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Swinging Bridge & Great Smoky Mountains,Townsend, Tennessee

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A Sunday drive (albeit on a Monday) was a true delight!! Just taking the whim, before heading home, to enjoy the last day of our vacation was worth winging it in Tennessee!!

The Great Smokey Mountains (yes, the home of infamous Dolly Parton) are well worth visiting!! The natural overlooks are fabulous and well maintained. While the Smokies are not actually on fire (it’s the fog that rises that make them look smoky.) Absolutely stunning views!!! I admit, getting “lost” in the forrest is truly a delight.

We started driving from Sevierville, Tennessee, area and headed out , We enjoyed taking a pit stop in the tiny town of Townsend (which, by the way, hosts a Post Office with wonderful, helpful staff, and yes, I dropped off quite a few postcards and the clerk was able to help give us some local pointers.)

River Stone Family Restaurant, Townsend, TN

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A Sunday drive proved very delightful as we stumbled upon this gem, River Stone in Townsend, TN.

It’s affordably priced, which is awesome but even more outstanding, is the food is so good and the portions are large. The waitress was also super helpful and we really enjoyed the experience. I really appreciated how clean and tidy the whole restaurant was (and yes, I used the bathroom, which were also super clean!)

Such a wonderful treat!

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g55383-d851790-Reviews-Riverstone_Family_Restaurant-Townsend_Tennessee.html

A triple ride… at Dollywood Theme Park

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There are theme parks all over the place but until recently, I didn’t have a clue that Dollywood Theme park was a “thing” and that it was so close to where I live, within just a few hours drive from home. I hadn’t been to a theme park in ages—and if my memory serves me correctly, I hadn’t been to one since going on an activity bus on a “date” in college, to the Halloween themed one at Carowinds in college—but I am not going to date myself on that one!

Dollywood Theme parks sent out flyers, which is initially is what the idea going, offering tickets at a big discount for “Essential Workers”, which I qualified for, working at a mental health facility–and having some time off, We (my sweetheart and myself) decided to take advantage of a package deal he had purchased (3 nights, 4 days in Pigeon Forge through another venue) . And off we went….

Dollywood Theme park was between “festivals” and it being a Sunday, the park was pretty slow, which suited us just fine as there weren’t any waiting lines for the roller coaster, finding parking was a breeze and the staffed was not stressed or rushed, which was so awesome.

The biggest winner of the day, though, besides getting to hold hands all day with my sweetheart and riding coasters and laughing at the funny pumpkin scenes? I got to mark an item off of my dream list (I don’t want to call it a bucket it list because I am not kicking the bucket–plus, what did the bucket ever do that someone thought it needed kicking?) I have always wanted to ride a ride, a roller coaster, more than once without having to get off the ride and go around again and wait in line… and the dream came true!

As I said, the park was having a “slow” day and when I got on the “log ride”, which goes by another name but I can’t recall, again, as I had already ridden it a couple of times during the day, the operator let me ride it again without getting off, not once, but twice! So, yeah, I got to ride the ride 3 times back to back without disembarking in between!!! Yes, I left the park looking like a half drowned rat from being splashed, oh by the glory of it all!!

Visiting the Great Smoky Mountains, Tennesse

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I am not sure, but I suspect that Smoky the Bear might have originated somewhere in the Great Smoky Mountains, as I saw features and advertisements and monument plaques for him everywhere!!

Low Country Boil

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A low country boil, as I have been told, is very similar to a crab cracking party–either way, it’s a whole lot of good food and fun to be had with family and friends. I was put in charge of finding clean newspapers and a steaming pot (with the fire ring kit, etc) for the party. The fire ring kit and steaming pot was the easy part, I borrowed one from my neighbor (and invited him to come along!)

I obtained the clean stack of newspapers with a stroke of luck; I happened to catch a newspaper delivery man and asked if he had any unsold newspapers from previous days that I could purchase off of him–he gave me a stack of folded, untouched papers for free, which was a blessing as we needed a lot of newspaper to line the tables.

The low country boil was held outside in a friends backyard. Everyone brought something along for the shin-dig and oh, boy, what a party!! Music, dancing and of course great food!!!

The large steam pots were put over fire rings, using propane tanks. The guys steamed up potatoes, chunks of corn on the cob, sausage chunks of an assorted variety, and of course, shrimp, lots and lots of shrimp–people even brought homemade cocktail sauce, drawn butter, paper towels, and more!!

Even the pups got to enjoy some scraps (and no, they weren’t eating from the tables!)

Easy Brunch, pulling it all together

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Brunch is made to be enjoyable and make it easy for yourself, simply use what you have about in your fridge or make it “potluck” style with a couple of friends, bring only what you have on hand!! It makes it a fun and easy way to dine tastefully and on a budget…. and who doesn’t like that?

An easy brunch of things pulled together, a bagel with scrambled eggs, quartered roma tomatoes, red grapes and radishes made in the shapes of flowers (my neighbor is food crafty)

Summer Blossoms along the road side

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Road side blooms make a lovely bouquet

On the way home, I came across a most obliging field of wild flowers; I couldn’t help but stop and pick some for my home (while leaving plenty for others to enjoy!) And what girl doesn’t enjoy a nice bouquet? I gifted myself the beautiful bouquet and it was well worth the 10 minutes of effort to enjoy such blossoms!!

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A bit of fun…

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Okay, we all know what memes are and that there are various forums to find them; some are shared, some make us laugh, others make us ponder. Finding and reading memes, no matter the subject or theme (and the ones below don’t have any theme other than that they appealed to me) can lead one on a meme adventure (or down the rabbit hole.) I hope you enjoy (and I take credit for none of these, I just found them!)

Reader Beware!! Some are funny, some are sweet and others are downright creepy!

Stone Soup–using what’s at hand.

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The Stone Soup is a European folk story in which hungry strangers convince the people of a town to each share a small amount of their food in order to make a meal that everyone enjoys, and exists as a moral regarding the value of sharing. In varying traditions, the stone has been replaced with other common inedible objects, and therefore the fable is also known as axe soup, button soup, nail soup, and wood soup.

Stone Soup – Wikipedia

While I most certainty don’t go hungry, I don’t like to waste. While trying to figure out what I wanted to make for dinner this evening, I realized I bits and bobs of this that and the other. I didn’t have enough of any item to make a “proper dish” of anything, so I made stone soup at home of the bits and bobs from my refrigerator that needed to be eaten; while none of the ingriedients were any were near spoiled or bad, they still needed to be used an eaten.

What is included in this stone soup:

CHicken Bullion-water, carrots (diced)-half a large onion (course chunked)-medium tomato chunked-3 cups of raw kale-salt-pepper-2 medium red potatoes (chunky diced)-2tsp Italian seasoning

It was all simmered together for about 90 minutes (of course, while I caught up on my pen pal correspondence).

Stone Soup –potato vegetable soup

She Crab Soup, a Charleston Delight

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I found a postcard in Charleston with a delightful recipe I feel is worth sharing! I hope you also enjoy!!!

See recipe below

Charleston, South Carolina She Crab Soup (taken from the Postcard)

2 tbsp butter, 1 tsp. Flour, 1 quart milk, 2 cups white crab meat with roe, 5 drops onion juice, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp mace, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1/4 pint heavy cream (whipped) , 4-5 tbsp dry sherry, grated rind of one lemon

In the top of a double boiler, melt butter and blend with flour until smooth. While stirring constantly, add teh milk slowly. Then add the crab meat and roe plus all the seasonings, except sherry. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes. Serve warm in cups with one teaspoon of Sherry, and a topping of whipped cream.