Flash Market: The Best "Fish and Chips"

It feels like the middle of nowhere, but the people living near this Flash Market in Fairview, Tennessee, are fortunate folk, for this gas station carries the best potato wedges I have ever tasted in my life.

It was a random purchase on a trip to Henderson, Tennessee, to see my grandparents. My dad loves a good potato wedge, but little did he know what he was discovering. It's become a bit of a tradition for my family to stop in for this starchy, fried treat on our way to or from my grandparents'.

Once I requested a stop. The driver didn't stop. "I thought you were joking," I was told. "I don't joke about potato wedges," I replied. Now I am always offered a quick run into the store on the way through town.

I normally don't like a large wedge; I prefer less potato and more fried batter, but this huge wedge...I cannot even explain what the magic is. You really need to set your TomTom and make a trip yourself. It's at the corner of the Hwy 96 and I40 interchange.

As we celebrated Christmas with my cousins at this wonderful place (No, I didn't pick the spot; it was on route for the moving cousins on their way to Arkansas.), my dad made a new discovery: their catfish.

The catfish and the wedges are nearly polar opposites in that the wedge is fat, and the fish is thin, giving plenty of crisp batter on the outside. Just pass the ketchup, please.

Often a trip to my grandparents' is a one day event: two-ish hours there, a lunch visit, and two-ish hours back: all within about eight or nine hours. This trip means a cranky toddler calling "stuck, stuck" as he desires freedom from his car seat, and my answer, "I'm stuck too, baby." It also means priceless time with the Henderson side of the Hilliards.

And it also means a potato wedge. Or two. Or two and a half.

Worth it.

Wild Plum Tea Room: Girls Just Want to Have Tea

I must admit: I love a good, girly tea room. On our first anniversary trip to Gatlinburg in 2005, Jay and I drove out to the Wild Plum Tea Room. I took one look at the menu, which they change often (maybe daily) and post outside, and told Jay we could go somewhere else. I knew he wouldn't like anything they offered.

After seven years of marriage, I decided to force this feminine experience upon him. Besides, Jay is now used to eating only 1.5 meals a day, and he'd had a huge breakfast, so I knew he'd be fine with eating a muffin and drinking tea if that's all he found desirable to consume.

 We both drank the Wild Plum fruit tea. (I think I had about 4 cups.) I usually don't drink hot tea that has sugar, but this was a vacation-exception. We also both enjoyed two tiny Wild Plum tea muffins each. These were gone too quickly to photograph.

For my meal I ordered the strata, filled with tomatoes, cheese, and spinach. I prefer an actual quiche with a crust to this version, which had bready layers throughout the egg, but it was quite good. My side was a pasta salad, wet with a balsamic vinaigrette. I used "wet" with purpose. It was a little moist for me, but the flavor was delish.

Jay had fruit (which I got to share) and a turkey sandwich with a lemon spread. As I ate some of his leftovers for dinner, I can attest to the tastiness of his lunch as well. He also said his sandwich was a little "wet" for him. He's not used to a spread of any kind on his bread, and I was impressed he ate as much as he did and enjoyed it.

It was an adorable experience, and I learned a lesson: Jay doesn't hate tea rooms as much as I thought he did. So I will be seeking out similar places in our area and pulling him along for the taste-ride.

Buckhorn Inn: Breakfast Worth Getting Up For

Morning 1 of our 7th anniversary Gatlinburg vacation at Buckhorn Inn = French toast with strawberries and cream, bacon, fresh fruit, blueberry muffin, cranberry juice, and hot cocoa with whipped cream on top

I finally took more than one night away from Jack (with minimal crying spells, on my part). It rained the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of our vacation; the sun finally popped out of the sky Thursday: the day of our departure. It didn't matter, though. When you are spending your first vacation away from your 19-month-old, you pretty much just want to relax and sleep as much as possible.

Problem: the Buckhorn Inn serves breakfast from 8-9:30.

I can remember when we went to the Buckhorn for our first anniversary. This time seemed quite early. Everything is about perspective. Now sleeping until 8:45 is a luxury. And, I had no embarrassment about throwing on clothes and going to breakfast without having had my shower. It was vacation, and these were strangers. Who cared? I decided not to.

We stayed in a cottage instead of the inn itself, which meant a little jaunt each morning before we made it to breakfast. I'd say this was a good idea, not just because of the beautiful view and privacy of the cottage, but because the morning jaunt to the meal woke up my tummy, and the morning jaunt back burned off a few of those calories.

This breakfast is worth getting up for, and filling enough that all you want to do after is go back to bed. Which we did.

Morning 2 = lemon souffle pancakes with raspberry sauce, bacon, fresh fruit cup, mint tea, cranberry juice, and croissant.

The breakfast is spectacular, a fabulous "good morning" to your mouth. I don't really like raspberry sauces (because of the seeds, mostly), but I love fruit rather than syrup. I didn't get to engorge myself as much with this meal because I didn't feel so well. But this lack of over-eating helped me enjoy our tea room lunch. (Update on this coming later.)

Morning 3 = cream cheese filled croissant in a strawberry sauce with strawberries and cream on top, bacon (always), fresh fruit (always), mint tea, cranberry juice, and blueberry-amaretto coffee cake

Our final morning's breakfast could be categorized in one word: decedent. As if a croissant isn't bad enough for you, this one was filled with cream cheese and then cooked french-toast-style. I ate half of it and felt as though my teeth might (gladly) fall right out of my mouth from the sugar-stimulation. Divine. What a way to end our trip.

www.buckhorninn.com