Their signs, plain and tall, beckon you from the interstate.  The melody to “Prop Me Next to the Jukebox if I Die” by Joe Diffie pings off the countertops.  The Waffle House’s vibrant, laminated menus are reminders that theirs is an establishment where quick cleanups and a rarely changing food roster are keys to success. Patrons are conditioned to know what they want and how they want it before they push through the glass door.  When a stuffed truck driver vacates a booth, the employee wipe-down process is so instantaneous that the seats are still warm when a family of Sunday churchgoers claims them next.

Eat, drink, pay, get out.  That’s what the Waffle House strives for.  And the customers seem happy to comply. All except me, of course.  I was the only one in the place who, instead of scarfing down my meal the moment it arrived, began photographing it.  Our plump Waffle House waitress, Roxie, observed my actions with a mildly bemused grin before asking, “Ya’ll aren’t from these parts, are ya’?”

Hitting up Waffle House was entirely my call. It was a “must see” destination for me while in Georgia.   MG had been dazzling me for years with stories of their world-famous hash browns which are ordered up “diner speak” and come “scattered” (spread on the grill), “smothered” (with onions), “covered” (with cheese), “chunked” (with diced ham), “diced” (with diced tomatoes), “peppered” (with jalapeño peppers), “capped” (with mushrooms), “topped” (with chili) or “all the way” (the works). As we had a long day in the car ahead of us, I resisted my stirring desire to go whole hog and limited myself to “scattered, smothered, covered and diced.” Roxie loudly broadcast my order across the diner (a Waffle House tradition the Granberrys told me to be on the alert for), before settling herself back into a conversation with another equally plump waitress that produced my favorite line from the entire Gerogia trip: “Ya’ll can go to the skatin’ rink and get a big pickle for seventy-five cents… and it’s good too!”

The rest of the meal was an afterthought from the get go.  I wanted the real Waffle House experience and that was only going to happen with hash browns, which (surprise!) did not disappoint.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on a drive through White County, residing in the northeast corner of the state and home to the towns of Cleveleand, Sautee, and the tourist trap known as Helen, which boasts a re-created Alpine village complete with gabled rooflines, schnitzel restaurants and cuckoo clock retailers.  A miles-long traffic jam along the two-lane highway 75 kept us from experiencing the magic of alp horns and glockenspiels first hand, but we did make it far enough to reach some of the best eating in White County, and I’m not just saying it ‘cuz MG’s brother, Matthew, is responsible for the food!




Nacoochee Grill lives inside an old farm house, a live fire grill doing the cooking on the inside, American flag and Southern-required rocking chairs gracing the front porch.  By the way, if a home in Georgia is unlucky enough to be without a porch – and those are rare – you’re more than likely to see a rocking chair perched up on the roof – a testament to the humidity.

It wasn’t long after we had been seated that the local area was hit with thunder the volume to curl your toes.  Pounding rainstorms are as common as gravel here.  The hammering rain just added to the fun of filling our bellies surrounded by the protective white-washed walls and creaking wooden floors that give Nacoochee Grill its charm.  MG, Gloria Granberry and I started with BBQ duck tacos served with ancho BBQ sauce, golden deep fried grit fritters stuffed with andoullie sausage and topped with chili honey mustard, and freshly-made jalapeno cheddar scones.



That was followed by sweet corn pudding and roasted baby zebra eggplant.  Next came our main courses.  MG went with shrimp and garlic grits with sauteed red peppers, poblano peppers, shallots, green onions and bacon.
I had the chicken pot pie with seared chicken, sweet peas, carrots, onion and celery.  It arrived looking less like a pot pie and more like a pastry-encrusted UFO, but I knew what savory deliciousness awaited underneath!  Excellent food and beautiful, relaxing atmosphere.  No giant pickles here… but if that’s more your speed, I know a Waffle House waitress I can put you in touch with.

Some who know me claim I enjoy being the center of attention. Who am I to argue? My friend Penny at Mimi’s Kitchen certainly has my number. Not only did she feature my site in an interview at Half Hour Meals recently, but she was kind enough to present to me my first ever blog award! I didn’t even know that blog awards existed. Now that I do, I kinda want them all.

But enough about me and a little more about my presenter. Penny is a cooking star in my book, and she proves it again and again with her masterful food and the helpful advice she dispenses regularly in her column over at HHM. She’s a busy gal. More importantly, she has been very encouraging to me and my attempts to work up my meager kitchen muscles. She found my site very early on, and has been a regular ever since.

And now I get a chance to pay it forward by awarding twelve blogs I especially dig. I invite you to work up a healthy appetite by visiting the following:

Alphabeet Soup

Bake or Break

Deep End Dining

Food Stories

Gonna Want Seconds

Kitchen Musings

Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

Living the Gourmet

My Year on the Grill

Nibble Me This

Stephen Cooks!

Trippy Food

Now it’s your turn, winners. Share your favorite online rest stops with the rest of us. Here’s all you need to do:

1. Put the award logo on your blog or within your post
2. Pass the award to 12-well-deserving bloggers
3. Link the nominees within your post
4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award

Thanks again, Penny. I hope to meet you in person someday.

The “bobcat” element of this burger is the “bobcat slaw,” an odd combination (to me, anyway) of cabbage, white vinegar, sugar, pepper, salt, celery seed and mustard. It gives this burger an awesome, crunchy vibrant kick that’s made even more zesty with the addition of some tangy feta.

I made some modifications from the recipe as I found it at Food Stories, and Food Stories goes even further with homemade buns courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. I haven’t quite reached that level of kitchen proficienty yet (whent with storebought)  but if you have, Food Stories and Smitten Kitchen are great stops for you, so be sure to check them both out.

And enjoy the below with someone you love:

Bobcat Burgers (from Food Stories, modified)

• 1 pound ground lamb (modified from ground beef shoulder) – makes 2-3 patties
• 1 jalapneo pepper per patty, cored and seeded
• Butter for frying
• Feta cheese

Bobcat Bite Slaw (from Hamburger America)
This is a half quantity.

• 1 small head white cabbage, core removed and finely shredded
• 1/2 large green bell pepper, grated
• 1/2 cup caster sugar (explanation below)
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
• 1 tablespoon mustard

And what is caster sugar?  Caster sugar is the name of a very fine sugar in Britain, so named because the grains are small enough to fit though a sugar “caster” or sprinkler. It is sold as “superfine” sugar in the United States. If you don’t have any caster sugar on hand, you can make your own by grinding granulated sugar for a couple of minutes in a food processor (that’s what I did.  This method will also produce sugar dust, so let it settle for a few moments before opening the food processor).

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughlly.  Keep in the fridge until ready for use.  Be sure  to give it a good stir just before topping your burgers with it.

Fry up your chillies butter, then set aside.  Fry your burgers in the same buttered pan, and add a little more butter if necessary (and when isn’t it?).  When you flip the burger, it’s time to put those chillies on followed by the cheese. Once the cheese has melted you are good to go.

Toast your buns.

Get that burger in that bun. Top with slaw (and anything else you fancy) and serve.

Medallion Potato Fries

• 1-2 potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• olive oil
• sea salt

Lightly coat a metal pan with olive oil and heat in the oven at 500.  Place your slices on the pan and sprinkle with sea salt.

And if I had been told I couldn’t be a single lady, and even worse, being prevented from performing to my favorite Beyonce tune… hell, if I was in that car, it would have ended up crashed in a ravine somwehere.

The dad in the video below is lucky that all he got was a mini-tantrum and one of the best “nice job, asshole” looks from the kid in the middle. A mere slap on the wrist as far as I’m concerned.

Priceless.

TvFoodAndDrink was recently a featured site at HalfHourMeals.com, a well-crafted meeting place for anyone who’s a foodie, and a required stop for those in need of some culinary inspiration. You need only spend minutes browsing the recipes submitted by members and it won’t be long before three or four of them are battling it out for rights to your kitchen. Joining is free, there are no intrusive e-mails arriving in your mailbox beyond the one welcoming you to the site, and from there you’re free to participate as much or as little as you like. New submissions are always met with positive comments and/or constructive suggestions. It’s one of the few “community” websites that actually feels like it has a community behind it.

Conducting the interview was Penny H., a North Carolina chef and freelance food writer who’s been with HalfHourMeals since the site’s launch. Like me, Penny has an undying passion for learning all she can about food, but she’s light years ahead of me in the mastering of it. Basically, she’s a pro.

Penny’s personal blog is Mimi’s Kitchen and you can see her in action here with her own Two Dollar Dinners series. By the way, is it just me, or does listening to the discussion of food wrapped in a Southern accent make it sound so much more enticing? Just listen to the way “chocolate chip cookies” sasses its wasy out of her mouth. And if you’re just that kind of person… you might want to check out Penny’s own… bacon cheeseburger… and fries… SOUP!

Thanks to Penny for shining a light on TvFoodAndDrink.

Oh, and please check out the interview!

Do I need to introduce Z to Sara Rue? Thoughts?

Julie is a bright, capable young woman. I think she’s 24 or so. She has a big future in television production, but she doesn’t know who Larry Hagman is, she has never watched an episode of Dallas in her life, and when you mention the phrase “Who Shot JR?” to her, she tilts her head like a baffled golden retriever.

Thank God she met me, a grown man who longs for the day he meets Linda Gray, watches six epsiodes a week on SoapNet, and keeps Dallas trading cards in his top drawer at work.

This was the biggest event in television history, and the audience it drew will never be duplicated. Yes, more people watched the final episode of MASH, but that was two-and-a-half hours, an episode five times its normal size. “Who Shot JR” was its regular 44 minute: four acts, no special guest stars, no weepy good-byes, no gallant speeches, no dead Korean babies/chickens. It was just good, fun storytelling brought to a sleek well-honed climax. There was no intention to capture the fascination of the entire world. No calculation ahead of time. The producers, writers and actors simply knew what they were doing and did it.

Somewhow, Julie being completely oblivous to the insane amount of global press that surrounded this event has brought back in full force all the memories of how much fun it was to be a part of. My entire family watched, everyone in my fifth grade class watched. I even remember having a tooth filled by Dr. Croal and him stopping mid-way through the procedure to ask “So Gary, who do you think did it?” knowing he didn’t need to be more specific for anyone to know what he was talking about.

TV addiction will never be so much fun again. Now, we can each watch pretty much anything we want anytime we want. But I can still feel the labors of getting through the week leading up to that epsiode, hearing about it everywhere I went, the fun of getting a call from my sister-in-law’s family in Ohio, who got the show two hours earlier and refused to give up the identity of the culprit, and then… finally having my curiosity sated.

Watching the episode now, it comes off rather tame and underwhelming compared to what producers can get away with these days. The people who worked on Dallas had a much tighter box to work within, and pulled off far more fun than anything on the air now. Julie, like everyone her age, just plain missed out.

“Who Shot JR” Re-lived on Ultimate Dallas

Listen to NPR Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Episode

Overseas coverage from BBC

And for those not in the know (there are more of you out there than I realize), here’s the guilty party…