Benton Lee's Steakhouse Day Trip

Last Saturday my family, friends and I drove 2 hours to Benton Lee’s Steakhouse. What makes this place so special? The fact they serve enormous steaks, awesome catfish, frog legs, and even gater nuggets! I love going for the catfish, fried oysters and gater nuggets, which is what I had this time. The best part is they serve you on silver platters!

My dad got the medium T-bone, and my mom got the small T-bone with a side of gater.

Everyone else had steaks and my friend Louie got frog legs, gater and oysters.

Here is a before and after shot of my friend Mike's steak!

It was wonderful! Eating, talking, and enjoying the Altamaha River.

Benton Lee’s has become a legend to my family and I’m sure other’s feel the same way. Just check out their website for history, even more pictures and directions to this Southern paradise of food!

Valentine's Day Dinner 2008

Here is what my mother prepared for Valentine’s Day dinner 2008. It turned out awesome, and of course, I was there to enjoy all the wonderful flavors!








First Course: Red Ugly Tomato Salad with Gorgonzola Cheese

Ingredients:
Kraft Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Vinaigrette Dressing
1 large ugly tomato
1 bucket of crumbled gorgonzola blue cheese that you can pick up at your local grocery store
2 Hearts of Romaine
1 medium red onion
Couple of twists of Fresh cracked pepper

How to:
Slice the ugly tomato into large slices. Shop the romaine heats into medium pieces (big enough to eat with a fork). Thinly slice the red onion.
Make a bed of romaine lettuce. Put the tomato slices, onion slices, and cheese on top of lettuce.
Then drizzle with salad dressing. Add a twist of cracked pepper.

Main Course: Bourbon glazed salmon, marinated BBQ shrimp, and Olive oil garlic vermicelli with spinach pasta.

Ingredients:
Salmon fillets
Quarter Cup of bourbon
Quarter cup of brown sugar
Quarter cup of soy sauce

Shrimp, deveined
Ken’s steak house tomato vinaigrette
Clove of garlic
Balsamic vinegar
Lemon juice

Box of olive oil garlic Vermicelli pasta (any brand)
2 pounds of spinach
Shaved parmesan cheese to top

How to:
1. Marinate salmon in bourbon, brown sugar, and soy sauce. Marinate shrimp in vinaigrette, garlic, balsamic vinegar and a squeeze of lemon juice. Both for a couple of hours.
2. Place salmon and shrimp on hot grill; cook 5 minutes on each side.
3. Prepare Vermicelli to box directions. Cook spinach and add to prepared vermicelli, and top with parmesan cheese.
4. Prepare bread to go with your meal… everything tastes better with bread.
5. My mom recommends a white pinot grigio to go with this meal.

Goetta and Goetta Nachos (pronounced Getta)

Goetta is ground meat and oats that people in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area use in many different ways. The most common way to eat Goetta is as a breakfast meat. It goes great with hash browns, pancakes, eggs, almost anything breakfast!

My Grandma Judy sent me her recipe. I substitute beef and pork for ground turkey. Dark turkey meat works best, but if you want it extra lean you can use white meat. I’m sure any ground meet combination would work.

Goetta is a German dish. There is a great history of it on Wikipedia. Some people even make a vegetarian version. I might have to try and make that later...

One way to serve Goetta that my Grandma found in a Northern Kentucky restaurant was Goetta nachos. I have the picture above. It tastes great! The recipe for Goetta nachos follows the original recipe.

Goetta

Ingredients:
1 lb beef
1 lb pork
8 cups water
2 ½ cups pinhead oatmeal
1 large onion (chopped)
1 to 4 bay leaves
3 tsp salt
Pinch of pepper

How to:
1. Mix the beef and pork together in a bowl.
2. Put water in a pan until it comes to a boil; add salt, pepper, and oatmeal. Cook the oatmeal 2 hours, stirring often; keep lid on while cooking over low heat.
3. Add meat, onion, & bay leaves, mix well. Let cook 1 hour stirring often.
4. When done take out bay leaves and put into bread pans. When cool, refrigerate.
5. This will keep for days, but when ready to use slice into pieces and fry in desired cooking fat until browned. This can also be frozen and used at a later date.

Goetta Nachos

Ingredients:
Couple slices of Goetta (recipe above)
Nacho cheese (we just used Velveeta)
Nacho chips

How to:
1. Melt Velveeta cheese in the microwave. Try to make it creamy; add some milk to the Velveeta if needed. Or prepare nacho cheese the way you know how.
2. Prepare a big platter with nacho chips; corn tortillas are fine.
3. Fry the Goetta in some canola oil (or other desired fat) until golden brown.
4. Crumble the Goetta over the nachos then pour on some cheese. Then some more Goetta and more cheese.
5. Layer it up until the desired nacho plate is made.

This recipe is great for parties. For a twist you could mix some salsa into your cheese and use that with Goetta and chips.