Cracker Barrel & Arby's

On the 27th of July, a Friday, I took the day off. I hit up Cracker Barrel for brunch:

I went with Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast. I chose chicken fried chicken (big surprise), went with scrambled eggs, regular hash browns, biscuits and gravy and added a pancake (as I was still having a pancake craving).

The chicken was really good. It was cooked just right, still very juicy and hot. The eggs were nice and fully cooked, no runniness to them at all. The hashbrowns were just ok, they're never as good as Waffle House's. The pancake was good (for Cracker Barrel's, they're one of my least favorites). The gravy and biscuits were about as perfect as they can get.

For dinner, I had another Arby's craving, so I went with the usual #2 combo:

The potato cakes were good, and the roast beef was outstanding. Hot, juicy and flavorful, it was everything you'd want in a roast beef sandwich.

The Blue Plate Cafe

I had been having a pancake craving for a while. So, on Wedneday (7/18), I decided to indulge that craving by going to the Blue Plate Cafe. It had been a while since I've been there. We used to go fairly regularly at lunch, when we were just down the street from it, but since we moved to our new office last year, we've not been back.

I went with the 2 eggs and country ham platter. Their breakfast entrees come with biscuits and gravy and your choice of hashbrowns, grits or 3 pancakes.

The biscuits were just ok, and the gravy was VERY thin. But even though it was super thin, it did have a good flavor, which is really odd. This is the worst it's ever been in my many visits, and I attribute it to the odd time I hit.

As for my other side, I of course went with the pancakes:

The pancakes were good, flavor wise, but they were a little tough on the surface. Once you got them cut, they were fine. The ham had a really great flavor, but was fairly tough and dried out, more so than usual for country ham. The eggs were good.

This was easily the worst I've ever had at this restaurant, but I don't want it to sound like it was horrible. It was merely ok to fine. And if a bad experience is actually just an ok one, I'm fine with that.

Red Lobster Tuesday

Tuesday saw a lack of appetizing options at the cafeteria, so I went big for dinner. Met my buddies Jody and Jesse at Red Lobster for dinner. I went with the Ultimate Feast, and started with the potato soup instead of a salad (big surprise):

The soup was really good. The potato chunks were cooked well, and the soup wasn't too hot. It had just the right amount of seasoning, I didn't have to salt or pepper it. The biscuits were nice and warm and just the right mix between gooey and crumbly.

The main course was the feast of crab legs, lobster tail, breaded fried shrimp, shrimp scampi, and a side of mashed potatoes (I've been having bad luck with baked potatoes from restaurants lately):

The crab legs were pretty good, but not great. I had some issues getting all the meat out of them, and it wasn't completely my fault. The lobster tail was really good, nice flavor and texture and wasn't over cooked as it has been in the past. The fried shrimp was even better, but the scampi was perfect.

Friday Feast

For lunch on Friday, I ate at the movie theater before watching Prometheus. I went with my usual of a corn dog and a frozen coke. The corn dog was about as cooked as you could get before hitting over cooked. It wasn't bad, but it was a hair past really good. The breading was well done and the dog was just past pleasantly tough. I don't want it to sound like it was bad, but I think I've been a bit lax on my descriptions in the last few posts. This was a good corn dog, just not as good as they have been in the past. The frozen coke was very good, however. A nice mix, not too icy and not too syrupy.

For dinner, my sister wanted to go to Cracker Barrel, so that's where we went. I went with my usual, CFC. But, as you'll see in the picture, I hit up the corn instead of the dumplings.

I'd love to say I was trying to be healthier, but that'd be a lie. They were out of dumplings.

I KNOW, Tab. Travesty of the highest order.

My okra was very good, not the best I've had there, but better than usual. Meaning it was fairly crunchy, and not too ... gooey inside. I personally love my okra very crunchy, so this was a plus. The corn was nice and buttery, very plump kernels. Juicy and pleasantly salty. The mashed potatoes were really good for the old Crack House. I prefer mine more creamed than mashed, and they usually go more mashed than creamed. The gravy was good. The chicken itself was very flavorful and juicy, the breading not too thick or overcooked. The biscuits were good. A nice thickness and held the butter well.

The trip home

On the trip home, I only stopped to fill the car up. On the first mid trip fill up, it was lunch time, so I hit up old McD's and got some chicken nuggets and fries. No pic of them, as I ate them on the way. The nuggets were really good, and the fries, while tasty and fresh, weren't salted near enough for my taste. Which is probably a good thing for my health.

While we were out Saturday getting stuff for the party, Furey, Ike and I stopped to get the crab for the boil. The crab place also had scallops. I love scallops and have never cooked them, so I bought a couple pound of them. I left them in the freezer while I was there, and got one of those cheap Styrofoam coolers and a bag of ice to keep them frozen on the way home. It worked better than I had hoped, the ice was still mostly there after the 12 hr drive and the scallops were still mostly frozen.

I took the ones that had thawed out and ended up sauteing them as my searing of them didn't work out like I wanted. I prepared them in an olive oil, butter and garlic powdered concoction. As I didn't have any good veggies handy (did this after getting home and didn't feel like stopping to get any or going back out), I went with the instant potatoes (garliced them up too) and some biscuits:

They came out fairly well. Or very well, if you account for a first attempt ever.

The day after

For breakfast, we hit up the local Cracker Barrel. I went with the "Country Fried Breakfast" which in my case was the chicken fried chicken (big surprise), scrambled eggs, and biscuits and gravy. And I forgot to take a picture of it.

After that, the gang broke up and most headed back home. I hung out with Tab, Furey and their kids as I was heading back on Monday (12 hr drive wasn't happening after the day had started). So, we hung out in the pool for most of the afternoon.

For dinner, we had some hamburgers, corn, and finished off the crab that had been leftover from the party:

Yep, look at that, I tried to healthy up my usual fare. Went with corn for the side dish and tossed a couple of leaves of spinach on there. It was pretty tasty, and the spinach added a nice texture without being too bitter (last few times I've tried spinach on salads or such it had been really bitter).

And there were 3 blue crabs left over (yes, they really had a blue hue pre cooking) and a couple of clumps of snow crab legs, so we dealt with them. And they were tasty.

And for dessert? Key Lime Pie:

Very tasty, sweet with a little bite of tart.

The Old Switcheroo

For lunch, I hit up the old Crack House (Cracker Barrel), and went with my usual, the Chicken Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy (white on both), fried okra and dumplings.

The food was very good, I ate almost every bit of it. I only hate half of one of the biscuits though.

For dinner, I had the other half of that flat iron steak to get rid of, so I fried it up, and added some scrambled eggs, for the old breakfast of Steak and Eggs. First time I've ever actually gone with that meal:

It was outstanding. I put most of that praise on the steak. It had the same seasoning as the other half, only they'd been sitting in a ziplock bag for a few days. It was stupidly tender,so much so that I made steak and egg biscuits out of those and had no problem eating them. Flavor was top notch as was the tenderness.

Winner, Winner, Pizza Dinner!

Last night, on C's Plate:

PAPA JOHN's!

Nope, it wasn't really all that impressive, but it was tasty and it did get delivered to game night in a decent amount of time, unlike last week's over an hour time of Pizza Hut's order. We got a "Meats!" from Papa, and it was good. This pic doesn't really do it justice, but here it is anyway:

After the game night, 3 of us (Jody, Grynner and myself) made our way to the local IHOP. I had every intention of getting a short stack of pancakes, BUT, they had an addition to their menu. 7 combos for $7 bucks. One of these combos was "Hash Brown Crusted Chicken and Biscuit". This was one of their chicken breast fillets crusted in hashbrown like potatoes, deep fried and then served with 2 eggs (your choice) a biscuit cut in half and a bowl of gravy. How in the name of breakfast could I pass this up? I couldn't. So I ordered it, and a pancake (which the waitress forgot, probably saving my life).

I forgot to take a picture of the food.

BLOGGER FAIL.

So, I've done the next best thing, for you, my dear readers, no, friends. I asked the Google to find me a picture, and I now share with you the fruits of Google's love for us:

Imagine that, but with scrambled eggs, and then the eggs and the biscuits drowned in gravy, instead of a little dollop on the biscuits. The stuff not on the plate are some of the other combos and not relevant to this topic.

It was pretty good, the chicken was nice and salty, almost too salty actually. I salt McDonald's fries, so if I say something is salty, you can take my word for it. The eggs were REALLY well done and the gravy magnificently complimented them, and the biscuits were a little over buttered, but pretty good.

I should probably add that as tasty as this stuff was to eat, it's still sitting in my gut at the time of me typing this wondrous tale. And even though we were done eating around 1, and continued hanging out and talking to around 2, this stuff is still here. I'm hoping I'll be able to eat dinner tonight, so I can give you fine readers another post today.

Pork Chops

Last Sunday, I fixed some pork chops for dinner. They were boneless and butterflied, nice thick chops. I dipped them in an eggwash (2 eggs scrambled with salt and pepper), then a flour mixture (flour, salt, pepper, garlic salt, meat tenderizer), then tossed them in a big deep frying pan with some vegetable oil. First time frying any this thick, but they came out REALLY great. The best pork chop I've ever ate great, and I'm usually not that generous with my cooking.

Unfortunately, I screwed the creamed potatoes up by horrendously over-salting them.