Staying Local…

In my next post to the blogsite, I’ll begin describing the ‘adventures’ we enjoyed as we headed west to visit family in Omaha Nebraska and St. Louis Missouri.  However, for this edition, I’ll be staying close to home.

Our neighbors, Sherry and Mike, decided to have a yard sale and they invited others to add items that they didn’t want or need any longer in order to enhance the interest and increase sales.  We kicked in a number of items and were able to sell a few odds and ends for a bit of spending money. 

They included: a few security badges that I’d rescued from the trash when Montgomery Ward went under; a mink coat that Laurie had been given but only used once; a metal porch sign that read “Welcome” and a few other odds and ends.  Items that didn’t sell included another old mink coat…my mother’s; an old fashioned muff; 3 golf clubs/woods, and some Halloween ceramics.  Time to start building our inventory for the next yard sale.

While I was at the yard sale, I noted that I’d never really looked at our home from the neighbor’s front yard so I took the first photo shown above.  At least we still have an intact forest on the other side of the house…for now.  A bit later I took the close up photo of those eye catching yellow day lilies….

Our favorite chicken wing joint in Farragut Tennessee closed some time ago and we are still looking for a restaurant that can fulfill our ‘need’ for great chicken wings with lots of spice and flavor options.

It had been quite a long time since we’d visited Big Kahuna Wings on US Hwy 11 aka Kingston Pike in Farragut.  One of our problems with this restaurant used to be the small dining room area.  It was too small and too cramped.  They recently expanded the restaurant and we ‘needed’ a wing ‘fix’, so we stopped by to give it a try…

The first view of the interior is from the front entrance to the back of the restaurant.  Basically, the new space goes from the front edge of the painting on the left wall and the last 2 windows on the right to the back wall.  While not a huge addition, it does make a significant difference.  The second photo is a view from our table to include the bar and the reception area.

Question… From an ‘older’ patron’s viewpoint, what’s with the current rage for high tables and stools/tall chairs?  They don’t work well with a crowd of a certain age… It wasn’t a problem in this instance.  With plenty of open tables upon our arrival, we were seated at a ‘normal’ table.

We ordered just 5 wings as we this was our dinner…and we had decided that wings would make a better appetizer than an entrée.  Big Kahuna’s wings aren’t breaded and they are quite ‘meaty’…decent sized.  Still, $8.95 for 5 wings or $1.79 each seems a little pricy, even in these supply chain challenged days.  We accompanied our wings with the ‘spicy garlic’ dipping sauce but there are 20 different sauce options on the menu.  The wings and the sauce were both very satisfying…

Laurie decided to double up on the chicken with her Chicken Salad Sandwich. ($11.00) This creation includes shredded grilled chicken seasoned with a mild Cajun rub and blended with mayonnaise, celery, carrots and cabbage…all together on a warm ciabatta roll with lettuce and tomatoes.  For a beverage, Laurie ordered a Vodka and Tonic…with Tito’s Vodka. ($5.50)

All sandwiches come with a side and Laurie chose the Fresh Pasta Salad.  Other choices include potato salad, Kahuna fries, bacon cheddar mac ‘n cheese, spicy kale slaw and BKW chips.  Laurie enjoyed the sandwich but didn’t care for the pasta salad.

For my sandwich, I chose the Jalapeno Bacon-Cheddar Burger. ($12.50) A locally sourced Black Angus beef patty on a grilled bun was topped with a homemade cheddar cream cheese blend, Applewood bacon, lettuce, mayonnaise, tomato and jalapeno slices.  I asked for some spicy ranch dipping sauce (75 cents) to accompany the BKW homemade potato chips.

The burger was quite tasty if a little messy.  The chips were OK but were enhanced by the dipping sauce.  Service was competent and the waitress was pleasant.  Our problem with the expanded Big Kahuna’s is that once the restaurant was about 40 or 50% filled with customers, the space was far too loud…enough so that we had a hard time enjoying our meals. 

Big Kahuna Wings in Farragut Tennessee is located just east of the Knox County/Loudon County Line at 12828 Kingston Pike.  Phone; 865-288-7891.  Website: www.BKWings.com. 

On another weekday, we made the drive out to the High Order Mennonite Community and their farmer's market near Tellico Plains Tennessee.  We made quite a few purchases.  The first item shown above is a bag of Laurie's favorite granola... She mixes it in with her yogurt for breakfast.  I don't recall the price we paid for this big bag of granola. 

We also bought a package of “Chewy Sorghum Raisin Cookies” and “Gingerbread Blondies”.  I believe that there were 8 cookies in that package and there were 7 ‘blondies’ in their package. ($4.00 per package) We decided that the cookies weren’t our favorites but we really liked the gingerbread blondies.   

We also picked up 2 cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next day. ($2.00 each) They were fairly good but they were a little dry around the outside ring…solved by applying butter and 22 seconds in the microwave.  Other items not pictured included 2 bunches of large radishes which I use as a snack food, a loaf of sourdough bread and a loaf or whole wheat bread.

…and I’ll end this post with a photo of a recent addition to Laurie’s garden in our back yard.  This is commonly called a raindrop, rain flower or rain lily.  There are a wide variety of these flowering plants and they are native to North America.  These plants have been widely used in traditional medicine for a variety of issues but the leaves and bulbs are considered toxic.  It was obvious that the flowers are toxic as some critter, probably a deer ate this flower the day after Laurie took this photo.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave