Key Lime Pie, original recipe, but with lemon meringue “high top.” So good you can finish off a quart of milk with this honey of a pie! This omelette is made with real blue crab an asparagus. Topped with a sauce that came down from heaven! Loved it! Definitely large enough for two! Regular Mango Mike’s Special breakfast that comes with pancakes, two eggs, bacon, grits, sausages and hot Maple Syrup.
AmericanPresstravelNews-January 5th,–Islamorada, FL., Keys-Bob and Barb, “On the Road Again” and Stopping to Smell the Roses” & Key Lime pie. We love mom and pops breakfast and lunch spots. They have a special kind of character, and they also produce very custom dishes that the big box guys just cannot do based on logistics, and corporate structure. Mangrove Mikes caters, offers “killer” breakfasts and lunches and is a favorite meeting place over coffee and hot cakes, in Islamorada. Over 40-years ago, I had breakfast here with many of the old “salts” and charter captains that fished out of this fishing and diving town.Check out their menu on-line at www.mangrovemikes.com Indoors they have those old fashioned counters, booths and tables too. They also do Island parties out back, on the Gulf of Mex. for from 10-1,000 guests. Weddings, picnics, reunions or whatever kind of group. Mike said “bring it on and we’ll set it up!” Flip flops, no problem, that’s part of their dress code! M.Mikes is next door to the Sunset Inn and Seafood Market, MM 82.2 Bayside, Islamorada phone 305-664-8022
Barb is inher element! Great food, great surroundings and of course pretty good company too!Osso Bucco made with pork shanks, and mighty good and plenty! Tastes at Franks remind one of the best meals that momma and papa Leoni used to make in the early days of America.Yellowtail is a very delicate fleshed dish, few chefs get it exactly right. Franks gets it exactly right and then-some!First time I had blueberries embedded in Key Lime Pie. It was very special!
AmericanPressTravelNews- Marathon, FL. Keys, January 1st,-Bob and Barb “On The Road Again” Stopping to smell the garlic at Franks Grill. For decades, Frank’s Grill has wowed it’s patrons with authentic Italian-American dishes that do a whole lot more than just please the palate, and nose, but also please the eyes, as well. The yellowtail snapper dish was exquisitely prepared. We enjoyed ala Francaise, sauteed with butter , white wine and lemon juice in a light egg wash. The Osso Bucco dish was amazing. A Melanese specialty of cross cut pork shanks with vegetables, white wine and broth done Frank’s high and delicious style. All manner of veal, chicken, duck and spaghetti dishes were on the menu. The desserts such as Key Lime Pie, bulging with fresh blueberries was different and quite a treat as was the New York Cheese Cake, a specialty few restaurants in the Keys serve. The wait staff, excellent! The table and decor were first rate too! Eggplant, shells, Manacotti, linguine, Steak Roma, lamb chops, N.Y. Strip, Ribeye and the entire seafood melange of delicacies. Franks Grill is located at 11400 Overseas Highway 113th street Gulfside in Town Square Mall, Marathon FL. go: FranksGrillMarathon.com 305-289-7772 open Monday thru Friday 10am-3-pm and dinner from 5-pm-9pm on Saturday.
Barb about to enter the vintage as well as newly remodeled Historic Boone Tavern Hotel & restaurant at Berea College in Berea, KY.Tim Glotzbach, Director of the Student Crafts Program showing a student made turned giant bowl.
WWW.AMERICANPRESSTRAVELNEWS.COM – Jan 25th, Berea College, KY.-Bob & Barb “On the Road Again” and “Stopping to Smell the Roses, We dined at the Historic Boone Tavern Restaurant, a place to to enjoy traditional and modern offerings of excellent cuisine, libations and a feeling that you’ve come home to family. Don’t remember when I felt this way before on any writing assignment, needing to researching the essences of a “place in time and space.” Berea founded in 1885 started and has grown to be a college of highly respected by it’s Alumni, professors, college staff, especially students and their families and friends. We spent two nights at Historic Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant. We visited all their crafts departments, ate dinner at their restaurant, met and interviewed students, instructors, the 500-acre farm Director, ate and purchased the makings of what has become a century old tradition of “Spoon Bread” with all or almost all ingredients produced on their working student operated farm. I guess what really shone through throughout our stay and experiences was the deep respect for the work ethic and cooperative nature of the peoples that made up the “Berea Experience.” Today Berea is know as the “Crafts Capital of Kentucky” and for very good reason, crafts in woodworking, pottery, broom making, farm-craft among others, are taught, created and sold in the many crafts shop both in Berea, state and nationwide.
Chicken Flakes in a Birds NestMaitre de brought us some of our dishes!!
We settled in comfortably in a great King bed, bath and beyond, and were spoiled rotten at the Tavern. Our waiter (student) brought us our Fried Green Tomato Salad, out of their farm gardens, a traditional dish offered here for many decades-” Chicken Flakes in a Birds Nest”and Barb’s opted for glazed salmon. We had a Bourbon, local wine, and a real Mint Julep, all KY. style. The special Souffle’ like Spoon Bread was fantastic and has been served here for more than 70-years, an Appalachian traditional recipe.
We finished, or they finished us off with a Pecan Pie with crust steeped in chocolate and a Caramel swirl and a nice big square of bread pudding. We slowly walked out for a longer walk around the block before heading up to our room for some hot showers. Go to Berea, visit the school and all its craft programs, stay at the Historic Boone Tavern, get spoiled at lunch or dinner, talk to some of the students, stop by at the nearby Kentucky Artisan Center to make a hand-made craft of a lifetime. I promise you will come away wishing as we did, to have gone to school there yourself. www.berea.com
Weavers ply their crafts at Berea’s new Incubator strip!Pecan pie at the Tavern!Salmon en glace’ Barb loved it, I did too!
American Press Travel News- June 27th,-Maggie Valley, Haywood County, North Carolina—Cataloochee Guest Ranch was opened in 1934 by Mr. Tom and Miss Judy Alexander. It was moved to its present location in 1938. The Ranch is still run by the third generation descendants of Mr. Tom and Miss Judy. As their brochure rightly proclaims “The Ranch is “where the march of time slows down to a walk.” the high mountains here really do have deep roots! Barb and I relaxed, enjoyed country buffet cookouts for dinner of steaks and taters along with all the country fixin’s you’d also love. We also sampled their country breakfast which included their wonderful homemade syrups, jams and biscuits. that you will savor in your mouth and on your mind for a very long time.
This is a wonderful place for your whole family. We watched a small boy catch his first fish in their stocked pond, which the ranch then cooked for his dinner. They have all sorts of planned activities for children as well for adults. There are so many outdoor recreational opportunities in and around this 5000 foot elevation, cool, over 1000 acre ranch. We hiked, found and identified numerous edible mushrooms, plants and trees with a professional field guide. Their garden, becomes your garden each and every meal! Every day you can take take trail rides. When you arrive you feel like you are a member of their family with their rich local heritage. Every night their local admiring neighbors, were scheduled to come and meet the guests. We listened to local musicians and were even able to pet a real friendly wolf.
Perhaps due to the history of several generations of the Tom and Judy Alexander family, there was a feeling here that we were home, really at home again! It’s really hard to say just how comfortable we were at this ranch. It was very hard to leave and we actually stayed a bit longer than usual before we left the cool mountain air, the friendliness of our hosts and the truly serene nature of this fine resort. So, I guess one way to say it was, we had a very hard time saying goodbye!
Call 1 (800) 868-1401 119 or local 828-926-1401 cataloocheeranch.com located on Ranch Road., Maggie Valley, NC 28751 Cataloochee Ranch.com
Also, we will review so many fine restaurants in the coming days on aptravelnews.com. We will be posting these and many more opportunities for visitors in the next day or so. We took part in visiting the Cataloochee Valley area full of transplanted elk. The bulls were bugling their dominancy over their herd of cows-quite a display! The people we met, the dinner with the Mayor of Waynesville and his wife, the fine other folks we learned so much about them and from them, their Agri-tourism lifestyle and businesses offerings, and their goals, as well as their already fruitful successes will be portrayed as well.
Boys first fish at Cataloochee Lodge trout pond This ranch is always making “keeper memories.”
Special event: Wolf Man who owns 4 wolves introduces this highly tame wolf to guests at the Ranch. A big hit with everyone!A side trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway for never ending views!
