~Saturday, June 19, 2021~
Day 370
If you have a desire to hit the great outdoors for sport or relaxation, Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area is one you shouldn’t miss. The U.S. Forest Service has done a very good job maintaining this 170,000 acre playground of forests, wetlands and open lands. Set on a peninsula between Kentucky and Tennessee, it is the perfect spot for hiking, biking, fishing, paddling, etc. And we’d never heard of it before. We decided to explore the area another day, and instead do a little Father’s Day grocery shopping and a little Father’s Day beer tasting, making it a weekend affair. With very limited options in a 20-mile radius of our campground, we took a 45-minute drive to Paducah. First stop…….Dry Ground Brewing Co. Paducah’s first craft brewery, it is set in an old Coca-Cola bottling plant. After Luther Carson’s first bottling plant became submerged by the 1937 Ohio River flood, 2 years later he opened his new state-of-the-art facility located 31 blocks from the river upon the “Dry Ground” where he’d been off-loaded following his rescue (always interesting to hear a little background story...yes?) Since most breweries are dog-friendly, we decided to bring Sadie along and found her a decent shaded spot while we sampled a few beers.
They make one hazy IPA that Jeff thought was very good….”Dollie the Mule”. For me…...The Preacher Pils. But it was so flippin’ hot and humid outside, that the beer stayed cold for only 10 minutes. Must drink faster. I told Jeff from now on, when we beer taste in The South, we should always carry our Yeti cups to keep those yummy beers ice-cold delicious!
Trying to kill two birds with one stone, we thought it would be a good idea for me to do a little shopping while Jeff stayed back with Sadie at the brewery. I wasn’t going to complain about being in a nice air-conditioned space for 30 minutes. 🥵I was able to get most everything, but the job of finding the perfect filet was a bit out of my comfort zone. After a few phone calls to hubby, we’re in business.
We decided to try our hand at some unique burgers tonight. I had gotten a Turkey Burger recipe from our old Napa friends, Kathy and Jim. Jeff made his burger a different way, but I really wanted to try this new recipe. But instead of turkey, I was going to make my own veggie patties. Jim was intrigued with how this alternative method would turn out. Well sadly, I wasn’t able to report my findings because the veggie patty recipe we found required 24 hours of rest time before cooking. Not in the cards at least for tonight. So instead, I whipped up the ingredients that Jim gave me and added it to ground turkey instead (yes, I gave in again to a little meat eating). It was absolutely delicious. Still, I can’t wait to whip up the vegetarian version! So stay tuned.
Since tomorrow will be a busy day, I wanted to get a little jump start on meal prep for the Father’s Day meal. Homemade croutons and homemade apple pie…..crust too. A little challenging in a 50-square foot kitchen, but doable. It definitely took longer than the recipe’s 45-minute baking instruction. It might just be our oven. I kept adding 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there, waiting for the crust to brown. I’m not sure if most RV ovens have 2 elements, but our one (on the bottom), it just wasn’t getting the top brown and caramelized enough. Finally at around 3:00 a.m., I threw in the towel to finish the remaining baking tomorrow morning. 😴Nighty, night.