Our Annual Visit To Hooters And A Favorite Potato Scramble

I’ll never forget my first visit to Hooters in Sarasota, FL.  I’d never heard of it but a friend of my Dad, took us there for lunch while I was visiting my parents.  I was in my mid 30’s and recently divorced and was in total shock when our super-hot server came to take our orders – I do recall eating a grouper sandwich 😊. 

But now let me get into real time.  For the last many years, my buddy Joe and I have made an annual visit to Hooters for beer and wings while Bev was laying around in the Caribbean and many years ago we probably appreciated the scenery as much as the food and drink but now the servers are the age of our grandkids so we’re there just for the food and drink.

This time, we invited friend Russ to join us and I went fully intending to eat fish tacos until our server showed up and advised us about the special – buy 10 wings and get 10 free, so wings it had to be.  Joe, who continues to eat no gluten had a salad with grilled chicken and blackened shrimp.

Russ, who isn’t a wing fan had the boneless wings (which are actually sliced chicken breasts) breaded and with Samurai Teriyaki  sauce.

I had the original wings, breaded and with General Tso’s sauce.

Joe ate every bite of his meal and Russ ate most of his and they both enjoyed their meals.  I thought my wings were fantastic as my favorite part of fried chicken is the crispy breading and these really fit the bill with very crispy, thick breading and a delicious sauce with just a little heat.  I may have liked these as well as any I’ve had and as a bonus, I ate the other ten big wings for supper.

I recently posted that I think I need a regular catfish fix from Countryside Restaurant and now I’m thinking I may have to go to Hooter’s pretty regularly for a wing fix.

BREAKFAST

For as long as I can remember, fried potatoes and onions has been one of my favorite side dishes (sometimes meals) and as I got older, I figured out that they were good for breakfast topped with eggs.  Somewhere along the line, I realized that sweet peppers would also be a nice addition and it soon became a go-to breakfast dish for Bev and I.  Well, I have several more scramble dishes planned but they all require a trip to the store so I’ll just go with the potato mix for this one.  In order to speed up the breakfast cooking process, I cubed and parboiled the potatoes the day before and the scramble recipe became.

Potato, Onion, and Pepper Scramble

Ingredients:

Pat of butter

1/8 cup diced onions

1/8 cup diced sweet pepper

1/3 heaping cup diced potatoes

Good shake of Tiger Seasoning

S&P

1/3 cup shredded cheddar (can you believe I forgot it)

2 jumbo or 3 regular eggs

Instructions:

1. In a nonstick skillet, melt butter over medium heat.  Got my new GreenPan but with a black coating this time.  I retired the old one in case you missed the last post.

2. Add green pepper, onion, potatoes and cook until onions are translucent and potatoes are browning.  Season with S&P.

3. Add the cheese so it can begin to melt (if you can remember it).

4. Beat the eggs with a little S&P

5. Lower heat, add eggs and cheese and cook into large soft curds.

Side with biscuit and gravy and I decided to try gravy on half my eggs for a taste test.

The Verdict:

As expected, the eggs were very good and, unexpectedly, I preferred the end without gravy as it hid the egg flavor.  I've always steered away from restaurant meals that include gravy over the eggs and now I know why.  The new pan was sweet to use and I'll be sure to only clean it with a sponge. 

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.  

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

Larry

4/10-11/24 event dates