Sunday, January 6, 2013.
The Twelfth Night Ash Pile. Football Brunch.
This is the official end of the Christmas season--Twelfth Night, when you're supposed to pull down the tree while trying to wash down a bite of king cake with a swig from your last quart of egg nog.
We didn't do any of that--the tree will almost certainly still be up on Mardi Gras. However, Mary Leigh's boyfriend did bring his week-long holiday stay at the Cool Water Ranch to an end today. To say good-bye (haven't we already done this?), the four of us (the Marys, the BF, and me) lunched at The Chimes. The Saints are finished, but the Marys are so accustomed to coming here to watch football that they can't seem to stop. The Boy is a Baltimore native, so his interest in the playoff game involving the Ravens made the many screens at least a little relevant.
ML is hooked on cheese fries. She is almost to the point of eating that gross Canadian version of cheese fries with brown gravy called poutine. (Note the little cup of brown gravy in the photo. Try not to gag.)
My starter was much better: The Chimes's version of grilled oysters Drago style. These have been consistently good since the place open, if not as fine as the original. The shells contain a sort of light brown broth, with a very heavy hit of pepper. My entree was blackened redfish (good!) with a stuffed potato (bad!). The rest of the gang ate burgers and salads. I'm as sick of writing about this place as you are of reading about it.
We had drenching rains last night. Nevertheless, the core of my burn pile was still smoldering this morning. This is good. The longer that keeps going, the smaller the ash pile will be.
The ash pile is a curious thing. I've burned stuff at that exact spot for over twenty years. It's well away from trees, and close to the pond. I have never taken anything away from it, yet the anthills in the surrounding meadow are much higher. And a dozen or so tall weeds in two species come back every year, unaffected by the intense heat of the burns.
The Chimes. Covington: 19130 W Front St. 985-892-5396.
