It’s So Yummy Café!

I just know that some of you think that I’m joking… There just can’t be a restaurant named “It’s All So Yummy Café”.  Alternately, if one exists, it must be a place for children…

No joke though!   This is our latest casual restaurant ‘find’ in the greater Knoxville market…and it’s a good one too.

Knoxville’s “It’s All So Yummy Café” with Hilton Head Ice Cream is located in a small strip shopping center.  The place is tough to spot even if you’re looking for it.  That small pink sign with the lettering  just doesn’t jump out at you. 

As customers approach the entrance, the message on the window to the left of the doors gives health conscious patrons’ fair warning.   It reads “This is a bad place for a diet”.

The first thing that customers encounter upon entry to It’s All So Yummy Café, (hereafter referred to as Yummy Café for the writer’s convenience), is this display case.  It’s filled with cakes, pasta, bacon, deviled eggs and several salads.  Now that doesn’t seem too risky from a health viewpoint does it? 

But, if you look up at the chalkboard menus along the back wall, you will quickly realize what you’re up against!  If you are into grilled cheese sandwiches, the first 2 boards are very impressive and very tempting!  The third board is all about a plethora of deli style sandwiches ranging from Reubens to Tuna Salad to a Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly.  The fourth board is about soups and the daily specials; the fifth is about salads, combos and the Kid’s menu…

OK… If you’d like to know what brought us here, it is really quite simple.  Happy wife, happy life!  Laurie told me that she was really craving a good grilled cheese sandwich.  In an effort to please, I searched for grilled cheese sandwiches in the Knoxville area.  Yummy Café was at the top of a very short list…and the menu looked great.

The interior is quirky but pretty basic…mismatched tables, table cloths and chairs along with odds and ends along the wall.  Customers order at the counter and they bring the food out to you.

Toward the rear of the room, there are 2 ice cream coolers with a multitude of flavors.  One chalkboard is all about ice cream, floats, sundaes, etc.  The small board is apparently related to an eating challenge…something called the “Rocky Top Challenge”.

Now onto the food…

This was Laurie’s grilled cheese sandwich.  Now some people wouldn’t call this a grilled cheese sandwich because it isn’t all about the cheese.  I don’t think that Laurie would care what you wanted to call it…because she really liked it!  This “Deviled Bacon” sandwich combines American cheddar cheese, plentiful crispy bacon and homemade deviled eggs along with a dash of ‘sweet heat’.  I was allowed a taste…Yummy!

No…this isn’t actually my grilled cheese sandwich.  Instead it’s another sandwich that we purchased to share!  Of course, that’s bad for me from a diet standpoint but it doesn’t impact Laurie’s diet as she can eat what she wants in a 4 hour window. (Nothing before the window opens or after it closes) Her dang diet is working too! Down 30 pounds!

This sandwich, Yummy Café’s May Special, was displayed on its own little board on the front of the counter.  Basically, it’s a grilled hot dog from Benton’s Bacon and Ham facility and store in Madisonville Tennessee, that has been topped with sauerkraut, melted cheddar and mustard on a nice bun.  We split it and we both thought that it was great!

This behemoth of a sandwich was my selection.  It is “The Big Cheese”. ($9.95) This is actually 2 grilled cheese sandwiches with more cheese and a pile of bacon enveloped in the center.  It was good…but I would have been happier with less bread.  However, I always wanted to try something like this so no complaints.  It was good but I had so many other choices that I could have made…

The next time we go to It's All So Yummy Café, I’ll have to decide between the 2 sandwiches described here… (Or maybe I’ll just do another of those cheesy hot dogs if they're on the menu) My likely cheesy options are: “5 Alarm” $7.95 – Pepperjack cheese with jalapenos, red pepper flakes, sweet heat and homemade HOT mayonnaise, or; “Pizza” $8.25 – Marinara with provolone and Swiss cheese, grilled pepperoni, crushed red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese.  It will be a tough decision!

Did I mention…all of these sandwiches come with either chips or a side salad…except for that cheese Benton’s hotdog.  It was accompanied by a cup of pretty decent chili and chips.  All sandwiches also come with free sweet or unsweet tea.

Remember the Hilton Head Ice Cream part of this operation?  Well, what the heck!  The server let us know that we could order half scoops so Laurie decided to go for 4 different flavors.  Her first incredulous comment was “These are half scoops?!!”  There was no way she could finish this decadent heap of ice cream and I was too full to be of much assistance…

I had some ice cream too but after watching her ‘half scoops’ pile up, I just asked for 2 half scoops.  We thought that the ice cream was good but we prefer the ice cream from the Tic Toc Ice Cream Parlor in Loudon Tennessee…the more butterfat the better!  

The next time we return to It’s All So Yummy Café we’ll focus on the sandwiches…maybe with a milk shake or the Homemade Banana Pudding that I discovered is also on the menu.  I also learned that It’s So Yummy Café has a second location in Oak Ridge Tennessee and that they have been in business since 2011.  How did we miss this yummy place over the last 6 years? 

Knoxville Tennessee’s “It’s All So Yummy Café” is located just south of Kingston Pike (US Hwy. 11) at 120 South Peters Road.  Phone: 865-769-6539.  The company’s website is at http://www.itsallsoyummy.com/.  This restaurant has 4.5 out of 5 ‘stars’ on both Yelp and Trip Advisor…

Just click on any of these food photos if you’re hungry…

Thanks for stopping by and sharing lunch with us…

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 

Local Farmer’s Market Plus Dining Updates

In this posting, we checked out a small local Farmer’s Market and we revisited 2 of our favorite local places for a casual meal…

This is the former combination Louisville and Nashville Railroad Depot in Greenback Tennessee.  It was built in 1914 and it served rail freight and passengers in the area until 1954.  It was restored for use as a community events center in the early 2010's and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.  It was a rainy day so I stayed under cover...

   

In this instance the community event was the weekly (in season) Farmer’s Market which takes place on Tuesdays from 10 AM to 4 PM.

Since we visited the market in mid-May, available produce was minimal.  Most of the market’s offerings consisted of handicrafts and miscellaneous food items.

Love the original old wide plank floors!  This is the upper level of the depot where the freight was handled.  It was higher than the passenger section so that freight cars could be loaded directly from the depot through the building’s sliding freight door.  

One vendor on this level was selling various types of lettuce and mixes of them as well.  The lady at the lower left was selling ready to eat pierogi, (aka pirogi, pirohy, pyrohy, or varenyky), and apple turnovers.  We bought 2 of varenyky for later.  They were pretty tasty too…

This is the lower portion of the depot… The passenger area was in this half of the building.  Most of the walls have been removed.  The space was originally divided into three sections: the colored waiting room in the southeast corner (still enclosed at the upper left), the general waiting room in the southwest corner, and the ticket agent's office adjacent to the waiting rooms.  A baggage area was positioned between the ticket office and the freight area.

Another lady on the lower level was selling bread and sweet rolls.  We bought a loaf of bread for the freezer as well as a loaf of cinnamon bread.  It was very tasty!  We did manage to avoid the sweet rolls…

William H. Jones, a Loudon County court clerk and local businessman, served as Greenback's station agent from 1910 until his death in 1954.  This included the entire period that the depot building was in use for its original purpose. Along with selling train tickets, Jones issued hunting, fishing and marriage licenses from his depot office.  As a county official, he officiated at more than 3,500 marriage ceremonies, many of them in the depot.  By the early 1950s, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad had ceased passenger service at Greenback, and operated only two freight lines a week to the town.  After Jones's death in 1954, the railroad closed the depot.

This is a close up of the items for sale at a booth selling handmade jewelry.  It was at north end of the market on the upper or freight level.   There were some nice imaginative creations…but Laurie resisted temptation!

This is a view of ‘downtown’ Greenback Tennessee from the cover of the overhanging roof on other side of the depot.  Greenback has a population of around 1,100.  The town was founded in 1883.  By the late 1890s, Greenback had three stores, a barbershop, blacksmith shop, school, livery stables, a hotel, and two baseball teams (segregated between white and black players).

 

The building behind that red SUV on the street is the Greenback Drug Company.  It opened in 1923.  The drugstore is long gone but the building has served as a community restaurant and diner for the past few decades. Locals still call it "the drugstore" and meet there for food and socializing.

Factoid: In 2011, H and R Block featured Greenback in its national advertising campaign.  The campaign, known as "Greenbacks for Greenback," included a review of many of the citizens' taxes - a program H and R Block calls "second look."  The campaign saved locals more than $14,000 in taxes.  The savings were revealed in a celebration with the community at Greenback School. Television, radio and print advertising featured the Greenback Depot, the Greenback Drugstore/Diner, Greenback School and the Greenback Historical Society as well as many people who call Greenback home.

Now on to recent experiences at a couple of local restaurants…

First, there was a return to China Pearl in Farragut Tennessee.  The Crab Rangoon ($5.75) were very nice.  They are one of Laurie’s favorite Asian appetizers.

I continue to be boring when I dine in Chinese restaurants.  I don’t like a lot of onion (texture issue) and I don’t like bell peppers or mushrooms.  I tend to play it safe.  This was my order of General Tso’s Chicken with broccoli. ($11.25)  I asked for it ‘extra spicy’ and the chef obliged.  It was just right!

This was Laurie’s Chicken in Szechuan Sauce. ($10.50) She likes it spicy too.  One of the reasons she ordered this dish is that it had celery in it…and one of her favorite Szechuan Chinese chicken dishes back up in Mt. Prospect Illinois also featured celery.

Laurie plated her Chicken in Szechuan sauce with part of our big bowl of rice so she could take this photo. 

We both really like the food at China Pearl.  It is under new ownership and everything has improved…the menu, food and service.  China Pearl Restaurant is in the Kroger Shopping Center right off of Kingston Pike (US Hwy 11) at 115 Brooklawn Street in Farragut Tennessee.  Phone: 865-966-6936.  Website: http://www.chinapearlknoxville.com/.

Our next stop was at Fat Stacks Restaurant in Madisonville Tennessee.  One reason that we love Fat Stacks is that they serve breakfast anytime!  This time we were accompanied by friends and first time Fat Stacks diners Bev and Larry.  I will admit that I got a little nervous when they went for Tex-Mex style breakfasts.  After all, this is a local restaurant in Eastern Tennessee.  I didn’t know what to expect…

This was Bev’s Breakfast Fajita.  I don’t eat chunks of onion or green peppers so I would never order this.  However, both Bev and Larry love Mexican influenced breakfasts.  Much to our relief, Bev thought that this was pretty darn good! 

Larry ordered the Breakfast Burrito.  It’s all about the egg, beef, cheese and hash brown potato filling.  Larry said it was very good and I will admit that I might just give it a try the next time we stop at Fat Stacks.  I would add an over easy fried egg on top!

Laurie went for her standard breakfast but I ordered this hand-formed juicy cheeseburger.  I’d seen other diners order some good looking burgers and I thought that it was time for me to give one a try.  It was very good!

It’s hard to beat the value and the quality of the food at Fat Stacks.  I didn’t record the prices from this meal but on a previous visit Laurie ordered the Patty Melt with a 6 oz. super burger patty. ($5.00) With the fries, her meal totaled $6.00!  Fat Stacks is located at 4915 New Tennessee Highway 68 in Madisonville Tennessee.  Phone: 423-545-9540.  Fat Stack Restaurant is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Fat-Stacks-307184836304169/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

A Thai Restaurant in Loudon Tennessee

We have a building just a few miles from our home that has gone through a succession of restaurant styles and operators.  We keep hoping that one will succeed since this location is a short drive for us!

This is Thai Bistro at Tellico Lake in Loudon Tennessee.  This is the 7^th restaurant to occupy this space in the almost 8 years that we’ve lived in East Tennessee…

First there was Catino’s (Italian/Pizza…good pizza and the longest lived operation…having been in business for some time before we moved to the area); then there was a short-lived and locally reviled Ayala’s (Mexican); followed by Tellico Grill (a bit of upscale casual American food); then American House of Pancakes (casual breakfast, lunch and dinner); Doug’s Place. (Doug served a very nice peppercorn sirloin), and; the restaurant prior to Thai Bistro was called Grinderz…

Thai Bistro had been open just 2 days when we first stopped in for dinner.  Other than a couple of decorations…mostly figures of Buddha on display…the décor is exactly as it has been for all 7 restaurant operations.  In general, local folks don’t like those “walled in booths” and they aren’t very comfortable, that’s for sure.  The good news is that, Tellico Villagers and surrounding communities must be hungry for some Thai food, because the restaurant was quite busy!

This is my unusually patient wife waiting for our food… Remember, this was only the 2^nd day of operation for this restaurant, a situation that we usually avoid!  Not only did Thai Bistro have a large crowd dining in, they also had a significant take-out business going on.

I’d like to say that this was our appetizer but it wasn’t… We ordered Golden Triangles ($6.00) for an appetizer and Tom Yum Soup ($4.00) for Laurie.  Golden Triangles consist of ground chicken with Thai herbs wrapped in wonton wrappers that are deep fried to a golden brown and then served with homemade sweet and sour sauce.  Tom Yum Soup is a hot and spicy soup that contains chicken (alternately tofu, shrimp or vegetables), mushrooms, chili, lemon-grass, tomatoes, lime juice and cilantro.

After waiting quite a while, a server brought us 2 Spring Rolls, thanking us for our patience… A bit later our waitress brought us these 3 additional Spring Rolls and she told us that they’d run out of the “Golden Triangles”.  We learned a bit later that another server had taken Laurie's soup…so we told our waitress to forget it.  It was over an hour before we got our dinners.

FYI…These Spring Rolls were very good!  They went well with our beers.  Fortunately, Thai Bistro has a beer license…

For my dinner I ordered my old standby…from the Chinese side of the menu.  This was the General Tso’s Chicken. ($10.00) It was better than average although it wasn’t as spicy as I like it despite my request to ramp up the heat level.  FYI…I’d requested fried rice with my entrée and but I got the steamed rice instead. 

The menu for Thai Bistro at Tellico Village is quite extensive.  There are 7 standard appetizers along with 4 vegetarian ones.  There are 6 soups and 6 salads.  Three types of fried rice are on the menu along with 5 noodles dishes, 5 Thai entrees, 5 Thai Curries, 6 Chinese entrees, 6 Chef’s Corner items and 12 Hibachi and Teriyaki options.  There are even 5 desserts available including fried ice cream…

Laurie decided to have the Yellow Curry. ($12.00) She had a choice of chicken, beef, pork, tofu or vegetables prepared with coconut milk, carrots, onions, potatoes and bell peppers.  She chose the chicken.  Laurie likes curry and she really enjoyed her entrée!

We expected issues on the 2^nd day after Thai Bistro opened… Waitresses and the kitchen were still learning how to operate together and the kitchen facility is small here, making the challenge even greater.  Patrons were generally understanding on the night we dined here. 

Six days after Thai Bistro opened for business...this time it was on a Wednesday...we returned for an early dinner.

This time I was able to order the Golden Triangles.  They were pretty but I must admit that they were OK but not great.  They lacked any real distinctive flavor. Laurie tasted one and she agreed with me.

Laurie had heard good things about Thai Bistro's Crab Rangoon so she ordered it as her appetizer. ($6.00) She liked it a lot...you could actually taste the crab with the first bite! I ate one too and it was plump and fully backed with flavor. This was a winner! Plus, Laurie thought they were so original as to how they were made, all twisted up into a little tasty bundle. 

  
For her entree, Laurie ordered the Tiger Tear Beef. ($12.00) The menu describes this dish as being Northern Thai style...marinated steak grilled and served with mixed vegetables and Thai spicy sauce.  She was disappointed that there wasn't any sauce on her plate to eat with the vegetables, steak and accompanying rice.  The steak didn't have much flavor and it was a bit tough too.  The Thai spicy sauce was indeed spicy...but this entree was not what Laurie expected it to be. The vegetables were very good.

This time I ordered the Bangkok Chicken. ($13.00) Somewhat similar to General Tso's Chicken, the breaded and stir fried chicken is served with homemade sweet and sour tamarind sauce and it's topped with roasted cashews and sesame seeds.  I asked for a heat level of 6... The sweet and sour sauce was spicy but the next time I'll have to kick it up to an 8!  I enjoyed my meal.  Laurie tasted it and liked it too...

The good news is that during both visits the food was above average and 95% of the on-line comments about the food that we’ve seen since Thai Bistro opened have been very positive... Our service during the second visit was much improved and while we beat the crowd in this instance, everything moved along smoothly.  We are very hopeful that this restaurant will survive, improve a bit more and thrive!

Thai Bistro at Tellico Village is located just a block west of TN Hwy 444 at 222 Lakeside Plaza in Loudon Tennessee.  Phone: 865-657-6440.  Their website with its lengthy menu can be found at: https://www.thaibistrotellico.com/.   

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 

German Cuisine in Maryville Tennessee

As I’ve mentioned many times before, ethnic food of any variety other than Mexican, Thai and Chinese is hard to come by here in East Tennessee.  There are a couple of Cuban places and even a Jamaican offering…  There is also a German restaurant in Farragut Tennessee but our visits and visits by friends, have left us unimpressed...plus its pricy too.  The challenge is not only finding ethnic restaurants…it is finding reasonably good ethnic restaurants!

So, after hearing a number of positive reports about Roland’s Bistro and its German food on the east side of Maryville Tennessee, we finally decided to give it a try.  The yellow building doesn't look German but it can’t be called unassuming, that’s for sure!  As my mom used to tell me, you just can’t judge a book (or restaurant) by its cover.  

The dining room décor at Roland’s Bistro certainly doesn’t lend itself to the feeling of German food… No Bavaria here, that’s for sure.  The restaurant is very casual with the older of the employee’s daughters watching her younger charge, playing in a corner, seating customers or asking how everything is… That big cupboard and a table right behind it displays various local crafts for sale.

To start…Roland’s Bistro does have a nice but modest selection of German beers.  We started out with a Paulaner and an Erdinger Weissbier. ($5.50 and $7.00 respectively)

Now for a cautionary note… Do not dine at Roland’s Bistro if 1) you’re in a hurry, or 2) you aren’t ready to relax and take your time with dinner…European style!

We ordered an appetizer but after a bit of time, our waitress brought us a salad plate with a couple of slices of marbled rye bread and some type of spread… I thought that it might be liver based but my wife thought that it was beef based.   In any case, we liked the little salad mix as well as the spread on the bread. (I did not take a photo or either.)

For the starter we'd ordered, “Brotzeit”, our waitress brought us this plate of cheese, salami, ham and ‘wurst’ salad with some very nice warm lightly grilled or toasted buttered rye bread. ($10.00) We very much enjoyed this starter plate!  It was excellent!

Later in our evening, Roland stopped by our table.  He told us that he tried to obtain the best products available to create his offerings.  The ‘wurst salad’ was made from pickled bologna.  He has to have the bread flown in because there isn’t any good German rye produced in the area.

For my entrée, I went with Pork Schnitzel Vienna Style with a side of Kasespatzle…fresh homemade noodles with cheese, southern German style.  Given my love of breakfast and eggs, I asked for 2 over-easy eggs on top of the chicken schnitzel. ($14.80 with the eggs) I did enjoy my meal…with the yolks blending in with the schnitzel and the kasespatzle! (Of course, Laurie had my bottle of Tabasco in her purse for me…)

Other dinner offerings include: Kasespatzle; Fried Flounder Finkenwerder Style; Turkey Medallions with Sherry Sauce; Currywurst; Pork Roast with Roasted Kostritzer Beer Sauce, Veal Schnitzel, Konigsberger Klopse; Roulade, and: Angus Steak.  Sandwiches, soups and salads are also on the menu.  All salad dressings are homemade.

I didn’t make it easy for the reader… If you aren’t into German food, you may have to look a few items up in Wikipedia!

Laurie decided to go with the Beef Stroganoff or “Rindergeschnetzeltes” for her dinner. ($14.00) For her sides she had some very nice mashed potatoes and an order of Blue Cheese Spinach.  She liked the beef stroganoff and potatoes but she wasn’t crazy about the spinach-blue cheese combination but she did eat a portion of it. I tasted it and I thought that it was pretty good…so it’s a matter of preferences.

Roland has been in business in Maryville for over 2 years now and he is from Germany.  It was a weekday and the restaurant was fairly busy.  He told us that some people don’t like how long it takes to dine at the restaurant but he prepares the food when it’s ordered so it’s as fresh and as authentic as he can make it.  He told us that he has many regulars who do appreciate the ‘slow food’ approach of European dining.  Note: Dinner took us 2 hours from start to finish.

We liked Roland’s Bistro and Roland Riese the owner and operator is friendly and likeable too… We will return in the not too distant future.  Roland’s Bistro is located at 1805 East Lamar Alexander Parkway (US Hwy 321) in Maryville Tennessee.  Phone: 865-724-2537.  Roland’s is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rolandsbistroinmaryville.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to see what we had for dinner!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 

This ‘n That!

Every once in a while I scan through our photos to see what I might have missed as I chose photo for specific blog postings… This posting on my blog site is an amalgamation of a number of miscellaneous photos.  

