Lake Barkley Weekend

I don't have it all together in my mind yet but I wanted to post what I remember about how and what we ate. Photos and recipes might follow later.
Thursday we head south to Lake Barkley to what we have named for our friends as "Nevermore". A wonderful and peaceful setting, on a beautiful cove. Awesome.

When we arrive it's "small plates". We've adopted an unwritten rule that travel day requires simple meals which require no major prepping of cooking time. Today it was 1) Baked Brie cheese topped with cooked apples and wrapped in puff pastry. 2) Sauteed Kielbasa rounds in a sweet (I thing peach or apricot) dipping sauce. 3) Miniature egg rolls. 4) An antipasto salad that included salami, artichoke hearts, fontina cheese, black olives, red radish, Cherry peppers, and a few other finds from the refrig..

Perfect. Not too heavy, good assortment and eaten in a fashion that stressed a lay back attitude.


Friday evening Barb & Jim (our buddies from Memphis) invite their friends Bill & Judy (Now our friends) to dinner. The menu is simple, A unique salad, get this. Arugula, topped with grilled watermelon (YES--grilled) topped with a little more arugula, drizzled with a reduced balsamic vinaigrette and extra virgin olive oil. Mmmm. It was a great summer salad. Try it. you'll be surprised. A little labor intensive with cutting the "seedless" melon into 3x3 slices and grilling but it was worth it.

The entree was filet mignons cooked in a strange way. We put the in the oven for 25 minutes at 275 degrees. Then we sauteed them on high heat to sear then. Try it. It's like a Ruths Chris steak. Delicious, medium rare but warm on the inside. That entree was accompanied with a potato casserole that is absolutely sinful. We got the recipe from Sally's cousin Nan. I might include it later but it has potato's, 3 cups of mayo, a full large box of Velveeta cheese, 2 cups of cheddar cheese ( are you having a heart attack yet ?) bacon, olives and I think that's the majority of ingredients. Taste good, yes but! Oh, we also has some rolls to accompany the meal.

Bill made homemade cream puffs oozing with cream and topped with drizzled chocolate syrup. Wow, nice way to end the meal.

Was Saturday much different. Not really. We don't usually eat breakfast so it either lunch or brunch. Today we call it lunch. Memphis bar-b-q, Corky's bbq sauce, an assortment of potato chips and leftover potato casserole (it was a huge rich casserole). We ate moderately, with an anticipation to dinner.

Dinner was a simple salad, which we call Columbia Steak House salad, named after what used to be a favorite stopping place years ago. It is comprised of shredded lettuce, onion, celery, radish and if you have it tomato (which I forgot) topped with oil & vinegar or Good Seasons Italian dressing. The entree was Spinach & Cheese Ravioli in a Red Onion, Red Pepper, garlic cream sauce topped with sauteed shrimp. The plates were empty so the group must have liked it.


Okay, I'm almost done. Sunday, started with Bloody Mary's & Screwdrivers in lieu of church services. What do we do for brunch? We cook and eat whatever is leftover. With cocktails, came leftover baked brie and crackers. The meal consisted of the leftover potato casserole to which we added any leftover steak ( they were huge) and some onion which we then warmed in the oven. We topped that with eggs over easy, some grilled asparagus and a strip of bacon. On the side was , yes, watermelon. We also toasted and buttered buns. It was good and tasty and was our parting meal.