Food, a Purchase, and More

You knew that I wouldn't stay away from one of my favorite topics...food...for very long.  No restaurants this time though!  This isn't one of my more cohesive themed posts, that's for sure.  In addition to food, I've included a birthday photo, the latest photo of the new house diagonally across from us, a cat and a club meeting, featuring a plethora of mostly old guys.

You may or may not recall the side dishes of "Mexican Street Corn" that both Laurie and I had with our meals at Bonefish Grill.  Waste not, want not!  Add cream cheese and some seasoning to the leftover corn, then side it with a little fried deli sliced chicken and then add to easy over fried eggs.  It was a substantial and satisfying start to the day.

Here is yet another makeshift/make-do breakfast.  We'd made a quick meal using some pasta, garlic butter sauce and canned chicken (drained, seasoned and fried in butter).  Since there were leftovers, all I had to do was reheat the pasta and chicken in a frying pan and then add a couple of easy over eggs. 

Laurie has been working on weight loss and lowering her A1C as well.  She's been using Mounjaro and her appetite has been significantly reduced.  This is an example of one of her smaller and healthier meals.  Half a ham and cheese sandwich and 2 slices of locally raised tomato, a little blue cheese dressing and fresh basil.  She has lost a lot of weight!

Moving back to the not so healthy, we spotted a new cookie shop in Farragut's Turkey Creek shopping area.  It's name, as you might guess from the box, is Crumbl.  Our feedback is that while the cookies were tasty, they were also small...and at about $2.90 each with tax, they were ridiculously expensive.

Laurie and I love gyros, schwarma, donair, al pastor or doner kebab, whatever name you prefer.  We purchased these pre-packed gyros at Costco...and we were hopeful.  Good gyros are hard to find around here.  I heated them in a frying pan with a little butter...grapeseed oil would have worked to.  After browning them up a bit and frying some pita bread that we'd purchased at Food Lion, we plated them over cucumber slices and diced tomatoes.  Laurie added sliced onion to hers...  

This was my serving of gyros.  We had also purchased a big tub of tzatziki sauce while we were at Costco...and we both lathered it on!  Of course I added Tabasco to my serving.  Conclusion...this was a very satisfying gyros experience and we'll do it again... 

I'll bet that you'd never guess what this group is all about... Note the age of the attendees as well as the preponderance of males.  It is a meeting of the Knoxville Philatelic Society...i.e., stamp collectors.  While it is a satisfying hobby, most stamp collectors are old guys.  In addition any stamp collector that started out collecting stamps as a long term investment has been badly disappointed.  Unless you bought high end stamps, (like the upside down US Airmail), this is a satisfying hobby with no hope for a financial return.  Despite this fact, it is estimated that there are about 5 million stamp collectors in the USA. 

I think that Laurie likes my stamp collecting efforts.  It 'keeps me out of the bars' and she has come to an agreement with me that whatever I spend on stamps...she spends an equal amount on stuff she wants.

We love cats and dogs...but we like them best when they belong to other humans.  This is "Tiger" and he belongs to our friend Glen.  Laurie took this photo the last time we paid Glen a visit and went out to lunch.

I'll end this post with an important milestone.  Our friend and neighbor Sue recently celebrated a significant birthday.  We were happy to be part of the celebration... Happy Birthday Sue!  We're looking forward to our next outing with you and Steve.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them...

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Dinner with Friends at a Popular Local Restaurant

Our friends Sue and Steve like to try new restaurants and so do we.  I've developed a list of potential dining options, included venues that Laurie and I have never been to as well as some others that we decided that we should revisit.

The Patio Italian Restaurant across from the Monroe County Courthouse in nearby Madisonville Tennessee fit the latter category.  We hadn't eaten there in a long time, but we understood the the menu had been upgraded a bit so it was time to check it out.  As per their  website, The Patio Restaurant bills itself as a full-service restaurant that offers Italian food and American meals, but looking further on the website, they also mention Greek and Mediterranean food.

At first glance, one has to ask themself, where's the patio?  It must be at the rear of the building....

