Sandwiches on offer include a Cornerstone Inn bacon and egg cheeseburger: an eight-ounce burger topped with thick cut applewood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese and, a large over-medium egg.
There’ s also a Santa Fe grilled chicken sandwich with sautéed peppers and onions, and a vegetable grilled cheese with seasoned cream cheese, Portobello mushrooms, spinach, zucchini, onion, tomato, and sprouts.
Of course, I came for the entrées. The offerings were tempting, including a grilled vegetable flatbread pizza, and a nice-looking pan-seared salmon with dill cream sauce.
In the end, I opted for the Cornerstone Inn lasagna, a hefty, five-layer lasagna filled with Italian sausage, peppers, onions, mushrooms, Mozzarella, ricotta and Parmesan cheeses, and marinara and Alfredo sauces. The lasagna was melt-in-your-mouth perfect, served with little grilled garlic flat-breads. And the salad was pretty tasty, too( I had to crib a little bite from the wife).
I was prepared to barge full steam into dessert— possibly the triple chocolate layer cake, or the coconut cream cake— but somehow, during the course of our repast, the conversation turned in the direction of happiness and well-being, the role of health in happiness, and the part of healthy eating and weight maintenance in overall good health. And, it was a pretty big slab of lasagna. With resolution, but not a little pain and longing, I took the difficult decision to forego dessert, to exchange that moment on the lips for a little less around the hips, if possible.
Well, Uncle Earl always said that“ It’ s a lot easier to get your pants off than it is to get them back on,” and this rule of thumb definitely comes into play when going down below the main floor for a big, delicious meal. It isn’ t getting down the stairs that presents the difficulty, it is getting back up them.
And although arthritis and being overweight have taken their toll on the old Sampler, I’ ll have you know that I am still perfectly capable of getting back up those stairs. Still, the elevator is a nice touch, a luxury. Riding smoothly up in a car named Otis, I feel lifted to a better place than the one from which I had descended. There is something about a good meal which elevates us, raises our moods and our general prospects.
It must be the feeling of being profoundly satisfied. •
March / April 2019 • Our Brown County 55