Kathy’s Eggs

The Roden girls are at Almost Heaven South for their annual visit and it seems like the two youngest girls have grown a couple of feet since last year.  At 5’5”, Kathy always seemed reasonably tall but her girls have obviously inherited the Roden gene as their dad is the family runt at 6’2” and his dad is 6’7”.  Here they are (Kathy, Katelyn, Lauren, Jennafer) and Lauren has now caught up to Katelyn at 5’7” and Jennafer has shot up to 5’10½”.

Repaired Meatballs and Sweetie

In the last post I mentioned that Grandma Maroni’s meatballs were dry on the inside and so when Kathy and her girls came in for their annual visit, we decided to serve the leftover ones (from the freezer) with a simple fix – cut them in half soak in the cold sauce for a couple of hours, then heat in the sauce for an hour.

Italian Night At Almost Heaven South

Bev and our neighbor Pat had seen a recipe for spaghetti and meatballs on the Today Show that they thought sounded very good so Bev decided to make it and invited her and Steve down to share it with us.

But before the pasta, we had an appetizer of fried green tomatoes, Italian style. using the recipe from Roz over at La Bella Vita Cucina – check out her site for the recipe. 

Finally A Name For The RV

Last year I made a stupid move and damaged two of the basement doors on our coach.  Two new doors, a paint job, and couple of thousand dollars later the repairs are made and we are readying the coach for a summer trip - I have absolutely got to quit making impatient mistakes or I'll soon be out of money for RVing.

We have been discussing naming our coach since we got it and no names have really inspired us until now.  The new coach name is Sweetie in memory of our recently departed Sweetie Pie and hopefully with such a name she will treat us well and have very few problems.

A second piece of good news involves our house sitter and now good friend Cindy who is becoming a member of the family by moving into our downstairs.  We really like her and believe this will be a win for all of us as she will save a lot of money by not renting and we’ll have a full time house-sitter. 

"Me and my girls" has just moved from a traveling situation to a full time one.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/16 dates

Cubed Steak Dishes

After my meal at Apple Annie’s, when we got back to TN, Bev decided she wanted chicken fried steak so we got a couple of packages of cubed steak out of the freezer to make it.  If the site I read on the web knows there stuff, the difference between chicken fried and country fried steak is the color of the gravy – white and brown respectively.  Since I wanted the chicken fried version, I made the gravy with a blond roux using this recipe:

CREAM GRAVY FROM HOMESICK TEXAN

Ingredients:

Two tablespoons of pan drippings, bacon grease or vegetable oil

Two tablespoons of flour

1 1/2 cups of milk

1/2 teaspoon of cracked black pepper (original was 1 tsp)

Salt to taste.

Method:

1. Combine fat with flour in a hot skillet, continuously stirring, cook on medium for a couple of minutes until a dark roux is formed.

2. Add milk slowly to skillet, and mix with roux using either a whisk or wooden spoon (be sure and press out any lumps).

3. Turn heat to low and continue stirring until mixture is thickened, a couple more minutes.

4. Add pepper and salt to taste.

5. If gravy is too thick for your taste, you can thin it by adding either more milk or water a tablespoon at a time.

Apple Annie’s in Pt. Marion

Point Marion, PA sets on a point at the junction of the Monongahela and Cheat Rivers in southwestern PA and is just over the border from WV – I didn’t know until today why it was called Pt. Marion, even though I’ve heard of the town my entire life.  Other than sitting at the river confluence, I’m not sure why Pt. Marion exists and it is obviously not a highly prosperous community of about 1000 residents.

But it does have Apple Annie's and while visiting relatives in WV, my cousins suggested we make the 30 minute drive for lunch.  This is Bev and my cousin (his wife hide) before we entered the restaurant and a shot of the inside (from the web), which is larger than I thought it would be.

Grouper Sandwich And A Mouser

We had three nice grouper filet pieces in the freezer that needed to be used so we invited our neighbors down and made fish sandwiches.  We first thought fried but opted for a healthier grilled fish and selected a recipe from Emeril Lagasse that sounded very good.  I made double the recipe below for our three fillets and it was just the right amount.  Not sure which Paul he’s referring to but suspect Prudhomme.