More Family Plus Views and Food…

I recently took the time to go through our recent photos as well as a few new ones sent to us by family members.  I had so many pictures that I decided to send out the last “miscellaneous” posting for the summer. 

We recently had breakfast at a local restaurant that is best described as having a split personality.  For lunch and dinner, it’s called (and the sign states) Classico Italian Restaurant.  Its located in Loudon Tennessee.

However, in the morning Classico's menu is headed with the name of Mama’s Grits!  On this occasion, we met our friends Jodie and Morrie for breakfast.  This was Jodie’s breakfast…2 poached eggs on English muffin halves with Béarnaise sauce on the side…accompanied by a nice bowl of fresh fruit.

Laurie went for a standard breakfast…sort of.  She had crispy hash brown potatoes and 2 over easy eggs with bacon plus a biscuit. ($7.00) She ordered a cup of Mama’s Grits Sausage Gravy on the side. ($3.00) Everything was cooked as ordered but the biscuit seemed a bit small.  The sausage gravy at Mama’s Grits is as good as it gets.  However, it could have been warmer.

Morrie went all the way with his breakfast!  This has to be Mama’s Grits version of a meat lovers’ breakfast with 2 kinds of ham, bacon and 3 kinds of sausage plus 2 scrambled eggs with cheese and a side of Cheesy Grits.  This should have been my breakfast… Ordered wrong again!

I somehow forgot to take a photo of my breakfast.  I’d ordered a split biscuit smothered with the sausage gravy with 2 over easy eggs on top. ($7.00)  Then…for a bit of overkill, I’d also ordered a side of toast and sausage.  I had plans to make a sausage sandwich.  Sadly the toast wasn’t buttered and it was cold when it was served.  The sausage patty ($2.00) was so small I didn’t bother to make a sandwich with it. (Note: Mama’s Grits/Classico Italian Restaurant doesn’t carry Tabasco...bummer!)

For more information and the menus for Classico Italian Restaurant/Mama’s Grits you can go to their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Classico-Italian-Mamas-Grits-729321230466813/?ref=page_internal.

In the last post that featured family photos, I’d included a photo of our oldest grandson, David III.  This time its Emmett Lee’s turn!  He’s 14 years old, good looking, a great student and he’s into football, basketball and track!  Grandparents are allowed to brag about their grandchildren…

Laurie and I have been to the Tic Toc Ice Cream Parlor in downtown Loudon Tennessee 3 times already this year. (Normally we try to limit ourselves to 4 visits per year!) We have been customers ever since we moved to East Tennessee almost 9 years ago.

Tic Toc makes their own ice cream in house and there are almost too many flavors to choose from.   Our favorites are the praline pecan, cookies and cream, George Washington cherry, mint chocolate chip, butter pecan and peach!  One negative this year is that the praline pecan seems a little light on the praline…

For more on the Tic Toc Ice Cream Parlor, you can go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tic-Toc-Ice-Cream-Parlor/118235298254789.  

In my last family related posting…which I had sent out early by mistake…I’d included photos of 3 of Laurie’s Scottish cousins.  However, it was an old photo so here is a current photo of Moir, Maura and Della with their new puppy, Gala.  What a great photo!

There seem to be farmer’s markets all over East Tennessee.  In addition to our 2 area full time Mennonite farmer’s markets, there are weekly ones nearby, with one in Greenback, another in downtown Loudon, a third at the Renaissance Center in Farragut and this weekly version at the Yacht Club in Tellico Village.  There is nothing like fresh produce and the other goodies offered in these special market places.

Of course, as long as we were at the Tellico Village Farmer’s Market (Wednesdays from 9 AM – 12 Noon), we snapped a couple of photos of the surrounding scenery with Tellico Lake as the prime subject.  It’s ‘tough’ living here in East Tennessee…with beauty everywhere!

This is Abby, Laurie's great niece.  She lives in the St. Louis Missouri area along with all of Laurie’s family, her Aunt Lois, plus many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, nephews & cousins.  As you can see, at 17 years of age, Abby ( just got her drivers license in this photo!) is tall and lean.  Can you guess her favorite sport?  It’s track!  Built like a filly, Abby loves to run! 

We put together a couple of nice mixed lettuce salads for dinner the other night… We started out healthy…and then slipped downhill a just a bit.  I used Olive Garden’s salad dressing while Laurie used a healthier vinaigrette but added some croutons.  Both of us added salami, heirloom tomatoes and Gorgonzola cheese to the mix… They were great salads!

This is one of our “go to” entrees for dinner at home.  Take a bag of Bertolli’s Chicken Florentine…add more shredded chicken, a bag of fresh spinach and some leftover bacon, some crushed red peppers and a little extra Alfredo sauce and we are always satisfied!  The yellow squash was provided courtesy of our friends Norm and Linda from Norm's garden.  I just sautéed the squash in butter and pepper.  This is one of our happy meals!

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