Food…Here and There

The following food photos are an accumulation of my home based breakfast creations plus some odds and ends from various restaurants that we’ve recently frequented…but which I’d written about in the not too distant past.

I started out this particular breakfast with a brioche bun and a nice farm raised catfish filet leftover from Laurie’s recent dinner at Sullivan’s Downtown in Maryville Tennessee.  I slathered the bun with our Amish butter to brown it in the frying pan as I warmed up the filet.

When the bun and catfish filet were warmed up and ready to go, I assembled them in preparation for the ‘topper’.

…and of course, that ‘topper’ was an easy-over fried egg.  This was easily one of the best breakfast creations I’d put together in quite some time!  Without hesitation I can state that I would enjoy this breakfast on a weekly basis if I had fried catfish filets on hand… 

This large order of restaurant ‘made’ thick cut potato chips were accompanied with a ramekin with some very nice buttermilk garlic dipping sauce. ($7.00) Many restaurants are now making their own potato chips…but this version we had at Aubrey’s Restaurant in Lenoir City Tennessee was one of the very best we’ve ever had!

Laurie ordered the Chicken Melt with a side of cinnamon apples. ($10.00) She also had a side Caesar salad. ($5.00) Her salad (not pictured) was very nice, she loved the Chicken Melt and, it’s hard to miss with cinnamon apples.  The chicken melt was a great twist on a chicken salad sandwich!

This was my ‘Ragin Cajun’ chicken sandwich with a side of broccoli. ($13.00) If you can’t see the toasted bun, it’s because it was buried underneath that big 10 oz. Cajun spiced chicken breast with the shredded lettuce and tomato.  The chicken breast wasn’t overcooked…a key to any chicken sandwich.  I’d order this creation again!

FYI…Should you want to visit one of these reliable and consistent Aubrey’s Restaurant locations, the website is at https://aubreysrestaurants.com/.

Another recent stop was for an early dinner at one of Knoxville’s favorite restaurants… Just how much do Knoxville residents like Nick and J’s?  Yelp and Zmenu have it at 4.5 stars out of 5, TripAdvisor also has it at 4.5 and they rank it as Number 6 out of all Knoxville restaurants.  As for Facebook, it shows a score of 4.9 out of 5!

Laurie just couldn’t stop herself from ordering her favorite sandwich…Nick and J’s 8 oz. Patty Melt on Grilled Rye served with Grilled Onions and Swiss Cheese. ($7.99) She skipped Nick and J’s top notch French fries, instead opting for the Breaded Fried Mushrooms. ($4.55) Laurie was very happy with all of her food…and those deep fried mushrooms were a special treat.

I decided to try one of Nick and J’s Daily Lunch Specials.  This was the Chicken Fried Steak with Sausage Gravy.  I chose one entrée and 2 vegetables with a corn muffin. ($6.99) For the money, it was a solid meal but it didn’t really ‘float my boat’… I enjoyed the roasted potatoes and the peas were ‘standard issue’.  The corn muffin was excellent!  As for the chicken fried steak, it was just average…and the sausage gravy lacked sausage or any real flavor.

With all of the menu choices at Nick and J’s, I should have gone with one of their renowned hamburgers or sandwich creations.  Live and learn!  To learn more about Nick and J’s and to view their menu, go to their Facebook pages at https://www.facebook.com/Nick-Js-Cafe-326172485829/.

Along the way to Omaha for Thanksgiving with our son David II and his family, we stopped for lunch at the Applebee’s Grill and Bar in Chillicothe Missouri.  As usual, the food was standard fare…OK for me…but Laurie ordered this bowl of French Onion Soup as her main dish.

This little ramekin hardly qualified as a bowl of soup!  Not only was it tiny, but it lacked any liquid… There were wet onions and bread topped with cheese.  Laurie was very unhappy…     

Recently we stopped for lunch at the Steak ‘n Shake Restaurant in Knoxville’s Turkey Creek shopping area.  The double bacon and cheese ‘steakburgers’ were just fine…but our waitress assumed that we wanted French fries with our sandwiches.  Consequently we ended up with a bunch of fries and I don’t like to waste food.

So this past Sunday morning I took about half of the French fries and warmed them up with a bit of butter and pepper in a frying pan.

For a topping, I was thinking of a version of poutine…so I warmed up about 8 oz. of chili without beans.

In the end, I plated the French fries, poured the hot chili over them and then topped the whole thing with an over-easy fried egg.

It wasn’t my best breakfast creation… All that chili overwhelmed the French fries and I should have dropped another egg on top.  The chili and egg worked well but I’d have been better off with a toasted English muffin on the bottom.  Now I have to figure out what to do with the rest of those French fries!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave