Food, Critters and Family

Our first day trip completed, its back to the basics one more time!  Just life as it came at us for a few days in May…

However, this photo is a food item that we brought home from that day long drive.  We bought 4 of these Eccles Cakes at the Saturday farmer’s market in Dandridge.  They are filled with raisins, brown sugar and cinnamon and we really enjoyed them! 

The Eccles cake is named after the English town of Eccles in Lancashire where they were first sold commercially in 1793.  They are also known as squashed fly cake, fly cake and fly pie.  Traditionally, they are eaten with Lancashire cheese.

These puff pastry treats are from the House of Douglas Bakery in Cosby Tennessee.  To view the variety of baked goods this bakery sells as well as their store hours, go to https://www.houseofdouglasbakery.com/.

From time to time, I purchase the inexpensive alternative to pork ribs.  Country pork ribs don’t even resemble the standard variety but they do deliver on flavor.  I grilled these ribs, basting them with Famous Dave’s Rich and Sassy BBQ sauce a few minutes before they were ready to bring in the house for our dinner.

The country ribs were accompanied with a couple of nice little salads.  Mine was sort of a wedge with shredded cheddar and a balsamic dressing.  Laurie dressed hers up with a different creamy balsamic dressing and olives.

Here is one more remnant from our day trip… We took a cooler with us so when Laurie couldn’t finish her fried catfish at the Millstone Restaurant, we packed it up and took it home with us.  I reheated the filet in a frying pan and topped it with 2 easy-over eggs…siding it with a slice of buttered toast.  It was a very nice breakfast!

Another day, another breakfast!  A previous dinner had been accompanied with a package of Sister Schubert’s Parker House Style Yeast Rolls…and I had a bunch of them leftover.  I spilt them horizontally, and then fried them in butter.  Then I mixed in some shredded sharp cheddar cheese and topped the finished rolls with my usual easy-over eggs.  The fried rolls were a big improvement on the originals and this was a very satisfying if not a carb friendly breakfast…

Our rose-breasted grosbeaks are back!  Laurie managed to capture a couple photos of one of these attractive and colorful birds at our feeder.  This is a male as the ladies of this species are attractive but not as showy as the boys.

Sometimes colloquially referred to as a “cut-throat” due to its coloration, this bird is a member of the cardinal family.  Eastern Tennessee with the Cumberland Plateau and the Smoky Mountains represent the southerly portion of this species breeding range.  These birds winter in the Caribbean, southern Mexico and Central America.  They have an average lifespan in the wild of over 7 years but can live up to 24 years in captivity.

With all the construction going on around us, we just haven’t seen many deer lately.  However the other day Laurie was up early and she spotted this small herd working its way across the area behind our house.  Our neighbor Mike assured us that this is a fairly regular happening as he sees them often when out walking their dog.  I guess we’ll just have to start getting up earlier…not!

The total U.S. white tail deer population had fallen to 300,000 or 400,000 animals in the 1930s.  Today the estimated population just in the USA is between 29,000,000 and 30,000,000.  These deer have been introduced to several large Caribbean Islands including Cuba and they can be found as far south in the Americas as Peru and Bolivia.  They are also an introduced species in such countries at the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, France and New Zealand.

Why the photo of our fireplace in action this late in the spring season?  In early May it got downright cold…with temperatures in the low 40s and upper 30s.  We lit the fireplace rather than turning on the HVAC units.  Besides, the fire provides a nice cozy feeling…

I’ll end this post with a photo of our youngest grandson, 17 year old Emmett Lee.  Here he is, really dressed up and ready to go!  He was off to the High School Prom.  Next year he’ll be senior… Time sure passes quickly.  Now vaccinated and finally mask free, we’re planning a trip to Omaha to see both of our grandsons…and their parents too.  It’s been a long time, over a year and a half since we’ve seen the family!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave