Birthday Celebrations in Townsend, TN

When I first moved to Tennessee, we made regular evening drives around the Cades Cove Loop Road in the Smokies to see the wildlife (mostly deer) but I haven’t been in many, many years.  For low crowds and good wildlife viewing, early morning is the best time to go but we have to leave home earlier than Bev wants to get up, but staying in Townsend saves an hour. 

When Bev had her BD in April, she said she wanted to go to the Appalachian Bistro at Dancing Bear Lodge for her BD dinner but we had yet to make it.  So, when Pat (SIL) and I both had Sep BD’s a plan was born – let’s combine the events.  We made a reservation at the Bistro for Sunday night and reserved a two BR cabin on the river for two nights so we could hit the loop road Monday morning.  Then we could do anything else we wanted in the park and take in the sites/shopping in Townsend the remainder of Mon, before spending a second night and coming home on Tue morning.

We made the hour drive up (up river) to Townsend in time to check in, drop our stuff at the cabin, and make our 5:30 dinner reservation. 

Originally, dancing bear contained cabins, and a lodge with the restaurant and Bev, Rhett and I had eaten there a long time ago but the lodge/ restaurant building burned to the ground in 2013 and new owners (Oldham Hospitality) took over in 2014.  Rather than rebuild the lodge with rooms, they added to the number of cabins and built the bistro and an event center.  Everything is located on a 37acre wooded area up on a hill except the three riverside cabins which are just over a mile away.

The two-bedroom cabin was very nice and seemed to have everything we needed and a balcony that hung over the river.

Foothills Milling Café, Tellico Italian Restaurant, And Bald Cypress

Prior to our trip to the Foothills Milling Company, we hadn’t seen friends, David and Laurie, for quite sometime and wanted to catch up so we invited them to lunch and they suggested the Foothills Milling Café in Maryville (same owners).  We had never been there so we spent plenty of time exploring their expansive online menu of sandwiches.   

I couldn’t find a description of Laurie’s chicken salad but here is a shot of it.

Dave ordered the Tuscan Ciabatta “Prosciutto, genoa salami, ham, mozzarella, sundried tomato pesto, roasted peppers, basil pesto & arugula on pressed ciabatta bun, $15.50.”

I had the Foothills Muffuletta Ciabatta “Shaved black forest ham, genoa salami, local bologna, pepperoni, provolone & olive tapenade on a pressed ciabatta bun, $14.50.”  Sided it with Pesto Macaroni Salad.

And Bev ordered the Meatloaf Melt “House meatloaf, sweet peppadew peppers, fried onions, pimiento cheese, and mayo on a pressed sourdough loaf, $15.50.”

Pic was too blurry to post.

We all enjoyed our meals and as you can see, they don’t skimp on the meat - I ate half for lunch and the remainder for supper.  It was just what I expected from a high-end sandwich shop.  

Tellico Italian Restaurant

We love (especially me) Italian food and upon leaning that there was a place in Vonore that just opened in late August, we knew we had to give it a try.  We made the 15 minute drive to the Vonore Industrial Park and arrived at Tellico Italian Restaurant a little past 11am (our usual eating time for the first meal of the day.  I forgot to get an outside pic but it is located in a small strip mall and the location has had many previous tenants.  When we got there the place had only a few customers.

They have a menu that contains most of the popular Italian dishes and our choices were:

Pat – Lasagna

Bev – Spaghetti and Meatballs

Larry – Meatball Sandwich so I could try their sauce, meatballs, and bread.

We all thought our meals were good but not the blow us away we were hoping for but we will give them another try after they have been open a while longer.

Other than the tough nuked bread, breakfast was very good.

Bald Cypress

I thought I had posted about it earlier but couldn’t find it, but several years ago Bev planted a Bald Cypress Tree in our yard as we liked the ones we had seen around town.  When it got about 8’ tall, I decided it was time to trim off the bottom branches so it would begin looking like a tree.  So I advised our Hispanic yard worker, through an interpreter, to cut off the bottom branches up to a certain point but when I checked later, the top of the tree had been cut off down to that point.  Knowing it was likely to put on a new, but weaker, stem, we just left it alone to see what would happen and did indeed but on several new stems.  But when I asked Bev about removing all but one, she wanted to leave them all.  So rather than a tree that should look like this.

We have a very pretty Bald Cypress Shrub.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/4 & 9/11/26 event dates

Oven Roasted Chicken with Potatoes and White Beans

When I saw Maria's recipe for protein heavy Oven Roasted Chicken with Potatoes and White Beans on her "Two Peas & Their Pod" blog, I knew it would be perfect for my diet and something we would all enjoy.  I followed the recipe except for two things - my girls prefer breasts so I used a whole chicken and I brined the bird.

We Finally Ate At Foothills Milling CO.

There are very few fine dining restaurants in the Maryville area and we hadn’t eaten at any of them until now.  I was shocked when I discovered that the highest rated one, Foothills Milling Co. has been open in this location for 20 years.  So, we decided it was finally time to try it and friends, Joe and Carol, joined us for the evening out.  The building has been everything from a Studebaker dealership (1921-1948), to a grocery store, an equipment rental place, and a few restaurants.

Blue Cheese Burgers, Juicy Burgers With Cheese Inside

When I saw Lea Ann's recipe for Blue Cheese Burgers, Juicy Burgers With Cheese Inside on her weekly email, and her comment was “Elevate your burger game with these Silver Spur Ranch Blue Cheese Burgers. Juicy and full of flavor, this Western style blue cheese burger is absolutely mouthwateringly delicious,” I knew it had to be tried if only for me.  As it turned out, Bev said to count her in as well but Pat was a no-go.  So, I bought two one-pound packages of ground beef and cut Lea Ann’s recipe in half (shown below) for one package and made the other into regular burgers with just S&P.  When I went to Food City to buy the Blue Cheese, the selection included none of the varieties recommended by Lea Ann (no surprise) so I opted to go with Roquefort.  When I was a kid and we went out to eat, my mom always ordered Roquefort dressing for her salad – not sure when actually I knew there was blue cheese.  You can click on the above link to go to Lea Ann’s site for the original recipe, her notes, and great pics. 

Weight Loss Update And Ribs For Card Night

A second three-month period has gone by since I began taking Zepbound so it was time for another doctor visit and I'm happy to report that I'm down another 30 pounds for a total of 60 and I'm excited to see where I can be by year end.  The first shot below is after the first 30 lbs. and I'm wearing a 4X shirt (all given away) and the second shot is now and I’m wearing a 3X shirt – I should have tucked them both in.

It won't be long before I have to retire some shorts (this pair now for sure) but since most of mine have draw strings, I can use them for a while longer.

Ribs

I don’t know how many racks of pork ribs I’ve cooked in my BBQing days but I’ve never done beef short ribs and have always wanted to make some like I’ve had in Texas but the ribs in the store always had very little meat left on them as it went with rib roast at a much higher price.  They looked like this.

I always thought the Texas BBQ joints had their beef ribs special cut with a lot of the rib-eye meat left on them, then I discovered that they were actually using short ribs and after a little more research, it seems that beef chuck short ribs (2-5 on the cow) are the ones to get.  

So, I drove about five miles to the local Hyde Farm store where they raise, slaughter, and butcher their own beef and I put in a special order for the cut that I wanted. 

Since not everyone prefers the beef ribs, I also cooked the two racks of pork ribs that I had in the freezer – leftover, properly reheated pork ribs still go down very easy.  To prep, I removed the membrane from the pork ribs and seasoned them with Head Country Original Rub.

The membrane didn’t want to easily come off of the beef ribs so I left it on and I left on the fat cap on the other side but I scored it (maybe too deep) so the rub could get to the meat.  I'll likely regret both of these decisions.  Rather than make up a batch of beef rub, I just used Montreal Steak Seasoning as we like it on beef.

I used my RecTec smoker running at 240F and I’m not sure what the pellets were made of as they had been there quite awhile.  

I wanted the meat to be done and resting in a 145F oven by 4pm and I was confident the pork ribs would take 5-6 hours at 240F using the 3-2-1 method so I put them on at 10am.  Since this was my first time with the beef short ribs and I knew they could take 10 hours, I put them on at 8am, knowing I could continue cooking them while we played cards if need be and still eat at 6pm.  

After a few hours of cooking.

Pork ribs about to be wrapped.

Pork ribs finished.

Ready to slice and serve.

Beef ribs ready to slice.

The top one is what I expected 

But what I got was one good one and three that were mostly fat so Hyde Farm is fired.

Bev made refried beans and slaw to go with the ribs and this is my plate.

The Verdict:

Both side dishes were very good.  Bev thought the ribs were a perfectively cooked fall off the bone version but I thought they were a little dry and overcooked - I think the 3-2-1 pork rib cooking method is designed to work best with a pit temperature of 225F so I’ll use it next time knowing the beef ribs will take longer or use 3-1-1 at 240F.  The beef ribs were moist, tender and tasty but I will do several things differently next time.  First of all, get them from a different source and remove both the membrane from the back and the fat cap from the top.  Then I will use a good beef brisket rub to season them and wrap them in foil at 170F internal temp as is done for brisket.  I can sure tell I’m getting old and haven’t made BBQ in a while but I hope to do better.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/27/26 event date

Lunch At Bonefish Grill And A Whataburger

As part of taking Zepbound, my doctor wants to see me every three months and the week prior to each appointment I go in for a quick blood draw.  On this occasion Bev and I were both going to the Costco Hearing Center after the blood draw so we decided to have a lunch date as well.  We had both heard good reviews from several folks about Bonefish Grill and even though Bev was lukewarm on going there, since it was very near the doctors office, we decided to give it a try.