Family Visit...The Last Chapter

...Yes, our family visit has come to an end.  My cousin Nathan and his better half, Janice, have returned to the comparatively frigid north, up in the Great Lake State of Michigan.  But before they departed there was a bit more exploring to do and a lot more food to consume!

For dinner we took Nathan and Janice to our favorite Mexican Restaurant in nearby Madisonville Tennessee.  Sol Azteca is in a non-descript building located at the bend of US Hwy 411 and an overpass so the restaurant doesn't exactly stand out to the passerby.  

Janice posed for Nathan standing beside this imaginative "Day of the Dead" figure.  At my stage and age I don't celebrate this particular holiday...  I would prefer "Day of the Living" or "Rejuvenation Day".

Sol Azteca is a large restaurant and we weren't the only customers having a late dinner.  Nevertheless, this photo gives you an idea of the decor in the dining room/area.  

Sol Azteca makes the best Chorizo and Cheese Dip that we've found anywhere in the area! ($10.99) I borrowed this photo from a previous post because by the time we remembered to take a photo all we had to show of this appetizer was a bowl scraped clean of any contents. 

Here are two of our entrees... Laurie only ordered a simple quesadilla.  Note how 'small' the portions were!  I have no idea what the name is of the first entree shown above.  

But the second one was mine.  It was the Burrito San Jose...a big burrito filled with pork and steak and then topped with chorizo sausage, then sided with Mexican rice and cheese covered refried beans... ($13.25) It was a 'meat lover's burrito' for sure!  I managed to consume the burrito and all that meat...but failed when it came to the 80% of beans and all of the rice.  Excellent!

And of course, we had to have a photo of Nathan and Janice at Sol Azteca.  Other than Laurie's sister Bonnie and her husband Bill, we don't get too many visitors and we really enjoyed Janice and Nathan's time with us.

Sol Azteca Mexican Grill is located at 4263 US Hwy 411 in Madisonville Tennessee.  They are open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week.  Phone: 423-545-8080.  Website: https://solaztecamexgrill.com/.    

So...what else did we do and where did we go?  

One stop was in Lenoir City Tennessee where we spent quite a big of time looking for deals at the Good Neighbor's Shoppe.  This upscale and well run store offers nice recycled clothes for both adults and children, books, jewelry, furniture, home decor items and more...at great prices.  Check out this charitable retail operation at https://www.gnshoppe.org/.

Next it was The Shoppes on the Square in downtown Loudon Tennessee.  This store features individual booths that offer clothing, collectables, furniture, antiques, art, books, decor and much more.  Website: http://www.theshoppesonthesquare.com/. 

Our final stop for the day was at the Sweetwater Valley Farm complex near Philadelphia Tennessee.  Hence the photo shown above!  This large dairy farm offers tours of the farm's operations including milking and cheese making.  This tourist attraction also features a restaurant that served a variety of grilled cheese sandwiches and dairy products; a gift shop and; a cheese shop with samples and a number of other gifts.  We loaded up on a variety of cheeses... Website: https://sweetwatervalley.com/.

If you haven't been exposed to enough food already, you might appreciate this photo of Nathan's that caught yours truly in the process of grilling some nice big pork 'steaks' slathered with Famous Dave's Rich and Saucy BBQ Sauce.   

Yes, this is a sight that Laurie and I rarely see... Sunrise over Tellico Lake.  We normally go to bed late and get up late...8:30AM or 9AM.  But, Nathan and Janice had a long drive ahead of them...all the way home from Loudon County Tennessee to Genesee County Michigan.  They had to get an early start and Laurie took the opportunity to take the photo.

But, we were responsible for making their trip home a tad longer!  We'd touted the Buc-ee's travel center in Richmond Kentucky...and apparently Janice and Nathan had carefully listened to our favorable comments.  They'd never been to a Buc-ee's.  Later we learned that this stop added 1 1/2 hours to the trips duration. 

Buc-ee's stores are not your traditional gas station/quick stop along the highway.  The stores are huge and the variety of items is stunning.  Just the food selections offered will blow your mind.  No trucks, clean bathrooms and low gas prices.  You can learn more about Buc-ee's at https://buc-ees.com/.     

...Nathan and his bride finally made it across the Ohio/Michigan state line.  The lighting was already dimming.  Note the almost bare trees while here in East Tennessee, we were pretty much 'greened out'.  Laurie and I do like Michigan, especially in the summer.  I was born there, I regard Jackson Michigan as my 'home town', and I lived in the state for the first 25 or 26 years of my life.  I graduated from Michigan State University and we have enjoyed a number of vacations in this, the Great Lakes State.   

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

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

A Neighborhood Gathering

It had been fairly slow and quiet in the neighborhood lately...but then one of our newer couples decided to host a gathering for residents within a block or two of their home.  The host's home is just a wooded lot (the last one) between their house and our home.  Instructions were to bring chairs.  We also brought coleslaw and 'rainbow' vegetable and pasta salad.

This photo captures the back of the home and the size of the backyard of our hosts where our neighborhood gathering was held.  It was a warm day but between the overhang under the porch and the shaded corner of the yard, it was comfortable for all.

This little West Highland White Terrier is named Sassy and she was the center of attention for much of the evening.  Sassy is our host's dog and she is much loved.  Lots of petting, scratching and loving.  Laurie certainly got her dog fix!

This was the masculine half of our host family.  Since his name is Dave, it's easy for me to remember.  His wife's name is Cheri. (I am terrible with names and always have been) As you can see, Dave also served as the chef for this event.

Most of our neighborhood rests on boulders and rocks, a real challenge for builders.  As you can see, Cheri and Dave made good us of some of the boulders that came from their build site.  Those birds fit nicely in with the rocks and the greenery.

The food...and there was a lot of it...was served on these tables under the screened porch.  For those that are used to me taking a lot of food photos, sorry to disappoint you but with one exception, shown below, I failed my usual routine. 

As a committed carnivore, I had to take a photo of the protein that our host, Dave, had grilled for the group.  As you can see, we had hot dogs, hamburgers and bratwurst.  I can assure you that I definitely got my fill!

I took a couple of photos of the neighborhood group at the gathering but I know that none of the photos included everyone that was there.  Origins of the group range from New Jersey to Illinois to Florida and out to California.

Cheri, our hostess, was the organizer for the gathering.  She planned to have the group play croquet and most of the attendees tried out their skill in this old time lawn game or sport.  Dave (our host) did take a little heat from Cheri for not cutting the lawn a bit shorter.  What the heck, it made the game more challenging for the participants!

FYI, croquet was first played in England way back in 1856.  Today this sport or activity is governed by the World Croquet Federation.  The USA has a related governing body.  There are several recognized types of games that are played and a World Championship does exist.  

So...just how close to Dave and Cheri do Laurie and I live?  See the white showing through the woods.  That is our house.  Like Laurie and me, Cheri and Dave hope that that wooded lot stays as it is.  Unfortunately, there aren't any guarantees that it won't be built on.

Tellico Village and Tellico Lake were developed via the Tennessee Valley Authority's Tellico Project.  Through that project, 22,000 acres were acquired through eminent domain law.  The lake flooded several Cherokee archeological sites and many private land owners and farmers were forced to give up their land "for the public good" and at a "fair price".  Almost 60 years later, some former landowners still resent the land grab.  The resentment was worsened by TVA's sale of much of the land to developers who have long since built the community where we live.

That bit of history ties into the photo of the hole in the ground.  It's on the lot between Dave and Cheri's home and ours.  It's an old well, which probably provided water for a home or farmhouse that sat at or near this site.  For us it was an interesting find.  Another related find was an old concrete highway marker found on a lot just across the street from Dave and Cheri's house.  In the winter when the leaves are off the trees, in our back yard Laurie and I can see where a small road used to exist.  Time marches on...

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

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

An Early Summer Drive

I'm slow at developing blog posts as I'm still struggling with my photos... Now that almost everything has downloaded from Carbonite, I find myself with 3 different photo files, lots of duplication, 3 different apps to clean up or enhance the photos and a download file that duplicates much of what is in the photo files.  I'll eventually figure it out...

So, recently Laurie and I went for a drive in the country.  We did have a goal in mind...but we did stray from that objective as the afternoon went on. 

We love donkeys so we had to stop and chat with these two herd guardians... Coyotes wouldn't stand a chance with these critters on guard!  They are smart, curious and fierce.

Our objective was the High Order Mennonite Farm Market near Tellico Plains Tennessee.  There are 2 other markets operated by High Order Mennonites in our area.  One is near Delano and the other is close to Englewood and both can be easily accessed from US Hwy 411.

Our primary objective was to buy a couple of big bags of the granola that this community produces.  Laurie loves it with her yogurt.  We also conceded that we'd like a couple of fresh tomatoes.

As you can see from the photo above, we 'slightly' exceeded our goals...and our needs.  We did get a couple of nice tomatoes, 1 slicing and 1 heirloom, as well as 2 different bags of granola.  Then we strayed just a bit, adding radishes, cauliflower, a couple of yellow squash, a jar of pickled beets, a jar of strawberry jam and a jar of hot salsa.  

But we didn't stop there!  The Mennonite Market also sells plants and Laurie maintains a deck garden so she couldn't resist picking up some additions for her varied plantings.  In addition to the citronella plant, she picked up a couple of baby hyssop plantings.  

I'd never heard of hyssop so I looked it up.  It is a shrub of the mint family that is native to southern Europe, the Middle East and the area around the Caspian Sea.  It purportedly has medicinal properties that can be used as an antiseptic, cough reliever and expectorant.

So was that all there was?  Since we were all ready 'overachievers', we did think of one more stop where we intended to pick up just a couple of sweets for dessert.

So much for good intentions... Once again we strayed, this time with a stop a the Tellico Grains Bakery in Tellico Plains Tennessee.  There was a bit of chocolate involved plus the anticipated sweets for dessert.  It was like a buying frenzy!  The worst part is that Laurie's appetite has shrunk considerably...but her mind hasn't caught up yet.  That led to a couple of actions.  Chocolate vs. regular food and what she couldn't eat, became my personal commitment.  Waste Not, Want Not!

Not everything we purchased at Tellico Grains was sweet.  We also picked up a couple of very nice croissants stuffed with ham and cheese.  They served as our breakfast the following morning.

Next...the other day we tried something that that we'd purchased in our local Food Lion.

We both love BBQ spare ribs but since my idea of BBQ ribs is to slather them with sauce and grill them hot and fast...they really don't qualify as BBQ...which should be smoked low and slow.  So we decided to buy a rack of Swift's KC Style Ribs that we spotted in the meat department.

All I had to do was to do my thing, grilling these ribs and putting that 'char' on them.  Conclusion - The ribs were really 'meaty' and I had leftovers that I shredded and used in a couple of sandwiches.  They weren't falling off the bone...requiring a little 'chew', which is the way we like them.  The problem is that they were far too salty for our taste.  

If you don't try things, you'll never know if you missed a real winner!  Maybe our next meat related impulse will truly hit the spot...

I thought that I'd end this post with something 'healthy'...while utilizing some of the items we purchased at the Mennonite Farmers Market.  I can't eat greens so every now and then I cobble together a salad of sorts without the green stuff.  This 'salad' utilized the fresh slicing tomato, the cauliflower, slices of the yellow squash and bites of those fresh radishes.  I will admit that I managed to 'overcome' the healthy aspect of this salad by slathering it with Marie's Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing... At least I ate my veggies!

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

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Breakfast for Dinner and More…

…continuing with our home bound ‘happenings’.  It’s easy going time in the spring here in East Tennessee.  The good news is that Laurie will be free (we think) from her walking boot as of this coming Tuesday.  We continue to go for exploratory drives, casual meals out, etc.

The latter leads me into eating out and food in general…

We like Waffle House Restaurants.  Yes, we have had less than positive experiences in a couple of them and yes, the food isn’t gourmet nor is it particularly healthy.  Our bad experiences were due to a couple of locations we’ve visited where the staff wasn’t a team…friction was obvious and the usual friendliness was missing.  When all is well team-wise, eating at a Waffle House is like eating with a big family.  

FYI, if you sit at the counter and a true grill master is at work, that alone is worth the price of admission!  

In this case, we had breakfast for dinner at the Waffle House in Madisonville Tennessee.  Nothing fancy… Laurie had the basic breakfast with 2 eggs over medium, bacon and raisin toast, plus hash brown potatoes.

I still have never had a waffle at Waffle House… I just never get past the protein offerings.  My breakfast was just like Laurie’s…well, sort of.  I had ‘normal’ toast with my eggs and I ordered the sausage patties.  I like to make a sausage sandwich with my toast when I’m done with the eggs and the hash brown potatoes. 

Each of us had identical helpings of hash brown potatoes…way too much actually.  They were good but we’d asked for them to be a little crispy and I guess everyone has a different interpretation of ‘little’.  They were ‘crispy’ but still good.  Of course we also ordered coffee…always good…and an orange juice to wash down our evening regimen of pills.

This particular Waffle House (#2297) is located at 4625 US Hwy 411 in Madisonville Tennessee.  Website: Waffle House #2297 - MADISONVILLE, TN.  Most Waffle House Restaurants are located in the southeastern USA with a scattering in the lower Midwest, Texas and Oklahoma.  Outliers exist in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.  As of April of this year there are 1,988 Waffle House Restaurants.

While we were eating dinner at Waffle House, we suddenly noticed emergency vehicles racing down US Hwy 411…police, fire trucks and ambulances.  We hadn’t heard any crashes but when we looked out the window beside us to see where all those flashing lights had gone, we noted that they were all gathered around the entrance to the shopping center where Waffle House is located. 

At first glance, we couldn’t really see what the fuss was all about…

A closer view disclosed the reason for the emergency response.  Note the wreckage in the street plus that black SUV in the ditch.  It appeared that it had been hit/side swiped and had rolled over on its side.

Everything got more serious when we saw the wheel on the ground, the jack being used to stabilize the wreck…and all the first responders working to free one or more people from the SUV.  The good news is that no one died and the accident didn’t make the local news.

Moving on…

On another occasion I grilled a couple of really nice porterhouse steaks that we’d purchased from Fresh Market some time ago.  Nice weather is grilling weather!  I actually managed to grill them perfectly…medium rare for both of us.  The potatoes were commercially packaged cheesy potatoes…and were ‘prepped’ in the microwave. 

Yes…the steaks were very large.  The good news is that Laurie rarely eats leftovers so I have to take charge and ensure that no food items are wasted!

No surprise for anyone who knows me.  I love breakfast!  What carnivore can resist leftover strip steak, (one side of the porterhouse), paired with over-medium eggs and a slice of ‘healthy’ buttered multi-grain toast.  It was a great start for my day!

Laurie and both took photos of some of our Iris plants that are blooming in one of our front flower beds.  The flowers are both delicate and flashy! 

There are 310 accepted species of iris.  They are perennial plants, growing from creeping rhizomes or from bulbs, depending on their environment.  FYI, Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in New Jersey is a living iris museum with over 10,000 plants.  The black iris is the national flower of the Kingdom of Jordan.

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

Around the House and the Neighborhood

…taking a break from the narrative and photos from our September road trip.  This time it’s all about nature, food and personal dietary choices, weird though they may be.

For the first time ever, we have had Red-Winged Blackbirds at our feeder!  I suspect that it’s because our feeder is more open to those birds who haven’t adopted woodlands as their home.  The lot behind is now clear cut for the new home that’s being built and we’re left with just a narrow fringe of bushes and tree cover.

Generally Red-Winged Blackbirds prefer being near or at wetlands…either fresh water or salt marshes.  They have been known to gather in loose flocks of over a million birds.  The full number of breeding pairs across North and Central America may exceed 250,000,000 in an ideal year.

We’re always happy to see a Northern Flicker at our feeder.  They are very shy and are easily spooked.  The Northern or Common Flicker is a medium-sized bird in the woodpecker family.  It can be found in most of North America, parts of Central America and even on Cuba and the Cayman Islands.  Unusual for woodpeckers, this species does migrate to warmer climates in the winter.

OK…what to do with a leftover salmon patty?  When we first had them for dinner, we thought that they were just OK.  We’d purchased them from Fresh Market.  How to step it up a notch for breakfast?  I heated it in a frying pan with butter, then topped it with a slice of cheddar cheese, placed it on a slice of buttered toast and topped it with a couple of easy over eggs.  Sadly, it didn’t help…but I did finish it.  In the future we’ll make our salmon patties the old-fashioned way…from a can as per old time recipes.

Who doesn’t love spring!?  Our forsythia bush with its flowers and new leafs popping out was very eye-catching especially when viewed against the backdrop of Laurie’s bright red quince bush.

Laurie’s Lenten roses are always the first flowers to bloom in the spring.  Of course these plants are not closely related to the rose family.  It is part of the ‘hellebores’ genus of 22 species of herbaceous or evergreen perennial flowering plants.  One real plus for us is that these ‘roses’ tolerate shade well.  In nature the largest concentration of these plants are found in Europe’s Balkan Peninsula. 

Our grape hyacinths are spreading and they really add a pop of color in the early spring.  They are commonly called 'hyacinths' but they really aren’t related to that species of plants.  Grape ‘hyacinths’ are part of the Muscari genus of perennial bulbous plants that were originally native to Eurasia.  They are naturally found in woodlands or meadows but they are commonly cultivated in a variety of settings.  They don’t require much feeding or watering in the summer and they do well in full sun light or light shade.  There are 79 recognized species of Muscari related plants.

Given the medicines that I take, the only ‘safe’ green vegetable I can eat is iceberg lettuce, mainly because it not only lacks Vitamin K but also just about all other vitamins as well.  So when I really crave greens or a salad, I have to make do… In this case Laurie’s salad consisted of the lettuce, sliced carrots and yellow squash, topped with a Mexican blend of shredded cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.  I ‘cheated’ a little with a few slices of pickled jalapeno and instead of the balsamic vinaigrette, I went for Marie’s Blue Cheese Dressing.

The salads were our accompaniment to a pair of strip sirloin steaks that I’d grilled on our Weber gas grill.  There was a little pink and they were very tasty but I needed to grill them for about a minute less to achieve perfection.

OK…this is a bit weird.  The top bowl of cereal is Laurie’s.  It’s a bowl of one of the Cheerios varieties and as is her norm, she tops it with Splenda and dried cranberries, then she pours a modest amount of half and half milk over the cereal.  I do agree that her bowl of cereal is more appealing to look at than mine is... 

I do drive her crazy with my food peccadillos or peculiarities, and the way I eat dry cereals is no exception.  First of all, I put my dried cranberries on the bottom and then cover them with a mix of a local Food Lion brand cereal with Special K Oats and Honey.  I like the ‘treasure hunt’ aspect of eating cereal, seeking those dried cranberries at the bottom of the bowl as I eat.  I also load my cereal with the half and half milk so I have leftover milk to slurp when I finish my cereal.  Weird I know…but at my stage and age there’s no turning back.

Why half and half milk?  It’s simply because at the most, we have cereal once a week, more likely once every 10 days.  Regular or 2% milk would spoil and be wasted.  However the shelf life of half and half milk is a month or more.  

There was some real excitement in one of the Tellico Village neighborhoods!  Imagine looking out your front door or living room window and spotting a group of Guernsey’s wandering along or grazing on your lawn!  That one cow is looking directly at the person with the camera…thinking “What?”  

As no udders are visible, I do believe that this group consisted of a bunch of trouble making boys that were looking for greener pastures…  They were rounded up with no injuries, either to themselves or the local wranglers.  And to think that some folks worry about deer in their yards! 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave