A Great Place To Watch The Eclipse

Our friend Russ spends the summers living on his 43’ cruiser that he keeps docked at a nearby marina and when he invited us to join him and his daughter to view the eclipse from the middle of the lake, we jumped at the chance.

Here we are boarding Miss Fit and departing the marina.

2014 Florida Trip - Campground Pot Luck With Music

While sitting around the campfire, someone suggested we should have a get together for the whole campground and a quick plan was developed, arrangements were made, and invites were handed out.

We labeled it a pot luck supper with music with the intention of holding it outside at the Tiki-Hut but the weather forced us into the club house.  

Picnic At The Lake With The Kids

One of the traditional activities when Kathy comes to visit is a picnic in the Smokies where we grill burgers and fry potatoes in the cast Iron dutch oven and the kids play in the creek.  It’s a fun time but a big effort to prep and haul everything up to Cades Cove.

Fortunately, the kids are older now and preferred another day on the lake but we prepared the same meal – it’s just a lot easier to take it to the lake with a fridge and grill than to the mountains.  Eric decided he still needed a mountain fix though and took a little trip up to Look Rock by himself.

Potatoes fried up crispy in cast iron are hard to beat.  Seasoned with S&P and Montreal Steak Seasoning and covered for about the first 15 minutes to soften up a little.

Eric gave me a few camera lessons and then took several shots while I went off to cook.

Sofia and Eric ready to pull the others on the tube - I took this one.

Kathy giving the very intent Lauren driving lessons.

Fun in the water for Sofia, Lauren, Jennafer, and Matthew.

Katelynn and Matthew.

The way a kids face is supposed to look at the lake.

Sofia the towel model.

Sweetie says ho-hum to it all and finds herself a quiet place to hang out, but Eric found her.

The families are Kathy, Katelynn, Jennafer, and Lauren Roden from the San Antonio, TX area and Eric, Ann, Matthew, and Sofia Doolittle from the Baltimore area - Madison wasn't feeling well and stayed at the house.

The food was good, the weather was good, the water was good, the water toys worked, and the neighbors came down about eight with homemade ice cream - what could be better than that.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

8/06/2013 event date

Cocktails for Blogger Party # 4

For our luau blogger party, my cooking was all done when the guests arrived so I served as bartender and had a pre-made assortment of island drinks.  After a little research, I decided on four for our luau – Blue Hawaiians, Mai Tai’s, Pina Colada’s, and Margaritas (from the Mexican side on the islands).  This guy is pretty serious about his work.

I used my normal recipe for margaritas and pina coladas.

Margarita

8 oz tequila

4 oz triple sec

18 oz mix (Mayson's Margarita Mix, water, Sprite)

Dash powdered egg white (for froth and smoothness)

Lime wedge squeezed into drink (after rubbing rim)

Add all ingredients to a blender and spin for a few seconds to combine and froth the egg white.  Pour into a margarita glass full of ice with or without a salted rim.  To salt the rim, rub with a lime wedge and dip in kosher salt.

Pina Colada

2 oz pineapple juice

1 - 1½ oz cream of coconut (depends upon rum being used and level of sweetness desired)

1 oz light rum

1 oz coconut rum

Pineapple wedge & maraschino cherry for garnish

Mix well and stir again before each pour as the ingredients separate.

Can use all of one type rum depending upon taste and can be served on the rocks or frozen.

This not the classic Mai Tai recipe, but it utilized the liquor I had on hand.

Mai Tai - Allrecipes

1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger spiced rum

1/2 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger coconut-flavored rum

1 teaspoon grenadine syrup

3 fluid ounces pineapple juice

2 fluid ounces orange juice

Orange and pineapple for garnish

Stir ingredients and pour over ice or shake with a cup of ice and strain into glass of fresh ice.

The Blue Hawaiians were provided by guests Joel and Holly using a recipe from Drinks Mixer.  Photo lifted from Penny's blog (Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen).

Blue Hawaiian 

1 oz light rum

2 oz pineapple juice

1 oz Blue Curacao liqueur

1 oz cream of coconut

1 cherry

1 slice pineapple

Blend rum, blue curacao, pineapple juice, and cream of coconut with one cup ice in an electric blender at high speed. Pour contents into a highball glass. Decorate with the slice of pineapple and a cherry.

The drinks were a big hit and many who had brought their own wine soon switched, perhaps because the bartender was friendly with his customers - I forgot to set out a tip jar.

We had a gallon each of Pina Colada's and Margarita's (plus I made a second half gallon of margs), two quarts of Mai Tai's, and the container of Blue Hawaiian's and there was very little left over.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

5/26/2013 event date

Pork & Pork For The Blogger Party # 4 - News Article Link Fixed

Our fourth blogger party took place on May 26, and we had good weather, a good turnout, and of course, plenty of good food.  I’d asked Meakin Hoffer to be the event photographer and Sam Hoffer (My CarolinaKitchen) to do the official post for it, so mine will just be about the food I provided and the cocktails we served (later post).  These are all Meakin's photos which is why they look better than my normal ones.  Check out Sam's blog for her post.

Chris (Nibble Me This) served as the menu coordinator for the event and suggested I smoke an appetizer of pork ribs using the recipe from Chris Lily of Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ and TV BBQ show fame.  I began with his recipe for Sweet and Spicy Pineapple Ribs posted on line at Grilling.com, then amended  the marinade based upon new information in his cookbook as follows:

Marinade

1½ cups pineapple juice

1 T. dry rub

1½ t. balsamic vinegar

1½ t. minced garlic

Finishing Glaze – I used Tennessee River Cranberry Delight BBQ Sauce without changes for my glaze. 

Even though they were a little over-cooked by competition standards, the falling-off-the-bone-tender ribs (which most people prefer) were a hit and I’d use this recipe again.

Kalua Pork

Per Wikipedia - "Kālua is a traditional Hawaiian cooking method that utilizes an imu, a type of underground oven. The word kālua, which literally means "to cook in an underground oven", may also be used to describe the food cooked in this manner, such as kālua pig or kālua turkey, which are commonly served at luau feasts."  Interestingly, the vast majority of on-line recipes I saw were for a crock pot.

We discussed cooking a whole pig, but even in a smoker, it was way more work than I wanted to do plus being three times the cost of pork butt.  After lots of online looking, I discovered that Kalua Pork was pretty much just salt for seasoning and cooked with banana leaves and Koa wood.  This is what I did:

1. Remove nearly all surface fat, score ¼“ deep in a diamond pattern and rub about 1½ T. of sea salt over the roast (closest I could get to Hawaiian salt). 

2.  From a trial run using pork loin, I found that the fresh banana leaves were too crisp to easily wrap the meat without splitting so I cut them that morning and let them lay around the house all day to soften up.

I wrapped the butts with banana leaves, leaving gaps for the smoke to get in, and secured them with kitchen twine.

 

3. They cooked for about 10 hours in my Stumps smoker using Stubb’s charcoal and banana tree wood (it’s not exactly wood though) for smoke.  When they got to an internal temperature of 175*, I wrapped them in foil and cooked to around 203*, then pulled and put them in a cooler until meal time (about 3 hours).

4. To serve, I removed the foil, the leaves, and placed the whole butts on a pan lined with a fresh banana leaf for folks to pull off a hunk to eat.  It helps to have a banana tree (hardy variety - no fruit) when you're throwing a luau.

The pork butt was tender, moist, and very tasty, but it was basically just roast pork with a little bit of a unique flavor – very different from my normal BBQ but I enjoyed it and we have plenty of leftovers for other dishes (I cooked three butts and we only ate one and one half).

Want to see something really cool, check out this article about Chris and our blogger parties in the May 26 addition of the Knoxville paper.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

5/26/2013 meal date

Swimming With A Dolphin For Madison

During our trip to Palm Beach, FL, we visited Marineland so Madison could swim with the dolphins.  It is located south of St. Augustine and only about five minutes from where we were staying with friends, David and Peggy, at Palm Coast.

“Marineland of Florida” opened in 1938 as “Marine Studios” and had 30,000+ guests the first day.  In the fifties, it was the most popular tourist destination in Florida.  Through the years, other attractions opened, storms hit, the facility and visitors declined, and it fell on hard times. 

In 2004, it began to transform itself into “Marineland’s Dolphin Conservation Center” which opened in 2006 and is focused on education and intimate animal-human interactions.  In 2011, it was sold to Georgia Aquarium and now has some good financial backing.

They don’t really have shows like you might see at Sea World but focus on learning about and swimming with the dolphins, however the dolphins do put on quite a show before and during the swimming part as can be seen from some of my shots, such as the header.

Madison’s group consisted of four kids and one adult (one kid’s dad) and their event began with a 30 minute orientation where they were told about the dolphins in the tanks and how they trained them (one of them was born in the late 50's).  Then it was into the pool to be up close and personal with one of them with each swimmer getting equal time and making the motions the trainers use to get the dolphins to respond.

The first set of shots and the header were taken when we arrived and while the swimmers were in orientation – I was pleased the shots thru the tank glass came out so well.

These are shots during the swim session which lasted about 30 minutes.  Madison, the redhead, declined a wet suit and learned a valuable lesson in the 70* water – she looked pretty cold the whole time.

They were supposed to be closer in the last shot but Madison didn't get into the middle of the glass.

She seemed to have a great time and I believe it was a memorable experience.  I carped a little when Bev said it was $200, but after seeing the experience the kids got, it was worth it and it must be popular as there is a two month waiting list during the summer.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

4/29/13 event date

Blogger Party 2012

For last year’s party we had a theme of Texas BBQ in East Tennessee and for this year we decided on an East Tennessee Cajun cook out.  We had decided to hold it earlier in the year so it wouldn’t be as hot but the Mother Nature must have heard it was a Cajun fest and delivered some South Louisiana weather – mid 90’s, but it was comfortable on the dock.

Last year Robyn Medlin won the furthest distance traveled award and this year it goes to Dave and Jackie Scott (My Year On The Grill) who came in from Kansas City, KS just for the party - is that cool or what.  In addition to the Scott’s, the blogging attendees were:

A.J. & Katherine Aucoin (Smoky Mountain Café) – they were also the cooks

Alexis, Trevor & Chris Grove (Nibble Me This)

Laurie & Dave Myers (Big Daddy Dave)

Dave & Penny Klett (Riding With Dave and Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen)

Meakin & Sam Hoffer (My Carolina Kitchen)

Beverly & Larry Doolittle (Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings)

And the folks who showed up just because they heard there was a party at Almost Heaven South were:

Stuart & Sandy Hoffer – Meakin’s brother and SIL

Pat Whaley – Bev’s sister

Elaine Sitzlar – Pat’s good friend

Holly & Joel Elder – Our friends

Kaitlin Aucoin & Courtney – Katherine’s daughter and her friend

Wende Doolittle – Daughter

Joe Howell – Good buddy

Loong Yong – Wende’s boss

Jim Warren – Wende’s co-worker

With 25 folks, we pretty well maxed out the dock - I've been wandering about the limit - maybe 30.

The Hoffer’s and Klett’s bunked with us and the Scott’s stayed with the Groves' – one more bedroom and the out-of-towners could have all stayed here at the Almost Heaven South B&B.

Chris, Dave Scott, and the Aucoin’s got to the lake between 9 and 10 to get the cooking started and the rest of the guests began showing up around noon.  While dinner was cooking, we enjoyed several delicious appetizers provided by the guests and some glazed nuts graciously sent to us by the Cathy Farley at the Wives With Knives blog & her Bavarian Nut Co. near Portland, OR - thank you Cathy, they were a hit.

As usual, I spent too much time hosting and having a good time to get many shots but several of the bloggers took photos and are posting, so please visit their blogs (links above) for the rest of the story.  Here’s the dock set up with Dave and Chris to the left.

This is dinner to be and it’s a shame so much of him is inedible.

Chris brought the veggies and prepped them and the Aucoin’s brought the crawfish and shrimp and A.J. did the cooking in a giant pot and all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you.  He definitely knows how to do this and it was all outstanding. Also, a big thank you to those who brought something, Chris and Katherine for co-hosting, and to everyone for just taking the time to come share a piece of your life with us.This is the kitchen with Executive Chef A.J. in action.

Here we are digging in.

Bev showing how to do it.

After eating, we took down the tables and sat around visiting into the early evening, getting to know those we hadn’t met and catching up with those we had.  Jim Warren came by boat and he took folks on a boat ride around the lake and turned a couple of them into water skiers.  We wrapped up the day with a twilight cruise on the pontoon boat.

As we spent the week getting everything ready, I was thinking to myself that I wasn’t sure I wanted to do this again, but I had an absolutely super time and am now looking forward to next year and I'm sure Katherine, Chris and I are open to theme suggestions.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago: A Different Slaw For The Dock Party

Two years ago: Pasta Bolognese

Larry

5/27/12 event date

Our Little Trip To Paradise – Snorkeling

On our last day on St. Maarten, we went snorkeling on a reef at the small uninhabited island of Prickly Pear, about a 17 mile boat ride from the resort. 

I was afraid to take my camera, so we took the waterproof camera Pat had bought but without the directions for using.  As it turned out the photo button was on the left (opposite of my camera) and the video button was on the right.  As a result I took one photo and made several useless videos by accident.  

While no one lives on the island, there is a small beach bar and a restaurant there to serve the snorkeling tours that come in almost daily as well as other visitors.  They generate power with solar panels, cook with propane and charcoal, and transport everything in by boat from Anguilla, a few miles away.

Here is a shot of Kathy and it will give you a sense of how pretty the beach and lagoon were.  I had one usable video but couldn't fiqure out how to post it.

This is a shot from the web - no blow up for this one.

And from Google Earth.  The dark areas in the water at the top of the shot are the reefs and the roof just left of the pond is the restaurant.

I didn’t get any meal shots, but lunch was provided as part of our tour and we had a choice of three grilled meats - chicken, baby back ribs, and mahi-mahi (my choice of course) - served with rice, fried potatoes, slaw, and salad.  My fish was cooked perfectly – flakey but still shiny on the inside - and the potatoes were very good,  The slaw and salad were lightly but nicely dressed, but the rice had a flavor that was just okay for all of us, however with a healthy dose of Caribbean Hot Sauce it was pretty good.

The reef had been heavily damaged by a hurricane(s) and the live coral was just coming back, but we did see some beautiful fish, however, not as many as on a fully developed reef.  Still a very nice trip though.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago: Mediterranean Salad Ala Chef Dennis & Blogger party

Two years ago:  Kicked Up Scramble For Breakfast

Larry