Family Visit...!!

Laurie and I were very lucky on this March visit to the Cleveland Ohio metropolitan area. The weather was mild and almost all of the snow had melted. Now that we've moved south, we just don't appreciate the cold or all that white stuff!

So, here is one of the reasons that Laurie and I periodically make the long trek north! This is Emmett Lee and he's 7 years old. He's very smart, loves his family, his DSI, Legos, running fast, (He has medals!), his room, playing with his brother, eating constantly and, of course, he loves his grandparents. He's very good in school, plays soccer and basketball. He does sometimes talk in a strange roaring voice, causing the rest of us to laugh hysterically...and causing him to keep up the act!

This young man is yet another reason for our visits! David III, as you can see is king of his castle. He's 10 years old, he's an excellent student, loves his family, really enjoys reading, (actual books!), loves his DSI & video games, playing with his friends and with his brother. He's now into strength training... During this last visit, he read an entire volume from the "Wimpy Kid" series to Laurie. (aka Nana) Nana loves to have David read to her. He's a great reader!

Here's Amy with Emmett out by the fire pit. Amy is our daughter-in-law and one of the reasons that we have such great grandchildren! She's a marketing executive for a retail company. Amy works very hard and then works equally hard to ensure that the family spends quality time together. During this Spring Break visit, Amy was off for the whole week! We went out and explored a couple of local parks, played outside with the boys, Nana beat the rest of us Wii Bowling and we beat the boys in Wii team golf. The boys also like board games... David III edged out Emmett and whipped us in the game of "Life". Of course, the game might have turned out a bit differently if we'd read the rules first...

This excited "young", (It's all relative...), man is our son, David II...my namesake. We celebrated his "N/A" birthday while we were there. Here, he's emoting upon opening one of his presents... David is currently finishing up his second year in Law School. He wants to add that JD, (Juris Doctor), to the MBA that he earned from Michigan State. The problem with law school is that he's working harder than he's ever had to in the business world!

And here is the whole happy family! (Emmett appears to be doing his roaring or growling voice...) This little group is what keeps us trekking north. If the current plan works out, they'll pay us a visit in the next few months or so. It should be fun and we can't wait! In summary...we had a great time! There is nothing like family!

Leftovers = Comfort Food

While I'm not up to the standards set by Larry at http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/, or other luminaries such as Chez at Fat Johnnies Back Porch or Raw Talent at Clubeclectia for leftovers and breakfasts, I do enjoy making something good from what's hanging around in the refridgerator. I especially like breakfast and sandwiches! Here I took a couple of half-stale buns from the fridge and toasted them...slathering them with butter. Then I seasoned and fried up a link of leftover bratwurst and matched it with some scrambled sharp cheddar cheese eggs. Add the Tabasco and it was a great little brunch! When Laurie and I got home late from a recent road trip, we picked up some Kentucky Fried Chicken and slaw for dinner. Usually, I just eat the leftovers for lunch right from the refrigerator. But, we'd picked up some great bread from a specialty store during our trip and I decided that we should try our extra crispy leftover chicken on the fresh bread with some mayo...leftover slaw on the side. This sandwich was all about the quality bread combined with the crispy crumbles and skin! Great flavor...lots of pop! Laurie's not too big on leftovers...but this was an exception! Just a side note... I've been having problems with formating lately. I'll have a blog set up just the way I want it and then I'll schedule it to go out. When it posts...a couple more recent ones posted in a disorganized confusing format. Then I had to 'kill' that blog and redo them all over again. Is anyone else having these kinds of issues? (Actually, this little blog was a problem too!)

Tavern in Ohio - Gourmet Dining!

Recently, while visiting our family in the Cleveland area, they took us out for dinner at a neighborhood tavern in the city. This is the Grovewood Tavern & Wine Bar. It's very unassuming on the outside and very casual on the inside as well. The difference between this 'tavern' and most others is the food. Grovewood does not serve your basic bar food!

Things got off to a good start when Laurie and our daughter-in-law, Amy, ordered "Dirty Martini's". They proclaimed them to be the best ever...just excellent!

