Cindy likes to take her turn cooking suppers and for this meal she chose chicken stew then kicked it up by adding drop dumplings to it. As it turned out, we had a recent recipe for Creamy Chicken Stew from Cathy on her “Noble Pig” blog and Cindy found the recipe for Fluffy Dumplings on the “Just A Pinch” blog. Unfortunately she was too busy cooking to take many pics but this is my bowl.
Bev had been wanting to go to Hot Rods and we had an errand to run in town so it made sense to combine the trips. I borrowed these pics of the diner from the web.
Since most of the trees around here are oak, hickory, and poplar, we don't get much bright color but our burning bushes and providing us with some late fall beauty.
When I was growing up, my mom would get at least three meals from a Sunday pot roast and I’m having some similar results with my brisket. You’ve seen my first two brisket meals (brisket and burnt ends), then my neighbors and Eliza’s dad each got a meals worth of it and then I got a couple more final meals. Following the burnt ends and burnt ends hash, we had brisket sandwiches where the sliced brisket was reheated in the broth then I had mine open faced on a burger bun with each half topped with broth, then a slice of smoked gouda, the brisket, more broth, and pickled red onions - it was delicious.
We had a couple of big basil plants at the end of the season so before they got frost bit, we opted to turn them into pesto just as we did last year. After stripping the leaves from the plants, I packed them into large measuring cups and ended up with 12 cups. Then I adjusted Ina Garten’s recipe for the other ingredients to match them.
One of the things I was looking forward to from the brisket cook was making burnt ends for the first time. Normally they are made as soon as the brisket is done cooking but since that happened at 7:30pm, I was not inclined to make them for a 11pm meal, so I waited until the next day.
I’d had a Choice Angus brisket in the fridge for a little while and have been looking forward to cooking it on my nearly year-old RecTec Smoker and it was now time. At 18 pounds, this thing must have come from an elephant steer and it is the biggest one I’ve ever cooked. I used Chris Lilly’s recipe from the Kingsford University as found on the “Grill Girl” blog. I followed the ingredients list but I amended the directions quite a bit - the original recipe can be by clicking on the above link.
Ming Tree
Our Kia was due for it's annual service so we drove both cars to town, dropped off the Kia at the dealership, and went to lunch at the Ming Tree Chinese Restaurant in Alcoa.
When Bev came home from Sam’s Club recently with a corned beef brisket flat, I went to my saved recipes to see if I could find something different to do with it and I discovered the recipe for Savory Reuben Bake on the “Mia Recipes” blog. I cooked the corned beef in a crockpot with potatoes and carrots the previous day then used the remaining for the Savory Reuben Bake.
When I saw this recipe for Creamy Chicken Fajita Pasta on Chef Dennis’ “Ask Chef Dennis” blog, I thought it would work well for our Friday get together so on the menu it went. To increase the number of servings, I increased the ingredients by 50% except for the pasta amount but the original recipe along with excellent how-to pics can be found by clicking on the link. Dennis’ son, Chef Ryan Littley, says “This creamy chicken fajita pasta brings together juicy chicken, sizzling peppers, and bold Tex-Mex flavors in one easy skillet dinner. Ready in about 35 minutes, it's a family favorite that's as quick as it is delicious.”
I’ve mentioned this in previous post but due to scheduling issues, it took nine months for me to give good friend, Kathy, her Christmas present of five free lunches but we final made it to the last one – I hope to do better next year. At the suggestion of neighbor, Steve, I decided to make this outing more special than just driving to a local restaurant, so we picked the date and rode the pontoon boat down the lake to the Tellico Village Yacht Club. Tellico Village is a large 5000 acre retirement community stretching several miles along the west side of Tellico Lake.
SIL, Pat also joined us for our lunch excursion and here we
are starting out of our cove.
I had been ordering fish from two different Alaskan seafood stores to see which I preferred and one of them kept sending cubed pollock which I had little use for (I would have liked filets but assume they all went to Long John Silvers and these were the leftovers) so I went with the other supplier, but I still had the pollock in the freezer.
My desire to cook seems to be waning and both of us have long since pasted the desire to clean up the kitchen so we have decided to eat more meals out and we started with a Sunday visit to the Dockside Grill at Tellico Marina which is less than a 10 minute drive from home. After a 10am BLT for breakfast, we made it to the restaurant a little before 3pm to find just a small crowd, which was perfect. This is the view of the main dining area and the harbor from our table with lots of boats going in and out to just look around.
I had some basil pesto in the freezer and leftover chicken in the fridge and decided Kevin’s recipe for Basil Pesto Chicken Pasta from his “Closet Cooking” blog would work well for them. I made several changes to the recipe but the original can be found by clicking on the link.
I bought a whole pork loin on sale recently and couldn’t resist using part of it to make Country Fried Pork Loin With Bacon Gravy using the recipe from the “Recipe BY Me” blog. I changed the cooking method a lot a shown in the recipe below.
I saw this recipe for Bacon Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes on Kevin’s “Closet Cooking” blog and decided it would work well for our Friday get-together. I especially like that it is a one pan meal and know that I always like Kevin’s recipes. Since the recipe only made four servings, I tripled it to get the recipe below.
If you have been reading this blog much at all, you know that we are not “Spring Chickens” here in this family so I’ll let you do the ciphering for yourself and not disclose any numbers but SIL, Pat W, just had a very major milestone birthday (which I’ll hopefully be here to have next year). Since we didn’t want to go out for lunch on the crowded Labor Day (her actual birthday), we waited until this day to go to her requested restaurant for lunch – Tapoco Lodge. Since I posted about the lodge a few years ago , I won’t do that again and will confine this post to this visit. Our neighbors Pat L and Steve joined Pat W, Bev, and I for the always adventurous drive up the 11 miles and 318 curves of The Dragon (US-129).
Our ole friend, Kathy, has long enjoyed exchanging Christmas gifts with us and not knowing what to get her and not being a shopper, but knowing she likes to eat out, I came up with a solution. For the past two years, I have been giving her five free lunches at the restaurants of her choice, which she almost never wants to pick, and I get a twofer as I’ve committed to Bev to take her out more often as well. So, for this meal, we went to Windy City Grille where Kathy and I have both been but Bev had not. For a variety of reasons we have been having trouble getting together with Kathy this year and I believe this was only lunch number three of five clear up here in late August.
Over the years, I’ve gone on several campaigns to clean out our longer term freezer but I’ve never been as successful as this time and it’s partly due to a new philosophy for freezer use. This is about as empty as it will get as all of the old items are now out and I was amazed at the stuff that I discovered over the last few months - it’s organized by shelf such as pork and chicken on a shelf or beef and precooked items on a shelf.
These next two pics are from the web but they look just like Teddy Bear & Bodie's normal look.
On Friday Morning we again ate breakfast in the main dining room as our final meal at the Greenbrier and again we ordered from the menu (link above). This is a shot about 2/3 of the room, the drapes and a chandelier.
Since we are now harvesting plenty of cherry tomatoes, I’m on the lookout for ways to use them and this recipe for Marinated Tomatoes from the Two Peas And Their Pod blog seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Since Cindy just got home from her knee replacement surgery, I thought I would treat her to salmon as she is a fish lover and I served the marinated tomatoes as bruschetta.
On Thursday, my back was hurting me bad (from the bed I think) so I skipped breakfast, the croquet game, and exterior history tour done by the others. Here are some pics from Bev and Steve.
We began the next day with breakfast in the Greenbrier's very elegant main dining room which had a buffet.
Since my buddy Dave has announced that he is giving up most of his blogging, it got me to thinking about mine. I believe my blog is as they were meant to be - my journal - where I can go back and find recipes, pics, our travels and so on, thus I have no intention of quitting right now or I would miss all of that documentation, plus it gives me something to do. I have recently been posting every three days but I don’t have many folks stopping by to read quite a few of them and so I had an epiphany. I can keep writing up my blogs to get the documentation I need but I don’t have to publish all of them but rather just the ones that I think you will find interesting and hopefully about more than just food.
Greenbrier Hotel pic from the web.
It’s been seven years since we visited my hometown of Fairmont, WV so we used the 80th Birthday Party of my cousin’s wife (Ruth) as a good reason to go. It’s a 450 mile and 7½ hour (plus stops) trip on interstate (I-40, I-81, I-77, I-79) and divided highway (US-19) for the entire trip so pretty easy driving. This is our trip plan:
|
2025 WV Trip |
|||||
|
day |
Leave |
Arrive |
Lodging |
Activities |
Food |
|
1 |
Greenback, TN |
Morgantown, WV |
Hotel Morgan |
Drive to WV |
Colasessano's |
|
2 |
Morgantown, WV |
Fairmont, WV |
Hotel Morgan |
Ruth BD party |
Bourbon Prime-breakfast |
|
3 |
Morgantown, WV |
Fairmont, WV |
Hotel Morgan |
Tour WVU, visit Dick & Ruth |
|
|
4 |
Morgantown, WV |
Fairmont, WV |
Hotel Morgan |
Tour Fairmont, Dick & Ruth |
|
|
5 |
Morgantown, WV |
White Sulfur Springs, WV |
Greenbrier Resort |
Drive to Greenbrier |
|
|
6 |
White Sulfur Springs, WV |
Greenbrier Resort |
Bunker tour |
Sam Sneads |
|
|
7 |
White Sulfur Springs, WV |
Greenbrier Resort |
Croquet, Lewisburg shopping |
The Forum |
|
|
8 |
White Sulfur Springs, WV |
Greenback, TN |
Drive home |
Bev saw this Italian Beef Eye Of Round Roast the other day at Food City and she decided we should give it a try.
I can’t remember where I got this recipe (Perhaps from Facebook) but I wanted to try it as a way to use our Royal Red Shrimp and easily serve our Friday card group. I followed the ingredients list but I changed the cooking method quite a bit to keep the steak from over cooking. The original called for cutting it into bite sized pieces prior to browning it but I browned it first and kept it very rare.
I’ve posted about this before, but I’m doing it again to document my process for future use. I bought a CAB tri tip from Food City and as usual it had a big fat cap hidden on the bottom side – I know better than to buy roasts from them.
Easy Fish Piccata
I had some Pacific Cod filets in the freezer and decided to
turn them into a Piccata dish using the recipe for
It’s been a while since we’ve had spaghetti and meatballs and when Eliza brought her family down it seemed like a good opportunity. We had some homemade meatballs in the freezer but no Italian sausage so I used TPO (tomato, pepper, onion) from the Wurst Kitchen. The menu included bread with EVOO & balsamic vinegar, then panzanella, then pasta and finally dessert.
I wasn’t trying to keep making Italian but just thought this dish looked delicious and would be perfect for our Friday get together. The recipe for Easy Chicken Milanese alla Florentine came from the “Ask Chef Dennis” blog and I made several changes to it but the original can be found by clicking on the above link. Chef Dennis Littley’s comment on the dish – “Chicken MIlanese alla Florentine is a delicious restaurant style dish that is made with a crispy chicken cutlet topped with steamed spinach and sauteed mushrooms, topped with Swiss cheese and served with a creamy white sauce. It's easy to make and oh so delicious.”
I had some halibut in the freezer that I wanted to use and after searching my blog, I found a recipe that we had made previously but I didn’t have the sauce ingredients so I adapted my normal lemon, butter sauce for this dish.
Since returning from Italy, we have been having Bruschetta regularly for happy hour and during a recent trip to the Mennonite Market, I bought a bag of Roma tomatoes to use for the tomato mixture so it wouldn’t be as watery – I removed the seeds from the Roma's. I had six Roma's left and was thinking about another use for them when Bev reminded me of the pasta with fresh tomatoes we had made in the past. So I did a blog search and found the recipe for Pasta al Pomodoro Crudo and recalled that I had a half box of small shells pasta in the pantry so a meal was born. I’m posting this dish again to document the recipe using the Roma tomatoes.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA
Bev wanted fried pork chops like we both grew up eating and I wanted to cook them on the grill griddle so a plan was born using the following recipe. For sides, Bev wanted cucumber salad using the recipe below and well done broccoli then tossed in butter like she got at the cafeteria she used to lunch at.
