Eighth Annual Labor Day Party and Wine Tasting!

Finally it was the big day…Bob and Nona’s 8^th annual Labor Day Party and Wine Tasting.  Of course, what I was looking forward to the most was the food!

Our host and hostess, Bob and Nona…good friends for many, many years!

Nona and Bob’s daughter Debbie and her husband Rich were the co-hosts.  Debbie’s specialty was organization and planning while Rich served as the master chef and sommelier for the event.

Debbie still finds it challenging to call me Dave or David… She tended to call me or refer to me as “Mr.” I can only hope that she wasn’t calling me Mr. in deference to my age!

This was the set up for the actual wine tasting, although I must admit that a fair amount of other wine was consumed prior to the tasting itself!  Note that the bottles are concealed in red cloth bags and they each have number assigned to them…

For those who are into red wine, you may be interested in the names of the wines selected by Rich for this event:

·       Briego Crianza Ribera Del Duero 2009.  Rated 91 by Wine Advocate.

·       R Collection Lot 1 Cabernet Sauvignon 2013.  Rated 90 by Wine Spectator.

·       Conte Di Bregonzo Amarone 2012.  Rated 92 by Wine Enthusiast.

·       Trapiche Oak Cask Malbec 2013.  Rated 89 by Wine Spectator.

·       Layers Barossa Shiraz 2013.  Rated 90 by Wine Advocate.

·       Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw Merlot 2013.  Rating?  The famous 2 Buck Chuck

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      In addition to Bob, Nona, Rich, Debbie, Laurie and me, these were the guests that attended the 8^th Annual Labor Day Event.  Most of the attendees were from their neighborhood.  Bob and Nona are really lucky to have such great and caring neighbors.

Dawn Marie, (with her wine), came up to Clearwater from Miami.  Laurie and I came from East Tennessee.  Debbie and Rich live on Long Island as do one of the other couples in attendance…

Time for the actual wine tasting itself!  Everyone had a score sheet.  The goal was to pick which wine was which just by tasting them, write down the number on the bottle by the wine’s name, and rate them from 1 to 5. (Best to least liked)

In a wine tasting back in East Tennessee, I’d won the contest by guessing right on all of the wines.  The irony in that is that I can’t drink red wine as it can bring on a bout with the gout!     

And the winner is…our Host, Bob!  He managed to unseat his son-in-law Rich who had won the tasting contest the 3 previous years…  Note the money in Bob’s hand.  Each attendee put a dollar in the pot, winner take all!  I managed to come in tied for 3^rd place…with only 1 correct guess.  Bob had 3 right… 

I don’t recall which wine came out on top with the best overall score but I do recall that 2 Buck Chuck came out fairly well…

As I’m more of an ‘eater’ than I am a drinker, this is the part of the party that really flipped my switch!  The ‘official’ appetizers were the Crab and Corn Chowder, Corn Bread, Shrimp with cocktail sauce and Richie’s Grilled Hot Wings… (Terrific Richie!)

However, as you can see from the collage, the neighbors provided an additional overwhelming variety of tempting goodies! 

  

How about a ‘bit’ more food!  As you can see by the signs that Laurie printed, the entrees included Blackened Grouper, Maine Lobster Claws with Drawn Butter, Biscuits and Barbeque Recipe Homemade Potato Salad and Roasted Corn Off the Cob… Wow!  Talk about a plethora of good food… Laurie was especially happy as Lobster is her favorite food and I loved the Grouper! 

Note: Additional wine flowed with the meal and beyond!

Oh yes…there were a number of desserts for those who could still eat after all of the other food and wine!  There was Key Lime Pie, Peach Pie and Blueberry Pie...as well as Blondies and Brownies.  I did manage a brownie and 1.5 pieces of pie.  Following the wine, dinner and dessert, a few other beverages were sampled just to round out the evening!

This was a great party with great hosts and fun folks!  We had a policeman, techies, a pilot, 2 flight attendants, an exectutive secretary, management personnel and a bunch of retired folks as well… It was a great mix!  Many thanks to Bob and Nona for inviting Laurie, Dawn Marie amd me and insisting that we actually show up this year! Thank you Bob & Nona & Rich & Debbie for a wonderful party with great friends & neighbors! Excellent!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit! 

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

New Donut Shop in Lenoir City TN

We generally avoid donuts, pastries, pies, cakes, ice cream and we limit our intake of carbs…such as bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, etc. 

But from time to time, we do make an exception!

This is the new Master Donuts shop at 507 East Broadway Street, (US Hwy. 11), in Lenoir City Tennessee.  It just opened on July 24^th… Our visit was in early August.

I did a bit of research on the Internet and apparently there are a few other Master Donut locations scattered around.  While I couldn’t find a company or franchise website, I did find Master Donut locations in Clinton and LaFollette Tennessee as well as another in London Kentucky.  I also noted a newspaper article announcing that Master Donut was opening in Harriman Tennessee.

Master Donuts’ location in Lenoir City was previously occupied by a Mexican bakery.  The interior of the shop is plain and simple…a minimal investment…which will make it easier to realize an operating profit.  There are a few tables and chairs should customers decide to enjoy their purchases on site.

This is a close up of one of the two bakery display counters at Master Donut.  There are lots of great looking choices!

In addition to donuts, muffins and coffee, Master Bakery offers breakfast bagels, biscuits and croissants as well as a pig in blanket. 

 This is the menu for Master Donut.  We thought that the pricing was quite reasonable and we welcomed the opportunity to buy breakfast or lunch instead of just the delicious sweet stuff.

There are a couple of shaded picnic tables at one side of Master Donut…and I’m sure that they fill up early in the morning and at lunch time.

Yes!  You’re right… We did lose it.  It’s been a long, long time since we have had a donut!  So we loaded up…with 2 Sausage, Egg and Cheese Croissants, a glazed donut, a couple of cake donuts, a custard filled donut, a bear claw and an apple fritter. 

Move over Dunkin’ Donuts!  Master Donuts are far superior to your products and the breakfast croissants kick butt over any of the fast food versions…

Master Donut is open Monday through Saturday from 5 AM to 5 PM and on Sunday from 5 AM to 1 PM.  Phone: 865-816-6058.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them… Warning!  Enlarge the last photo at your own risk!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Party Prep and a Great Meal!

Continuing with our visit and party time with our long-time friends, Bob and Nona, plus their family and some great neighbors…

Now this is something that you don’t see every day!  It’s Bob actually working in the kitchen…or anywhere for that matter.  I may be the only person who does less physical labor than Bob!  I really can’t remember performing any pre-party tasks other than running out for pizza and then off to the store for something needed for the party. 

Note the chicken wings in the foreground.  As was the corn Bob was stripping, the wings were being prepped for the big wine tasting party on the Sunday before Labor Day.  

 

   

Here are Nona and Laurie in the kitchen working on party prep and a group dinner for the pre-party crowd.  I made sure that I included this photo of Laurie as she ended up taking almost all of the photos.  This is the only proof I have that she was actually in Clearwater Florida for this annual food and wine blow out!

Nona at work!  If I’m not mistaken, she was in the process of preparing the pasta sauce for the pre-party dinner. (The day before)

Have I mentioned that Nona is short?!  I always remind her of the fact that she’s still short and her retort is “You’re still bald Dave”!  If I get too much out of line, her patented slam is “Cork it Dave!”

Laurie took the photos again…from both ends of the dinner table.  In the second photo Bob and Nona are at the left and their daughter Debbie and her husband Rich are on the right.  When I first met Debbie, she was only 17 years old… 

FYI…Nona can really cook!  Italian food is her specialty.  Every meal that she’s ever served us was very good, so my hopes were high!  We started our dinner with a nice salad and some good bread and butter.

This spicy cauldron of goodness was the next item that caught our eye!  Bob said that it’s his favorite spaghetti sauce…

Of course you have to have some spaghetti noodles too…

This is the finished product!  This is Chicken Big Mamou,  which Nona adapted from one of Chef Paul Prudhomme’s cookbooks.  The only change that Nona made to the recipe that I’m aware of, was done on my behalf… She left out the finely chopped bell peppers. (Thank you, Nona!)

This pasta dish produces some ‘heat’, a trait that Laurie and I both really like.  I managed to consume 2 heaping helpings of Chicken Big Mamou!  

To check out Paul Prudhomme’s recipe for this terrific pasta dish, you can go to https://www.chefpaul.com/site.php?pageID=300&view=390.  We’ve already picked up a bottle of Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Poultry Magic at Publix Supermarket so we can make up a batch of goodness for ourselves!

 

The ‘Big Party Reveal’ will be posted this coming Saturday, 9/19/15.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit! Plus, thank you Bob & Nona & Debbie & Rich, for a terrific dinner & Wine tasting party to follow!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Arbor Lodge – Nebraska City NE

Our next bit of exploration in Nebraska City was focused on a home that is listed in the “National Geographic Guide to America’s Great Houses”.  That publication lists 150 outstanding mansions/homes across the country that are open to the public…

OK…what does this sign on the side of a building in Nebraska City have to do with a mansion?  It’s all in the name!  We’ve all heard about Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate, the Hearst Castle, Rockefeller’s estate, George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Jefferson’s home at Monticello.  Big money is needed to build mansions and large estates…and apparently salt was a profitable business to get into.

This is Arbor Lodge.  Between 1902 and 1905, Joy Morton, founder of the Morton Salt Company dedicated himself to expand his parent’s comparatively modest home in Nebraska City.  It was transformed into this huge, 52-room neoclassical mansion.  You might notice a resemblance to another famous US home…The White House in Washington D.C. 

Joy Morton’s parents, Julius (J.) Sterling and Caroline Morton moved here from Detroit in 1855.  When it was built, their original 4-room home was said to be the only wood frame house between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains.  That lack of forests on the plains led to Sterling’s life-long focus on the value and planting of trees.  Sterling’s efforts led to the creation of Arbor Day.  Back in 1885, the state of Nebraska made Sterling’s birthday, April 22, a legal holiday.   

J. Sterling’s study/library is warm and definitely masculine.

Arbor Lodge isn’t as luxuriously furnished as one might expect.  It’s warm and comfortable, at least for a 53-room mansion, but Joy Morton kept many of the older, simpler 19^th Century furnishings as reminders of his parents.  Given the fact that he’d expanded the house around his parent’s original home, the fact that he kept many of their furnishing isn’t a surprise.  

The house uses a lot of dark wood with green, red and soft yellows…all in keeping with Sterling Morton’s love of the forest and trees in general.  In the first year that Arbor Day was celebrated anywhere in the USA, over 1,000,000 trees were planted in Nebraska!

Factoids:

·       William Jennings Bryant and Grover Cleveland both stayed at this home.

 

·       J. Sterling Morton served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture.

Arbor Lodge is fully furnished with Morton family artifacts, furniture, books and artwork. 

The mansion is centerpiece of Nebraska’s 72-acre Arbor Lodge State Historical Park.  The park also includes an arboretum, Italian terraced garden, a log cabin, hiking trails, and a carriage house.  Of course there are trees everywhere in the park.  Laurie and I enjoyed that fact that many trees had plaques mounted on them that told us what species they were…

The Park is located at 2600 Arbor Avenue in Nebraska City.  Phone: 402-873-7222.  Website: www.arbordayfarm.com.

J. Sterling Morton became the editor of the local newspaper, “the Nebraska City News”.  He served briefly in the Nebraska Territorial House of Representatives (1855–1856).  He was appointed Secretary of Nebraska Territory by President James Buchanan on July 12, 1858, a position he held until 1861.  Sterling also served as Acting Governor of Nebraska for a brief period from December 5, 1858, to May 2, 1859.

I failed to keep a brochure which might have been helpful in describing the various rooms in the house.  I ‘assumed’ that I’d be able to find some detail on line…so much for assumptions!

The history of Arbor Lodge, beginning with the arrival of J. Sterling and Caroline at Nebraska City through its various stages of development and expansion is quite interesting.  The house morphed from a simple little house to the mansion it is now and the following publication not only tells the story, it shows several photos of the house over the years.  http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1992Arbor_Lodge.pdf.

With its 52 rooms, our tour of Arbor Lodge took a little while.  The park is free but it costs $7.00 for adults and $4.00 for older children to tour the home.  You are on your own for the tour.  Visitors wander from room to room looking, photographing and exploring as long as they want. 

The interior of the home is well maintained but a bit of maintenance is due on the exterior.  The gardens also needed some attention.  Given state budgets these days, I’m sure that the cost of maintaining a property like this is a challenge…

This single lane bowling alley is located in the basement of Arbor Lodge.

J. Sterling and Caroline’s son, Joy Morton, (September 27, 1855 – May 9, 1934), was the one who founded the Morton Salt Company as well as the famous Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois.

At 15, Joy Morton began to manage the family farm and estate.  He also took a job at the local bank. At age 18, he fell ill with spinal meningitis.  Needing physical exercise and an outdoor environment for full recovery, he farmed his own land for two years.  Later, he worked for railroads in Omaha, Nebraska and Aurora, Illinois before joining a Chicago salt distribution company in 1880.  By 1886 he owned the firm, naming it Joy Morton and Company, and branched out into the distribution and processing of agricultural products in Nebraska and Illinois.  In 1910 he incorporated his salt firm as the Morton Salt Company.

Factoid:

·       Among Morton’s brands are Morton Salt and Argo Starch.  Morton also supported the development of the teletype and formed the Morkrum Company with the inventor Howard Krum.  The company was later renamed Morkrum-Kleinschmidt and then Teletype Corporation.  It was sold to American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1930 for $30,000,000. (over $2,000,000,000 in today’s dollars)

Flowers were everywhere around Arbor Lodge even though some species were past their prime.  Laurie and I took a lot of flower photos... 

In 1922, Joy Morton established The Morton Arboretum on 178 acres of land adjacent to his estate in Lisle, Illinois.  Today, The Morton Arboretum has grown to 1,700 acres.  The Morton Arboretum  displays woody plants that grow in temperate zones around the world.

 

After his father's death in the early 1900's, Joy hired an architect to redesign and enlarge Arbor Lodge into the 52-room mansion that it is today.  For many years he used it as his family's summer home.  After he began his own arboretum in Illinois, Morton honored his father by giving Arbor Lodge, the family estate known as the birthplace of Arbor Day, to the State of Nebraska as its first state park.

This beautiful carriage house is located behind the Lodge itself… It contains a number of early carriages and coaches as well as other items related to early transportation in Nebraska.  The first carriage above is a Brougham and the second is just what it looks like…a stage coach.

Factoid:

·       A brougham, (pronounced "broom" or "brohm") was a light, four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage.  It was named after Scottish jurist Lord Brougham, who had one built to his specification by London coachbuilder Robinson and Cook ca. 1838.  One hallmark of a brougham carriage is the installation of a front window so passengers could see where they were going…

J. Sterling Morton imported trees from all over the world in order to test their suitability to create windbreaks and otherwise break up the monotony of the Great Plains.  Arbor Lodge is surrounded by 270 varieties of trees and shrubs.  These include apple orchards with many varieties of apple trees, plus acres of oaks, maples, chestnuts, and pines…including at least 10 state-champion trees.

Factoids:

·       The small Spanish village of Villanueva de la Sierra is the town where??? was held the first Arbor Day around the world, an initiative launched in 1805, by the local priest with the enthusiastic support of the entire population.

·       Arbor Day was popularized globally via publicity and presentation by American conservationists.  Today, it is celebrated around the world on different dates by many nations in Africa, South America, Central America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

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

Thanks for stopping by to see what we’ve been up to!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 

Forty-Four Years and Counting!

Time flies when you’re having fun… In the fall of 1970 while living in St. Louis Missouri, I started working for Venture Stores, a division of May Department Stores.  Shortly after I began my new job, I met Bob, his daughter Debbie and then Bob’s wife Nona.  Despite numerous jobs and moves to different cities for a plethora of retailers, we have kept in touch over the years and have maintained our friendship…

This photo of Bob and Nona was taken several years ago when Laurie visited them at their home in Clearwater Florida. (Love the purse Bob!)

Early this summer, Bob and Nona ‘threatened us’, telling us that if we didn’t come down and join them for their annual Labor Day Party, they would never speak to us again!  It was definitely time for another road trip!

Much more about this latest trip will follow… However I’m going to focus on our visit with our friends and their big blow out Labor Day Event before I backtrack to the other portion of our early September adventures…

Our visit with Bob and Nona was spread over 3 days… On the first evening, we met them at their house and then the expanded group proceeded to what they described as “The No Name Italian Restaurant”.  As you can see, it really does have a name…but it is different than any restaurant we’ve eaten in anywhere!
   

Welcome to La Trattoria Da Gaetano in Dunedin Florida…

Twelve of us met for a 'pre-pre-Labor Day Party Dinner'!  Laurie was the photographer…and she took photos of the group from both ends of the table. 

As you can see, La Trattoria Da Gaetano isn’t a fancy place.  It’s definitely ‘old school’ in appearance and it’s located in a strip shopping center.  The first plus was that despite the fact that the restaurant offers wine to its patrons, diners can B.Y.O.B. (bring your own bottle…or in this case bottles) of wine!  

  

As I said earlier, La Trattoria Da Gaetano is definitely different!  The corner table in this photo is loaded with ingredients for appetizers and entrees.  

This is Gaetano…with his cart of goodies.  He is the proprietor, he is from Italy, and he is definitely a character!  What makes this restaurant really different is that there is no menu…

Gaetano with his cart is the walking talking menu!  When he has everyone’s attention, he talks diners through his many and varied offerings for the evening.  He actually shows his patrons most of the meat or seafood he has on hand.  He will make his customers just about any Italian offering they want…done anyway they want!  He told us that if he doesn’t have it, he’d go out and buy it…

This is a representative collage of the many meals that were ordered by our group.  Laurie had a veal dish…excellent!  Dawn Marie had a Veal Shank…very good!  I had Shrimp Fra Diablo (extra spicy).  It was very good and very spicy too!  An order of Lasagna was shared by several people…and raved about too.  The steaks were enormous.  No complaints from anyone!

I have no idea about the cost of our feast…but I’m sure that it wasn’t inexpensive!  Bob and I and our spouses and Dawn didn’t have to pay for our meals.  We sure appreciated this over-the-top treat from Dave and Rich!  I must admit that as a diner paying for his meal, I would be more comfortable if I knew the price of the food prior to ordering but that isn’t part of Gaetano’s routine.  The proprietor is really a big part of the charm and ambiance of this restaurant!  He has more than his share of dedicated patrons despite the ‘cost mystery’ involved.

From our experience, the food at La Trattoria Da Gaetano ranged from very good to excellent!  After 6+ years in East Tennessee, which is an Italian cuisine ‘desert’, this meal was a real treat.  La Trattoria Da Gaetano is located at 2152 Main Street (Coastal Plaza) in Dunedin Florida.  Phone: 727-733-5664.  This restaurant is open for dinner only and it’s closed on Mondays.  Given Gaetano’s style, background and age, it is no surprise that this restaurant doesn’t have a website…

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for an old style Italian feast!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave