RV Trip Leg Two – Charleston, SC

I had previously posted about our first stop on this trip at Anchor Down RV Resort and from there we made a return trip to the KOA in Mt. Pleasant, SC, where we hosted a rally last year.  This re-visit was made because we enjoyed the area but mostly because SIL, Pat, couldn’t go last year.

We decided to stay in the same place as we liked being on the Mt. Pleasant side of Charleston and the things that area had to offer without going into or thru downtown Charleston.  There are some other nice campgrounds around but the nicer ones are south of town.

This is our site facing the nice boomerang shaped lake.

We ate two meals at one of our favorite places – Page’s Okra Grill – and these are shots of our breakfast meals.

Pat had the Raspberry Waffle ($5.25) which she thought was just okay.

Bev had TJ’s Hot Mess (a split biscuit with southern fried chicken breast topped with scrambled eggs, pepper jack cheese and sausage gravy all for $6) and she had a side of pimento cheese smothered home fries ($3).

I got an even better shot of hers last year.

I had the Shem’s Creek Omelet (three eggs with scallops, shrimp, and pepper jack cheese) with pimento cheese grits ($9.60).

Both of our meals were very good, just as last year, and we all think their fried chicken may be the best we’ve eaten.  While the food was the same, after a couple of big time write-ups, they were much busier.  I can't say I ate seafood for every meal but counting leftovers for some lunch and breakfast meals, I was well over 50%.

While I relaxed and dog sat, the girls visited two farmers markets, spent one day shopping in Mt. Pleasant, and two days shopping in downtown Charleston – I’d rather take a flogging.

We also got to spend a very pleasant evening with old college friends Doug and Marty, during which I showed them how I make grilled Oysters Rockefeller and they showed us how to make their delicious no-filler crab cakes.

We did drive over to check out the Oak Plantation Campground, which we thought was very nice then drove down to Kiawah Island, which I had always wanted to see, only to discover that the entire town is a gated community.  At least it was a nice little drive through the Live Oaks and pines.

We made the trip back home in one nine hour drive and while I was tired, I’m happy to report that we had no engine failures this time.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

4/24 - 5/4/2015 event dates

The Consumption Of A Fried Egg

Since it didn’t rent and to keep it from going to waste, Bev and some girl friends are spending the week at our timeshare in Gatlinburg, TN doing a little shopping, exercising, and eating out.  Meanwhile I’m watching the house, the pets, and tending to Madison.  When I talked with Bev one morning, before I ate breakfast, she read part of the breakfast menu from Crockett's Breakfast Camp to me and I became instantly hungry.

Now if you have stopped by here more than a couple of times, you probably know I love eggs and eat them most mornings for breakfast and after this days meal a blog idea was born for a repeat meal.  There are many ways to prepare eggs and several methods just to fry them, not to mention the many, many ways to consume them once cooked, but this post is just about cooking and eating fried dippy eggs.

I had done a similar post four years ago, but I cooked the eggs differently and did not publish my criteria back then so I decided on a redo. 

My disclaimer is that I am not a professional egg cook nor do I claim this to be the ideal way to cook or eat them for everyone.  Having said that, here is my criteria for cooking:

1. Maximum amount of runny yolk.

2. White part done or mostly so.

3. No crispy edges as they make cutting with a fork difficult.

4. Cooked reasonably healthy (olive oil vs. my preferred butter).

I always use a non-stick skillet and for these and I didn’t want to flip them so I added about 1/2 tsp. of olive oil (#4) and 1/2 tsp. of water to make steam – for this method I use just enough flame to make the water boil (sizzle) – (#1, # 2, & #3).  

When the water begins to sizzle (can you hear it out there?), I add the eggs and quickly cover with a glass lid – so I can check doneness without removing the lid (#1 & #2). 

The purpose of the water it to create steam and hot water droplets which cook the top of the eggs (no need to flip) while the direct heat cooks the bottom thereby making the process happen faster and reducing the amount of hard cooked yolk next to the skillet (#1).  

As soon as the white is done enough for me the lid is removed and the eggs are slid onto a plate taking care to keep them together – bear in mind that the white does not have to be completely done around the yolk as it will continue cooking on the plate - it will disappear into the running yolk anyway, but try convincing Bev of that.

I usually take mine out before the the yolk begins to whiten and I make removing them on time the kitchen priority regardless of what else is happening with sides, etc – all to achieve #1.

The following are shots from the previous post when I flipped the eggs, but the eating process is the same.

Now, let’s discuss how to eat them using this criteria:

5. Some of the yolk in every bite.

6. Eat the last of the yolk with the last bite of bread.

7. Leave as little yolk on the plate as possible – for Coco to lick off.

I begin by puncturing one of the yolks such that it runs onto the egg white and not the plate, then I use half of one slice of bread, or English muffin, to sop it up (#5 & #7).

Then repeat with the other egg.

It is now time to cut up the eggs with the fork side while stirring to distribute the remaining yolk evenly among the pieces of white and coating most of them.

The egg is then eaten while using the bread to keep moving everything toward the pile and wiping up any yolk on the plate all the time insuring that at least two bites of bread are left to wipe up any remaining yolk from the plate bottom once the white pieces are gone (#6).  This may take some practice to make sure the yolk on the plate and the bread comes out even.

And this my friends is the recipe for the perfect (for me) way to cook and eat dippy eggs but a caution - don’t try this at home unless you are willing to eat eggs several time a week as it can be habit forming.  

It should be pointed out that this same cooking method works for using the eggs to top almost anything - see next post.

Thanks for stopping by and joining me on the fun little post at Almost Heaven South. 

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Larry

2/08/15 event date

2015 Florida Trip – Day 28 – Our Last Meal In Okeechobee

For our last restaurant meal in Florida, at brunch time, we once again headed up to Uncle Larry’s Rim Ditch Cafe but this time not for the famous Okeeburger

but rather with wings on our mind.  As a non-wing fan, Pat ordered the Reuben Omelet which sounded and tasted very good.

Bev and I ordered 25 wings with hot sauce ($15) and a basket of onion straws – maybe their best ones yet.

We ate all of the onion as it isn’t as good leftover and the wings were later reheated to add to some other leftovers for supper.  It was a delicious way to end our stay in the area.

After eating, we headed over to Ferrell’s Market to get some oranges, fresh squeezed juice, and tomatoes to take home.

 

Alas, it was time to say goodbye to south Florida for this winter.  

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/23/15 event date

2015 Florida Trip – Day 20 – Fisherman’s Village

During our South Florida stay, Pat and Bev had been over to Fisherman’s Village couple of times to shop and eat and they wanted to be sure I ate at the Village Fish Market before we left town.  Fisherman’s Village is a pretty good sized open air mall located beside the marina in Punta Gorda with the first floor lined with shops and restaurants and the second floor occupied by vacation villas.

The Village Fish Market bills itself as serving New England Style Seafood and the menu seemed to support that.  As I often do, when it’s available, I check out the online menu before heading to the restaurant and I often know what I plan to order when I leave home.

It was cool and cloudy so we chose to eat inside but were seated at a window-side table that had a nice view of the water.  This shot is from our table back toward the entrance.

After my home review of the menu, I noticed two things that were unique – Swai, which I had never heard of, and Smelts, which I had heard of but never eaten.  In order to try both, I ordered the fried Fisherman’s Platter with three items – Smelts, Swai, and Cod.

The Smelts are the little things in the middle and they had been cleaned and the heads removed – you just eat the whole thing.  Everything was good and I could tell little difference between the Swai and the Cod.  I thought the onion rings were very good and made sure I ate all of them.  I’m pretty sure everything we had was hand breaded at the restaurant and Bev thought her fried oysters were delicious as was her mac and cheese.

This was their third time to eat there and based upon my one trip, I would go back.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/15/15 event date

2015 Florida Trip – Days 11 & 12 – A Few Restaurant Breakfasts

When in a new area, we always ask the locals where the locals eat, especially for breakfast and we were told that Peter’s Restaurant on our side of Port Charlotte was the place.  It occupies two sections of a small strip mall and while I was expecting somewhat of a dive, it was far from it.

I’m not sure why, but I have never considered corned beef hash in an omelet so I had to try it when I saw it on the menu and Bev went with the breakfast burrito - pretty normal for her.

I thought mine was good but the hash browns were only lukewarm.  I tasted Bev’s and thought it was good as well.  They provide a good portion of good food at a very reasonable price.

The next morning we wanted to check out the town of Arcadia, about 15 miles up the road, and began with breakfast at a local place and it was kind of a dive, right out of the 50’s.  Wheeler’s Café looks like it has been serving up meals to the locals for a long time – reminds me of the Greenback Drug Store back home.

I didn’t get any food shots as it was just normal breakfast fare and presentation was not high on their list.  The meals were good and about what I expected except for the biscuit which was very good.

And this last one comes the following week from Bev's Bar and Grill located at campsite 398.  

It is just your basic BLT - fried Wrights bacon, Guggisberg Baby Swiss Cheese, Florida tomato & avocado, onion, lettuce, and mayo on Olive Rustic Bread from the farmers market - as good as I ever ate.  Whether fixed or mobile, our house continues to be my very favorite place to eat.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/6 & 1/7/15 event dates

2015 Florida Trip – Day 8 – Eating Out

Since this was our last day in the Cedar Key area, we ate out two meals and began stowing things at the RV for the next day’s move.  We had planned to eat breakfast in the tourist strip on Cedar Key, but unfortunately so did everyone else and the parking lots were completely full.  So we went back inland a ways and stopped at Kona Joes which is Trip Advisors top rated place in the area.

They just have a few things for breakfast, lunch, and dessert, but they are all very good.  I took no food shots, but here is one from our table out toward the water.

For supper, we went back to Robinson Seafood as we had really enjoyed our first experience there.  We especially like the fact that they use very fresh fish, some caught by them, and they make most things in house.  We had loved the breading they used on their shrimp, almost a Tempura, so I went back this time expressly for the fried oysters and I was not disappointed.

Once again, even with the camera sitting right beside me, I failed to get any meal shots, but I did get one of our other purchase.  Earlier in the day, we had stopped in and ordered 10lb. of grouper fillets ($17/lb.), 5 lb. of snapper fillets ($17/lb.) and 10lb. of large shrimp ($12/lb.) all to freeze and take home.  And when I say the fish was fresh, this was it before fileting – they advertise that if it were any fresher, it would be swimming.  Everything was fresher and much cheaper than at home and I can almost taste the fried grouper sandwich I'm going to have.

We also bought 100 clams and 100 oysters from Southern Cross Sea Farms to eat the following week.  They are one of the local clam farming operations in the area and their website has a great description of the raising process.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/3/15 meal date

2015 Florida Trip - Day 7 - Cedar Key

Cedar Key could be called Cedar Keys as it is composed of several islands with most development on Way Key. 

^{It has been inhabited for thousands of years but major settlement occurred in the mid nineteenth century when it became a major port, the cedar trees began being harvested for pencils, and mills were built by Eagle and Eberhard Faber.}

^{At the start of the twentieth century, fishing, sponge hooking and oystering had become the major industries, but around 1909 the oyster beds were exhausted and the old-fashioned fishing village is now a tourist center.  After a statewide ban on large-scale net fishing went into effect July 1, 1995, a government retraining program helped many local fishermen begin farming clams in the muddy waters.}

^{Today Cedar Key's clam-based aquaculture is a multi-million dollar industry growing the smaller clams that are popular for steaming and eating raw.}

^{And even though they use larger clams from somewhere else, clam chowder from Tony’s Seafood Restaurant is renowned after winning three straight World Championship competitions in Newport, RI. - this is the restaurant and our meals of chowder and sandwiches.}

The chowder was definitely the best I'd ever eaten and it is also very good from the can if you live near a Publix store.

^{For those of you who watched Murder She Wrote, Bev thinks Cedar Key, population about 700, reminds her of Cabot Cove and here are some shots of it beginning with the main tourist street - the buildings on the right actually sit out over the water on the back side.}

^{This is the old main street.}

^{These are a few shots around the island and those awaiting the next incoming flight at the airport.}

This is a typical view of the waters surrounding the islands at high tide - it is mostly mud flats at low tide.

^{Remember our pully-ham from Christmas, well we used the last of it in scalloped potatoes for supper, using the recipe from food.com as it used ingredients we had on hand and it was delicious.}

^{Wada you think Laurie?}

^{Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.}

^{Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.}

^Larry

1/2/15 event date