Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

We returned to Richlands, Virginia this past weekend. You may remember that our good friends Barbara and Jim live there. I posted about one of Barbara’s recipes here. The reason for the visit was a surprise birthday party for Barbara. It was a milestone birthday and one not to be missed. Unfortunately our husbands had planned a two week mototcycle trip that was to begin on the day of her birthday. But Jim could not bring himself to leave on her birthday, so a month of deception began. Barbara was convinced that the guys were leaving on Saturday morning. Jim packed his boots and jackets, loaded the bike, gave Barbara a token birthday present, apologized for leaving on her birthday and left. She was a good sport about it, but was depressed. While her Mother and Sister took her to a ficticious birthday lunch, Jim doubled back and everyone descended on her house and waited for her return. Her sister came up with a crazy excuse to turn around and go home and the surprise was a complete success. Here is Barbara’s real present.

They live on a mountain for heaven’s sakes, so what better present than an ATV. It is what every 60 year old biker babe should have. She is looking forward to riding the trails and visiting their log cabin on the old Kentucky Turnpike. What beautiful country this is. This is the view from their house.

After our last visit, in which I posted about Barbara’s beautiful new kitchen, Girlichef commented that I should have posted a picture of the kitchen – so here it is Girlichef.

Sunday morning the guys really prepared to leave on their trip. Barbara fixed a hardy breakfast of skillet biscuits, country ham, milk gravy and eggs. Skillet biscuits are a wonderful alternative to the biscuit challenged. According to Barbara you just follow the biscuit recipe on the self-rising flour bag, but add a little more buttermilk to make the batter of pouring consistancy and bake in a greased iron skillet until brown and cooked through. She inverted the biscuits on a plate and cut them into wedges. Breakfast was delicious and it was a fitting send off to the thoughtful men in our lives.