Burger Hookup!

Back Yard Burgers restaurants are lighting the grills in honor of National Burger Day. The quick-service better burger restaurants will offer free Classic Back Yard Burgers on Tuesday, May 28, 2013, in participating locations to the first 100 guests. 

What:   Be one of the first 100 people, and get yourself a free Back Yard Burgers acclaimed Classic, made from 100 percent Black Angus Beef!  YEAH Free to the first 100 people!

Where:  Five participating locations in the Nashville area:

·         5004 Maryland Way, Brentwood, TN 37027

·         1425 Highway 96 North, Fairview, TN 37062

·         1015 Center Point Place, Franklin, TN 37064

·         1711 Galleria Blvd., Franklin, TN 37067

·         2744 Elm Hill Pike, Nashville, TN 37214

When:             Tuesday, May 28, 2013, from 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.

OK folks see you at Backyard Burger for the free burger hookup!

Little Coastal Towns

May River Grill 

1263 May River Rd 

Bluffton, SC 

843-757-5755

Seared scallops and scalloped potatoes

It was great to be back to the eastern coast along Georgia and South Carolina.  The last few times I was in Savannah, I was there only for work, and we were up to our eyeballs in work and we never saw the light of day.  I was also with co-workers who could not care less about decent food, and we just ate pizza and other fast food.  This trip was different, sans those co-workers, I went driving up add down a small part of the South Carolina and Georgia coast from  Jessup to Port Royal with Savannah and Hilton Head in between.

We found ourselves in the Old Town Bluffton, SC, with no signs of fast food, or chain restaurants.  We saw art galleries, cute shops, and lots seafood and wine bars.  We opted for a chef owned restaurant May River Grill.  We walked in, and the kitchen was open with a chef's bar.  There were nice table cloths and cloth napkins.  It was  so refreshing to step inside to have  a freshly made seafood meal.  For me, I was thrilled because May River Grill tries to use local seafood where it can.  So I started with an order of steamed clams in a wine, garlic, basil and tomato broth.  The clams came from the May River just south of town.  I love getting locally sourced ingredients where ever I go.  The clams were excellent, and we just enjoyed the broth so much.  Then for my entree I got the seared scallops in meurniere sauce with scalloped potato casserole.  The scallops were not overly seasoned, just the way I like them, so their flavor can come through.  The meurniere sauce is just simply browned butter, lemon and flour, and it was delicious.

There are so many little towns up and down the the South Carolina and Georgia coast, that I need to make more money and go back again and again and visit them all.

Travel Eating

Charlotte NC Airport

Domestic airport food is kind of bad.  The choices are usually fast food burgers/fries, deep fried, bad bbq, wilty salads, or soggy sandwiches.  I have been traveling a lot lately with layovers in domestic airports, and I have been smirking at the terrible offerings, and lack of care that the airport food comes in.  But, refreshingly Charlotte, NC Airport has one food offering that made me really happy - Sushi!

The sushi bar and restaurant is right in the middle of the grand walkway outside of Terminal A and B in Charlotte.  The tables are nice, the bar is nice, service is fast, and the plates are pretty.  If that is not all, the food is not fatty, deep fried, or ready to give a heart attack.  The plate was made with some care, and the waitstaff was really nice to me.  It was so opposite of the current normal airport food experience with pissed off workers just slapping food on a tray.  This lovely plate of sushi did cost $18, about twice as much as a burger, fries and a soda, but I felt twice as healthy and not weighed down.  This meal made me so happy.

Dining Out for Life

BLVD - fun food

The Annual Dining Out For Life Event was a couple weeks ago.  There were about 70 restaurant locations around Nashville which participated and all of the restaurants committed to give a percentage (30- 75%) of the cost of meals sold to Nashville CARES, a fantastic non-profit organization in Nashville which provides direct services and support to 17 counties around Nashville helping and supporting families who are dealing with HIV/AIDS.

Dining Out For Life is so easy to participate.  Just dine out at your favorite restaurant, and that is it.  I can do that.

So this year, I had a lunch meeting and a dinner plans at restaurants participating in Dining Out For Life.  For lunch, we decided on going to BLVD because our local sweetheart Chef, Arnold Myint decided to donate 75% of our meal cost to Dining Out For Life and Nashville CARES.  We shared a pile of curry fries and I had a romaine salad with fried egg and lardon.  My friend had a PRB (Porter Road Butcher) hot dog on a roll.  We just had a lovely lunch meeting, and $30 of our meal went to Dining Out For Life, Nashville CARES.

Capitol Grille - Dinner Prix Fixed

And for dinner, my friend made plans for a dutch treat dinner out at the Capitol Grille, one of my favorite restaurants in Nashville.  This is the 1st year Capitol Grille decided to participate in Dining Out For Life, and my friend decided we should dine at the Capitol Grille in celebration of this great decision.  Capitol Grille arranged for a prix fixed 3-course menu for this special event.  I was so happy to see my favorite first course, the onion bisque with a mini brie sandwich and bacon.  The onion bisque is an old "hold over" and has been on the Capitol Grille menu for years and years.  With changing of the chefs over the years, the onion bisque has continued on each menu year after year.  There would be irate patrons who would boycott if the onion bisque were to be removed, so smartly, year after year Capitol Grille keeps the soup on the menu.  The soup is just so yummy for my tummy.  

My second course, I opted for the Double H ranch beef dish.  As you know, I am all about the local food movement, and I love that the Hermitage Hotel now has the Double H ranch for local organic, free range, grass feed beef.  I have loved that Tyler Brown, Capitol Grille and Hermitage Hotel staff have lovingly tended to the local organic Glen Leven farm, where most of the spring, summer and fall vegetables served at the Capitol Grille comes from.  Glen Leven is about 5 blocks from my house, and I can't really get more local than that, unless it is from my back yard.

And for dessert, I got the panna cotta, chocolate, coffee dessert with a nice camomile tea to accompany the dessert.  I am not a dessert person.  I also am not a a caffeine at night person anymore.  The older I get, the most sensitive I am to caffeine, and I stay up too late if I have caffeine in the evening.  So for this dessert which had caffeine in it, I decided on the camomile tea to "duke it out" in my stomach with the caffeine.  I wasn't up too late with the caffeine, so the camomile tea probably did help with that.

On this evening, the 7 of us had a great time chatting and dining, and about $140 of meal went to Dining Out for Life - Nashville Cares.

That is not a bad take, $170 in one day, for doing what we would have normally done anyway.   I will try to keep you posted next year for Dining Out For Life.  It is so easy.  Pick your favorite restaurant and do what your normally do!  

Win Tix to Generous Helpings!

THE CONTEST IS CLOSED. 

And the random winner is DAVID Roffwarg!  Congratulations David, you won 2 tickets to Generous Helpings.  Please email me at LannaeFood@gmail.com to confirm your winning status.  If you do not email me, I will be forced to give the tickets to the next random winner.

Generous Helpings is undoubtedly one the most delicious ways to support Second Harvest Food Bank!   Generous Helpings has 40 plus excellent restaurants and caterers offering tastings in return for your generous donation to attend this event.  Come hungry, and make this a fantastic dinner for yourself while you help fight hunger in Middle Tennessee!  I am so excited about this event, and being able to taste offerings from around Nashville.

What:

Generous Helpings an Evening to Benefit Second Harvest Food Bank

This is an evening of featuring tastings of appetizers, salads, entrees, desserts and wine from 40 plus local chefs, restaurants, markets and local wine distributors.  

Where:

Nashville Farmer's Market

When:

Thursday May 16, 2013
Starting at 5:30 - 8:30 pm

Admission to the event is $40 in advance (and are on sale now), or $50 at the door, or a $150 Patron's ticket (includes a special Patron's Party on Monday May 6, 2013 to be held at Flyte World Dining and Wine, a ticket to Generous Helps, a tee-shirt and special gift).   You can also purchase tickets by phone 615-627-1611.


Here is the awesome news! You can win 2 tickets for you and a friend to attend Generous Helpings!

All you have to do to be entered in to the drawing for the 2 tix:

Mandatory

1. SIGN UP for the Second Harvest Email List at SecondHarvestMidTN.org,  LIKE Second Harvest on Facebook Facebook.com/2HarvestMid TN, or FOLLOW Second Harvest on Twitter Twitter.com/2HarvestMidTN  Then EMAIL me at LANNAEFOOD@GMAIL.COM  with the subject line SECOND HARVEST and let me know your first and last name and which one, two or three have done (or already do).  

Optional

For an additional entry, you can Follow me on Twitter Twitter.com/Lannae then EMAIL me at LANNAEFOOD@GMAIL.COM with the subject SECOND HARVEST and let me know your first and last name and telling me you are following me on Twitter.

THE CONTEST IS CLOSED NOW and it closed at 9:00 pm on May 9th.