QUOTE : On arrival, we served Bloody Marys, though we couldn't in all good conscience garnish with sticks of celery, so we finished with bacon and shrimp. I no longer did all the cooking; instead we each brought a dish. The first course was one of Stevie's specialties, macaroni and cheese. There was something vaguely hacky and antiquated about it, which fit the gold theme perfectly; she always made it very rich and dense, crisp on top and silky underneath. Her trick was to use "twice the recommended amount of butter and three times the cheese." After the pasta we had ham hock with whipped peas, the ham stringy and salty, the peas fresh and slightly minted.