pond" post will appear tomorrow. I accidentally posted it late last night (instead of saving it). It was only up for a minute! :)

Joan, I think "Low Country Boil" sounds much better than "Frogmore Stew!" We would have had a lot of sausage left over! Lol.

FlourishingPalms said...

What a unique family gathering! I love it. And how fortunate that you live close enough to one another to be able to do that. You are blessed!

justMe said...

Hi there!
I'm from South Carolina, and what you are calling "dump dinner" is called either Beaufort Stew or Frogmore Stew around here. Frogmore is the name of a community that is close to the town of Beaufort, SC.
Beaufort is the name of the county and is the county seat.
The Marine training station - Parris Island - is located near Beaufort.
Its a lovely area - Live Oaks, spanish moss, salt marshy.
Low Country South Carolina is a great vacation spot.

The food is really good, too.

Pokey said...

What a fun time for you all! I enjoyed the mountain view over the lake, too. Thanks for sharing the idea.

Selvage Quilter said...

Shhh! Don't tell about the sunrise over the lake. That's for tomorrow. I don't get up at 4:30 very often so I want to make a big deal about it. :)

Barb said...

That just looks fantastic in so many ways... good food, good company, good fun!

mg said...

A classic LOW COUNTRY BOIL. But you have to season with Zattarans to make it authentic. Sometimes werved at Oyster Roasts too.

Mickierae said...

In New Orleans this would be a Shrimp Boil or in other seasons a crawfish boil or a crab boil. We would add lots of seasoning to the boil so everything would be nice and spicy!

Selvage Quilter said...

Even when it's so hot in New Orleans? I'd think spicy food would make it feel hotter!

Mickierae said...

The boil is always accompanied with lots of beer (root or alcoholic), Coke and ice tea. If you eat a morsel that is just too spicy, you eat a cracker with some butter on it to smother the fire and then it's back to more shrimp, etc. It's never too hot for good food in New Orleans!

Selvage Quilter said...

Oh, that’s how you do it! I’ll remember that cracker and butter trick for sure.

DeAnna said...

I'm in east TN and my family calls it Frogmore Stew too! One of our favorite things!