Now That’s A Banana Split

While visiting my home town of Fairmont, WV last week, Bev and I went to dinner with a childhood classmate (Nancy) and her husband (Jim), seeing her for the first time in 47 years.  I asked her to select the restaurant and she chose Oliverio's, our favorite Italian place in the area, but I failed to take my camera – I believe we all thought our meals were very good.

When the meal was over, I wasn’t quite done visiting and asked if there was somewhere we could go for a cup of coffee or something and Jim suggested the Pokey Dot Restaurant – an old hangout from his Fairmont days.  Since it was pretty busy, I hated to take up a table just for coffee so I began looking at the dessert menu, as did Jim and Nancy.

As it turns out, Jim is a big fan of Ice cream and after reading the description for the “Humongous Banana Split” which starts out with “Mounds of delicious vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream….", he opted for one.  I was sitting such that I could see the girl making it and I watched her dip out several scoops of ice cream then form them into a softball sized ball – repeating for each flavor.  After getting one ball of each flavor – which was already a lot of ice cream – back down into the freezer she went to form more balls.

At this point I told Jim I thought he was about to get more than he bargained for and he went to ask if it was his - and it was.  When they brought it, it had nine 1# balls of ice cream with the usual assortment of toppings.  It was so big, the entire restaurant was smiling and one lady even crossed the room to ask if she take a picture of it.

Trust me, my shot doesn’t do it justice, but if you just imagine each scoop is the size of a softball or look at the standard sized banana split dish peaking out from under the chocolate, you’ll get the idea, and mounds of ice cream doesn’t begin to describe this beast.  And the most amazing part was that it carried the unbelievably low price of $7.99.  Talk about a great value, I checked in Walmart and nine pounds of the cheapest ice cream at costs about $9. 

Jim ended up boxing the top two tiers and eating about half the lower one before giving up.  I told him that seeing this creation and the look on his face was worth the 450 mile drive to WV regardless of how tomorrow's reunion went (more later on this).

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Eggplant Parmesan

Two years ago: Blueberries, Maters, & Mayo

Larry

7/13/12 event date

A Breakfast Stack

I can’t believe I almost forgot to post this.  Bev didn’t finish off the last little piece of Nueske’s corned beef hash as expected and so I had to eat it along with a boiled potato that was left over.  I cooked everything but the egg in one pan including a bacon wrapped, smashed potato for Bev, and some onion.  After flipping, I added cheese to the potato then began stacking it up.

I topped with a fried egg and sided it with a slice of rye toast.

It was way delicious.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Blueberries At Almost Heaven South

Two years ago: Grilled Ground Beef Sandwich On Ciabatta

Larry

6/23/12 meal date

Saturday Humor - Scottish Cow

The only cow in a small town in Ireland stopped giving milk.

The town folk found they could buy a cow in Scotland quite cheaply so they brought the cow from Scotland.

It was wonderful, produced lots of milk every day and everyone was happy.

They bought a bull to mate with the cow to get more cows, so they'd never have to worry about their milk supply again.

They put the bull in the pasture with the cow but whenever the bull tried to mount the cow, the cow would move away.

No matter what approach the bull tried, the cow would move away from the bull and he was never able to do the deed.

The people were very upset and decided to go to the Vet, who was very wise, tell him what was happening and ask his advice.

"Whenever the bull tries to mount our cow, she moves away. If he approaches from the back, she moves forward.

When he approaches her from the front, she backs off. If he attempts from the one side, she walks away to the other side."

The vet rubbed his chin thoughtfully and pondered this before asking,

"Did you by chance, buy this cow in Scotland?"

The people were dumbfounded, since no one had ever mentioned that they had brought the cow over from Scotland.

"You are truly a wise vet," they said. "How did you know we got the cow from Scotland?

The vet replied with a distant look in his eye:

"My wife is from Scotland."

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

One year ago:  Gardening Thursday – Getting Ready To Plant

Two years ago: A Very Berry Breakfast

Larry

Breakfasts From Independence Day Leftovers

As is often the case with a big cookout, there were leftovers from ours and since I hadn’t made any creative breakfasts lately, I decided to make a couple - first up was a burger patty.

Normally, I’m a pretty lazy morning cook, which is likely why I like to use the leftovers, but for this one I did sauté some onion and roasted red pepper – the peppers were in a jar and just needed slicing and the onion was already sliced, so still pretty lazy.

I nuked the burger, topped it with a slice of cheddar, toasted half a burger bun and slathered on a little mayo, and stacked it up.

I topped it with an over easy egg and must say it was delicious.

I used a couple of wieners for the next day’s breakfast and basically built an open-faced Northern WV dawg of bun, mustard, hot dog sauce, and chopped onion.  Then I added a little shredded cheese and the requisite over easy egg.

Again, it was delicious.

I decided to toss this sandwich in with this post because it was too good to ignore.  On the last morning of our RV trip to Roan Mountain, we opted to eat some of our leftovers for breakfast and I requested the same sandwich Bev had made for supper the previous night – a super delicious sandwich.

It started by slicing one of my barbecued chicken breast, topping it with Bev’s homemade pimento cheese, and nuking just to get the meat a little warm.  It was set on a slice of mayo’d chipotle cheddar bread from Smoky Mountain Bakers then topped with onion, lettuce, and the other slice of bread.

It was an excellent combination of flavors with the bread giving it just a little heat.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Filet And Veggie Kebabs With Grilled Corn

Two years ago:  Shrimp Scampi Pasta

Larry

Independence Day At Almost Heaven South

After hosting the kids and grandkids the previous week, I was content to spend Independence Day sitting on the dock alone and watching the leafs float by, but I have a wife.  And for Bev, this day requires a cookout of burgers and dawgs and a few friends over to enjoy it with.

So we had a little get together for 15 at the dock with the main entrée being a choice of regular or stuffed burgers – Chris from Nibble Me This had recently posted his recipe for a Chile Stuffed Burger and I just had to try it.  I followed his proportions, except I used the dried cilantro I had on hand, to end up with this for eight 6oz burgers.

2/3 cup diced green chiles – this was a small cans worth after draining

1/3 cup sautéed onion

1/3 cup roasted red pepper from a jar

1 tsp. dried cilantro

Mix everything together and let it sit an hour to rehydrate the cilantro.

Check our Chris’ site for some photos as I only remembered to take two for the whole day.  I definitely need to get a designated photographer when I’m cooking for a crowd.  This is the dock before we started eating and my burger.

In addition to the burgers, the guests brought deviled eggs, a Mexican dip, and snacks for appetizers, potato salad, pasta salad, and ranch beans for sides, and coconut cream pie, brownies, and homemade vanilla ice cream fro dessert.

I have to thank Bev for making me have such a fun day.  The food and company were all very enjoyable and I really liked Chris’ burger stuffing - what a great way to celebrate our freedom.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Nothing

Two years ago:   Leg Of Lamb On The Spit

Larry

7/4/12 event date

Eggplant Parmesan

We got our first eggplant from the garden and Bev wanted to turn them into eggplant parmesan.  Normally we don’t go with the baked version but go the easy route, but this time she wanted to go all out.  After looking at several on-line recipes she settled on this recipe from Taste Of Home, mostly because it had the most cheese.  She made the full sauce recipe and half the other parts and below is as she made it.

Eggplant Parmesan – adapted

Ingredients:

SAUCE:

•3 garlic cloves, minced

•1/3 cup olive oil

•2 qts..home canned tomatoes – drained
•1 cup pitted ripe olives, chopped
•1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves or 1 tablespoon dried basil
•3 tablespoons capers, drained
•1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
•1/4 teaspoon pepper

EGGPLANT:

•1 cup all-purpose flour
•4 eggs, beaten
•3 cups dry bread crumbs
•1 tablespoon garlic powder
•1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
•4 small eggplants (about 1 pound each), peeled and cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch slices
•1 cup olive oil

CHEESE:

•2 eggs, beaten
•2 cartons (15 ounces each) ricotta cheese
•1-1/4 cups shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
•1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves or 2 tablespoons dried basil
•1/2 teaspoon pepper
•8 cups (32 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:

•After slicing, lighty salt the eggplant on both sides and drain in a colander for an hour then pat dry with paper towels.

•In a Dutch oven over medium heat, cook garlic in oil for 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes and puree roughly with a hand blender.  Add the olives, basil, capers, pepper flakes and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 45-60 minutes or until thickened.
• Meanwhile, for eggplant, place flour and eggs in separate shallow bowls. In another bowl, combine the bread crumbs, garlic powder and oregano. Dip eggplant in the flour, eggs, then bread crumb mixture.

• In a large skillet, cook eggplant in batches in oil until golden brown and drain on wire rack.
• In a large bowl, combine the eggs, ricotta, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, basil and pepper.
• In a greased 8" x 11" baking dish, layer 1/3 of tomato sauce, half the eggplant slices, 1 cup ricotta mixture, half the remaining parmesan, and 6 slices provolone cheese. Repeat layers ending with the last 1/3 of the sauce, but add the top layer of cheese about 10 minutes before finished cooking.
• Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. Yield: 1 casserole (8 servings each).

Cooks Notes - For the 1 1/2 cups of dried bread crumbs, she used 1 cup fresh bread crumbs, 1/3 cup Panko, and  potato flakes on top of the panko to make 1/2 cup.  The potato flakes are supposed to help it adhere better to the eggplant.

Since the outdoor temps have been hovering around 100*, we decided to do as much as possible outside on the grill, beginning with frying the eggplant in olive oil.

After Bev built the casserole, we cooked it on the grill by having the two burners under it on low and the ones on each side on high generating a 350* temp.  The casserole dish was on a rack on a jelly roll pan which made it very oven like.

When it was nearly done, she added additional provolone to the top to melt, along with some fresh chopped basil.

This is my first helping.

It was absolutely delicious and I look forward to the next time – company quality for eggplant lovers with one change.  We used provolone throughout  because it was on hand, but the top layer got tough and we’ll top with mozzarella next time.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Ready To Travel

Two years ago:  A Very Berry Breakfast

Larry

7/2/12 Meal date

RV Trip To Roan Mountain – Wineries And Stuff

Our plan was to stay at the campground Mon-Wed nights and come home Thursday, but we were having such a good time, we checked and found our site was available another night and we snapped it up – ain’t retirement great. 

There was a restaurant in Banner Elk that I’d researched and sounded good and the two Wineries that we’d stopped by an hour before they opened the previous day.  So we decided to hang around the campground until late morning, then head for Banner Elk for our fourth visit to the town, but first stop.

We first went to the Banner Elk Winery about a mile east of town and had a great visit – I’d figured a 30 minute stop and we were there nearly two hours.  This is part of the grounds.

The tasting with our hostess and a young American now living in Australia - the hostess was from Buckhannon, WV and we had several familiar things to discuss.

We bought a case of their wine including six bottles of Chianti that was made by a local first generation Italian-American from Sangiovese grapes imported from Italy, using an old family recipe and just bottled and sold for the first time by the winery.

The next stop was the Painted Fisherman Café and Beer Bar where we all had delicious lunches of creative sandwiches and I enjoyed a glass of Dales Ale.  In the interest of space, I won’t go into the details, but it was a place worth visiting with some very creative dishes such as sweet potato salad, which I really liked.

After lunch, it was on to the newly opened Grandfather Mountain Winery which had a vineyard reminiscent of some we saw lining the steep hills along Germany’s Mosel River. 

They had a nice tasting room and entrance patio and we thought a couple of their wines were pretty good but only bought a couple of bottles. 

From the winery there was one more stop for the power shoppers at the original Mast General Store in Valle Crucis, NC.  I’d never heard of them, but they are apparently becoming popular, with stores around the area, including Knoxville.  The original is 129 years old (and looks it) and has a selection of everything on the planet, as near as I could tell from my brief walk around – this is not my kind of place, but I could see a need to spend at least a day to see everything, including the annex a quarter mile down the road.

Here are some front, inside, and rear shots including the porch – my favorite part.

I had have to say we again got our money's worth from this day and after a stop at Smoky Mountain bakery the next morning to pick up the goodies we'd ordered, we headed home.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  None

Two years ago: A Hot Day Salad Ala Lea Ann

Larry

6/14/12 event date