CanYouFind.Us

Then you look into it a bit deeper. Oh sure, another Sloppy Joe, I’ve had that a million times, is what you are probably thinking. But no, not quite like this. Not a Chicken Sloppy Joe served on a Sweet Potato! Well, not unless you are the guy who I stole this recipe from (credit given on the recipe page!) That guy comes up with some brilliant ideas in the kitchen, and this is certainly one of them.

Instead of making and serving your typical sloppy joe over a hamburger bun, he mentions using a sweet potato as your starchy vessel of goodness. It works, and it works WELL. We also went and used the recipe that he suggests for a chicken version of the sloppy joe. With all the goodies mixed in, the end result did not seem to taste TOO different from the beef version, but it didn’t seem to be nearly as heavy as beef. If you choose, you can just select a pound of ground chicken at your grocery store. Another option, is to grind it yourself in a meat grinder or food processor. We like to grind our own in the processor. You can add in dark meat as well, for a bit more flavor. I had never seen a sloppy joe recipe that had you use a salsa, but it did amazing things. You are able to add in several extra flavors, without nearly as much extra work. It also cuts down on your ketchup consumption, and unless you buy 3lb bottles of the stuff, that’s a very hand thing.

This dish went over well, very well. The recipe gives you enough for 4 hearty servings of the meaty mix, served over half a sweet potato each. If you choose, you could use an entire potato per serving, and only add 70(ish) calories. I’m hoping this freezes well, as I’m thinking it will make for a very good item to throw in the lunch box!

After the caloric overload that was our lunch, we were more than ready for a lighter dinner. Karen had found a beautiful display of eggplant at the store the other day, so we had been mulling over a few ideas that would let us use it. My original intention was actually to make a baba ganoush, but I ended up finding this Mexican Eggplant Bake instead. Since I never seem to pull off ethnic food quite as well as I’d hope, I went for it.

Although, I must admit, that I don’t recall every having olives in my food at any Mexican restaurant that wasn’t named Taco Bell. Regardless, this dish was amazing. It is very rare that I am a fan of a vegetarian dinner, I always miss the feel of a meaty protein source. The eggplant did a perfect job of filling that void, while still being very meaty. This might explain why last week we saw the menu item “chicken fried eggplant”!

Since our usual side dishes are of the SteamFresh variety, we wanted to avoid that trend with dinner tonight. As I pulled into the grocery store I was searching for a recipe on home made refried beans. Instead, I found a recipe on sure fire Mexican Rice. Cooks Illustrated worked their magic and found a few tips to make this a no-fail dish. The biggest secret that they give away here, is to rinse the rice for nearly 2 minutes. By doing this you clean off the extra starch, and will keep your rice from sticking together. It’s also quite easy to adjust the heat factor in this one, if you want a very mild rice-simply use one jalapeno instead of 3! The original recipe actually calls for even more oil, but we manage to cut it down to 1/4 of a cup, and will probably go a little lower next time.

Maybe next time I’ll tackle fried ice cream!

We set out today with a few goals. The most important, was to get Willy to a place where he could run and play. This RV park has not been very friendly to him, so we found a park on Lake Erie that we decided to go to. We had not previously been to any of the Great Lakes before, so we were glad to have the chance to get out to see one.

On the way, we had one planned stop. Blimpy Burgers in Ann Arbor. Blimpy’s has been well known among Ann Arborians for years, but was recently featured on Diners Drive-ins and Dives on Food Network. Since I haven’t managed to see that show in a while, we were lucky that this place was suggested to us. We did a bit of research online, and began to realize that there is quite a bit of hype around this place. They open at noon on Sundays, and we were walking in the door by 12:05 today.

When you walk into Blimpy’s, it’s expected that you know the proper way to order your meal. On the video they make it seem fairly tense-but it was a lot more laid back when we were there. For the most part they guide you right through the ordering process, and didn’t blink an eye when I asked if it was too late to make my double, into a triple. Every burger is made fresh to order, with meat that is ground (twice!) fresh that morning. Needless to say, the food was delicious, slightly pricey, but delicious. If you ever do get the chance-make sure you stop in and check it out.

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A day in Savannah, GA First of all, I have to talk about our trip to the famous Paula Deen restaurant-Lady and Sons. When we pulled into Savannah at 5PM last night, I gave the place a call to see about getting seats there that night. They were already booked, and said they start taking names at 9AM Sunday, for a lunch buffet that starts at noon. Needless to say, I didn’t feel like getting up that early on a Sunday. I don’t feel like getting up that early ANY day. So…we didn’t.

We did, however, get up around 10, have some coffee, and take the dog to Camping World. How can you not love an RV supply store, that allows pets? Easy-pick the smallest branch in the country, that doesn’t have a single thing that you are trying to buy. Somehow, we managed to still spend $50, but at least now we have a really cool hose…
After that, we finally ventured into downtown Savannah. Since we didn’t plan on getting a seat at the Lady, we drove by it to take a picture. The line was pretty long-and we knew they had already been taking names for 3 hours. Eventually we managed to find a garage that our truck could fit into, and we hiked back to try to get a few better shots of the famous eatery. At this point, we realized that the line had shrunk a lot, and Karen suggested we at least try to get a seat. At 1PM, we put our name in for the next available seat for 2. The lovely host told us that we need to be back by 4, and would be seated around 4.15. Wow. We gave her our name, and went to check out the area.
We walked down to the City Market and checked out some of the shops there. There is a lot of history to Savannah, and we grabbed a horse & buggy tour to try to learn more about it. Unfortunately, we didn’t learn much. Our guide was more interested in cracking jokes about her teenage daughter, and trying to get the horses to get across the streen in under 3 minutes. I did get a few good pictures, and they will be up on our photo page shortly.

Back to the food. So we finally get seated and order our sweet tea’s. Then it’s time to hit the buffet. I have to admit, we went back and forth on how we felt about this. We were partially disappointed that we were going to go to this special place, and had to serve ourselves food that was sitting out under a warming lamp. The other side was excited that we could try multiple items, and not have to deal with their very expensive entree prices (for dishes that certainly didn’t sound like anything special.) I’ve long since learned to expect the worst when going out to eat. I was prepared for everything to be good only to people that were Paula Deen starstruck. Turns out, I was wrong. Dead wrong. The food was AMAZING. The sweet tea was divine (yes, I said divine, and I mean every letter of it). On my first trip, I loaded up on fried chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetable casserole, creamed corn, sweet potatoes, pulled pork in gravy. By time I was back to the table, they had brought us each a biscuit and a Johnny Cake. Round two I managed to score some macaroni and cheese. I’m sure everyone is familiar with the dried out food of most buffets. They don’t play that game at Lady and Sons. The chicken was very crisp and juicy. All the sides packed an amazing flavor (creamed corn like I have never tasted, mashed potatoes that tasted more potato-y, a casserole where each vegetable was able to stand on its own). The macaroni was great, but I think we both prefer the creamy stovetop versions, instead of the oven version. By time Samantha, our great server, came around for desserts, we had to ask for the peach cobbler and chocolate/oreo ooey gooey cake in a take home box. They both made the trip home, and were still great 2 hours later.

I’m full.

We were recently doing a bit of work south of Atlanta. Our first job was about 40 minutes south, the next was another 45 miles south of that one. To help cut the drive, we stayed at Atlanta South RV Park in McDonough. Last Thursday, the day after the season finale of Top Chef Season 4, we had dinner reservations for home, the home of Chef Richard Blais.

To prepare for the evening, we first went to Jennifer Joseph’s Hair Salon so Karen could get a cut and color. They were VERY helpful in squeezing her in the day we called. Alicia is one of the first stylist that we have found, that would actually listen to what Karen was wanting, and then executed on it perfectly. Throughout the haircut, she was constantly discussing what she was doing with Karen’s hair, and explaining why some things that K wanted, just wouldn’t work with her hair.

Also, throughout the haircut, I quickly became bored with waiting, and hunted out a cigar shop. I found AG Cigars just a few miles up the road, and went up there to check out their selection. The guys in this shop realize WHY we have brick and mortar shops. I was looking for new cigars (both new to me, and new releases) and they pointed out several selections. I picked up a few Illusione cigars, which are only carried in about 600 shops nation wide. This shop also still is able to allow smoking inside-bonus. If you plan things right, you have time to drop her off at the salon, run up and enjoy a good cigar, and head back down by time her cut and color is done-bonus.

After that, our dinner at home. The night could only be described as amazing. First off-they have free valet parking. When you head inside, they have a cozy bar and a large lounge for you to wait for your table-or just hang out and have a drink or two. We had time for a cocktail before our reservation was up, and then we were taken back to our table. Karen started with the fried green tomatoes. The menu lists them just as such. Turns out, they weren’t typical at all. Chef Blais cores the tomatoes and fries the cores. Then they are served with a buttermilk ranch ICE CREAM. I don’t even eat tomatoes, but these were great. Next we had an order of the chicken fried sweetbreads with sausage gravy, apples, and arugula. This dish was also top notch. The highlights, of course, were the main plates. Karen had the Slow cooked pork short rib with a coffee bbq sauce, collard greens and peaches. I had the wild stripped bass with a rice ‘pea-laf’, parmesan foam and pickled garlic. If you know anything about Chef Blais, you know that he puts a lot of humor and whimsy into his work. Above all else-all of his food was very fun. Karen had seen him put forward a lackluster short rib on the finale of Top Chef, but luckily-this time he had a cut that was more to his style, and it was cooked to perfection. Being a chef in the south, there were a few items with local flair on the dessert menu as well. Being too stuffed to continue eating, we simply split the sour cream pecan cake with sweat tea ice cream. A perfect way to end an amazing meal.

Oh, and the brilliant chef made more than one appearance that night. We had the opportunity to speak to him a few times, and were more than amazed at how humble of a guy he was. He even was generous enough to write us a personal note on his menu of the day, and sign it for us. Definitely a day I won’t forget, and a restaurant I will suggest to everyone.

281 Mt. Olive Road
McDonough, GA 30253
(770) 957-2610
DirecTV Elevation: 46/Azimuth: 211

The Basics
Lots-Average, mostly pull-through sites, big rig friendly.
Pets-Welcome
Satellite Friendly-“Every site, if you have DirecTV”
Sewer-Yes
Laundry-Onsite ($1.25 wash/$1 dry)
WiFi-Yes, full park coverage
Pool-Yes

The Extras
Sites-Level, gravel parking, picnic table
Cable-
Bath House-Yes
Camp Store-Ice, basic RV Supplies
Onsite Recreation-Playground, Rec Room
Propane-Sold onsite.

Parting Thoughts
This is actually the last park that we stayed in before Christmas ’07. One of the things that I absolutely loved about this place is when you ask if they are satellite friendly. They very quickly answer “all of our sites get satellite…as long as you have DirecTV”. I love it! Tonight I absolutely HAD to catch the finale of Top Chef, and would have cried for hours if I didn’t get a signal. They weren’t kidding-I had signal before I even had a chance to try to properly aim the dish. We also really love the fact that they do have an off leash dog area. It is a fairly good sized area, that is well shaded for those of us that have to wait on our pups. The park is close to the highway (although not noisily so) and the gas station right off the interstate has a pump that is easily very friendly for RV’s that are entering or leaving the park. We do notice that each time we are there, we are put in the ‘long term’ section. The park has a nearly perfect split, and I don’t know if I agree with the overall 5 star rating. While part of it is certainly very nice and clean, the other part is run down and feels like you are stuck in a long term hole.

201 Oak Drive
Lexington, SC 29073
DirecTV Elevation: 45.4/Azimuth: 217.5

The Basics
Lots-Average, mostly pull-through sites, big rig friendly.
Pets-Welcome
Satellite Friendly-Yes
Sewer-Yes
Laundry-Onsite
WiFi-Yes, for a fee
Pool-No

The Extras
Sites-Level, gravel parking, picnic table
Cable-No
Bath House-Yes
Camp Store-Ice, basic RV Supplies
Onsite Recreation-Playground, Rec Room
Propane-Sold onsite.

Parting Thoughts
This park is just a block away from a grocery store gas stations, and several fast food choices. The spots are very spacious and we have had easy in and out access every time we have been here. They also are one of the largest flea market chains in the Carolinas, so you can have something to do on the weekends!

9494 Hwy 78
Ladson, SC 29456
DirecTV Elevation: N/A

The Basics
Lots-large, mostly pull-through sites, big rig friendly
Pets-Welcome
Satellite Friendly-Not for us!
Sewer-Yes
Laundry-On site
WiFi-Yes, full park and free
Pool-Yes

The Extras
Sites-Level, gravel parking, picnic table
Cable-No
Bath House-Yes
Camp Store-Ice, basic RV Supplies
On site Recreation-Playground, Rec Room
Propane-Sold on site.

Parting Thoughts
We were only at this park for one day, so it was hard to get a really good feeling for the area. The staff was very friendly and the spots were quite easy to get in and out of. They offer on site track pickup, have a very large dog walk area, and good WiFi. We could not get any satellite signal from our spot (unsure if it is possible from any sites) and they do not have cable.