Rex and Ty's Food Blog

     My granddaughter Lily and I like going to museums. Last summer we went to Rocky Mount Museum and Living History Site. This is in Piney Flats, Tennessee. The first Governor of the Tennessee territory lived on this site while his mansion was being built. There are costumed interpreters on the farm to talk to visitors. The farm itself has been restored to its 1791 circa original state. There is the farm house, separate kitchen and a couple of barns. You might see a blacksmith at work or tour the heirloom vegetable garden or go to the barn and play with their sheep.      We visited while Lily was on spring break from school. The local schools were in session so we were the only visitors for most of the morning. This was good since the interpreters had a lot of time to talk to us and answer our questions. Of course Lily likes to get a souvenir or two. I also got a souvenir. I got one of my favorite things, a cookbook! The book is OLD-TIME FA...

             One of my childhood friends is known to our family as the "Legend". We hunted, trapped and fished together. He was welcome in our home and would come and go as if he was one of my brothers. John had a mischievous nature about him and often was in trouble or at the very least, was suspected of doing ill-behaved or destructive stunts. Any time something happened around town it was usually blamed on or attributed to him. Whether it was a farmers watering tank being shot full of holes or a dead and rotting frog being put on a neighbors bike seat, he was the suspect. I believed this to be unfair. I don't believe he was responsible for more than say 50% of these devilish pranks!      I went to his house one morning and he was at the barn shooting a bow and arrow at a target. I walked up and he said " watch this ". He pointed that bow almost straight up in the air and let l...

    When I was in high school I was very shy about asking girls for a date. But there was a girl that I was very interested in. So for days I tried to build up the courage to ask her out. I knew where she would be every morning before classes, so after rehearsing my lines and trying to boost my self confidence, I approached her. I was confident that with my rehearsal, and hiding my fear of rejection and delivering my finely honed line, I would get that date! She said "NO". If I had an ego to damage it would have been crushed. I retreated to my class room, tail between my legs wondering what went wrong? Why didn't she have the same attraction for me? I didn't ask her out again while I was in school.      Fast forward a couple of years. This girl "happened" to drive by my house and saw me throwing a football around with my brother. She stopped, we talked and before long she had agreed to meet me (or di...

My grandparents, Walt and Liz Griffin, owned and ran a grocery store in our home town.  It was called Nature's Cupboard.  This store was the first "super" store of it's kind.  Nature's Cupboard was around long before Kroger, Wal-Mart or what my Michigan colleagues know as Meijer's.  This store had it all!  There was a full order bakery.  My grandmother did wedding cakes, birthday cakes, fresh donuts and pastries, plus bread of all kinds!  My grandfather ran the produce section, chilled foods, canned and boxed foods, and deli.  The deli had fresh cut lunch meats and any kind of salad you could think of!  Now, if that wasn't enough, they also had a green house attached to the store.  In the summer the green house had annuals, perennials and ready made flower baskets.  In the winter, the green house was full of wreaths, grave blankets and of course salt, for those awful snow/ice filled winters!  This is wh...

     Thanksgiving starts the Holiday season for me. I so look forward to this time of year because I get to spend time with family, sharing meals and memories. The last couple of years Donna and I have hosted the thanksgiving dinner for her family and our children and grandchildren. I believe that           everybody had a good time this year at our dinner.      Sadly so much of my family has passed and I miss the opportunity to share those memories that are uniquely ours. My mother, father and two older brothers are no longer with us. But I still have the memories that we shared. One of those memories is of my mother collecting all of the left over turkey, gleaning every morsel of meat from the skeletal carcass to make turkey gravy. I am not sure if this tradition was born from the necessity to make the most of every scrap of food because she had a limited budget or if she really liked the gravy. I know I liked it!     ...