We spent the night in Asheville at the lovely and Historic Grove Park Inn, ate dinner at the Sunset Terrace with John and Kelley to celebrate our anniversaries, before heading to Cashiers and a wonderful wedding we attended in Glenville, North Carolina. While walking the streets of Highlands, nary a mask was seen and, when we arrived in Nashville, it was packed and bustling with tourists, making the rounds up and down music joints and honky tonks on Broadway. When we tried to get a reservation for dinner (on a Monday night), we couldn’t get one until 9 p.m., way past my suppertime!

And when we stopped by Mammoth Caves, the largest cave in the world, on the way to our next stop in Louisville, the tours were totally sold out for the next week. Obviously, I didn’t plan ahead well enough, but I hadn’t gotten the memo that the world was open and ready for business! We toured another, commercial cave (Diamond Caverns) and I felt lucky that we were able to get tickets for the Kentucky Derby Museum and the Behind the Scenes Tour the next day.

We went straight to the bar in the lovely and historic Brown Hotel for a drink. The bartender there was totally underwater, his fourth day on the job, one bartender short and trying to split a check between three guys. We finally sat down and ordered a drink. I got a Bourbon Mule, because if there’s one thing Kentucky is synonomous with it’s bourbon. It was cool and refreshing, just what I needed after a long day in the car. We put our names on the list for dinner in the Brown, but didn’t sit down until 9 p.m. again!

We split the Hot Brown sandwich, a dish associated with Louisville and invented in The Brown Hotel. It’s an open faced turkey sandwich, served on toast points with Mornay sauce, bacon, tomato and cheese and it was as decandent and delicious as it sounds.

The next morning, just driving up to Churchill Downs was a thrill and the Behind the Scenes tour was really wonderful. Some of it was outside, by the paddocks, but the other part was inside the stadium, in different areas. I was surprised when our guide instructed us to enter the elevator to the second floor. About twenty of us were crammed into a large elevator, shoulder to shoulder. I looked in my purse for a mask, but didn’t find one, so tried to hold my breathe on the ride up. After staying six feet away from my fellow man for more than a year, this sudden togetherness, with us all breathing the same air in a small enclosed space was like going from 0 to 60 with no warning. I tried not to over-think it, but it felt strange, to say the least. I felt a minor panic attack coming on, but I lived through it.

We left the Kentucky Derby Museum to eat at Biscuit Belly, with biscuits the size of a small baby. In fact, I kept wanting to call it Biscuit Baby. If there was one theme to our Road Trip, a food I saw over and over again, it was Biscuits and Gravy. Zeke got the favorite- Rockwell Supreme with sausage gravy, fried chicken breast, bacon and a fried egg. I got the more petite Mama’s Boy with fried green tomato, fried chicken breast, jalapeno pimento cheese and pickles. Both were delicious! Then it was time for our tour at Four Roses Bourbon Distillery.

I checked many Bourbon Distilleries on the Bourbon Trail to make a reservation, but they were all booked! Probably the only reason we were able to get a tour at Four Roses was because it was Four Roses’ first day of tours since COVID. Four Roses is located in Lawrenceburg, about an hour away from Louisville, in the same town as Wild Turkey. We did the tour, had a bourbon tasting and I checked one distillery off my Bourbon Trail passport (with 36 to go!). Dessert was Derby Pie in our hotel lobby, the official pie of the Kentucky Derby. It’s made with semi-sweet chocolate, walnuts and bourbon and we had it served a la mode. Delicious!

The final food destination I had to make was Skyline Chili, located in Cincinnati, Ohio. This also allowed me to check another state off my list. I’m down to two- Rhode Island and Alaska. We first visited the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati (very cool!), then went to Skyline Chili in Clifton, the oldest one still existing. While I’d heard about Cincinnati Chili for years, I’d never eaten it, so was really looking forward to it.

Skyline is a chain of Cincinnati-style chili that was started by a Greek Immigrant and named for the view of the Cincinnati skyline seen from the original restaurant. The Skyline Diner is just a straight up, old school diner, with stools and booths and cooks in the middle, lining up hot dogs and topping them with chili and mounds of grated cheese, like a factory. There were oyster crackers and hot sauce on the table, as our waitress handed us laminated menus. Obviously the thing to get was the chili, but it came different ways- 3-way, 4-way and 5-way.

I ordered a small 5 way, which was the signature dish 3-way of “steaming spaghetti, covered with the chili and topped with a mound of shredded cheddar cheese”- plus diced onions and beans. I was disappointed in this dish; I’m not a fan of the dish other people rave about. First of all, the spaghetti wasn’t steaming, it was cold, the chili tasted bland, sweet (from cinnamon and chocolate) and watery, there was a lot of cheese and not many diced onions.

After a couple bites, I added the oyster crackers and hot sauce to the dish to try and liven it up. It helped a bit, but really I felt those 450 calories could have been spent on something that actually tasted good. The Peppermint Patty, at the cashier register, was the highlight of this meal for me. I know people from Cincinnati love this stuff, so maybe you have to have been raised on it. As a Miami Girl, I’ll take a toasty Media Noche, creamy croquettas or black beans and rice any day over this dish!

On the way back to Asheville from Ohio, we stopped in Corbin, Kentucky to see the Original Kentucky Fried Chicken location. Unfortunately the museum was closed (thanks, COVID!) but it was still fun to take a little side trip to the birthplace of Finger-Lickin’ Good Chicken. Needless to say, I didn’t need to eat any more fried chicken on this trip, so we stopped, got a bottle of water and were back on the road.

In conclusion, in case you’re planning a Road Trip to any of these locations:

• Best Breakfast: Breakfast Burrito with Potatoes Pucketts in Nashville
• Best Lunch: The Burger at Bridge at Mill Creek , Highlands, North Carolina
• Best Dinner: Smoked Pork Shank with cilantro microgreens, peanuts, sorghum-chili glaze and lime on cheese grits at Deacon’s New South, Nashville
• Best Drink: The Bourbon Mule, The Brown Hotel Bar, Louisville
• Best Dessert: The Derby Pie, The Brown Hotel, Louisville
• Best Old School Dish: The Hot Brown, The Brown Hotel, Louisville
• Most Outrageous Meal: The Rockewell Supreme, Biscuit Belly, Louisville
• Most Disappointing Meal: The 5-way Chili at Skyline Chili, Cincinnati

Up Next: Shrimp Ceviche Recipe

My husband and I took a quick trip to North Carolina to his family’s cabin in Waynesville. It’s not normally my favorite place to stay since “rustic” is a generous way to describe the accomodations. The ancient dishwasher from the forties needs to be hauled across the kitchen floor and hooked up to the sink; this no longer operates at all, so all dishes have to be hand washed. Since it was just the two of us, this wasn’t much of a problem.

The bed in the “Master bedroom” (and I use this term loosely) takes up almost all of the available floor space and, even at that, isn’t very big so, when sleeping (or attempting to) we’re right on top of each other. Every wiggle results in an adjacent wag and neither one of us gets a good night’s sleep. After the first night of this mayhem, I took to sleeping in the guest bedroom in a cozy twin-size bed. I missed my two-ton weighted blanket!

The pre-fab bathroom, with vintage linoleum, a rusty metal storage cabinet and dusty duck decor from the 80’s, is now equipped with a rain forest showerhead, which proceeds to cover every square inch of the shower stall. I don’t know whose brilliant idea this was, but obviously not a person who cared about keeping their blow-dried hair dry intact. I was forced to go purchase a hideous pink shower cap.

We arrived in the middle of a violent rain storm and were greeted with dirty towels, left by the previous visitors, dirty sheets on the dryer AND a forecast of rain all week. I can take rain and I can take cold, but rain and cold is not Muy Bueno!

Yet still… There’s a little stream that runs by the cabin and it’s a very relaxing way to go to sleep. Kind of like a meditation app, turned to “mountain stream” and there is something to be said about “fresh mountain air” and waking up with a view of the Great Smoky mountains. It was also refreshing to be in a location where they actually experience seasons; Spring had just started emerging in North Carolina and luckily the rain forecasted did not turn out to be true.

I enjoyed using my plant app to investigate different plants and trees around the neighborhood. The yellow Forsythia were brilliant on my many walks up and down the hilly streets, the sour cherry were blooming in delicate white and pink flowers that showered down on the ground, and a sweet little Lily of the Valley bush adorned the corner of our street. Robins, something I rarely see in Miami, were abundant in North Carolina, with their red breasts crowding on front lawns and in trees. If there was ever a harbinger of Spring, it is the robin.

Also, in North Carolina, ramps (also known as wild leek) emerge from the soil in the Spring. They are something of a delicacy since they’re only available for three months in the Spring and have to be foraged in the forest. Chefs go crazy for them. When we visited the Farmer’s Market in Asheville, however, the ramps that were left were puny, little green stumps.

“They’ve only just come out this week,” the hefty man at the Farmer’s Market explained. “They’ll probably be bigger next week. Have a Blessed Day!”

We’d come to get ramps and some kind of meat to Bar-B-Que, but the meat person wasn’t at the Farmer’s Market so we left, empty handed. We were taunted by signs saying “Don’t forget the meat!” and when we went back to the car, there was something in a plastic bag in the trunk of the car. I opened it up. It was pork chops we’d purchased at Ingles grocery store the day before.

“Looks like you forgot your meat,” I said to Zeke.

We’d arrived Thursday night in the middle of a violent rain storm, so, as we unpacked the car, the pork chops got left behind. We went to a Butcher Shop in Asheville (The Chop Shop Butchery) and got a pork chop and steak to take home and grill. The steak was HUGE- like a Fred Flinstone Brontosaurus Steak, but my favorite was the Pork Chop. I whipped up a quick rub and Zeke grilled it. Served with boiled corn on the cob from the Farmer’s Market (ironically from Florida), grilled asparagus, sliced cherry tomatoes and garlic bread, it may have been the best pork chop I’ve ever had in my life.

My thoughts while in North Carolina, however, were on my grandchildren, my future grandson Phoenix, and my daughter A.J.’s family baby shower on Saturday after we got back. I was making Spaghetti sauce, Meatballs and Sausage for that and already had my Cotsco list ready, when it dawned on me, Easter was Sunday. I’m not a particularly religious person, so this could be the reason it escaped me, but more likely than not, I just have a lot going on in my life. All good, so no complaints, but busy!

Luckily A.J. had a Honeybaked Ham from Christmas she’d frozen. I’m rounding out the menu with Buttermilk Biscuits, Mustard Sauce, Broccoli Salad, Potatoes Gratin and a Carrot Salad. The Carrot Salad (Gajjara Kosambabi) was one of a whole series of Indian recipes from the New York Times Food Section that I was planning on making, but they called for so many ingredients I didn’t have, I just gave up and made the carrot salad. I’m not sure I’m crazy about it, but carrots remind me of bunnies, and bunnies remind me of Easter, hence why I made it. I did try a fun technique for lemon juice which I saw on the internet. If you only need a little amount of lemon juice, poke a skewer in one end and squeeze out the amount you need. This eliminates the seeds and helps the cut lemon from going bad quickly. Kind of like when you would stick one of those plastic thingamagigs into a fresh orange to suck the juice out. The video is below.

While I’m still on the carrot kick, I might make a colorful and fragrant Carrot Ginger Soup to go with the meal if I get a chance, although with a toddler, a five year old and a newborn baby eating with us, any kind of an attempt at a civilized meal with more than one course is dicey, at best. Emma’s bringing Corn Dip, Courtney a Fruit Salad and Chris a Coconut Flan he’s had his eye on but couldn’t justify buying. We will have an Easter Egg Hunt at some point in the day.

I have just hard boiled thirty eggs. My first attempt was in the Insta Pot, which resulted in two cracked shells. The Insta Pot is great for hard boiled eggs if you’re going to just eat them, as it makes the shells easy to peel, but I went back to my original method for hard boiling eggs to dye, which left me with no broken shells.

Fool-proof Hard Boiled Eggs

Place eggs in a heavy duty saucepan. Fill with cold water that comes 1″ over the eggs and put heat on high. Once the water boils, cover the pot, remove from heat and let sit 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, put in a cold water bath with ice and water.

I usually have asparagus at Easter, so I will give you my favorite asparagus recipe. It’s easy, quick and I think the addition of fresh lemon juice pairs perfectly with the Spring-forward asparagus spears.

Roasted Asparagus from Joy of Cooking

4 servings

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Snap off the bottoms of 1 pound of asparagus. Arrange the spears in a single layer in a shallow baking dish and drizzle over them very lightly Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Toss the spears to coat lightly. Roast until tender but still slightly firm, 8 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle with: salt and pepper to taste, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, tarragon or chives.

Serve garnished with lemon wedges to squeeze over.

Have a Blessed Easter, Happy Passover or just Celebrate Spring!