We’re about to experience and enjoy our thirteenth spring here in East Tennessee. We love this time of rebirth and renewal. Hope, energy and the desire to travel all become part of our mindset. What will we experience, what will we see and what will we learn in the months ahead?
The first blooms began popping up just last week. The Lenten roses led the way with their delicate blossoms heralding the start of something…a season that seems almost miraculous.
Despite a horrid cold snap in December…one of the worst East Tennessee has suffered in years, Laurie’s favorite blooming bush, her quince, has survived and is beginning to show its bright red colors…
We had a huge forsythia bush…or series of bushes…when we lived in the suburbs of Chicago. A few years ago we planted one in our yard here in East Tennessee…and true to its normal behavior…it is one of the first bushes or trees to explode with color. The bright yellow contrasts nicely with the new leaves.
Now onto
one of my favorite topics, food!
I’d purchased some deli style pastrami from our local grocery store. I’d used most of it with sandwiches but I had a couple of slices left. I cut them up into small pieces, then lightly frying them in butter. I added a couple of eggs to the pan and tossed in some sharp cheddar cheese and added pepper. With my large slice of buttered toast, it made for a satisfying if not terribly imaginative breakfast.
As I’ve mentioned before, if we can find products that a prepared or semi-prepared…requiring less prep and less clean-up, we give them a try. We repeat with those we like to keep our life simple. When we try something that doesn’t quite ‘make it’, we just chalk it up to experience.
In this
case I’d selected a seasoned pork loin roast wrapped in bacon that was ready to
go and could just be popped in the oven.
We also had some packaged pre-roasted potatoes. We agreed that the potatoes were ‘keepers’
but the pork roast was too sweet…Applewood cured bacon or the seasoning had to
be the issue. We prefer savory vs sweet
when it comes to meat. Laurie magnified
‘the sweet’, accompanying her entrée with pineapple. I had my pineapple later for dessert.
One recent morning we got up early…anything before 9 AM is early for us…and headed out to a local estate sale. After spending $1.25 on a photo frame I needed, it was still early enough for breakfast in an actual restaurant! So we headed over to Little Italy in Loudon Tennessee, also known as “Mama’s Grits” during breakfast hours.
Laurie
ordered 2 eggs over medium, bacon, a biscuit and hash brown potatoes. ($8.95)
My order was similar, with the only difference being a sausage patty instead of
the bacon. ($8.95) I added a cup of Larry’s famous sausage gravy for the 2 of
us to use with our biscuits. ($2.95) That sausage gravy continues to be probably
the best we’ve ever had…
The eggs
were cooked perfectly as were the plentiful hash brown potatoes. Laurie loved her bacon and it was fried to
her demanding specifications…crisp but not too crispy. Little Italy / Mama’s Grits is located at 316
Lakeside Plaza, Loudon Tennessee. Phone:
865-657-6224. They are on Facebook at Little Italy Restaurant | Loudon TN | Facebook,
but there isn’t a breakfast menu on line that I could find.
One of our neighbors took this photo of a tugboat/pusher /tow boat doing its thing on Tellico Lake. Tellico Lake, Fort Loudoun Lake and Knoxville Tennessee are all at the head or at the beginning of commercial navigation along the Tennessee River.
Commercial
navigation on the Tennessee River stretches for 652 miles, connecting to the
Ohio River near Paducah Kentucky.
Another connection, the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway connects the river
directly to the Gulf of Mexico. Boaters
can even go from Knoxville to Minneapolis, Chicago, the Great Lakes, Canada and
the Atlantic Ocean via various other rivers and canals.
Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks
for stopping by for a visit!
Take
Care, Big Daddy Dave
Those breakfasts you had at the Italian restaurant really look yummy. I was brought up in France with just a bowl of café au lait with toasted baguette for breakfast but I sure did take to the Southern breakfasts! I usually don’t cook that much for myself now. I used to when I also cooked for my husband. Although in GA I am close to a small grocery store that also makes breakfast and lunch. When I get tired of clearing the house I do sometimes go and get their eggs, biscuits, sausage and grits, or biscuit and sausage gravy. In Nashville, I walked a couple of time down the street here in Hillsboro Village to the Pancake Pantry, but if you don’t go there super early there is a line of tourist outside and it’s a hassle to get a seat. There are many good places in Nashville but so many tourists…. If I buy some plump blueberries I’ll make some thick pancakes with them, then I’ll freeze half of them for later.
ReplyDeleteTalking about the Tennessee River, the first time I saw it I could not believe how wide it was, at least when you cross it outside of Chattanooga. When I am on that bridge I drive slowly so I can look at it - Am going this way south again this week-end.
Mmmm, thinking of breakfast as I end the day. Guess I'll see if it still inspires me in the morning. I haven't paid much attention to the Tennessee River, except for wildlife along it's banks...when I lived in Knoxville in the 90s. It is pretty amazing, and our local waters in the French Broad eventually get there. So if I put a message in a bottle here in Black Mountain, in our Swannanoa River, it's possible it will reach the Gulf of Mexico. But I think that's highly unlikely these days. Just keep those rivers clean and flowing easily, that's the way I like them.
ReplyDeleteEgg and bacon are super healthy and good for you, without potatoes though :-) Pineapple is one of my husband's favourite. Just when I thought the spring was at the corner, we had some heavy snow again..now it's white everywhere.
ReplyDeleteThose blooms at your home sure do look colorful, Dave, especially as here in Nashua, NH, we still have a lot of brown and some snow-covered ground. I know many people prefer meals to be simple and lately the crock pot has been helping in our home. The prep may take a bit of time, but afterwards it's dinner with little cleanup. That said, I do enjoy when we're on the road as there's no cooking required since we do not stay in places with kitchen areas. To me, that would be just like being home and not the purpose of a getaway.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about imagination but that pastrami scramble looks mighty fine to me. I may have to go to Mama Grits just to try the gravy and see how mine stacks up to it.
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