The Greenbrier Hotel And Resort Part 3 & Gustard’s

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.  

The indoor pool, newly built tennis stadium, and outdoor infinity pools.

The owner built the chapel for his daughter's wedding.

For lunch, we once again went to Draper’s where I had a delicious steak sandwich (Thinly Sliced Prime Rib, Caramelized Onions and Peppers, Provolone Cheese, Horseradish Aioli on a Soft Hoagie), Steve had a great burger, and the girls split something.

In the previous post I mentioned my Fried Green Tomato Sandwich and here is the description for it - Chèvre Cheese, Spinach, BBQ Spiced Bacon, Shaved Red Onions, Black Pepper Mayo.

After lunch, we drove thru White Sulfur Springs and since nothing interested us there, we drove over to Lewisburg, WV for some brief looking around and shopping where we bought a couple of things from the Bella kitchen store.  Like many places, Lewisburg has done a good job morphing into a tourist stop.

That night for supper at the recommendation of a couple of Greenbrier Hotel employees, we went off the resort to Gustard’s Bistro on the main street in White Sulfur Springs.

Pat had a Caesar Salad topped with grilled salmon.

Bev had the fried oyster appetizer and it must have had at least a dozen full sized oysters for only $14.

Steve and I had the surf and turf special which included a strip steak, three grilled shrimp, mashed potatoes, and broccolini (which wasn't cooked nearly enough for me).

The recommendations were spot on as our meals were excellent and except perhaps for my Fried Green Tomato Sandwich at Drapers (Greenbrier), this was the best meal I’ve had on this trip, although Woody’s hot dogs were awfully good 😊

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

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

Larry

7/31/25 event date

The Greenbrier Hotel And Resort Part 2

We began the next day with breakfast in the Greenbrier's very elegant main dining room which had a buffet.

A Little Blog Modification And WV Trip Continued - The Greenbrier Hotel And Resort

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.

Wild Wonderful West Virginia Trip – Fairmont and Morgantown

It’s been seven years since we visited my hometown of Fairmont, WV so we used the 80^th 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

Italian Beef Rolled Roast

Bev saw this Italian Beef Eye Of Round Roast the other day at Food City and she decided we should give it a try. 

Delicious Southern Garlic Cream Rigatoni with Shrimp & Beef Then Breakfast

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.

Reverse Sear Tri-tip Roast And Honey Balsamic Carrots

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 And Bruschetta, Chicken Parmesan With Italian Corn

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 Easy Fish Piccata from “The Mediterranean Dish” as we love lemon, caper sauce.

Spaghetti and Meat, Italian Style And Eliza Swims

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.

Easy Chicken Milanese alla Florentine & A Delicious Breakfast

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.”

Italian Pan fried Halibut with Creamy Lemon Caper Sauce Then Greek Sausage

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.

Pasta al Pomodoro Crudo Replay And Pinot Grigio Taste Test

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.

Pork Chops On The Griddle, Cucumber Salad, & Another Red Wine Taste Test

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.

Crack Chicken Casserole - Very Good

I try to make cooking for Friday cards pretty simple so one-pot meals and casseroles are usually high on my list.  I saw this recipe for Crack Chicken Casserole on the “Ask Chef Dennis” blog and it seemed to fit the bill.  Dennis says that “Crack Chicken Casserole is creamy, cheesy, and packed with crispy bacon, ranch flavor, and pasta. Pure comfort food baked to perfection.”  I followed the recipe as written.

Crack Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:

2 cups rotisserie chicken - shredded

8 oz cream cheese - softened

1 packet ranch dressing mix

10.5 oz cream of chicken soup condensed

1 cup sour cream - full fat

1 cup half and half or whole milk

1½ cups sharp cheddar cheese - shredded

6 slices bacon cooked and crumbled 

8 ounces shell pasta - cooked aldente

2 cups crushed Ritz Townhouse crackers  

4 ounces unsalted butter - melted (1 stick)

½ cup green onions - sliced for garnish

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Cook the shells per the instructions on the package for aldente.

Butter a 9×13-inch baking dish. Set aside until needed.

Add the softened cream cheese, ranch seasoning mix, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and half and half to a medium bowl. Whisk until smooth and creamy.

Trip to Italy Day 29 – The Trip Home And Italy Observations

Both of our flights were good and on time with the only bad part being the long layover in Chicago – by flying on a first class international flight, we had access to the Polaris Club where they was food, drinks, and comfortable chairs all complimentary.  This made the seven-hour layover much more bearable.   

Nearing the end of a very long day.

Dill Pickle Potato Salad And Pinot Noir Taste Test For Father's Day

I grew up eating and loving my mom’s potato salad, Bev learned how to make it, and I still prefer it over all others.  It is simple with potatoes, hard boiled eggs, onion, celery, mayo, mustard, and celery seed (definitely no pickles) and eaten at room temperature after sitting for several hours for the flavors to marry.  However, when I saw the recipe for Dill Pickle Potato Salad  on the “Flavor Of The Moment” blog and knew I liked all of the ingredients, I decided to give it a try.  With the dill, I thought it was somewhat Mediterranean to go with the Greek shrimp for supper.  The trick to enjoying it was to not compare it to mom’s but think of it as an entirely different dish.  Bev made it for us and doubled the recipe as shown below.

Trip to Italy Day 27, 28 – Good-Bye Sorrento and On To The Rome Airport

Bev and I were due to stay in Sorrento for another day but Wende had to leave on May 9 so rather than find transportation for her to the Rome airport and since we had nothing planned for another day, we just all left on Friday although our flight home wasn’t until Sunday.

For our last Sorrento meal, we opted to just go up the street a short way for our second visit to La Lanterna and we all wanted pizza.  We began with our usual of sparkling water and a bottle of good prosecco which made for a pretty busy table.

Pasta Puttanesca And Easy To Eat Open-Faced Burger

We’ve had a Puttanesca Sauce several times on fish and chicken but never on pasta until our final tasting in Sorrento and we loved it so I just had to try making it.  For the fish version, I had adapted recipes from two fellow bloggers and for the pasta version, I adapted that version plus one from “Simply Recipes” to get the one below.  The major difference is that the pasta version has more tomatoes that are cooked down into a marinara-like sauce.

Trip to Italy Day 26 – Sorrento Tasting - Informative & Delicious

We have done a variety of tastings from being at the winemakers dining room table to a large winery but this was our first large group experience where we were bused from Sorrento to the farm – about 25 minutes all uphill, narrow and curvy.

When we arrived at the farm, we were greeted by the dad and two brothers who now run the business.

Connatserville Steak Test, Grill Griddle, & New Windshield

Why Connatserville you ask.  We live in a place that was once all owned by the Connatser family and they, as our neighbors, still own the vast majority of the land, so Connatserville.

For many years, I’ve wanted to give Waygu beef a try but rather than just try it, you know, I just had to do a taste test.  

Trip to Italy Day 25 – The Awesome Amalfi Coast - Back By Water

After our stop in Cetara, we headed back west and stopped in the town of Minori for lunch at the Ristorante Giardiniello which was recommended by the tour company owner, Roberto and it has been in business since 1955.  It was very pleasant sitting under the pergola. 

Trip to Italy Day 25 – The Awesome Amalfi Coast - Out

Well, the big day has finally arrived – the major reason for coming to this area is to see the Amalfi Coast and we hired a private tour to do it so we could leave the driving to them and be able to take in the sites.  Our driver, Fabio, picked us up in Sorrento at 8:30am and the journey east began.

The Great Spumante Taste Test

During our Italian trip, we began most restaurant meals with Prosecco and decided we really liked it so now that we are home, we decided a taste test was in order.

Spumante is an Italian word meaning "sparkling" or "foaming," referring to sparkling wines and while in Italy we drank some very good Prosecco and decided it would be our go-to sparkling wine for the future.  The primary white sparkling wines in Italy are Asti Spumante, Prosecco, and Franciacorta.

Trip to Italy Day 24 – Sorrento & La Lanterna

We had no planned event for today except taking in the main Sorrento area which for the girls meant doing a little shopping and for me it meant people watching and having a cold one at the restaurant that had just changed hands and names the previous day.  It was Bar 22 Pizzeria when we ate there Sunday night and now it is Monnalisa Ristorante.

A Mediterranean Meal – Salmon, Asparagus, And Delicious Homemade Panzanella

Eliza and crew came down on Sunday to drop off the items Wende brought home from Italy for us and I opted to make yet another Mediterranean meal.  While I don’t usually think of salmon as a Mediterranean dish, it was on several Italian restaurant menus and I wanted a dish that goes with the Panzanella (tomato and bread salad) that I wanted to serve.  Even though we’ve made several Mediterranean Salmon dishes in the past, I did a little web search and found this recipe for Mediterranean Salmon on the “Cuisine With Me” blog and I liked it as I had the ingredients on hand.

Trip to Italy Day 23 –Early Lunch And Sorrento Cooking Class

Just as with the other kids visits, I arranged for a cooking class, at least one wine tasting, and a town visit or in this case, a town stay.  And for our first full day I was up at six am and ready to start my day.  Bev got up a couple of times and went back to bed and finally got up to stay along with Wende at 10:30 am.  About 11:30, Bev was ready to go get a little food so we went down to the Piazza Tasso (the main square) and ate at the Bar Ercolano.  One of her trip desires was to stay in town and walk down the street to eat at a cafe.