It’s hard to believe that we did so much on our short trip to Mississippi with Laurie’s sister Bonnie and her husband Bill. But, after our exploration and many experiences, we were headed home. Since I don’t eat breakfast early on days when I have a long bit of driving to do, we held off on our morning repast until we reached Tuscaloosa Alabama.
This is the Metro Diner…after a bit of research, our choice for breakfast. It wasn’t right off the Interstate but then again, if I can find a local restaurant with a good reputation, I will always opt for ‘local’. Metro Diner is located in a strip shopping center in an area full of retail stores and services.
It was late on a Sunday morning so Metro Diner was busy as expected. However, our wait was fairly short, about 10 minutes. The serving staff was obviously short-handed and they were running fast in their effort to keep customers happy…
As we waited, I did note this framed photo on the wall. The Food Network’s Guy Fieri has featured Metro Diner on his show, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”. That necessitated a bit of research when I started writing this post for my blog site.
First of
all, Guy ate at a Metro Diner location in Jacksonville Florida. Secondly, Metro Diner is part of a family
owned chain of like named diners. The
Davoli family opened the first restaurant in Florida in 1992. They have obviously been rather successful as
there currently are 58 Metro Diner locations, mostly in the Southeastern USA.
When Bill eats breakfast out, he has to have a short stack of pancakes as a ‘side dish’. They really looked good to me...but I resisted.
I don’t have too many Metro Diner breakfast photos to show you…as we all ordered Eggs Benedict of one style or another. The options were Classic Eggs Benedict, Fried Chicken Benedict and San Francisco Benedict. The latter offering includes sliced avocado as well as Canadian bacon. I had the chicken option...and it was yummy!
That huge
pile of hash brown potatoes on our plates was challenging to say the least! It was all good and it’s safe to say that none
of us went away hungry. Despite the food
overload, I did stay awake as I drove us all the way home to East Tennessee…
FYI,
service was excellent despite being short staffed. Our waitress was a blur of cheerful and
helpful motion. The Tuscaloosa Metro
Diner is located at 1800 McFarland Boulevard East. Phone: 205-464-9428. The corporate Metro Diner website is at https://metrodiner.com/.
…now for
a couple of meals we’ve recently enjoyed at home.
Actually, this first meal…was just for me. Making use of leftovers just isn’t Laurie's thing. In this case, my breakfast couldn’t have been much simpler. When Bonnie and Bill were here after our trip to Mississippi, they had picked up one of their favorite prepared brands of dinner rolls...
After
they departed for their journey home, I still had a few small Sister Schubert Parker House
style yeast rolls. I cut them in half
and fried them in butter and then topped them with some shredded cheddar cheese plus a couple of easy-over fried
eggs...with a little more cheese. Hey, I know that it wasn’t the healthiest
breakfast but it was satisfying and it tasted good!
This is one of our ‘go to’ dinners and it’s also one of my favorites. Basically it consists of boneless chicken thighs baked in ‘enhanced’ cream of chicken soup.
Laurie starts by seasoning the chicken thighs with cracked pepper, garlic and onion powder. In a separate bowl she mixes a family size can of Campbell’s Cream of Chicken Soup with about a half can of half and half milk. Then she pours the mixture over the chicken, ensuring that it completely covers it. Before putting this entrĂ©e in the oven she tops it with Italian seasoning or, if the mood strikes her to do something different, she substitutes with poultry seasoning.
We
usually serve it with rice, placing a couple of thighs over the rice and then ladling
the ‘enhanced’ cream of chicken soup over the top. I of course, sprinkle Tabasco over the top
for a bit of heat… In this case, we sided this household standard dinner with a
serving of peas.
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
Pancakes as a side dish for the breakfast :-) I love that! Your homemade meals are so much better than the food in that Metro Diner, David. I need to try that chicken thigh in creamy sauce...looks droolworthy!
ReplyDeleteThat restaurant breakfast looks awesome and I could imagine that pile of hash browns topped with a couple of runny yolked eggs. You home meals look good as well and I like the chicken dish and can imagine it was delicious as well as very easy to make.
ReplyDelete