Baked oysters is just one of the great recipes you can find on our website.

The Grits Girl explores the Who, What and Huh? — of cooking this holiday season.

It’s that time of year again. The holiday season. Most folks get in a real panic over what to serve. The Grits Girl keeps it simple. I order to go.

 I recommend that you keep it simple — but always add a little love. At our house, we understand that this is a stressful time of year. So we are “sharing the recipe love.” That’s why we have a beautiful recipe page on our website. It has recipes from Jackson’s Steakhouse, The Fish House and The Atlas Oyster House all for you. It will even print out as a recipe card for your collection. So let us be your side of love. Try some of our recipes, like Granny Smith Apple and Dried Cranberry Stuffed Acorn Squash from the Atlas Oyster House, or Grand Marnier Duck from The Fish House. Maybe you need a good dessert? White Chocolate Bread Pudding with Bourbon-Carmel Peaches

MELISSA MARTIN • SPECIAL TO THE NEWS JOURNAL • NOVEMBER 10, 2010

Chocolate pate' and Italian sparkling wine appetizer by Melissa Martin of the Fish House. (Ben Twingley/btwingley@pnj.com)

With the holidays fast approaching, we each need to take time to recognize that special someone in our lives. The two of you should take a deep breath before the holidays snowball uncontrollably, with all the family gatherings approaching. It is nice to take a little time to appreciate and recognize the value of the one you are likely going into a metaphorical battle with during the stress that accumulates this time of year. So even when he (or she) overcooks the potatoes or forgets to pick up grandma from the airport, you will be more understanding and not want to shove him (or her) into the oven along with the turkey.

The stress from the holidays can make you forget about the bigger things in life. So today, I am going to give you the recipe for an amazing party for two by creating the ultimate date night. (If my future husband is reading this: Josh, please take notes!)

Nothing makes for a better date night then the perfect bottle of bubbly. For this fall season, I suggest you pick up a bottle of Rosa Regale. This sparkling red wine, made in Italy, is love at first sip. Rosa Regale has a delicate bouquet of rose petals and offers sensuous flavors of fresh raspberries and strawberries. No wine pairs better with chocolate, and its bright, fresh berry flavors complement the chocolate’s sweet velvet.

Now that we have the perfect date-night sparkler, we can dive into some interesting starters to complement this Italian delight. As unconventional as it sounds, I suggest starting off with dessert. A friendly place to pick up a most surprising chocolate starter is City Grocery on 12th Avenue. They carry my favorite treat, Sin in a Tin Chocolate Pâté. You can serve this delicate dessert either chilled or at room temperature, so you can spread it on fruits, cookies or just your finger. This sinfully delicious chocolate will pair perfectly with a glass of Rosa Regale!

After you have enjoyed your wine and chocolate, it’s time for the entertainment portion of the evening. For both partners to have fair input on the night’s festivities, each of you should write several different date-night ideas on note cards. Put the cards in a box and shake them up. Take turns choosing cards from the box to reveal your next adventure. This keeps things romantic and exciting, and puts a little mystery back into the relationship.

One exciting idea for a date-night card could be visiting a local place called the Elbow Room. Not only do they have great pizza, this ’60s-inspired parlor carries tons of new and vintage fun board games. You and your partner can cozy up under the red-lit chandeliers and challenge each other in different games while enjoying hot pizza and cold beer.

There’s no better place to enjoy romance in a historical setting than downtown Pensacola. Plenty of ideas for romantic evenings out can be located on www.downtownpensacola.com.

Another perfect night out would be to sign up for one of the many cooking classes offered around the city. Places like Distinctive Kitchens and Jackson’s Steakhouse have created these classes not only so you can enjoy new cuisines and fine wine, but also to teach you to cook fine meals in your very own kitchen.

With all the great local restaurants in Pensacola, it can be hard to choose where to spend the dinner portion of the night. A great solution is to do a spin on a “progressive dinner.” What could be more fun that going to three or four of your favorite restaurants in one night?

So, before all your conversations consist only of how to bake the turkey, deck the halls and holiday gift lists, take a deep breath and enjoy some one-on-one time with that special someone.

Great Southern Restaurant Group, 600 S. Barracks St. 433-9450, or visit www.goodgrits.com.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's, Ty Pennington & Mark Cruz at the Atlas Oyster House

The Pensacola Fish House was the site of the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” wrap party hosted by The Fish House Restaurant and Heritage Homes. The Emmy Award-winning reality program wrapped up filming this week. The show selected Finis Gaston’s family in Pensacola as the focus of their makeover show, which is set to air sometime in December. The Fish House Restaurant, part of the Great Southern Restaurant Group, was active in the volunteering and food services for part of the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” episode. The Fish House was initially contacted months ago by Heritage Homes, the builder of the home in this episode, and selected by Heritage Homes as the location for the VIP wrap party and to participate in catering for the party.

Other in-kind donations by area businesses were flowers by Shannon Pallin of Fiore, a cake from Creative Confections by Betty Weber, event set up and volunteer coordinator,Megan Kennedy of Megan K. Events, music by DJ D-Mixx, transportation by Royal Taxi limousine service, sound and lighting by Shawn Rowe and Christian McArthur at ADJConnection.com, photography by Trista Blouin of Look Who Just Blouin photography and Jody Link of jlinkphotography.com.  Premier Beverage Company and  The Lewis Bear Company generously provided beverages.

All of us at The Fish House have enjoyed being a part of the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”experience. “It has been a wonderful opportunity for Pensacola businesses to come together and make a difference in the lives of this family and a great opportunity to show the country that despite our struggles this summer because of the oil spill, Pensacola is still a resilient, vibrant community whose citizens believe in helping out friends and neighbors,” said Jean Pierre NDione, General Manager of The Fish House Restaurant.

The Fish House employees and a good friend of the Fish House, Megan Kennedy of Megan K. Events, also took time to organize volunteers for the building of the home, along with banquet and events coordinator for the Great Southern Restaurant Group, Melissa Martin. “We are sorry to see the project end,” said Martin. “Our restaurant frequently volunteers in the community to help people. We are grateful for the friends, families and neighbors who come to see us every day. Whenever someone needs our help, we like to contribute the best that we can. It’s our way to say thank you to our guests and support our community. We enjoyed meeting and working with Heritage Homes. They are good people. They really got the job done. We cherish the relationship that we have developed by working on this project together and look forward to many other events in the future with their company.”

Melissa Martin, Great Southern Restaurant’s Event Coordinator, was a key organizer of the wrap party, working tirelessly with other area businesses in order to make the party a celebration of gratitude by community businesses for the cast and crew of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and Heritage Homes. “It was remarkable how many people called me to ask how they could help. Business owners like our friends at Fiore, Megan Kennedy, and Betty Weber — to mention a few — care about Pensacola and wanted to be sure that the ABC and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” cast and crew knew how excited we were that they were choosing to help someone in our community,” said Martin.

Highlights of the evening included an appearance by the crew, notably the shows star’s, Ty Pennington, John Littlefield and Michael Moloney.

Photographs of the wrap party and our volunteering efforts can be viewed on our blog’s photo gallery.

More on Extreme Home Makeover: The Emmy-Award-winning reality program “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” now in its eighth season, is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. Its executive producers are Brady Connell and George Verschoor. David Goldberg is Chairman of Endemol North America. The show airs Sundays from 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

 Other “do unto others” organizations and causes that we proudly supported (and so should you) this past month included: The Pensacola Sports Association, The National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, Visit Pensacola, Moms like Me, Brentwood Elementary, The Spirit Factory, Covenant Hostpice, Escambia County Sherrifs Department, Greater Gulf Coast Arts Festival, Manna pantries, Big Brother’s Big Sisters, American Cancer Society, Society of American Military engineers, WSRE public television.

For more information about our restaurant visit us on the web: http://www.goodgrits.com/.

Melissa Martin: Event Coordinator for the Great Southern Restaurant Group

As a party planner, I hear all kinds of crazy things that are said by our guests. The whole stories might be embarrassing, so I won’t go into all the details. The quotes are harmless and amusing, so in no particular order, this is a sampling of what I overheard last week.  

Me: It’s time for the bride to throw her bouquet… 
Bridesmaid:  Um, but I just got my cake.

With fifty people still at the party, bridesmaid to me: Would it be rude to start packing up our stuff now? I don’t want to be stuck here forever.

A guy walked into a closet instead of the room where his guests were waiting, and came out catatonic because the room was filled with stored Halloween decorations.

Beef satay in hand, the guest asks: I’m a vegetarian. Can I eat this?

Pregnant woman asks bartender: How many drinks am I allowed to have?

Lady: Sweetheart, please get me some more water.
Me (to bartender): I need to get her some more water.
Bartender: Here; use this bottle of vodka—she’s not drinking water.

Roomful of educators couldn’t get their projector to work and called me in. I push the giant button marked: “Power,” fixing the problem. Cheers and laughter ensued.

Preparing the table set up for a male guest, he said to me:  Miss, this just won’t work; I could really use six more inches…

When do you know your son’s hair needs a trim? When several people walk up while his back is turned to see if he’s a bridesmaid. 

Finally—and I can’t stress this one enough! DO NOT let your friends bring sparklers to a formal dinner party, particularly when you know they drink too much: 
Me to pyromaniac:  Sir! Please put that out. Sir, put out the sparkler now! No. NO! Don’t throw it in the bushes! Oh no! Help! The bushes are on fire… Here! Hand me those drinks… Whoosh!   Whoops, didn’t realize the drinks were straight Scotch. Note to self… 

Name the strangest thing you have heard someone say at a party (PG version only, please) and you will enter to win a $25 gift certificate to either the Fish House or Atlas and some sparklers if we can find some. 

Until next time,

Melissa

For many, the idea of a sit-down dinner in a nice restaurant may bring about a bit of trepidation.  Too many forks, extra knives, mini-plates and more glasses than you could possibly drink out of – urgh – what do I do?  In this fast-food era, it is easy to forget, or perhaps never learn, the fundamentals of dining etiquette.

Jackson’s is here to help.  Here are a few basic pointers to ease your dining dilemma.  Thanks to Jackson’s Manager Barry Phillips, these basic tips will make you look like an expert at Valentine’s dinner or dinner parties anytime of the year.

Jackson’s sets a standard table setting:

• To the left of your place setting you’ll find – a salad fork, entrée fork, and small bread and butter plate
• To the right of your place setting you’ll find – a butter knife and dinner knife

Let’s start with the knives. The knife to the far right is your butter knife.  It’s to be used to butter your bread once the breadbasket arrives.  We recommend taking a bit of butter, placing it on the bread and butter plate (the small plate to the left of your place setting), and then passing the butter along.  Proper etiquette suggests buttering each piece of bread as you eat it from a dab of butter on your plate. After buttering your bread, place the butter knife on the lip of the bread and butter plate to be used throughout the course of dinner for the sole purpose of buttering your bread.

The knife closest to the plate is your dinner knife.  Use this knife for any cutting that may be required during the meal; such as asparagus or other vegetables, your starch and of course your entrée.  If you order steak, chicken or another entrée selection that requires more umph than the ordinary dinner knife, Jackson’s will present you with a steak knife to make easy cuts.  When a steak knife is presented, it is perfectly acceptable to use it in replace of your dinner knife to cut anything on your plate.

As far as forks are concerned…the shorter fork furthest from your plate is the salad fork and should only be used when eating your salad and appetizers.  Your server will remove your salad fork at the same time the dish used for your salad or appetizer is removed.  The longer fork closest to your plate is your entrée, or dinner, fork.  You can save this one for the arrival of your main dish.  If you get confused, remember what Julia Roberts learned in Pretty Woman, “If you get nervous, just count the tines. Four tines: dinner fork. And sometimes there are three tines in the salad fork…”

If you accidently get carried away and use both forks in the beginning, don’t worry.  Your waiter will replace any needed silverware that you’ve used before serving your main course.   But, we aren’t wasteful at Jackson’s.  If you manage to get through salad and appetizers without using your dinner fork, it will remain on the table for you to use during the next course.

After each course, place the fork (and the knife if used) on the lip of the plate to signal to the server that you have finished.  And, relax knowing you’re an expert in dining in style.

These basics should get you off to a good start.  If you have questions, we want to hear from you.  Bon Appetite and Happy Valentine’s Day!