Two Rivers Landing RV Park - Low Country Boil

Our RV club had it’s May rally at the Two Rivers RV Resort in Sevierville, TN but we were unable to attend due to a previous commitment.  We were available on Sunday and the rally hosts invited us to come up for the day for a repeat of the low country boil we made at last year’s rally in the Charleston, SC area.

Before discussing the meal, here’s a little about the park beginning with a shot from Google Earth.

As you can see, it sits on the French Broad River with 55 sites – 25 pull-ins on the river and 30 back-ins with a river view – so all of the coach fronts face the river.  They had such good photos on their website, I decided to use them rather than take my own

This is such a nice place, I hate we missed out camping here, especially in that end site parallel to the river.  For comparison, the nightly rate for the riverfront sites here is $65, the highest rate at Anchor Down is $69

and the rate for the KOA in Mt. Pleasant, SC is $70.

I guess it's all about location, competition, and the KOA name as this site is not in the same league as the other two.

And now back to the rally.  We made the hour and ten minute drive and spent the afternoon visiting with club members before firing up the big pot.  Using Zaterain's Pro Boil as the spice, we cooked up a batch of Low Country Boil of red potatoes, kielbasa, corn, and shrimp and dumped it on the butcher paper covered tables for the 15 hungry eaters. These shots are at the end of the meal as the piles of food have pretty much disappeared..

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.The meal was a hit and we enjoyed spending time with our club friends.

Larry

5/17/15 event date

2015 Florida Trip – Day 23 – Salmon Cakes

We brought some frozen King Salmon tail pieces from home that we had purchased in Wheeling WV at $7/lb. and there was a unanimous decision to turn it into salmon cakes (salmon patties in my family) using the recipe from our previous batch.  Wow, how time flies as it had been July, 2011 when last we made them and I had saved the same Ina Garten recipe twice from fellow bloggers who had made them since then.

After weighing the salmon and discovering we had two pounds, we decided to cook it all, eat half and use the other half for the cakes in a day or two.  Since we had some blackening seasoning with us, we used it for the first meal along with some salad - note the watermelon radish.

Bear in mind that we all grew up eating salmon cakes made from the canned fish and usually topped with ketchup and this may have been Pat’s first ever from fresh salmon.  Rather than repeat Ina’s recipe, I’ll just provide the link from our last time which includes the original recipe and how we made a larger amount - I used a pound of salmon for this run so I'd have left overs.

Just as last time, they were very good and since we didn’t have sauce ingredients, we ate them unadorned .

And for breakfast the next day, it was a toasted English muffin, the cakes reheated in the micro wave topped with baby Swiss cheese, and poached eggs.

These were fantastic and almost inspired me to whip up some Hollandaise for the next morning.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

1/18 & 1/19/15 meal dates

2015 Florida Trip – Day 14 – Seafood With Sam & Meakin

When we come to southwest Florida, we try to meet up friends and fellow bloggers, Meakin and Sam (My Carolina Kitchen) and this time, we invited them up to the campground for an afternoon of shellfish.  We brought some very fresh clams and oysters with us from Cedar Key and bought some shrimp locally for Pat who eats neither of the molluscs.

But before we get into this further, even us seafood lovers need a break so we whipped this up on the grill the previous evening.

This is the entertaining and cooking area prior to the commencement of the seafood eating festivities.  We moved the toaster oven outside for baking, I use the red Coleman propane grill as a stove, and the Weber Jumbo Joe is for charcoal grilling – all three were used this day.  

We began our all afternoon seafood-a-thon (sorry you’re not here Joe) with some raw oysters.

After this first shot of Sam’s oysters, we descended into an afternoon of visiting, eating, and sipping fruit drinks so no other photos were taken – I obviously don't do well being the cook and photographer at the same time.

The raw oysters were followed by a batch of boiled little neck clams, which was a new way of cooking them to me as I had always steamed them.  But when the guy who farms them says to cook them completely submerged in seasoned boiling water, who am I to say otherwise.  He also advised cooking them in the mesh bag so they can all be easily removed once they begin opening.  I added some smashed garlic cloves and a couple of squeezed lemon wedges to the cooking water and served them with melted garlic butter.

They do seem to stay more moist and tender cooked this way but I still took them out as they opened rather than waiting until all were done and removing the whole bag full.  One of the advantages of the boiling water is that you can leave the pot lid off and grab them as soon as the pop open.  Here are a couple of shots lifted from the web and mine looked pretty much the same.

Bev just had to bake up a batch of rolls for the event and as always, they were a great addition – maybe even the best part.  In addition to the preceding, we noshed on grilled oysters Rockefeller (which Sam said may have been the best ever), char grilled shrimp, slaw and potato salad provided by Sam, and finished off with a French pear dessert and chocolate dipped local strawberries.  Needless to say, no one walked away hungry.

As always, it was fun to spend time with Sam and Meakin and he learned a new skill - he is now an oyster shucker  - we look forward to a visit at their Florida home the next week.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

1/9/15 event date

2015 Florida Trip – Days 5 & 6 – New Years

New Year’s Eve was cold and rainy at Cedar Key and New Year’s Day was cool with some sunny periods making both perfect for what I wanted to do during these two days – pile up in the RV, relax, and watch college football. 

We passed on the RV Park New Year’s Eve party, but I did take a short football watching break to do a little cooking on Jan. 1.  As you will read in a future post, Cedar Key has a clam farming industry as well as oyster beds so we purchased some and while my non-clam-eating ladies went shopping, I invited our neighbors over for steamed little neck clams sided with garlic butter.  It's been years since I had these tasty babies and I thoroughly enjoyed every bite so I plan to get a bag for the road.

Then when the ladies got home we had some Oysters Rockefeller cooked on the grill. 

The clams and the oysters were both very good and I now know the difference that very fresh makes.

And now back to football for you fans out there, now that the bowls are over and only the National Championship Game remains, have a look at these results for the five power conferences:

CONFERENCE       EXPECTED  ACTUAL

SEC                           9-3                  7-5       

Big Ten                      0-10                5-5

Big 12                        5-2                  2-5   

Pac-12                       7-1                  6-2 

ACC                           4-8                  5-7

A few things really jump out at me:

1. The heretofore cream of the crop, my SEC, did not do well as the top five teams in its highly touted Western Division all lost, including top ranked Alabama.  The SEC's wins came from the two worst teams in the Western Division and all five of the Eastern Division teams who played in a bowl.

2. The recently maligned big 10 which was expected to lose all of their bowl games did way better including 2-1 against the SEC teams and 4th ranked Ohio State is in the Championship game after beating Bama.

3. The Big 12 had a terrible bowl season with only two wins.  Of particular note to me was Baylor, whose coach was was angry at everyone and outspoken about the Big 12 being left out of the playoffs with his team being ranked 5th.  As it turned out, Baylor got beat by Big 10 underdog Michigan State by giving up a 20 point lead in the fourth quarter.

4.  The Pac 12 is for real.

5. While it would be hard to leave out the undefeated, defending national champion Seminoles, unless the ACC teams can show some marque non-conference wins, I believe they should get a giant demerit, even if they are undefeated.

While I believe the selection committee did a good job of ranking the top twelve teams, it appears to me that Alabama, Oregon, Ohio State, and TCU should have been the top four. 

So let's move on to next year and let the controversy continue.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

12/31/14 & 1/1/15 event dates

Steelhead Trout with Pasta Alfredo

We had a couple of pieces of Steelhead Trout in the freezer and a half jar of Alfredo sauce in the fridge and decided to combine the two into a meal – Steelhead are related to Rainbows and similar to Salmon in taste.  Bev also found a bag of shrimp and some mixed vegetables in the freezer to add to the dish.

The trout and shrimp (on skewers) were given dusting of Old Bay and grilled over high heat and basted with melted butter after flipping.   The pasta and vegetables were cooked together in water, drained, returned to the hot pan, and the Alfredo sauce was stirred in.  We plated the pasta mixture and topped with the trout and a few shrimp then added some fresh grated Parmesan.

This made for a very tasty and easy semi-homemade dish – perfect for those of you who need a quick weeknight meal.  Of course, it could be gussied up by using fresh vegetables and homemade Alfredo sauce.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

12/4/14 event date

A Little Trip To WV and Swordfish

Now that Madison is back in school, we are pretty tied to her schedule and for her fall break we made a short trip to WV where we visited with my relatives in Fairmont and she stayed with her mom’s family in Wheeling.  In addition to visiting, we did the normal Fairmont things that included some hot dogs from Woody’s and pepperoni rolls from Colasessano’s and we checked out the Stonewall Jackson State Park campground for its ability to accommodate our RV.

A couple of unusual’s for our trip:

It’s not often my cousin gets to mow his grass shirtless in mid-October.

This guy was helping out next door.

And we were not aware that they use helicopters to trim the power line right-aways with ten 24” diameter circular saws – you can just see it in my shot or go here for more views.

I didn’t have my long lens with me.

From Fairmont, we went up to Wheeling to pick up Madison and while there, we went to Market Centre for a famous fish sandwich from Coleman’s Fish Market and while there we checked out the fresh fish counter and were shocked at how low the prices were compared to our place.  So we had to buy some to bring home and Madison picked out Marlin, Shark, and Swordfish ($10/lb) while I went for Flounder and King Salmon tail pieces ($7/lb).

After we got home all but the Swordfish went into the freezer and I went in search of a unique Swordfish recipe, eventually discovering Sicilian Style Swordfish, which was the runner-up in a contest.  We only had two pieces of fish, but I made the full sauce recipe and I grilled the Swordfish rather than pan cook it so I changed the instructions.

Sicilian-Style Swordfish – Adapted from cucinettaNYC - Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil

¼ cup pitted oil-cured black olives coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons salted capers, well rinsed and coarsely chopped

¼ cup dry white wine, preferably Sicilian

Crushed red pepper to taste

4 x 6 ounces swordfish steaks

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat, add onion and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, until onion is lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. After a couple of minutes, season swordfish with salt and pepper, oil, and begin grilling it over high heat – I flipped it after 5 minutes. We did some chicken and asparagus as well.

3. When the onion is lightly browned, add sun-dried tomatoes, olives, capers, wine and generous pinch red pepper flakes; stir together and cook until warmed through.

4. When swordfish is done (note), plate, top with sauce, sprinkle with roughly torn basil (which I forgot) and serve.

Note:  From what I read, the fish should be cooked to 145* for safety’s sake, so I cooked it to 140* knowing with the carryover heat and sauce topping it would get above that level.

Everything done and headed for the kitchen.

We served the fish with a Knorr's Pasta side and grilled asparagus.

I thought the Swordfish was delicious and would serve it in my restaurant, if I had one.  The topping was flavorful and complimented the flavor of the fish without hiding it.  All-in-all a very good meal from the grill.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

10/11- 10/17/14 events dates

OMG Dill Sauce

Bev had bought some salmon just to have with dill sauce and I went about a web search to find a recipe and ended up with one from Taste Of Home for both the salmon and the sauce.  The recipe is for baked fish but I did it on the grill - given a choice, I always choose the grill as my grilling season is 12 months a year.

This is the recipe for the dill sauce and we made it the day before to allow the flavors to marry well.

Dill Sauce:

1/3 cup sour cream

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon prepared horseradish

3/4 teaspoon dill weed

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

Pepper to taste

Combine the sauce ingredients until smooth.

For the skinless salmon, I seasoned one side with S&P and light coating lemon pepper followed by a light coating of mayo.  I put this side down over a pretty hot charcoal grill and treated the new top side the same.  After cooking for a couple of minutes, I flipped, spread on a good coating of the dill sauce (so it could warm up and set a little), closed the grill lid, and cooked to the desired 135* internal temp.  The salmon was removed, plated and topped with a mound of capers and some chopped chives.  The capers were not in the original recipe but since we love them I wanted to try it this way.

I first tried a couple of bites with just the sauce and then with the capers and I thought it was delicious both ways so it depends on if you like capers whether or not you use them but I thought both were OMG delicious – the search is over for a dill sauce at our house as I cannot imagine a better one for my tastes.

We sided it with some 2012 home-canned green beans and added some frozen 2012 shelly beans (October beans) along with some diced Benton’s bacon and they were very good unto themselves but they were even better topped with some of the dill sauce.  I believe I should use what fresh dill we have to make into this sauce and store it - then put it on everything - hopefully you've taken the hint by now - I loved this sauce.

And what about Bev and Madison you ask - Bev went to the store and bought some more salmon so we could have it again the next night - we just mixed some capers in with the sauce for this one, warmed it in a bowl of hot water, and sided with reheated beans.

I snapped the shot before Bev added chopped red onion to her beans so here is mine - I omitted my not so good fish shot.  As I mentioned above, we like our green beans to have plenty of beans, we cook them to well done, and they may even be better the next day - we totally fail at gourmet green bean preparation J.

The gourmet version, lifted from the web, which are definitely much prettier.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

10/07 & 10/8/14 meal dates

A Fish Meal With The Lusk’s

A year ago, we joined the local chapter of the FMCA called the Tennessee Travelers as a way of having monthly RVing opportunities and meeting new RVers the area.  We have met many fine people and invited one nearby couple over for a fish dinner - we knew it was a favorite of theirs.  Good friend, Joe, and SIL, Pat, also joined us.

We decided on a European style meal (several courses over an extended time) with a menu of raw oysters, chargrilled oysters, oysters Rockefeller, bread, fried crappie, slaw, hush puppies, and homemade peach ice cream.

We bought a box of oysters from the Shrimp Dock in Maryville and according to the box, they came from Sea Farms Inc. in Hudgins, VA so I assume they are from Chesapeake Bay. 

The first appetizer of raw oysters was served with Ina Garten’s Cocktail Sauce, lemon wedges, and saltines.

I don't know enough about oysters to explain this, but most of the the actual oyster meats were pretty small for the shell size compared to what we usually get.

The next appetizer was Grilled Oysters Rockefeller using our go-to recipe.  This is them about to head for the grill.

I forgot to top with the Parmesan and bread crumbs but had I remembered they would have looked like this when done - they still went down real easy.

Next up was Chargrilled Oysters using the following recipe, which is a combo of a couple we have tried.

Chargrilled Oysters

24 large oysters

1 tsp fresh parsley, fine chop

3 tsp garlic through the garlic press

1 stick butter - slightly melted

1/8 tsp black pepper

Emeril’s Essence

Parmesan, grated

Salt omitted as I used salted butter

Directions:

Mix the parsley, garlic, butter, and pepper and add a heavy tsp. to each oyster, sprinkle on a little Emeril’s Essence, add grated cheese and grill until bubbly.

I failed to get a shot but they looked like this previous meal.

Bev had made a couple of loaves of sourdough bread and it was super good dunked in the juices remaining in the oyster shells. 

For the main course, we once again used the recipe for Spicy Crappie, our favorite hush puppy recipe, Bev’s slaw, and our favorite tartar sauce from Cathy at Wives With Knives.  

This is my plate and it was all very good and received positive reviews from our guests.

Even though it took longer than I expected to eat the entire meal, I think it was a hit – we ate about 85 of the 100 oysters in the box.  Louie, who is a bread guy, loved the sour dough and said the hush puppies were the best he'd ever put in his mouth - it's always a feel good to please our guests.

The ice cream was made using recipe from friends of ours and adapted from a gallon down to two quarts.  We had made it once before and I thought it was a tad too sweet for me so I cut back on the sugar a little.

1 C. sugar

½ can Eagle Brand Milk

2 eggs

2 t vanilla

1 qt half & half

2 cups peaches (cut into very small pieces - food processor worked well)

1. Beat sugar, cond.milk, & eggs till creamy cook until eggs are done

2. Mix in half & half, extract & peaches

3. Run through your favorite ice cream maker – we used our Cuisinart.

I liked the ice cream much better this time and thought it was just right but Bev said it could have been sweeter for her, so use your own judgment if you make it. 

While the food was good and I'm pretty sure no one left hungry, the best part of the evening was the visiting and getting to know Louie and Sandy better.  Hopefully we'll see them again in a couple of weeks at the Sep. RV Rally (a multi-day get together at a campground).

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

9/4/14 event date