Grovewood Tavern & Wine Bar is serious about the bar portion of their business... The wine list contains 118 varieties plus 2 sakes, 5 ports or sherries and 41 different beers. Of the later, only 3 are domestic mass produced and 9 are micro-brews. (From Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and New York) Wines range in price from $23.00 per bottle, (12 varieties), up to $183.00. The vast majority of the wines are priced under $40.00

But our family grouping, myself and Laurie, plus David II, Amy and grandsons, David III and Emmett Lee, weren't at Grovewood to check out the alcohol...but rather to explore the menu! After being seated and ordering drinks, our server brought us some nice bread...good consistency... It was accompanied by some quality oil and garlic for dipping. We ordered 2 appetizers to share. The first one were these Potstickers. They were shrimp and pork-filled Lithuanian dumplings with Thai chili butter sauce and seaweed salad. They were excellent!

The second appetizer was the Grilled Smoked Gouda. The Gouda was pan-seared, then oven finished. The cheese was then served with fig/shallot/port wine jam and crostini. While this wasn't exactly my kind of thing...everyone else loved the contrasts in flavors and textures...another win for Grovewood!

Other appetizers & small plates on the menu include a Cheese Flight, Mussels Milanese, Stuffed Banana Peppers, Tuna Bites, a Mushroom Pizzette, Crabcakes and Calamari Fritti.

For her entree, Amy ordered the Salmon Yakitori as pictured below. This is a Japanese style 'barbeque' served with Grovewood's signature chilled, spicy sesame noodles and seaweed salad.

David II stayed with the same theme as Amy, ordering the Scallop Yakitori. They've eaten here before and they really like the Yakatori entrees! One similar item on the menu featuring a duck breast is listed as 'Quackitori'...

This is my entree. It's the Yin Yang Scallops. These are seared diver scallops drizzled with pomegranate and mango coulis, over forbidden black Thai and basamiti rice with crispy spinach. It was very nice...

For her dinner, Laurie ordered the Ohio City Pasta ravioli stuffed with spicy crawfish in a Cajun tomato cream sauce. It was terrific...lots of flavor and a little heat!

Other seafood entrees include Seared Tuna Loin, a Salmon Duet (with both seared and smoked salmon) and Blackened Diver Scallops. Combination entrees include Crab Cake & Steak as well as Shrimp & Steak. Non-seafood entrees on the menu include a Pork Tenderloin, Bison Potroast, Pasta Bolognese, Cherry Duck, Zinfandel Short Ribs, Chicken Marsala and Filet Mignon Medallions.

In addition, 6 salads are available as are 5 gourmet sandwiches...plus 7 items for "Little Nippers". Six desserts are listed and Laurie and I shared a nice Apple Crisp Cobbler with a scoop of homemade ice cream, but it was in a bowl and didn't photograph well.

Service was very competent and helpful. Prices started at $9.00 for a sandwich or for any of 3 of the small plates/appetizers. Entrees ranged from $18.00 to $29.00. Most entrees come with a side but a number of other choices are available as well. The next time that we visit Grovewood, I'll have to try the Chorizo-Cheddar Whipped Potatoes!

Grovewood Tavern & Wine Bar is located just a couple of blocks off of I-90 at 17105 Grovewood Avenue in Cleveland Ohio. This restaurant is open for dinner 7 days a week. Phone: 216-531-4900. For more information, go to http://www.grovewoodtavern.com/.

Tornado!!

Even in 'Paradise', bad things can happen! Although relatively unusual in East Tennessee, Wednesday night, March 23rd, a tornado touched down along high ground west of Tellico Lake in Loudon & Blount counties. Laurie and I took a drive to see just how bad the damage had been. The good news is that no one was killed or critically injured in the storm. Tennessee Hwy. 95 north to Greenback off of US 411 was blocked off for use by emergency vehicles only.

Power lines were a major casualty from the storm. Many people, including our friend Larry, (aka 'Big Dude'), lost power for hours or even a couple of days. This bucolic scene of cattle grazing in the field contrasts with the placement of utility repair trucks one field away busily rebuilding/restoring power and phone lines.

You know that something significant is happening or has happened when you spot the local network news/satellite trucks on the job. This is the NBC affiliate, WBIR on site. We saw at least 2 other broadcast units along the highway.

The morning after...beautiful blue skies...a major contrast with the night before!

Many trees were downed in the affected area. In this case, one tree had fallen on a home. The tornado forged a swath of destruction that was about 1/3 of a mile wide and a little over 4 miles long. Almost 3 dozen homes and businesses were damaged and destroyed. One large 3 story home with a 5 car garage was totally shredded, but the owner, the pastor of New Life Ministries Christian Center and his family weren't home when the storm hit.

This home sits right along US 411. Not only was it damaged beyond repair, it was blown off its foundation. This was a strong EF3 tornado, with winds reaching up to 160 mph.

Another local resident was feared dead when his mobile home was thrown a couple hundred feet by the storm and destroyed. The good news was that he'd recently been assigned to the 3rd shift at his job and he was at work when the storm hit.

This is all that remains of the Orr & Orr Developers Auto Body shop on US 411. One building was totally blown away and this larger structure is now just a mass of crumpled steel. Cars were blown across the 4-lane highway and others were stacked on each other. One employee was living adjacent to the shop in an RV. He survived the storm with only minor cuts and bruises despite the fact that the RV he was in was tossed around and flipped over.

This photo of the rubble remaining the day after the storm is evidence of it's destructive power!

Of course, this being the 'Volunteer State', there wasn't too much whining going on! Churches, neighbors, charities, schools, (including 20 members of the Maryville College Fighting Scotts football team), pitched in to help clean up and provide immediate assistance to the storm's victims.

This storm passed close enough to us that we hid out for a few minutes in our windowless interior closet where the plumbing from the bathrooms provide a little extra wall strength... Historically, the last damaging tornado in the area occurred in 1993 when one person was killed and 55 were injured. Apparently, property damage was much worse this time, (18 years later), but only 2 people were injured. In any case, this even provided more excitement than we needed, that's for sure!

Group Dining Experience...

Our most recent Dining Out experience with friends and neighbors from our village took us to Connor's Steak & Seafood in the Farragut/Knoxville Tennessee area. Fifty-five 'villagers' participated in this event. Connor's Steak & Seafood has 2 locations, one in Knoxville and another in Alabama. This restaurant is part of Connor's Concepts, Inc., a Knoxville based corporation that also operates The Chop House with 12 locations. In addition to Alabama as well as mid and east Tennessee, other locations are found in Ohio, Kentucky and Georgia. We were limited to a pre-set menu. This allowed Connor's to plan their ordering and meal coordination. One advantage of this arrangement was that we received special pricing for our meals and for the cocktail hour which preceded dinner. We had a choice of soup or a salad with our dinner. Laurie ordered one of her favorites...Lobster Crab Bisque! She reported that it was very good, laced throughout with nice bits of lobster and crab. I chose the House Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing. The ingredients were fresh and the dressing was just right. Dinner salads are available from the regular menu. These include an Ahi Tuna Salad and their house special Baby Spinach & Strawberry Salad. For her entree, Laurie ordered the 7 oz. Farm Raised Salmon grilled with herb butter. It was served over rice pilaf and broccoli and came with a side topping of sauteed vegetable medley . The salmon was delicious and the rice pilaf was very nice. The seafood menu at Connor's is fairly extensive. Among the items listed are Shrimp & Grits, Fish & Chips, Crab Encrusted Tilapia, Red Snapper, Chili-Spiced Chilean Sea Bass and Parmesan Encrusted Alaskan Halibut. The limited menu choices were the salmon, a tenderloin fillet and Chicken Parmesan. I'm not a salmon devotee and a 6 oz. beef fillet just doesn't do it for me. So I went with the chicken. It was a hand-breaded breast, fried golden brown, topped with marinara sauce plus provolone and Parmesan cheese. It was served over angel hair pasta with garlic bread and broccoli. It was supposed to come with sugar snap peas...but fortunately, I like broccoli. The flavors were nice and Tabasco was provided. (A critical condiment!) The only real issue was that the chicken breast was a bit dry/overcooked. I was sitting next to Gary and he had ordered the other dinner option, the 6 oz. Connor's Fillet. He asked for a baked potato as his side dish. Gary reported that his steak was cooked just right and it was very flavorful. (In my opinion, his meal could have benefited from more imaginative plating) Connor's steak & chops entree options from the menu, also include prime rib, a 12 oz. ribeye, a Boursin Fillet, (A House Specialty), pork chops, lamb chops and Braised Short Rib. (Another House Specialty)

We had a choice of 5 different desserts with our meals. These included Strawberry Shortcake, Caramel Fudge Cheesecake, Creme Brulee, Banana's Foster, and German Chocolate Upside Down Cake. I had the Creme Brulee and it was very nice.

Another positive was that Connors allowed us to switch out our original dessert choices.

Gary had the German Chocolate Upside Down Cake. It came with ice cream and it was drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauce. It looked great and Gary gave it an enthusiastic two thumbs up! From the regular menu, I noted that the ice cream is homemade...a nice touch.

Laurie opted for this very decadent offering of Bananas Foster. She actually let me have a taste...and she was right. This was an excellent flavor-filled dessert!

The full menu also includes 13 Appetizers & Small Plates, Pasta & 4 other chicken offerings plus a half dozen sandwiches.

This was a positive dining experience although we would have preferred to order off the full menu. We will be back in the near future to sample a wider range of entree and appetizer choices... This week we will be joining our friends Dennis and Edera for dinner at The Chop House location in Farragut Tennessee.

The Tennessee location for Connor's Steak & Seafood is at 10915 Turkey Drive in Knoxville. Phone: 865-966-0933. For further information regarding Connor's and The Chop House, go to http://www.connorsrestaurant.com/.

Classico Italian Restaurant - Second Look?

Since Classico Italian Restaurant was OK for lunch...and they serve breakfast as well, we decided to drop by and check it out. Can you spell 'disappointing'?! We love a good breakfast and this didn't come close to measuring up...


The first problem was service. There were 3 other tables occupied when we arrived and 2 of them were getting ready to leave. There were 2 'waitresses', plus another young woman whose purpose we never did ascertain. For 20 minutes we sat there...waiting to be noticed. Finally, the manager/cook came out of the back and, as she passed by our table she asked us how we liked our breakfast. We told her that we had yet to be waited on... She berated one of the waitresses, who then took our order.


My breakfast is shown above... It's the basic breakfast with 2 eggs over easy, hash browns, (a) sausage patty and toast. The eggs were OK, the toast was a bit dry, (white bread instead of the Rye that I'd ordered), the hash browns were just a bit too crispy and the sausage patty had been cooked and probably recooked. It was hard and black all the way through. I was also a little startled that I only got one patty...although the low price for breakfast may provide the answer to that issue.


Laurie ordered a waffle with bacon on the side. The waffle was pictured as coming with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Now, I ask you, just how appetizing does her waffle look!? The frozen strawberries had apparently been hacked off a block of fruit...and, to paraphrase an old commercial, "Where's the Whipped Cream?!" We were so stunned when Laurie's breakfast was placed in front of her, that we had to call the waitress back over to ask for more whipped cream. We were told that this was all she could get from the can...and that they were out of whipped cream. This fit right in with the rest of our experience...and, oh yes, they had run out of orange juice.


One waitress could best be described as being either condescending or annoyed...we weren't sure which. The other waitress brought food to one table and then did nothing until we were almost done with 'breakfast' and then she began clearing a table that had been vacated 20 minutes earlier.


Paula and Gary, friends from Tellico Village, were sitting at a nearby table. They know that I blog about restaurants and they were counting the minutes that we sat there without being served. As they left, they told us that their experience was much like ours and they couldn't wait to see my blog about our breakfast!


When we visited this restaurant the first time, the service was very solid. Maybe it was just the breakfast crew that had the problem...although even with good service, the food was far below standard. Our next adventure at Classico Italian Pizza & Pasta will involve dinner. We want that experience to be a positive one. A good Italian Restaurant would be a real plus for the area! So, there will be a "Third Look" at this venue. The restaurant is located just off Loudon County Road 444 in Tellico Village at 318 Lakeside Plaza in Loudon. Phone: 865-958-9316.

Fish Fry Special...

This is an early spring view from the Clubhouse at the Kahite Golf Course in Monroe County Tennessee. If you look carefully, you can see the snow on the Appalachians in the distance.



Laurie and I came by the Clubhouse for a Friday all you can eat Fish Fry. Afterwards, we drove through this easternmost section of the Tellico Village properties counting the many deer in yards and on the golf course.


This is what the first helping of the fried fish dinner looked like... Decent fries, good cold slaw, very nice hush puppies and a really nice hunk of deep fried fish. We asked for seconds and the waitress brought another piece of fish...and since it was cut in half, apparently it was for us to split. Another helping was quick in coming so, in the end, all was well.




We decided to split a dessert and we chose a slice of Chocolate Pie. It was very, very good! The coffee was full bodied and favorable as well...

The Kahite Clubhouse & Grill is located at 400 Kahite Trail in Vonore, Tennessee. Phone: 423-884-2159. With the exception of special events such as this Friday evening fish fry, the normal hours for the restaurant are from 8 am to 6 pm, seven days a week.