Dinner at Little Bit of Heaven South!

Laurie's sister Glenda and her husband Ken stopped by for a visit on their way back to St. Louis, MO from Florida. While they were here, Larry, (aka Big Dude), and his better half, Beverly, invited us all over for dinner at Paradise South here in East Tennessee. (Paradise South is what Larry, a transplanted West Virginian, calls their home on the lake) From left to right in the photo, we have Larry, Bev, Glenda & Ken at Paradise South.


So, as a prelude to dinner, we had a couple of drinks...and Larry conducted a hot sauce taste test. Note: Much to my satisfaction, Frank's Hot Sauce ranked last! (I'm a Tabasco guy myself)


After mellowing out for a while, it was time to sit down at the dinner table and get serious. Beautiful place setting isn't it?


I'm not much of a 'onion guy', so I stuck to my scotch and water while the rest of the gang dug into a handsome looking bowl of French Onion Soup. Even I had to admit that it looked good!


The review was unanimous... This was a great bowl of soup!



Our next course was this delicious Caesar Salad. The dressing was just right...with enough anchovy in it for taste... One of Bev's many areas of expertise is baking, so of course, the seasoned croutons were homemade and perfect. I made up for 'missing' the soup by downing 2 bowls of the salad...

As I said, Bev bakes and she does it very well! Really good bread is hard to come by here in East Tennessee, so Laurie and I really appreciate it when we find it. This is one of the beautiful yeast rolls, with a touch of garlic in them, that Bev made for dinner. Her starter is over 100 years old! Boy Oh Boy...were these good!!

Now came time for the entree...smoked prime rib and twice baked potatoes with cheese and bacon. This is my plate of food...just excellent! It could not be duplicated in a restaurant... I didn't leave a spec of food behind, a fact that my doctor would slap me around for. Still...look at this plate! How does one walk away from something that looks this good!?

Fortunately, dessert was a bit 'lighter' than the entree. Laurie made the dessert. Orange Pineapple Cake. This is a yellow cake mix with pudding and mandarin oranges...frosted with a Cool Whip /pineapple topping and accompanied with blueberries and raspberries. A yummy finale to this feast with friends and family!

Many thanks to Bev and Larry for this great meal and great time! Thanks also to Bev for the pound or so of yeast rolls she sent us home with!! You can follow Big Dude, (aka Larry), Bev and some of their food creations by going to http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/