Kathy And Keith’s Wedding

After being together for several years, circumstances were finally right for Keith and Kathy (daughter) to get married and they chose a beautiful outdoor spot overlooking the Missouri River at the South Sioux City Marriott Hotel where we all stayed.  The wedding was scheduled for 4:30 pm and the early part of the day was spent with the wedding party ladies getting their hair and makeup professionally done at the hotel.

Prior to the wedding ceremony, the guests were treated to hors d'oeuvres and drinks.

Then it was on with the wedding preformed by the minister from their church in Texas who made the trip just so she could marry the two of them.  This is me walking Kathy down the aisle and delivering her to Keith with a kiss on the cheek.

A few shots of the ceremony then the wedding party.

We were all worried about the guests sitting in the hot sun but the weather was perfect – overcast with a low 80’s temp.  Any finally the reception which included a buffet supper was held just inside from the wedding location.

We are all very happy this day was finally arrived and I have to believe Kathy’s smile muscles will be sore for a couple of days.  It's such a pleasure to now have Keith as a member of our family.

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

6/27/25 event date

Nebraska Trip Days 2,3,4,5

When we got up the on the morning of day 2, we drove down the street to fill up with gas for the next leg of the trip and Bev went in the convenience store for a pick-up.  When I opened my wallet to retrieve my credit card, I discovered it missing and decided I must have left it at the restaurant so I asked Bev to get their phone number from the car only to discover it was locked with the keys in the ignition but we had no idea how.  So, we called AAA and they had us on the road in about 20 minutes – not bad, so disaster avoided.

We drove to Oak Grove, MO for our next night as we wanted to eat at PJ’s Family Restaurant for the third time and have onion rings and chicken fried steak.  As is often the case with nostalgia creep, the meal was good but less so than we remembered.  We each ate two of the seven large onion rings (judge by Bev’s IPhone), then I ate about a third of my steak, some cottage cheese, and a few bites of potato and I was full.  Here are a couple of shots and the big plate of disks is Bev's side order of fried zucchini – you won’t leave this place hungry.

The last outbound trip leg took us the Kathy and Keith’s home to spend some quality time with them and look over their extensive house remodeling (mostly on the outside).  No Pics taken but one I wish I had gotten during the drive.  We were driving up I-29 in Iowa, a little north of Omaha and approaching an exit when there appears a sign announcing "Ski Area" and it cracked me up - there is snow skiing in Iowa?  When I got home, I did a web search to discover Crescent Hill At Hitchcock Ski Resort with a hilltop elevation of 1500' and a vertical drop of 300'.  For comparison, Colorado's Aspen Mountain has a vertical drop of 3267'.

On Thursday, we all made the hour drive to the Marriott in South Sioux City, NE to begin the wedding festivities beginning with a family and close friends supper at 4 Brothers Bar & Grill just across the Missouri River in Sioux City, IA.  

No food porn taken.

Friday was the day before the wedding and it was spent on errands, relaxing, a trip to the spa for the ladies and final wedding plans, including a rehearsal.  Then we went to the Soho Kitchen & Bar for the rehearsal dinner which included families, friends and the wedding party.  This is Kathy and Keith, flanked by Keith’s daughter and son in law, enjoying themselves.

Since we are eating less, Bev and I opted to share a Caesar Salad and the "MIDWEST PORK TENDERLOIN $18 - A HUUGE hand-breaded, crispy golden center cut pork tenderloin served on a toasted bun with lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles. A Midwest classic-crispy, juicy, and way bigger than the bun!"  We thought it would be similar to the one served at the Maryville Hot Rod’s Diner.

But to our surprise, they really meant HUUGE.

I ate one of the pieces protruding from the bun and Bev ate about half of the sandwich after cutting off the other piece.  I’ve never seen anything like this.

The dinner went very well and everyone seemed to have a good time visiting and eating from Soho's eclectic menu.

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

6/23- 6/26/25 event dates

Eliza Comes For Steak And WVU Baseball

We hadn’t seen Eliza and family for a few weeks and I have been wanting to cook some steaks (my needed extra protein) so we invited her to bring her family and come on down for Sunday supper.  Her she is at eight with her wide blond hair.

My First Smoked Beef Tenderloin For Christmas Dinner

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and we had a nice, albeit warm, one that required opening up the house to avoid using the AC.

I love, and have made, smoked prime rib for Christmas dinner several times but Bev does not like all of the fat in the ribeye so an idea hit me.  Her favorite beef cut is tenderloin so I decided to try smoking a whole tenderloin roast for this year’s Christmas meal.

Knoxville Christmas Train Ride And I'm Now A Geek

For the past two years, Eliza has taken her family on the Christmas Lantern Express and this year we went along.  The ride is put on by the Three Rivers Rambler- “The Three Rivers Rambler is an excursion train in Knoxville, Tennessee along the Tennessee River. The train is operated by the Knoxville and Holston River Railroad, a subsidiary of Gulf and Ohio Railways.”

Pesto, Pizza, Pasta, And Eliza BD

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. 

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

Trip to Italy Day 8 - Birthday and Easter Lunch At Il Cantuccio

As mentioned in the previous post we went back to Il Cantuccio Restaurant and Wine Bar in Castellina for Beverly’s birthday and our Easter Dinner. Il Cantuccio means "the nook."

Here are some shots of the restaurant which is small like the others we’ve been in.  They have seating inside the restaurant, outside, and across the street in their wine bar.

Eliza Christmas, Neighborhood Ham And Bean Soup

Eliza and family didn’t make it down until Saturday for us to celebrate Christmas with her and for a meal on a rainy day we opted for a soup to use more of the leftover ham from Christmas dinner.  After looking around the web, I settled on the recipe for Neighborhood Ham And Bean Soup from Food.com.  But before we get to the meal lets have a look at Eliza having her second Christmas with Bev’s help.  As a seven year old, she walked in the door, gave me a hug, said Merry Christmas then asked "do you have presents for me." 😊

A Little Roundabout Trip To Nebraska, Day 9 - 12, Hartington - Visiting Kathy

 Day nine broke to a pretty day in the upper mid-west farm country with a brisk breeze and a little chill in the air.  By the afternoon, it was a little hazy due to the wind blowing up dust, the vehicles traveling gravel roads, and the web pic of harvesters bringing in the dried corn and soy beans (they just say beans around here).

Using The Smoked Pork And Chicken – Quesadillas And Breakfast Burritos

The grandkids had requested BBQ during their visit so I fired up the smoker and cooked a pork butt, two racks of spare ribs, chicken thighs, and wings.  We ate the ribs and wings for supper then I used the pulled pork and chicken thighs for Hispanic dishes.

A Visit From The Kids And Grandkids

Eric’s kids, Matthew and Luca, wanted to come spend some time in East Tennessee and with us on the lake.  Matthew brought his college girlfriend and Luca brought a friend from home for a nice eight-day visit.  We’d seen Matthew recently but it’s been six years since we’ve seen Luca as our RV trips that included a visit with them kept getting canceled – covid, coach issues, etc. 

Madison (Granddaughter) Comes For A Visit

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you likely recall that Madison lived with us for a few years spread over two visits but she hasn’t been here in quite a while so we were excited when she arranged a visit with her boyfriend Zach.  Since she had several food requests, it appears this was primarily a culinary visit and of course we were happy to oblige.  The only challenge was that Zach is gluten intolerant but we are used to cooking for good buddy Joe who has the same issue.

Angie’s Kitchen in Loudon, TN & Cindy Update

Before I get to the restaurant visit, here is some info about a pretty serious situation with Cindy. You likely know by now that she has been living with us for several years and for the past many weeks she has been dealing with some serious pain in her hip and knee.  She has been to several doctors and none of them have been able to say for sure what is needed to fix her problem.  Last Thursday, she went to see about getting another injection in her hip and after being told about how much pain she was in, the doctor sent her for a hip x-ray.  At 4 pm that day, the doctor’s office called and told her to go to the hospital for emergency surgery the next morning, but didn’t tell her why. After the surgery we learned that she had an infection in her hip that even required some bone removal – bless her heart.  

She will be in the hospital until tomorrow, then go to a step-down location, and finally home for six weeks on an IV.  We don’t yet know if it’s Mrsa (and sure hope not), the cause of the infection, or the next step for the hip.  We are just happy that the problem has been discovered and that she is no longer crying from the intense pain.  Here she is post surgery after her sister fixed her hair.

A Few Random Meals Around The Holidays

Happy New Year and thanks for stopping by my blog this past year.

Here are some meals we’ve made recently but I didn’t want to do an entire post on.  The first one is breakfast hash that was inspired by Pam’s post for Skillet Potato Hash WithMushrooms and Bacon on her "For The Love Of Cooking" blog.  I made it to use some mushrooms we had in the fridge and some leftover boiled potatoes.  I generally followed Pam’s recipe except I just used bacon grease rather than cooking bacon and I started with cooked potatoes.  I topped the hash with three small eggs for a delicious breakfast.

Christmas 2023 At Almost Heaven South

Just as last year, Kathy and Keith, came from Nebraska to Tennessee for a couple of weeks and spent the first part of the visit with Wende and the second part with us.  After they did Christmas morning with Eliza at Wende’s, they all came down to our place for more Eliza present opening and Christmas dinner.

With the addition of friend Kathy, her daughter Ashley, and our neighbors, Pat & Steve, we had 14 for dinner - Pat, Steve, Ashley, Kathy, Wende, Ralph, Beanie, Eliza, Kathy, Keith, Larry, Beverly, Pat, Cindy.

Creamed Cauliflower (aka Creamy Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower with Bacon) & Thanksgiving Dinner

When daughter Wende invited me over for what is becoming her traditional Thanksgiving supper of Cornish hens cooked over an open fire, I volunteered to bring a side dish.  My original choice was Brussels sprouts & sweet potato hash but when I saw Kevin’s recipe for Creamed Cauliflower, I changed my mind.

On his “Closet Cooking” blog, Kevin describes the dish as “A quick and easy stove-top creamed cauliflower with butter, garlic, parmesan, and bacon!”  I made it by his recipe below but since I made it ahead of time, I transferred to a dish for reheating at Wende’s and I used one of his options to add shredded cheese to the top.  For the complete list of options and his good how-to pics, just click on the above link.

But before I get the cauliflower, this is the main event being cooked over the open fire - potatoes and onions in the foil.

Eliza Brings Her Family For Salmon, Tots, And Peas & Carrots

We didn’t get together for Eliza’s birthday, so I invited her to bring her family down for Sunday dinner and to get her present.  The menu for the meal was a 3lb.6oz. piece of Sockeye Salmon, baked tater tots, and peas and carrots.  I opted for the peas and carrots because I had several bags of peas in the freezer.  Rather than our normal of just tossing them in butter, I decided to use Neli’s recipe for Carrots and Peas from her “Delicious Meets Healthy” blog.  I doubled her recipe to get the one below but the original can be found by clicking on the above link.

Souvlaki And Greek Salad

When I saw Jenn’s recipe for Souvlaki on her “Once Upon A Chef” blog, I knew I wanted to give it a try.  I thought it would be an easy company meal so I invited Eliza and her family down for Sunday supper.  Since the recipe is for 4-6 servings, I increased it by 50% to get the recipe below.