So it’s Friday, July 23rd. My 60th birthday 🎂. My sweetheart of a wife, Heidi, plans an incredible evening of food, family, friends and fun.

We get to Reed’s Place and my best friend from college, Jon Tilmon is waiting at our table. Surprise! Then we enjoy the Tomahawk 🥩 steak which was fantastic as well as a Strawberry 🍓 👱‍♀️ Blonde. Reed’s can now serve alcohol. while dining, Heidi gives us all (Pottschmidts, Stahls, Jon and us) tickets to a concert 🎵 at Hickory Hills Golf Course.

We go to Poplar Street for a round and then it is back to Stahl Farms before the concert. We turn the corner around the garage and there are 30 people saying “Surprise!” I thought Jon Tilmon was the surprise. Now here is my Mom, we shared a few moments on this day 60 years ago, my brother David, And a bunch of our closest friends and family. Heidi absolutely slayed it! Turns out she made fake concert tickets and the party was ON. I should have known something was up when the Stahls garage was all cleaned up when we were left for the restaurant.

Heidi raised the bar so high that I could never reach it. Her birthday was the next day on the 24th and I got her a card.

Cleverly, Central 🍩 Doughnuts out of Columbus has been setting up in surrounding towns one day a week and getting their product noticed.

Top right is a “cronut.” Part doughnut and part croissant 🥐. Whoa! Below that is the 🍁 maple 🥓 bacon and it is incredible!!!

Central doughnuts comes to Seymour and Brownstown and we are happier for it.

What a great idea! The ginger sauce really added some flair to the sandwich.

A Blue Moon sporting an orange 🍊 slice with Barkley Dam in the background.

We have really been hitting the chicken hard this summer. But, it has been very good every time. 10 minutes on indirect heat. Flip, and 10 more minutes on indirect heat. Then finish up with it directly over the coals. I have a nice old Father’s Day present of a digital thermometer 🌡 that easily lets me make sure the chicken reaches at least 165 degrees.

The sweet corn 🌽 came from Hackman’s Farm Market south of Vallonia on Highway 135. I prefer to cut it off the cob. The Brussels sprouts came out of a bag and we very tasty. ( Heidi has really come around on the Brussels sprouts!) it is also and easy clean up.

Take a cubed steak, brown it in flour and Chef’s Secret and then bake it. Boom!!! 💥 Let me tell you about the scalloped 🥬 cabbage. Nina Hackman gets a big cabbage from her brother Barry Melloncamp, chop it up, add a can of chicken soup and put cheese on top and then bake. Incredible!!!

Get some Grassy Fork grown blackberries from Ronnie Jo Scarlett, flour and sugar are the main ingredients for the cobbler, then add a couple scoops of some melting ice cream and it is Blackberry Heaven!

Nina also made me try a raspberry 🥧 pie. She got some Grassy Fork grown raspberries from Barry’s wife Linda Melloncamp, bake a pie and add the melting ice cream again and it is a home run! grassy Fork grown is a great way to start a summer meal!!!

Heidi seasoned the kabobs with sweet chili sauce . I grilled them for five minutes on each side with applewood smoke for flavor. Each piece of the kabob was filled with taste.

On vacation last week, Heidi and Sophie had some fish tacos and Heidi decided that she could reproduce them. And reproduce she did, by golly! They were outstanding! Now, this ceviche business was really good if you like that kind of thing. Fresh veggies and shrimp marinaded and served cool. The tacos 🌮 have two incredible ingredients: the sliced 🥑 were fabulous and we found a new condiment that is out of this world…Hidden Valley Ranch Blasted Bold Buffalo sauce.

Just down the road about a half mile is Santino’s. The lasagna, shrimp and chicken Alfredo were all delicious.

Conveniently located next door to the Fractured Prune doughnut store and less than a mile from our rental house, we tried the Sunrise Bagel Company this morning.