Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2010 > February > 15 > Entry
Winter Reading Week 2010, Post No. 1
The sun skitters across the little post-Hurricane Ike lagoon in front of our house. Following the light’s fractured patterns is the most effort I’ve made in the past three days.
For readers coming late to this tradition, in the winter, Kip and I take a big beach house at Surfside, the island just down from Galveston.
We invite 25 or so friends. They bring books, magazines, CDs, MP3s, games, cards and plenty of conversational ammunition.
They also cook and clean, bless them. Four teams compete for the most imaginative meals. Saturday brunch this week consisted of tangy breakfast pizzas. Saturday’s dinner, five ways to prepare beef tenderloin, plus a mousse molded to look like tenderloin (this fabulous feast took all evening to consume). Sunday’s brunch turned Mexican (with wicked bloody Marys) and Sunday’s dinner served up Southern comfort food (incredible deviled eggs with pickled okra, mac and cheese with a hint of nutmeg, collard greens, ham, carrots and Parker rolls).
Drinks to match, of course. Killer croquet in the afternoon. So far, three sunny days and two windy, rainy nights, one middling night. All nights made for blazes on the hearth.
For me, one book, a dozen or so magazines, three walks with the Labs, Nick and Nora, and catching up with friends from New York, Boston, Cincinnati, Houston, California and Austin.
More reports to come.
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