Food! Take Out and Homemade…

This time my focus is totally on food… Meals are a highlight for me during the pandemic.  Laurie isn’t food focused so I will admit that this ‘addiction’ is mine and mine alone.  The good news is that we’re only eating 2 meals a day during self-isolation so I haven’t gained any weight.

So let’s start with the least healthy but most satisfying take-out food!

We were both in the mood for fresh donuts.  So we stopped at our local Master Donuts store in Lenoir City Tennessee.  It was our second visit in the last 5 weeks or so. 

During our previous visit, we had asked the owner how their business was during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Basically, she told us that they were just hanging on hoping for a return to normal.  They’d been producing less than half of their pre-pandemic output… Laurie had posted the need to support Master Donut on nextdoor.com when we got home and the feedback had been amazing.  

This time we’d decided to stock up and freeze a supply for future breakfast and/or dessert treats.  So we bought 2 dozen assorted goodies.  They included apple fritters, cinnamon rolls, blueberry glazed donuts, glazed croissants, glazed buttermilk donuts and more!  The owner/operator also gave us a bag of glazed donut holes for the ride home…

After we completed our purchase we asked if business had improved.  The answer was in the affirmative, with a significant increase in sales…

This was one of the apple fritters.  They are the best ever!  Laurie had this one for breakfast a few days later.  We had frozen it but a quick zap in the microwave and it was fresh and tasted as great as if we’d just bought it.  The only items that we didn’t try to freeze were the 3 Danish that we’d selected.

Master Donut’s products are far superior to those offered by a certain national chain!  The Lenoir City Tennessee Master Donuts store is located just a mile or so off of I-75 from the US 321 exit.  Address: 507 East Broadway, also known as US Hwy 11.  Phone Number: 865-816-6058.  They are on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Masterdonutstn/.

Our next takeout experience wasn’t as positive.  We had gone months without Mexican food, with the thought that it would be truly messy as take out unless we stuck to burritos or similar offerings.  We finally ordered food to go from Cielito Lindo in Vonore Tennessee.  We had eaten in this restaurant many times previously so we were optimistic.

We decided to order a half dozen chicken wings just because we had never had them from Cielito Lindo before.  They were competent and quite meaty.  One positive is that they weren't heavily breaded...  

As side items we had corn chips and salsa and Laurie ordered some guacamole.  When I took the photo, we'd already eaten some of the chips, but they were the worst for wear from being packaged for take-out…too many were broken.  I don’t care from guacamole and Laurie thought that this version was just OK.

I think that this side of beans, chorizo sausage and rice came with Laurie’s entrée.  She didn’t eat it but I tried the beans and sausage.  Again, it was just OK...

Laurie’s Tacos de Pescado, i.e. fish tacos were a disappointment.  She’d never previously ordered them from Cielito Lindo.  They didn’t look that good and she just didn’t care for them despite the fact that tilapia was the fish they used… We really like their Tilapia dinner but it didn’t translate to the tacos.

My entrée was the Chile Colorado, grilled steak tips in a special house sauce served with rice, refried beans and flour tortillas.  It was exactly as I expected and I was happy with my meal.  Put those steak tips with some sauce on a tortilla, add a smear of refried beans and I was content!

Since we already knew that we’ve had plenty of positive experiences at Cielito Lindo, we decided that part of the problem was that we missed the presentation and happy atmosphere that folks enjoy while dining in the restaurant.  When the plague is under control we will return for a sit down dining experience.

Cielito Lindo was very busy when we picked up our food.  Too many customers showed up without masks although the staff was wearing theirs.  Proper distancing was just not possible with the crowd on a Friday night.  Cielito Lindo is located at 1265 US Hwy 411 in Vonore Tennessee.  Phone: 423-884-2885.            

Time to cook something at home…

We had a family size container of Bob Evan’s Mashed Potatoes and a pound and a half of ground beef, a few carrot sticks and a small can of baby peas…so what to make?  We decided to make something that we’d never actually made since we’d been married, but which we’d both eaten as family meals during our youth.

This was our version of Shepherd’s Pie.  Brown up the ground beef, add the carrot bits and baby peas, season it with onion flakes, garlic powder, fresh ground pepper and dried red pepper flakes… Then Laurie put the mix in a large casserole dish and topped it with those mashed potatoes.  Finally, she topped the ready to bake casserole with some hot paprika and then it went into the oven.

When the Shepherd’s Pie was bubbling and a little browned on top, it was time to eat!  It was very satisfying!  Perfect cold weather food.  Another plus was that we got two meals out of this creation…

Now, if you are a food purist, technically we didn’t make a shepherd’s pie.  Shepherd’s pie should only be named as such if it contains lamb!  If beef is used, it should be called a “Cottage Pie”.  I did learn something new!

Last but certainly not least!  Usually, when we’re in a ‘cookie mood’ we purchase the ready to eat cookies or the ready to bake type from grocery stores.  However, in this case Laurie decided to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch!  They were so much better…but of course they were also so much more tempting too… This is why we don’t do baked goods!  Our neighbor Mike, who is a chocoholic, was quite happy though when Laurie showed up on his doorstep with a cookie care package.

Just click on any of the photos that you would like to enlarge…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave