Tex Mex For Thanksgiving

I believe I've mentioned this before but I’m not really a fan of plain roasted turkey but Bev is a traditionalist so I was surprised when she readily agreed to serving Tex-Mex for our Thanksgiving meal – it helped that it’s one of her favorite foods and we were eating on Wed.  This seemed to fit well with a visit by Kathy (daughter) who lives in San Antonio which claims to be the home of the cuisine.  A big highlight of the day was getting to meet Kathy’s new fellow and see how happy she is.  Kathy likes to talk and here she is with a captive group.

Not Exactly Poutine

I like fries and I love cheese but even more so, I love gravy so when I first saw poutine on a TV food show, I knew it would be right up my alley.  I’ve never made it but while on our trip this past summer I had some at a restaurant in Michigan's UP and as expected, I really liked it.  For those who may be unfamiliar with it, the dish consist of fries topped with cheese curds and then brown gravy – how could anyone not like that.

I had some leftovers from a couple of meals and while they will not make real poutine, I did have some rich beef broth from a recent batch of Italian beef, some cheese (not curds), and some potato gnocchi left from making Pam’s delicious Creamy Chicken Gnocchi Soup (For The Love Of Cooking blog).  Since we just followed Pam's recipe except we used kale, I didn't post about it but our soup looked like this shot of hers and I highly recommend it.

Cindy Makes Quiche

I don’t want to debate the Real Men issue here, but I do love quiche and similar dishes so when Cindy offered to make a couple for supper, Bev and I immediately responded YES.  Since she is rarely here, she usually just eats what we cook for supper (except red meat) but a job was cancelled and she was off for the week and had time to plan, shop for, and cook a meal.  She pretty well spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen, but at mealtime I understood why.

Errands, Day Trip, and Fish

Since we live out of town, we like to consolidate our errands and such to maximize the 20 mile drive and Thursday was such a day as Bev and I each went to the dermatologist and the hair dresser plus I went to the bank, cell phone store, and wine store then we both went to Walmart.

Friday was a similar situation but more of a day trip centered around early voting early so Pat, Cindy, Bev, and I headed out late morning with the first stop at the Amish Farmers Market in Englewood for veggies, more kraut, and baked goods – they are now only open on Fri & Sat until Nov 24 when they close for the season.They are still getting a few summer items like tomatoes, peppers, and beans but it is now more fall produce such as winter squash, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and greens.

From there, we went to Sweetwater Valley Farm (Cindy’s first trip) to sample and buy a few of their cheeses – but they won’t be making cheese again until January.  I think we bought about 10 pounds between us.

The cheese making operation is on the other side of the wall and can be observed through the large windows.

Then it was a short drive up to the Loudon County election offices where it took us no more than 10 minutes to complete the voting process.  Now if could only tell the TV we have already voted so the mud-slinging attack ads could stop.  They seem to be everywhere and it would not shock me to find them on PBS and the Home Shopping Network J

Our next stop in Loudon was a couple of block drive to Z Fish House for lunch - 4½ stars on Trip Advisor and Yelp.  We’d been there a couple of years ago and it has gotten even better with more menu offerings and even fresh tuna.  Z’s is a small restaurant in a small, unassuming building and you must be looking or you’ll miss it.  The meals were all huge (the dishes must be about 12" across) beginning with Cindy’s catfish.

Pat and Bev each add Jumbo Fried Shrimp.

I was going to order the catfish until I spotted the Rainbow Trout which I had deep fried.  It was both sides of the fish but deboned and laid out flat - I took half the fish and the slaw home with me.

Everyone thought their meals were delicious, including the sides, and for such a great price ($11-$12).  I can easily imagine paying much more for food not nearly as good and I'm looking forward to our next visit.

From there, it was a quick stop at Food City and home after the four hour loop made for a fun day for me and my girls.

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

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

Larry

10/26/18 Event Date

2018 October RV Rally – Sevierville, TN

As I mentioned in my previous post, we came to River Plantation RV Resort two days early for the Tennessee Travelers Rally and as it turned out, two other coaches also came in a day early and Pat drove up to join us – she had not gone with us to get the coach serviced.

We had planned to have grilled brats (from the Wurst Kitchen of course) with kraut and mashed potatoes and since we had seven sausages, we invited the other early arrivals to join us – I had planned to cook all of the sausages anyway so we just made more potatoes.

Four this meal, I like to dress my potatoes just like the brat with kraut and mustard and some other the others were pleasantly surprised when they tried it.  Sorry but I took no meal shots.

Coach Maintenance and RV Rally

After a month at home doing various fall chores, we got back on the road for a two stop trip.

I get the RV chassis serviced once a year following the Freightliner service recommendation and since it was due for a big five year service which includes transmission and coolant system I decided to take it to the Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp (FCCC) service center in Gaffney, SC.  I figured these folks are likely to do a fine job since they service these chassis all day, every day.

This is the service center with six bays (three on the other side) and the coaches lined up for the day with us in the last shot. 

Our appointment was for 8am on Friday so we drove over to Gaffney on Thursday and pulled into one of their 20 camping sites with 50 amp electric but no water or sewer which was no issue. 

That evening we went to Daddy Joe’s Beach House and Grill for supper where we got large portions of good food and at reasonable $10.95 price.  

I had a combo of chopped BBQ and Calabash Chicken with sides of baked beans and wedge fries along with hush puppies and while I didn’t get a shot my meal looked like this one with chicken in place of the wings.

Bev said she enjoyed her Calabash Chicken and Calabash Shrimp with potato salad and slaw – Calabash Style means lightly breaded but it seemed like a normal amount to me.

After servicing on Friday, the coach was returned to the site and we spent another night before heading to Sevierville, TN on Sat.

The service cost was $1368 + tax with labor to service the chassis and generator being $650 at $100/hr (actually cheaper than taking it to a dealer) and materials account for the rest of the cost (fluids were $438). 

So we are all serviced for a year but unfortunately they found a small oil leak from the engine which we’ll need to attend to when we get home. 

Since we stayed both the night before and after the service, we had an entire day to kill and several hours with no coach, so we opted for a factory tour.  Gaffney is not only home to the service center but also the factory for FCCC, where they assemble chassis for school buses and delivery vans (think UPS) as well as motor homes for several brands - about 50,000 chassis/year.

FCCC is a sub-division of Freightliner which is owned by Daimler, the German company that also owns Mercedes Benz and Smart Car.  The factory uses very modern and highly efficient manufacturing practices to make their high quality products and as an old plant guy I found the tour very interesting and even Bev said she enjoyed it.

Then we drove about 10 miles north to the site of the Revolutionary War Battle Site at Cowpens.  It is a National Battlefield Park requiring no admission.  It is basically just a visitors center and a field with not much in it that I saw and while it was an important battle for the Americans, I don’t quite see the need to spend money on a place that seems to slowly be taken over by trees.

The main reason for scheduling the service appointment when we did was that we would be part way to Gaffney anyway to attend a Tennessee Travelers rally in Sevierville the following week so we just showed up two days early.  The Saturday drive back from Gaffney took us an extra hour due to a four car wreck on I-26 and the heavy traffic from I-40 to Sevierville (Saturday of fall break). 

We checked into River Plantation RV Resort (our forth visit) and were assigned site 122 for two nights – we added the extra days too late to get the same site as for the rally.  I really don’t consider this a resort yet as they have gravel roads and sites and WiFi only in a couple of central locations.

The highlight of the day was getting set up in time to watch the second half of the Tennessee – Auburn game in which UT pulled off an upset and gave first year coach Jeremy Pruitt his first big win.  The low point of the day was watching my WV Mountaineers flounder around in a loss to Iowa State and after watching several previous games I was not at all surprised.

That’s it for now from Sevierville and I'll have more updates about our rally.

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

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

Larry

10/11-10/13/18 Event Dates

Naan Bread Pesto Pizza

We had been recently talking about pesto and Bev began looking for recipes that use it and she came up with Pesto Pizza from All Recipes so during a recent Sam’s club visit, she picked up a jar of Member’s Mark Pesto.  We all thought the jarred pesto was very good but care must be taken as it is a little salty.

The four of us each built our individual pizzas selecting from the available toppings and beginning with a generous layer of pesto.