Dinner on the 4th of July

We almost always buy too much food and overeat when we have company… With Laurie’s sister Bonnie and her husband Bill visiting, it was like a major excuse to pig out!  Since it was the 4^th of July as well we had an even better excuse to over indulge!   

Bev…of Larry and Bev…fellow blogger Big Dude’s better half, (http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/), had introduced us to Red Lobster’s cheesy biscuits so Laurie made up a batch of them for our Holiday dinner.

I’m not into mushrooms…but Laurie, Bonnie and Bill are!  Bill grilled these for our July 4^th dinner…with butter and garlic. 

We’d been out for a drive and I decided to stop in at the guard shack at the Monterey Mushroom facility at 19748 TN Hwy. 72 in Loudon Tennessee.  Monterey Mushroom sells ‘seconds’ and imperfect mushrooms to the locals.  These mushrooms are just fine but they aren’t perfect enough for packaging and sale in grocery stores.  We bought a big box of these portabella mushroom caps from the guard for only $5.00!!  We cooked these for our dinner…but then we gave a bunch to Bonnie and Bill to take home…and another bunch to Larry and Bev…and we still had some left!

I’d made the drive over to Benton’s, (famous for Bacon, Hams and Prosciutto with chefs across the country), and I’d picked up 4 nice ribeye steaks for dinner. (FYI…Benton’s steaks are less costly than those in the supermarkets…and better than most!)

Many people in Loudon and Monroe counties don’t seem to realize that Benton’s offers items other than smoked pork products to walk-in retail customers.  They have ribs, strip and ribeye steaks, bologna, eggs, cheese, hot dogs, hamburgers, sausage and a number of other items…and we would recommend almost everything listed.  Benton’s is located at 2603 Highway 411 in Madisonville Tennessee.  Phone: 423-442-5003.  Website: http://bentonscountryham.com. The retail store is open from 8:30 AM until 5:00 PM Monday through Saturday.

Here’s a yummy picture of Laurie’s dinner on her plate.  So…our light dinner included the ribeye steak, the cheesy biscuits, fresh green beans, the mushrooms and roasted varietal potatoes! Not a bad celebratory meal…

We love those little varietal potatoes… We used to eat them fairly often when we lived in the Chicago area so we were delighted to find them in our local Publix market!  I like to smash mine, apply butter and then add Tabasco…but I am just a little weird…

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave