Home and More…

Taking a break from my 3-part post about the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum… Today it’s all about home, food made at home and our dinner fare at a restaurant located close to our house.

Every day should start out with a sunrise!  Laurie took this rare early morning photo of the sun just starting to come up over the hills and mountains just east of our home.  I call this a rare photo because we're rarely up early enough to even see a sunrise!

This photo, out over the top of neighbor’s homes, shows a winter view of Tellico Lake.  It was taken from our guest bedroom’s balcony/deck.  In the summer, the view is unfortunately a bit more obstructed…

In the past couple of months we’ve had a couple of recent strong wind downbursts combined with a lot of rain.  The first photo shows the woods next to us with that large leaning tree.  In the second picture, you can see the remnants of the trees that came down across the road in a storm that took place about 3 weeks ago.  No damage done in either case…

Our daughter-in-law Amy, makes a great snack mix every year around the Thanksgiving holiday.  We all tend to  gobble it down when watching sports or a movie.  So as we neared Christmas 2019, Laurie determined to make up a similar mix for us while we watched the college football bowl games and the NFL playoffs.

Laurie used Corn and Rice Chex, Snyder’s thin bow tie pretzels, Cheese-Its, Goldfish Crackers and peanuts…dousing them liberally with Worchester Sauce, garlic power, onion power, ….. and then baking the mixture on a flat cookie sheet in the oven…stirring it as needed.

Laurie wasn’t crazy about the resulting mix but I really enjoyed it!  I liked the addition of the 2 cheesy crackers types and the bow tie instead of stick pretzels.  We both agreed that the peanuts were unnecessary but I did forget a key ingredient when shopping for the needed supplies…the Gardetto’s Garlic Rye Chips.  Laurie thought that our mix just wasn’t as spicy as Amy’s version and she vowed to improve on our version next fall.  FYI, I finished off our spicy Chex Mix plus while watching NFL Playoff Football.

The Thai Bistro in Loudon Tennessee is one of the closest restaurants to our home so we do dine there frequently.  For us, dining ‘frequently’ at any restaurant translates to no more than 6 – 7 times a year. (We like to move around a lot for our meal experiences!)

We really like Thai Bistro.  The chefs/cooks in the kitchen are Thai and they do know what they’re doing.  On this occasion we decided to try something new for our appetizer.  This was our Bistro Platter. ($11.00) It included some great Spring Rolls, Laurie’s favorite Crab Rangoon, Pot Stickers and Winter Shrimp.  This lovely mix of goodies was a good start for our meal!

For my dinner, I had the Bangkok Chicken and Broccoli with Rice. ($13.00) You can order up your spice level at Thai Bistro…anywhere from a ‘1’ mild to a ‘5’ Thai hot!  I’ve found that while I can handle a ‘5’, a ‘4’ is more my speed.  This was the first time I’d had this entrée and it was very good.  Love the artistic rice presentation...

Laurie also decided to try something she hadn’t had before.  This was her Yellow Curry with coconut milk, chicken, onions, roasted peanuts and potatoes. ($13.00) For a ‘heat level’ Laurie has found that a ‘3’ works best for her.  She said that she would order this entrée again!

Thai Bistro is located at 222 Lakeside Plaza in Loudon Tennessee.  This restaurant is open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner.  Phone: 865-657-6440.  To check out the chef and owner’s story as well as the extensive Thai and Chinese menu, you can just go to https://www.thaibistrotellico.com/.

Although many folks don’t love lamb, we do!  I had a lamb roast in the freezer that we’d purchased some time ago from Fresh Market in Farragut Tennessee.  In our opinion, their meats are among the best in our area.

So…time for a lamb dinner!  Laurie rested the roast on a bed of yellow onions, then seasoned the roast and potatoes with fresh ground salt and pepper, garlic and rosemary from one of our herb pots on the deck.  Yes…it was still growing despite it being winter.  Plus, it had new blooms on it from our frequent cutting!

Hey…we had to eat something healthy didn’t we?!  A small spinach salad with a bit of tomato and shredded cheddar cheese topped with balsamic vinegar dressing started us out.

Just looking at that platter of food in front of me made me happy!  Meat, potatoes and gravy…the essentials of life!

This was what my dinner plate looked like before I ‘destroyed’ it!  Of course, I did add Tabasco to my potatoes and gravy first…

Other that the fact that meals like this rank up there in my top 10 favorites, they do have another advantage.  I had enough leftovers for a lamb sandwich or two, a slice or two of lamb for a ‘healthy’ snack and I sliced up the leftover potatoes, browned them in a frying pan and served them with eggs for a great breakfast one morning!  Hooray!  

Appropriately enough, I’m ending this post with Laurie’s photo of our winter sunset through the woods across the street, at the sun’s last glimmer of the day.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave