A Day of Rest

Good morning, my friends. We had a day off yesterday. It was a day off except for going to the grocery store. Fortunately our list was short. The grocery store here was so small we were only able to get about half of the items on our list. They didn't have "exotic" things like radishes, and so we'll do a little more grocery shopping in Paducah today. Oh yes, and did I say Paducah? Yes, today is quilt show day. I've been looking forward to attending the quilt show in Paducah for about 16 years...as long as I've been a quilter. 

So aside from grocery shopping, a few things were accomplished. I did some slow-stitching in the morning and finished off the audiobook I was listening to. It wasn't a great book, but it was entertaining enough for me to finish it. I had a plan to try a recipe for Apple Cobbler for Two, but I needed two Gala apples for that. When we got back to the RV, I went straight to work. The apples were cut into quarter-inch pieces, mixed with some flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter, and then piled into two ramekins.

From there, they baked for 35 minutes in a 400°F oven. When they were finished baking, they looked like this. Next, I was to stir them a little bit and press the apples down into their juices.

And then I made a simple biscuit dough to be flattened into a disk and placed on top. The dough was very elastic, and so I used my fingers to stretch it out to cover the top as best I could. Then it was sprinkled with a little sugar.

Then they baked for another 15 minutes, and Voila!

And these were so yummy. It was like eating a piece of apple pie. If I were going to do this again (and I will), I'd bake them in those wide soup mugs I have. Since they filled the entire ramekin to the tippy-top, there was no room for ice cream. I was able to carefully remove them from the ramekins so that the biscuit stayed on the top, and we ate them from bowls with the ice cream. Dee-lish. And pretty darned easy too.

Of course, we waited until after dinner for those. And Mike got a bee in his bonnet to go out for dinner after sitting around the RV all day. We ended up going to Kentucky Dam Village, just down the road from us. It's a "resort park."

The restaurant was inside and down some stairs. This was the view from our table.

The whiteboard at the entrance advertised their drink special which was a "Dam Smash." I looked for a recipe for this. If you Google "Dam Smash Cocktail," you'll find all kinds of recipes using different kinds of spirits. This one happened to have vodka, cranberry juice, lime juice, and a little soda for some fizz. It was pretty and tasty.

We didn't realize it until we got there, but dinner was a buffet. I prefer ordering from a menu, but this one was pretty good. It gave me a chance to try and learn something new. The soup you see below is Burgoo. It's a traditional Kentucky Stew.

It tasted good, and so I inquired of our server whether it was a traditional Kentucky dish. Her response, "I don't know...I'm from New York." Okay, so The Google never lets me down. And sure enough...

Traditionally, it's made with different meats, like squirrel or opossum or raccoon. And I doubt I'm going to find any of that in my grocery store, and so the recipes I found online used different combinations of chicken, pork, beef, and lamb. America's Test Kitchens also has a recipe, and so I'll try that one eventually. For now, you can Google it and see which one looks good to you. Just type in "Kentucky Burgoo," and you'll find lots of options.

After dinner, our shadow selves wanted to get out for a walk. We wouldn't ordinarily take them when we go out for a meal, but they didn't eat much. They were feeling tall and lean.

The grounds here were beautiful. I've taken a picture of the map to give you a sense of where we were. The resort is located where I've circled in red below. The dam is just a little up from there. You can see it with a short solid black line. It's the Kentucky Dam, and it dams the Tennessee River. In this part of the world, dams are under the purview of the Tennessee Valley Authority. But what I really wanted you to see on the map is the area known as the Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area. I'm hoping we'll have a little time while we're here to explore this more. 

For last night, we left the restaurant via the back door and took a little walk along this pretty walkway.

Looking to the right, we could see the Kentucky Dam Marina.

Here, we could walk out on a breakwater. There were people fishing below.

Looking to our left, we could see the Kentucky Dam.

Looking more to the right, we could see another marina across the way.

It was lovely here. Peaceful.

Heading back, this is where the restaurant is located, on the lower floor.

The grounds were beautifully landscaped.

On our way back, we drove past the Kentucky Dam.

There is a lock here, and another one under construction.

And that was the end of our day. We headed back to the RV to enjoy our apple cobbler.

So today we'll be heading off to the quilt show. I want to try to get there fairly early, and so it's time for me to make breakfast and get us on our way. My friend Robin wasn't able to make it to the quilt show, and so Mike is coming with me. I'd be perfectly happy going alone, but he wants to come. I've promised him some fantastic quilts. Fingers crossed they'll let me take pictures.