Wrong again!  The patio for The Patio Restaurant is under a large overhang under the second level of the building.

This is what greets diners as they enter the restaurant!  Obviously cakes, cheesecake and cannoli rule this display case.  Unfortunately, this is about as close as we came to any desserts following our meals.

The indoor dining area was spaced nicely with lots of room between tables.  The area could use a little more Mediterranean/Italian decor as it was a bit non-descript.  

Now onto the dining options and what everyone ordered...

While I know what Laurie and I ordered for dinner, I've lost track who ate what between Steve and Sue.  One of them ordered the Baked Eggplant Parmesan. ($10.00) This consisted of fresh eggplant breaded and fried until golden, then covered with marinara sauce and then topped with a blend of cheeses.  This entree came with a side of spaghetti.

The other meal ordered by Steve or Sue was the 10 oz. Chopped Steak. ($12.00) The fresh ground beef patty was covered with sauteed onions, mushrooms and provolone cheese.  Diners have a choice of sides including mixed vegetables, rice, French fries, spaghetti or scalloped potatoes.

Both Sue and Steve said that they enjoyed their meals.

Laurie has been eating light meals lately and in this case, it was light enough that no leftovers came home for me to later apply my 'waste not, want not' philosophy as regards food.  She ordered the Gyros on Pita. ($8.75) A blend of beef and lamb was sliced and layered on the pita bread and then it was served with lettuce, tomatoes and onion.  Tzatziki sauce was on the side.  Laurie needed 2 containers of the sauce...75 cents for the extra sauce.

Laurie gave positive feedback from the authentic tasting gyro meat, adding that the tzatziki sauce was good but as the norm for Tennessee, it lacked the garlic 'bite' that we enjoy.

For my entree I went with the Alfredo Carbonara. ($12.00) Creamy Alfredo sauce mixed with ham and bacon was served over the fettuccini pasta and I added grilled chicken to the mix. ($2.25) I truly enjoyed my meal.

The menu at The Patio is fairly extensive, featuring chicken, salmon, shrimp, filet beef tips, vegan dishes, spaghetti, lasagna, sandwiches, salads and a plethora of appetizers.  Service was good and the food was above average for Italian cuisine in East Tennessee.  It is a nice local neighborhood dining venue.

The Patio Italian Restaurant is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 AM until 8 PM.  The restaurant is located at 107 College Street in Madisonville Tennessee.  Their website is https://the italianpatio.com/.  

That's all for now.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.  I am slowly beginning to figure out my photo issues but it is taking longer than I thought.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

"Out of the Fire" – Easton Maryland

...continuing with our family road trip to the Delmarva Peninsula.  We finished exploring downtown Easton and we checked into the Holiday Inn Express, which would be our ‘home’ for three nights. 

Then it was time for dinner.  In my pre-trip research I’d listed several possible destinations as dinner possibilities.  They had included Doc’s Downtown Grille…where we had lunch; Hunters Tavern; The BBQ Joint; Legal Assets, and Out of the Fire.  Our group reviewed the on-line reviews and the menus.  Out of the Fire was the winner…

‘Out of the Fire’ occupies a remodeled former home at 111 South Washington Street in Easton.  This restaurant’s motto is “Eat Well. Be Well. Give Back.”  As per the restaurant’s website, they are “committed to community enhancement by providing interesting and creative cuisine while engaging in environmental and social sustainability”.

We did like the idea that they had repurposed a home rather than building a new structure.  Note the enclosed patio dining in the second photo.   . 

Inside Out of the Fire, the dining areas were generally broken up into an assortment of rooms of different sizes.  The only bar I remember seeing that was smaller than the one in the first photo was one we encountered in a bed and breakfast in Scotland several years ago.

Our little group was seated on the second floor in a room that we had all for ourselves for most of our meal.  As you can see from the photos, it was a bright and cheery dining environment.  Unfortunately for me, our helpful wait staff offered to take a group photo.  I’m not exactly a ‘fashionista’ and since I’m retired, most of my shirts come from Tractor Supply and carry the ‘Carhartt’ brand…and most of those shirts don’t involve a collar.

…on to the food!

We didn’t really order individual entrees… We’d had a big lunch and we decided to pick and choose items that we could share.  The first thing we ordered was the House-made Focaccia Bread served with olive oil. ($6.00) It was excellent.

We also ordered the Grilled Squid. ($15.00) It came with anchovy-caper aioli, guindilla peppers, lemon and parsley.  It was nice but it is hard to beat my memory of a similar offering from the Erie Café in Chicago. 

FYI, Guindilla peppers are a pepper from the Basque country of Spain and France.  They are normally eaten as a tapa or as a pizza topping and they are only mildly spicy.    

Another plate to grace our table was this pile of Prince Edward Island Mussels in a spicy tomato-caper broth. ($19.00) We also ordered more focaccia bread when we ordered these nice mussels…

Keep the food coming!  Next we shared the Meze Platter. ($20.00) It consisted of hummus, olive tapenade, beet-pistachio dip, tzatziki, goat cheese and grilled naan.  It was quite good and it kept all of us sampling the goodies for quite a while.

Meze or mezze?  Meze is Turkish and Mezze is used more often in Greek.  Both stem from Ottoman Turkish which in turn stems from the Persian ‘maze’ for “taste or snack”

Hey, Bill and I ‘had to’ have some serious protein with our evening repast… So we ordered the Grilled Butchers Steak...medium rare. ($34.00) It came with fingerling potatoes (not shown), pickled Fresno chili peppers, shallots, arugula, egg and herb oil.  It was a quality piece of meat that everyone tried and Bill and I especially enjoyed it!

Yes…I know!  We should have stopped eating already!  Nope!  The problem was that we viewed the dessert menu and noted some unusual house-made ice creams.  We all have a weakness for ice cream and we couldn’t pass up this opportunity… We ordered a scoop each of the Ricotta, Limoncello  FroYo, Brown Sugar and Sweet Corn ice cream. ($5.00 per scoop) I particularly enjoyed the Brown Sugar version.  I don’t know what we expected, but the sweet corn ice cream tasted like sweet corn.

We did enjoy our meal or ‘greatly extended snack’ made of shared types and styles of food.  Out of the Fire gets 4.5 stars from us.  FYI, they also offer a variety of pizzas.  This restaurant is also open for lunch.  To learn more and to view the menus, go to Restaurant | Out of the Fire | Easton, MD. 

FYI, Travel and Leisure Magazine has named Easton as Maryland’s Most Charming Town”, where “big city cool meets small town America”.  Interestingly, much of the town’s tourist development was driven by Bluepoint Hospitality Group…which invested tens of millions of dollars into the town.

That’s all for now.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Just Looking Around Chincoteague…

After our somewhat unsatisfactory snack at Ropewalk, it was time for us to check in to our accommodations for the next 2 nights. 

 For some reason, I never did take a photo of the main building/offices for Key West Cottages.  Perhaps it was because my attention was focused on the colorful collection of cottages along the shore and around the facility’s pool.

At this point it wasn’t the prettiest day and a cool breeze was blowing.  I did convince Bill, Bonnie and Laurie to pose on the front porch of our cottage.

The cottage was attractive on the outside and nicely appointed on the inside too!  This view is from our front door toward the little kitchenette with the table, chairs, etc.  Straight back is one bedroom and the other bedroom is through the door on the right.  There are 2 well maintained bathrooms.  

The deck overlooking the water is off the first bedroom.  Laurie just ‘had’ to take a photo of yours truly on the deck overlooking part of the Chincoteague Channel and the VA Hwy 175 Bridge from the mainland.  Chincoteague Bay is on the other side of the bridge. 

Amenities at Key West Cottages include a pool and a beach area overlooking the Chincoteague channel.  You can access the Atlantic Ocean in either direction.  The feet in the photo belong to sisters Laurie and Bonnie.  They ‘chilled’ on the beach for a bit before we started further exploration…  To learn more about Key West Cottages, go to Home - Key West Cottages (kwcottages.com).

The sun came out a bit as the day went on.  So why is Chincoteague a popular tourist attraction?  There are 2 primary reasons.  One of those draws is the Chincoteague Ponies and the annual “Pony Swim” and auction.  The other is the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on adjacent Assateague Island.  The refuge is home to the ponies and a very popular recreational beach.  At the end of September, the number of tourists around was minimal but the bird life was plentiful.  On this first drive through the Refuge, we had no luck in spotting the famous ponies.

There is a $10 daily fee for autos…but my Lifetime Senior Parks Pass had us covered.

Laurie took this photo at far southern end of the beach…at least as far south as a vehicle can venture.  Love the calming sound of the waves…

Upon returning to the main portion of Chincoteague, we ventured north on Main Street to its end.  Along the way, we stopped to take a look at the Captain Timothy Hill House.  It was built ca. 1800.  The first mention of Captain Hill was when he recorded a deed with Accomack County for 30 acres and ‘appendiaries’.  This 1.5 story cabin measures 17 feet 4 inches by 16 feet 4 inches.  At one point the home had a wooden chimney.  It is a rare surviving example of log plank construction in Virginia. 

By 1836 there were 26 houses on Chincoteague Island.  This house is the only survivor.  The home remained in the Hill family until 1979.  The final Hill family birth that took place in this home occurred in 1930.

Then we drove back in the other direction, following Main Street all the way to the south end of the island.  More cabins and other accommodations were noted along the way.  At the end of the road, we noted a number of commercial and charter fishing boats.  The island has been home to commercial fishing for hundreds of years.  Currently the commercial harvest from the sea is focused on blue crabs, lobsters, hard clams, oysters, flounder, monkfish, spot, croakers, sea trout, drum, bluefish, striped bass and sharks.

It was getting a bit darker out so it was time to find some place to eat dinner before retreating to our cozy cottage.

We decided to try something other than seafood.  We’d noticed a couple of locations offering pizza so we looked them up on the Internet and chose the Famous Pizza and Sub Shop.  Note: This photo as well as the next two were borrowed from the Internet.

It certainly isn’t a fancy restaurant or even a fancy pizza joint.  Order at the counter and pay.  Famous Pizza isn’t a diner nor is it a drive-in…although it was doing a nice take out business.  Décor wise, it fits Guy Fieri’s definition of a ‘dive’.

But none of that is really important… It’s all about the food and the pizza!

The fact is that the pizza at Famous Pizza was very good indeed.  The price was right too!  Our Medium Pizza with Pepperoni and Italian Sausage was $15.99…and it was more than we could eat.  Bonnie and Bill ordered a medium size Greek Style Pizza with feta cheese, tomato, onion and black olives. ($16.49) It was more than they could finish too… We talked about taking it back to the cottage and keeping it in the refrigerator for breakfast…but that wasn’t something the ladies would want to start their day.

The menu belies the name.  Famous Pizza and Sub Shop offers much more than the name indicates.  There are seafood items on the menu, baked pasta dishes, burgers, salads, sandwiches, gyros and more.  I think that this restaurant’s website shows their measure of success in Chincoteague.  Check it out at Famous Pizza Family Restaurant | Our Family Feeding Your Family For Over 25 Years (famouspizzaci.com).

That’s about it for now.  Our search for the famous Chincoteague Ponies will resume in my next post.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 

The Greek Islands Restaurant – Omaha Nebraska

We searched for a restaurant to satisfy our need for dinner after our exploration of the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge and the town of Blair Nebraska.  We decided to stop at a Greek restaurant that was well rated on both Yelp and TripAdvisor.

The backstory for Laurie and me is that we’ve been looking for a good Greek meal ever since we moved to East Tennessee from Chicago back in mid-2009.  Quality ethnic food is hard to find where we live and our trips to other towns in the southeastern USA haven’t yielded the Greek food that we so enjoyed in Chicago. 

So…we were hopeful as we drove south from Blair toward our dining destination.

The exterior of Greek Islands in Omaha is simple…except for the sign with the USA and Greek flags prominently displayed along with the restaurant’s name…

Bill and George Sgourakis were born in Greece.  The family was poor enough that they couldn’t even visit the Greek Islands.  The brothers immigrated to Omaha in 1966.  They worked in a meat packing plant in South Omaha until they’d saved enough money that they could open a restaurant.  Greek Islands has been open since 1983… That is amazing longevity for any restaurant!

The dining area in Greek Islands is open and the tables are well spaced.  They have a full bar…and they are stocked with Grecian wines.  Greek murals and mirrors, as well as sconces topped with wine bottles, provide the interior décor.

Our server was very patient with the 6 of us… As none of us had eaten Greek cuisine in quite a long time, we ordered a lot of food.  Sadly, we also were a bit overeager…diving into the two appetizers pictured above before remembering to take photos. 

The first photo shows what was left of the ‘Feta Sticks’, lightly breaded Feta cheese served with homemade tomato basil sauce. ($10.50) The second picture features Skordalia dip (a garlic potato mash up), with fried zucchini. ($11.49)

It was all good and it was quickly consumed!

I think that we ordered 3 orders of “Flaming Saganaki”. ($9.50 each) This imported Greek cheese is cooked to a golden brown and it was served flaming at our table.

When we next visit The Greek Islands, we will want to order a couple different appetizers, and there are many choices.  Laurie and I are thinking that the pan fried ‘kalamari’, the grilled ‘octopothi’ and the Tiropita…a Greek cheese pie wrapped in phyllo.

As you may notice, only 3 entrees are shown in this post.  I stayed with the Greek entrees only for the purposes of this post and one of the meals shown was ordered by more than just one person.

The entrée shown above is the Greek Chicken Gyro. ($9.99) Marinated chicken breasts are grilled and sliced, then topped with onions, tomatoes and Tzatziki sauce.  The gyros were sided by some very tasty Greek Potatoes and that side salad with olives, artichoke leaves, feta cheese and Greek Island’s homemade house dressing. ($4.50 for both) Sorry about the half eaten piece of fried feta cheese… I haven’t learned the function that removes unwanted objects from photos.

As for myself, I went ‘all in’ and ordered the Chicken Riganato, a half chicken with all white meat.  That meant that I was served both chicken breasts and the wings… This wasn’t a small chicken so it was a real platter of poultry! ($17.25) The chicken was baked with lemon, olive oil and oregano and it did come with an order of those Greek potatoes.  It was excellent!  I do admit that I took a complete half chicken breast and some potatoes back to David and Amy’s home as leftovers…

The next time we visit The Greek Islands, I think that I’d order the Marithes (Smelt seasoned and breaded, then pan-fried with olive oil, lemon and oregano, then served with Skordalia dip.  Laurie and I both love Skordalia as well as Tzatziki sauce.

It was a tough decision, ordering the baked Greek style chicken instead of the Gyro Platter.  But I knew that Laurie would never be able to finish a gyro platter by herself and I’d have plenty of chances for gyro meat.  This is a combination of lamb and beef with spices, stacked and roasted on a vertical spit and then thinly sliced. 

I convinced her to order the Gyro Platter ($10.49) instead of the Gyro Sandwich. ($8.75) The sandwich version is topped with onions, tomatoes and Tzatziki sauce and it’s served on pita bread.  The platter is a larger version plus it includes feta cheese and olives.

As you might have guessed, we were too full to order one of the several Greek desserts on the menu.  Maybe next time!

All of us were really happy with the service and the food at The Greek Islands.  On the way out, I noticed that one of the brothers was sitting at a table with his contemporaries near the door.  I stopped and told him that it was the best Greek food that I’d had in the last 14 years! 

I ran across a listing of the Yelp’s top 100 restaurants in the entire USA from 2022.  Greek Island was number 96, a major accomplishment when you consider how many restaurants are listed/rated in Yelp! 

The Greek Islands Restaurant is located at 3821 Center Street in Omaha Nebraska.  Phone: 402-346-1528.  Their website can be found at Greek Islands Restaurant (greekislandsomaha.com).

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave