kayb

Bumping this up because I'm taking out on a four-state road trip tomorrow morning and wondering where is great to eat along the way. Headed out tomorrow to Lake Barkley State Park in Kentucky, where I'm sure the dining will be fishy things, on which I grew up (that's pretty much my home 'hood in that part of the world, though my actual location growing up was maybe 60 miles south of there). Then it's on to the mountains of East Tennessee, up in the corner where TN, NC and VA meet, for a couple of days, and then up to Lexington, Virginia, for three days in the southern end of the Shenandoah Valley. I may find some time to road trip north up the valley, not certain. Lexington, a quick internet perusal indicates, has a couple of what look like reasonably good dining establishments, but I'm grateful for any tidbits any of you might toss my direction as to where one might want to eat in between points A, B and C or once I get to any of 'em. I'll check in from the road as I can, and will update on any outstanding meals. Probably just do it on here, as I don't expect there to be enough for a full blown blog.

I have always been a lover of Krispy Kreme donuts, and was thrilled when they opened a store here. But I don't know if they've changed the glaze or what, but it seems heavier and entirely too sweet. Plus, their chocolate glazed are glazed plain first, then glazed with chocolate on top of that, which is just overkill. All of 'em are too sweet for me. I'm back to Shipley's ( a regional chain, I think).

Glad you're home safely. As always, I have enjoyed the trip! Thanks for taking us along!

I love them coated in chocolate.

Welcome, James! Pleased to have you here. How about sharing some of your specialties with us?

A dinner that tasted much better than it looked: I had SV'd some small strip steaks e as earlier this week and tossed them in the fridge to chill. Life got in the way and I didn't finish them that night, so last night I got them out to sear on the grill. They didn't get a good sear and looked dry, but they weren't; they were also much more rare than the photo appears. With twice-baked potatoes and green beans sauteed in soy sauce with a bit of brown sugar.

Didn't go today. I was still pretty stocked up on veggies after hitting the Amish farmer's stand Wednesday, and I'm leaving town for a week Thursday. (If there are any decent eats, I'll blog them.)

KETCHUP ON CORNED BEEF HASH????? Heretic. Off in search of the tar and feathers....

I would hit them with a dry barbecue rub, SV them at 140 (sue me, I can't go rare pork; will eat a good steak as rare as you want to give it to me, but not pork), then chill them, then sear them on the grill with a barbecue sauce baste to assist in creating a nice crust.

I'm not overly thrilled with the prospect of them having faffed (thanks, @Anna N) with Butterfinger. I like the old Butterfinger.

H'mm. Never heard of such. What do they taste like?

There was once a small neighborhood Italian restaurant in Memphis called Little Italy, with red checked tablecloths and Chianti in water glasses. It's where I learned to love linguine in white clam sauce. It's just not the same anywhere else.

I have on hand peaches, watermelon, canteloupe, apples, bananas (both fresh and overripe ones I just peeled, stuck in a plastic bag and chunked in the freezer) and I think I still have a few blueberries hanging out in the fridge. We are in high peach season here, and Arkansas grows some wonderful ones. Shameful admission: I dearly love a fruit dip my late sainted mother-in-law taught me to make. It's a block of cream cheese, a small jar of marshmallow cream, and the juice of a lime. It is ungodly good on fresh fruit. I may or may not have a half-recipe of it left in the fridge.

Having missed the Farmers' Market on both Saturday (taking grandchildren back to Nashville) and Tuesday (life got in the way), I happened to see on Facebook the Amish produce farmers were set up on a parking lot in town today. I got there as they were loading up to go home. I scored a small watermelon, a huge canteloupe (same size as the watermelon), a half-dozen ears of corn, a basket of four slicing tomatoes, and a bag of about 8 peaches. That haul cost me all of $28. And well worth it. I passed on okra, squash, peas, and assorted other stuff. I still have half a small watermelon in the fridge (the local grandchild is here, so he and I will likely finish that off tomorrow), but Aldi had pork steaks on sale, thus I will be diving into Deep Run Roots at some point over the weekend.

There is a catfish place here, with a drive-up window no less, that has funnel cakes. I will occasionally go just for the funnel cake, although their catfish is good, too. And I very nearly killed myself on frybread in a little restaurant on the corner of the square in Old Santa Fe. They served it with honey. I was an abject pig.

I have upwards of 3,000 books in my Kindle library, probably 500 of them cookbooks. My problem is that once I buy them, then disappear into the depths of the archive, as I see no way, other than by author, to separate Kindle collections into categories. Is there such a creature? If there is, I can see where it'd increase my use of my ebooks exponentially. As it is, I tend to buy them, read them, and then lose them in the depths. I must go back in this thread and see how to copy recipes into copy me that, which I have and use a good bit.

Sigh. The daughter, a junk food aficionado, had Pop Tarts. I caved. Strawberry. Frosted. Godawfully sweet, but not half bad with coffee. Figure I'd best get it all out of my system in the event the results of the EGD test next month come back as expected -- positive for celiac disease. After which my goal will be to find out just HOW much wheat gluten I can ingest without causing distress. And I guess the experiments with gluten free baking will have to step up.

Oddly, I can deal with raisins as long as they're in a salad or by themselves. I just don't liked them baked in anything.

I am, in fact, somewhat intrigued. Also a fan of the smoky green. Though I'd prefer a red one.

Watermelon. With lots of salt.

Heard a bartender in Memphis refer to ranch dressing as "Memphis ketchup" once.

Welcome, @Franklin21. You're at the right place to learn, and there are folks here to answer most any question you might have. You are also at the right place to be encouraged/enabled to buy all sorts of kitchenware you never had any idea you'd need. And you'll love it.

If you got it, flaunt it, I reckon.

Samsung solid-top electric. Single oven, convection + regular, with a warming drawer below. Top units get hotter than they did on my old electric stove. What I used to turn down to 4, I now have to go down to 2 or even Low. Love the oven.

I have the 25. Perfect for two, if they're not huge eaters. I'd like one of the larger ones for groups. My cooktop (one of those solid surface electrics), has one burner which varies in size but will get up to 14 inches, so I could handle a decent sized pan. I will be glad when I learn to cook on this stove. It cooks much hotter than my old one.