I had been looking so forward to visiting Grandmother this weekend, that I hopped up, quickly finished packing, got Jasper settled and the pointed the car toward East Tennessee. As Jerry Reid said, we were “eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin'”.
When we arrived, Jennifer’s good friend, Martha was visiting and had stopped by to drop off a homemade dessert for all of us to enjoy over the weekend. And coincidentally, the recipe was from the Taylor family cookbook.
Before our trip, we had negotiated a non-cooking weekend with Grandmother. This would give all of us a break from thinking about cooking, planning, shopping, prepping, and cleaning up afterward. So for tonight, decided to have dinner at the Cheddar’s in Johnson City. We all piled into the car and met Phyllis, Olivia, Molly, Tammy and Hannah, Olivia’s childhood friend who was visiting over the weekend. For a Friday night, we had a relatively short wait. We were seated and ordered a cornucopia of food: Santa Fe spinach dip for the table, Cornmeal Whitefish, New Orleans pasta, a Philly steak sandwich with fries, steak and baked potato, a veggie plate with mac and cheese, broccoli and broccoli casserole and Gigi’s Baked Spasagna which was a cross between lasagna and spaghetti. It was all so tasty.
Back at Grandmother Ginny’s full and contented, we all stretched out in the living room and took full advantage of both wing back chairs, both couches and even the floor. And for our viewing pleasure this evening, it was our distinct honor and privilege to introduce the uninitiated to A&E’s, “Live PD”. Three hours of live policing around the country. Thirty cameras following local police, state troopers and sheriff’s departments in six states as they patrol. It’s exciting. You never know what you’re going to see.
Saturday arrived overcast and rainy. We spent the morning sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee, hot tea and just watching the rain pitter patter. But by noon, it was time to get serious about some food. We rounded up Phyllis and headed downtown to dine at Red Chili, a small and intimate restaurant with amazing Korean fare . We had pan fried mondu, a type of potsticker, crackling rice, a sweet and crunchy rice with chicken and veggies, mondu soup and a basic stir fry. Boy was it great! And what could be better after a delicious lunch on a rainy Saturday than a nap. Aah, the glory of it all.
For dinner, we regrouped, and met up with Tammy and the girls at Clarences’s Drive-In in Unicoi. They arrived before we did and to say that they thought they couldn’t possibly be in the right place was an under statement. The looks of confusion on their faces was priceless but we asked for them to just trust us. We grabbed a table in the back room and ordered a cornucopia of meat and three combos to our hearts content. And speaking of heart, there was so much Southern fried fare at ridiculously low prices, that Terry said that he was ordering the “Casket Knocker Special”.
I’m not sure why, but Dean Martin’s version of “Is It True What They Say About Dixie”, came to Grandmother Ginny’s mind while we were enjoying our dinner. When she recited the line, Do the sweet magnolias blossom at everybody’s door, Do the folks keep eating possum til they can’t eat no more…, I just lost it, embarrassingly snort laughed and then fell into one of those uncontrollable laughing, gasping spells replete with tears. Good times.
Satiated beyond belief, we headed back to Grandmother’s and sat around the kitchen table, my favorite thing to do, talked, laughed and eventually, I know you won’t be surprised, ransacked the fridge for sweets and treats. The girls made cups of hot coffee in the Keurig and we unearthed ice cream, Martha’s homemade dessert topped with raspberries, and one of Terry’s faves, Little Debbie oatmeal cakes.
I just loved visiting and catching up with everyone. It was another perfectly wonderful weekend full of fun, laughter and love.
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