Given our unusually warm and wet spring this year, our azaleas really popped this year!  The little pink azalea bush in the second photo really improved this year after we had a few overhead branches removed…

Although azaleas like shade, apparently too much shade can be a deterrent to growth and blooms.   I didn’t know that azaleas are in the genus Rhododendron family.  Gardeners have selectively bred azaleas for hundreds of years. This human effort has produced over 10,000 different cultivars which are propagated by cuttings.  Azaleas are native to Asia, Europe and North America.

We love our Oak Leaf Hydrangeas.  They reside underneath our giant oak tree amidst some boulders in our back yard.  They had just begun to flower when Laurie took this photo.

Native to continental southeastern North America the oak leaf hydrangea grows in mixed hardwood forests, along streams and on forested hillsides, usually on calcareous (chalk or limestone) soils, and often where limestone is at the ground surface.  They are understory shrubs, often growing in the shade of large oaks, hickories, magnolias, American beech, etc.

We have one small rhododendron bush.  This is only the second time that it’s bloomed for us in 3 years and it had more blooms on it this time than it did the last time.  Unfortunately it had a bad case of black spot and we had to buy some spray to solve the problem.  It may be getting too much water and it would probably do better if it was a little more shaded…but we just aren’t avid gardeners even though we do appreciate our perennial flowers.

Rhododendron is a genus of 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family, either evergreen or deciduous, that are found mainly in Asia.  However it’s also widespread throughout our area in the Southern Highlands of the Appalachian Mountains of North America.  The rhododendron is the national flower of Nepal.

Laurie has a couple of flower pot bases on our deck railing that she keeps filled with fresh water.  The local bird population uses them a lot, maybe even as much as our bird feeder! 

This dove is checking out the human taking its photo but it obviously doesn’t plan on vacating its refreshing bath!

Excuse me, I'm bathing! Really!

I like boats so when I see one, we take photos.  This work size tow boat was spotted while it was moored by the shore of Tellico Lake.  Several of these tow boats spend time on Tellico and Fort Loudoun Lakes installing rip rap and docks for homeowners. 

What is this you might ask…? Well, it’s a photo of our 5.5 year old Samsung refrigerator that recently froze up in the back top of the fridge for the 3^rd time since we bought it!

So…our appliance repair man came by for the 3^rd time, grumbling about the crappy refrigerators that Korea makes.  He took the back cover off the inside of the fridge and used a blow drier and tools to melt and break off the ice so the unit would work again.

Frustrated homeowners… We have since solved the problem by getting rid of this unit and replacing it with a Maytag unit purchased from Plaza Appliances in Athens Tennessee.  They beat everyone else’s price, including the big box retailers and their service is top notch.  Website: http://www.plazaelectronicsandappliance.com/.

It was time for another one of my ‘special’ breakfasts.  This time I had some leftover penne pasta with chicken and peas with extra parmesan that needed to be consumed.  As those who follow me know by now, I don’t like wasting leftovers!

So, after heating the pasta in a frying pan, I added a couple of over-easy eggs and created a smooth and silky breakfast combination!  It was very good…

We had our friend George over for dinner one night.  For an appetizer, we offered some smoked salmon from Costco along with some nice crackers and some whipped Philadelphia cream cheese!  Add tabasco when eating…Yum!

You didn’t really think that that was all there was regarding that salmon and cream cheese did you!?  On a subsequent morning, I decided on salmon for breakfast.  I toasted and applied Amish butter and whipped cream cheese to a couple little pieces of bakery bread.  Then I topped them with a nice portion of that salmon from Costco!

Of course I had to add a couple over-easy fried eggs over the top of my salmon creation!  As usual, I sprinkled on a bit of Tabasco.  I have personally awarded this breakfast creation 5 out of 5 stars!  It was excellent and it may be my all time favorite homemade creation!

Laurie was barely out of our yard one morning on her way to play golf when she encountered this big beautiful male turkey showing off his magnificence right in the middle of our street!  Why was he so puffed up?

Hey…it was all about a young lady he was trying to court!  He didn’t give a damn about the car or the camera.  He was really focused on his goal.  However, Laurie told me that he had a big problem.  The hen didn’t want anything to do with him.  Every time he approached her to get romantic, she just laid down in the street.  There is nothing as sad as unrequited love!

That’s it for now… Just click on any of these photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave