May 11, 2021 Lunch - Sunrise BBQ. Dinner - Hamburgers with sautéed onion, lion’s mane mushroom, and asparagus

May 11, 2021 Lunch - Sunrise BBQ. Dinner - Hamburgers with sautéed onion, lion’s mane mushroom, and asparagus 

Another amazing food day.

We worked at the Hilton until almost 11:00 and then drove toward Meramec River State Park.

Very soon after we began our day’s drive we stopped on the outskirts of St. Louis at Sunshine BBQ, which was highly rated.  We both agreed immediately on an order of fried artichokes, but I had trouble ordering beyond that and settled on my standard for three hungry men order of a slab of ribs and 1/2 lb. of beef brisket.  We also ordered sides of beans and Cole slaw.  The food was delicious but it was way more than we could eat, so we wrapped it up to take what was left. We will probably get three meals from the leftover BBQ.

                                                Fried Artichoke Hearts with chipotle aioli

It seems we do one interesting thing per day.  Today it was a tour of the Meramec Cave.

The cave was small but impressive and I walked a little more than .6 miles and saw a room of lovely stalactites and stalagmites and then perhaps the largest stalagmite in the world that was over 500 feet in circumference and over 133 millions years old.

After the cave tour Suzette tried to open the valve of the propane tank and the propane tank nozzle appeared to have a leak, so we drove to Walmart to buy charcoal briquettes and starter blocks.

We then drove back to our camp site and hooked up the electricity and lit a fire.  Very soon with the use of self-igniting charcoal there was a fire and we decided to cook the dinner we had prepped two nights ago; hamburgers with a melted piece of cheese on top with sautéed diced asparagus, sweet onions, and lions mane mushrooms.

We put all the ingredients in a large skillet with heated butter and olive oil, tossed them and covered the skillet with aluminum foil to steam the ingredients.  We checked the skillet several times including when we flipped the burgers and laid cheese on the cooked side.

After about thirty minutes everything was cooked to perfection.

Here is a photo.  

We decided to share the meal and eat out of the still warm skillet, so we would not dirty any more plates and the meal would stay warm.  Suzette covered the cutting board and a pot holder with aluminum foil and we placed the skillet dinner on the covered hot pad.

The dinner was delicious beyond words.  The vegetables and hamburger were cooked perfectly.  Our improvisation proved successful beyond our expectations.

This was the first time I ate lion’s mane mushrooms and I really liked them.

 The asparagus were locally grown and also wonderful and not overcooked.  We bought both the mushrooms and asparagus at the local growers’ market in Willoughby, near Columbus.

We drank the last half bottle of 2015 Lan Rioja Reserva with dinner and it was great.

Then after dinner I was able to build a small fire and we sat and watched it while sharing a glass of Zacapa XO rum and a chocolate.

As dark fell we bedded down for the night.

Bon Appetit