Tacos and More

New restaurants, both very casual and a bit upscale, have been popping up around the greater Knoxville area.  For our anniversary we dined at “Bella” in Maryville Tennessee.  More recently, we tried the wings and pizza at “Ya Rona” in Vonore Tennessee.  Then there was CM (Korean) Chicken in Farragut as well as Blue Moose Burgers and the Black Horse Pub and Brewery, both in the Alcoa/Maryville area.

So this time, we were back in Farragut Tennessee to try yet another new restaurant…

This is Condado Tacos in the Turkey Creek Shopping area located in Farragut/Knoxville Tennessee.  This casual restaurant looks a bit formal on the outside but, as shown below, it is anything but formal on the inside!  FYI, Condado translates from Spanish to English meaning “county”. 

Condado Tacos (Tequila and Margaritas) was founded in Columbus Ohio in 2014.  Currently this fast growing chain has over 40 restaurants in 7 states.  The company plans to have 100 restaurants by 2026

In contrast to the rather staid exterior, the dining area in the Turkey Creek Condado is beyond colorful!  Every Condado restaurant is unique with hand-painted murals by local artists.  Definitely a party atmosphere!

Each of the 12 Zodiac signs is represented on the walls and all of them are tied into local Knoxville area references as well as tacos and tequila.  The bar top (no up close photo) is decorated with more than 2 dozen famous people connected to Tennessee and they are lined up according to their horoscope.

Laurie and I did imbibe a little but we stuck to beer…a Miller Life for me ($3.50) and Modelo Especial for her. ($5.25) The reality is that Condado is all about tequila and margaritas although they do offer beer and wine.

  Condado features 22 ‘standard’ tequilas, 22 ‘premium’ tequilas and 13 ‘ultra-premium” tequilas.  A shot/neat of the standard brands is $8.00/pitcher $38.00, premium pricing is $10.00 and $46.00, and the ultra-premium is $12.00 and $54.00.  Even more ‘special’ tequilas are offered, shots/neat only.  Prices range from $15.00 to $65.00.

So, what about the menu to accompany all that tequila?  They do offer 6 different quesos, 3 guacamoles, 2 salsas, Mexican street corn and Nachos.  But the reality is, Tacos are truly the only food focus.  It’s just a matter of which pre-set taco you order (14 versions) or if you order build you own tacos.  Choose your taco shell (or go ‘shell-less’); choose from 11 proteins, ranging from chicken to steak and plant based; 13 toppings ranging from lettuce to pickled red onions; 4 salsas and then, finally 7 sauces.

Laurie and I both ordered flour soft shell tacos, working from both the build your own and the pre-set versions.  Laurie ordered the “Sweet Heat” with brisket, smoked cheddar, honey and more. ($5.60) She also had the “Dutch Dragon” with guacamole, roasted Portobello mushrooms, pickled jalapenos and more. ($4.25) Since I’m meat focused I built my 3 tacos around Tex/Mex ground beef, braised beef brisket and tequila lime steak.  My tacos ranged from $4.10 to $5.20.   

Our waitress Tera was very helpful and patient.  If you want to relax with dinner, this isn’t the place for you… I doubt that we represent the restaurant's target patrons.  Laurie did love her “Dutch Dragon” taco but we felt that the other tacos were nothing particularly special.  For us at least, Condado was just OK.  Still, it is an innovative concept.

Condado Tacos, Tequila and Margaritas is located at 11383 Parkside Drive in Knoxville Tennessee.  To learn more about this restaurant and its menu, just go to Tacos & Mexican Food in Knoxville - Turkey Creek | Condado Tacos.

Nature can be quite eye-catching, even when decay sets in.  Laurie took this photo of some bracket or shelf fungi that is slowly wearing down a stump at the edge of our yard and the remaining wooded lot next door.  Bracket fungi are a polypore…and there are over 1,000 varieties of them that have been identified.   Some are edible, others are used in ‘traditional’ medicine and others have been used since pre-history as tinder to start fires.

Progress continues on the new home being built across the street from our house… The concrete base was finished and the foundation that the house will be built on is going up quickly.  At least that disruptive jackhammer is gone…now replaced by a ‘quieter’ mixer for the cement needed to put up the concrete blocks.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Food, Greenery, Family and…Progress?

I could have titled this post as miscellaneous…but that would be too easy even if it’s accurate.  Our movements/explorations have been limited recently due to one of my knees deciding that it wanted to give me some grief.  Surgery or not…to be determined.

So most of my immediate or ongoing blog posts will be primarily local…and food will continue to be the most common theme.

I had a couple of leftover potatoes from a recent pot roast dinner, so I sliced them up and crisped them up in the frying pan.  I added 2 easy over eggs, 2 small slices of toast and 2 slices of salami.  My day was off to a good start!

More leftovers… I know that Larry (aka Big Dude at https://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/) will disqualify this meal as a “breakfast”.  There are no eggs present to accompany a leftover burger patty smothered in gravy with the leftover mashed potatoes fried in butter and shredded cheese.  Maybe it was the gravy that led to my ‘eggless’ breakfast…

What!  Another egg failure for breakfast… I don’t have a good excuse for this no egg plate to start my day, except perhaps for the fact that there was a lot of food on the plate.  I had leftover chicken and fingerling potatoes from our anniversary dinner to work with.  It was a good start to my day.  Maybe I was just too lazy to add a couple of eggs?  They would have kicked it up a notch...

OK…the eggs aren’t over easy but at least there are eggs for breakfast this time.  I had some old bread in the refrigerator and a couple slices of deli style ham.  We always have shredded cheese and eggs on hand… Hence, scrambled cheese eggs with ham and toast.  Added Tabasco before eating!

FYI, I don’t even throw away bread.  As is ‘ages’ I just put in the refrigerator and try to use it with a casual meal or for a sandwich.  If I see any green or blue mold, then it gets tossed…

Note: No photos to share but our last breakfast outing at Cracker Barrel was not satisfying.  Was it the cook or is the quality going downhill?  Smaller portions too… Opinion?

This wasn’t even my meal.  However Laurie and our new neighbor Sue were really happy with this excellent luncheon pizza that they recently shared at the Tellico Grains Bakery in Tellico Plains Tennessee.  It featured onions, artichokes, feta cheese and sundried tomatoes.  I’ve said it before, but in our opinion, Tellico Grains makes the best pizzas anywhere in the greater Knoxville area.   

One way to measure success and quality in the food business is longevity.  After rebuilding the once dilapidated structure, Anissa and Stuart Shull opened the Tellico Grains Bakery in this small town 21 years ago!  They are busier than ever… Check out the menu at https://tellico-grains-bakery.com/.   

We’ve gotten past the historic freeze and frost dates here in East Tennessee…and as a consequence, it’s time for Laurie to plant and nurture herbs and flowers.  We stopped at our local Sloan’s Home and Garden Store in Loudon County and she loaded up with plants for her planters on the deck and in the front of the house. 

This past winter wasn’t particularly nasty but we did have several days in a row when it was in the low 20s F.  The consistent cold temperatures killed off plantings that had survived several winters against all odds.  We do have a few bushes that will need to be replaced and others that are still in slow motion recovery mode.

This is Charley Kate, the 'renowned female hockey player' who also is Laurie’s great niece.  She’s with Laurie’s sister Bonnie and Bonnie’s husband Bill…Charley Kate’s grandparents.  She looks so sweet in her confirmation dress, but put her in a hockey uniform and she transforms into an aggressive girl who plays hockey on an otherwise all boys’ team!

Our view across the street from our home keeps evolving.  It was stripped clear of trees a year ago.  It was ugly.  Now heavy equipment keeps coming and going.  Our ‘favorite’ was the backhoe outfitted with the jack hammer.  The good news is that they never started using that equipment until mid-morning. 

Our neighborhood is known for the granite that underlies the trees and vegetation.  Folks who want to build a home have a choice.  Dig down with a jack hammer to set a foundation or build up the lot to the point where the foundation can sit on the granite.  Our house sits on a huge rock… That is despite the fact that the original owners wanted a walk out lower level.  The granite foiled their plans…

We knew that the jack hammering was complete when, on a recent day, a series of cement trucks rolled up across the street and the base for the foundation was poured.  Progress!  This was the view from our laundry room.  My guess is that this house will be move-in ready by Christmas…or Thanksgiving if the builder/new homeowner is lucky.  

We are happy that our day-in day-out view from our living areas focus on the back of our house…with trees, a few roof tops and Tellico Lake just a couple of block away.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Food plus the End of an Amazing Career

So…a little more food at home, dining at a new restaurant and a beloved ophthalmologist/surgeon decides to retire after many, many years serving his patients and the United States…

I do like…really like cornbread!  We were buying pre-baked cornbread from our local Food Lion store, but it was too sweet for Laurie and a full pan of it was too much for me to eat by myself.  Laurie found a compromise that she liked that wasn’t too sweet for her but still sweet enough for my taste…apparently acquired since moving to the South.  She buys Zatarain’s Honey Butter Cornbread Mix and now we’re both happy.

I enjoy my slab of cornbread with Amish rolled butter and local honey drizzled on it or alternatively, some nice strawberry jam.

Thinking back to what canned or prepared foods I ate when I was much younger, a few weeks back I’d purchased a can of Hormel Beef Tamales in Chili Sauce.  They were filling…and, if you’ve had great tamales in a restaurant or from a food truck…filling is about the best you can say for the prepacked/canned version.  But I did have a couple of them left over plus some no bean chili and I hate to waste food.  Tamales, smothered in chili and topped with an over easy egg.  A very satisfying breakfast!

Ya Rona Craft Pizza and Cocktails opened relatively recently in Vonore Tennessee.  It replaced Genovese’s, another Italian restaurant and pizzeria.  Although the number of customer reviews were limited because the restaurant is new, almost all of them were very positive. 

So I was curious… What does Ya Rona mean or stand for?  I assumed that it was something in Italian.  No such luck unless it’s slang.  In Hebrew “Rona” means “My joy” and Yarona means “She will rejoice”.  Ronas in Spanish means dirt or grime.  Ya Rona in old English means “cry”.  In Tswana, spoken in South Africa and Botswana, it means “to be unsuitable”.  Rona is also used in a couple other African languages and in Maori.

Then I discovered that Rona is a girl’s name of Norse origin and that it is a popular name in Scotland.  So I decided that someone from New Jersey or Brooklyn had just called out “Ya! Rona” and it stuck.  I can hear it now…

Since we’re always looking for great pizza, (failing almost all the time), we recently had dinner at Ya Rona.  It isn’t a big restaurant and it would be tough getting a seat during prime dinner hours.  As you can see, it is a cozy place…love those ceiling lights…and Ya Rona was very busy despite our early dinner hour.  

Laurie started out her dinner with an adult beverage, a Spicy Mango Mule. ($11.00) Then we ordered 6 Chicken Wings as an appetizer and to compare with the many other restaurants that offer them.  Ya Rona offers 12 different wing ‘sauces’ or flavors.  We went for the Honey Hot.  The wings were excellent, some of the best we’ve had in the last year or so!  We will return for dinner completely focused on a larger order of chicken wings... 

There are lots of options when it comes to pizza at Ya Rona.  We thought that the most interesting craft pizza is the Greek version…with lamb, feta cheese, garlic olive oil, sundried tomatoes, purple onion and Kalamata olives. They do offer 8 “Craft Pizzas” but with my likes and dislikes, we opted to build our own.  It was a large thin crust pizza with ‘cupped’ pepperoni and hot sausage. ($16.00)

We loved the thin crust, one of the best we’ve come across in the last couple of years.  The cupped pepperoni is a good idea as the pepperoni is more flavorful when ‘cupped’ as it releases more of the oil and spices.  An additional win was that Laurie likes her pizza cut into squares, St. Louis style.  Sadly, the positives for Ya Rona's pizza were outweighed by the negatives.  If the sausage was really spicy, we couldn’t taste it…or it was just overwhelmed by the overly sweet tomato sauce.  Even the pepperoni was masked by the sauce.  In our opinion, and when it comes to pizza, opinions are like….well you know what I mean...our Ya Rona's pizza just didn't measure up.

If we try another pizza at Ya Rona, it will have to start with garlic olive oil and feta or goat cheese and go from there…without that sweet tomato sauce.  This is the south though and sweet is ‘in’! 

Ya Rona Craft Pizza and Cocktails is located at 1255 US Hwy. 411 in Vonore Tennessee.  They are closed on Sunday and Monday.  Phone: 423-884-2383.  Website: https://www.yaronacraftpizza.com/.

From my last post, a few people noted that they’d never heard of a Hoya plant or seen a Hoya flower before.  In that post I had just shown an individual blossom or blossom cluster.  This photos shows a complete Hoya plant with several clusters of blossoms.

I’ll end this post with a bit of a tribute to Paul Wittke, MD.  He has been my ophthalmologist for about 12 or 13 years, beginning within a year or so after we moved to East Tennessee from the Chicago Illinois area.  He is 87 years old and he’s finally retiring…sort of.  I was just 16 years old when he graduated from the University of Michigan in 1958.  Then he earned his M.D. degree from Wayne State University’s School of Medicine in 1962.  That was followed by his internship…

Following his internship, Dr. Wittke joined the United States Air Force, serving as a general medical officer before doing a 3 year ophthalmology residency at the Kresge Eye Institute/Harper Hospital in Detroit Michigan. He received an honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1973 and he started his practice in the Knoxville Tennessee area.  Then in 1981 he joined the Tennessee Air National Guard…serving for 10 years as a flight surgeon.

Dr. Wittke retired from the United States Air Force in 1992 and has continued to work at 3 Tennessee Eye Care locations, Knoxville, Kingston and Lenoir City.  But in June of this year, Dr. Wittke is officially retiring.  I just had my last appointment/exam with him.

While chatting about his upcoming retirement, we learned a few things about him.  First of all, he’s never had to have surgery for anything, he’s never been hospitalized and the only pill he takes is a daily vitamin! (I’ve lost track of the number of pills I take…) Talk about great genes!

Then we asked Dr. Wittke what he’s going to do once he retires.  “Semi-retirement” was the answer we gleaned from our conversation.  After all, his medical license is still valid!  He is an active member of the Knoxville Lions Club, helping with their vision related efforts.  In addition, Dr. Wittke is a member of the Board of Directors of Remote Area Medical, where he participates in their various free clinics for those in need.  If you are unfamiliar with RAM/Remote Area Medical and their good works, check the organization out at https://www.ramusa.org/. 

Congratulations to Dr. Wittke and his well-deserved ‘retirement’.  But, like the Eveready Battery bunny, he just keeps on going!  Thanks doctor for taking such good care of me and my vision…

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Local Scenery, Food and Flowers

Quiet times here in East Tennessee, at least for us.  Laid back and relaxed is just fine with us.  We are hoping and planning for a couple of road trips, exploring the back roads of America before the colder weather returns…

On a recent beautiful day with blue skies and temperatures in the high 60s, we wandered the back roads not too far from our home here in East Tennessee.  We loved this calming view of the Smoky Mountains as seen across a lovely green field… We only live about 20 minutes from the true foothills of the mountains.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with these mountains, the Great Smoky Mountains (Cherokee – ‘Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv’) rise along the Tennessee – North Carolina border in the Southeastern United States.  They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains.  The tallest peak in the Smokies is Clingman’s Dome at 6,643 feet.  

The Great Smokies is home to roughly 187,000 acres of old growth forest, the largest such stand of forest east of the Mississippi River.  The Smokies are part of an International Biosphere Reserve with the hardwood forests at the range’s lower elevations being among the most diverse ecosystems in North America.

These mountains have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The name “Smoky” comes from the natural fog that tends to hang over the range.  That fog is caused by the vegetation emitting volatile organic compounds…chemicals that have a high vapor pressure and which easily form vapors at normal temperatures and pressure.

The mountains are the backdrop for crops and critters.  We like taking photos of the critters as well as the natural scenery.  After all, they are part of the scenery… In this instance we first encountered a curious young cow.  Then it was this handsome pair of donkeys…whose mission may well be to protect the cattle from coyotes and wild dogs.  We do love donkeys and if we had ever had a farm, they would be a couple of the first critters we’d add to the property.  As for the dog, there were a pair of them that were guarding a flock of sheep.  One dog was pretty laid back but the other one wasn’t putting up with our roadside visit!

Now for some home cooking…our way.  This is one of my favorite meals.

Laurie places 5 – 6 boneless chicken thighs in an oven proof container.  Then she pours a large family size can of Campbell’s Cream of Chicken Soup into a separate bowl.  Then she pours half and half milk into the soup can…to about half full.  Next she adds pepper, garlic and onion powder, plus crushed red pepper flakes.  The mixture is thoroughly stirred together.  Then she pours all of it over the chicken thighs, shaking it down to ensure that the thighs are totally coated.  Finally, she sprinkles a bit of Herbes de Provence over the top.  She puts it in the oven at 325 or 350 degrees and cooks it until the chicken is falling apart tender.

This was my serving of Laurie’s Cream of Chicken Special…first before adding my usual Tabasco and then after I ‘decorated’ my dinner.  In this case we served the creamy chicken special over mashed potatoes, but more often we serve it with rice.  This is true comfort food!

Because they are so different than most flowers that we see here in East Tennessee, I decided to show an up close of a Hoya bloom.  Interestingly, these flowers tend to project most of their scent at night…which would indicate that they are designed to attract nighttime pollinators.

The smell is quite intense.  It’s been described as smelling like chocolate, citrus or vanilla and with notes of honey and butter.  Others describe it as perfume-like, butterscotch, caramel, grape juice or even obnoxious.  To me, the night time odor is so sweet, it’s almost cloying.  But then again, I’m one of those guys who becomes a little nauseous when I’m in a scent or candle store…

I’ve written about the Iris plantings and our azalea bushes before.  The white azalea bushes seem to really love their location in the semi-shaded area under our big oak tree and against our deck.  We have both red and pink azaleas…but I failed to take a photo of the pink version.  Love the spring time pops of color!

Laurie saved and transplanted this wild rose bush.  It used to reside in the strip of woods behind our house and it never got enough sunshine to bloom before.  Love these flowers and the fact that it was provided directly by Mother Nature…no nursery involved.

These are our Weigela bushes along one side of our home.  They weren’t doing very well…no blooms last year…as the soil they were planted in wasn’t conducive to healthy growth.  This year they look great because Laurie upped the quality of the soil they’re in.

Weigela is a deciduous shrub that can grow from 3 to 15 feet tall.  We believe that these are among the shorter species…at least we hope they will be in the 5 to 6 foot range.  All weigelas are natives of eastern Asia.  These bushes were first found in Northern China, Korea and Manchuria…and were first imported to England in 1845.  However, they were already well-known in Japan.  The best news about the weigela is that the flowers are very attractive to hummingbirds and bees.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Our 44th Anniversary Celebration

A week ago we celebrated our 44^th wedding anniversary… Photos on this blog site marked our beginnings, some fairly recent travel adventures and concluded with a more recent casual photo of Laurie and myself.  Now its time to share our actual celebration with you...

I thought that I’d start this celebratory story with a selfie that Laurie took of us just before we headed out for our special anniversary dinner…

For our big night out, we chose Bella, a relatively new upscale restaurant in downtown Maryville Tennessee.  Bella leans toward Italian cuisine but with a modern flair.  They refer to it as a “Tuscan Grill Concept.  Reviews to date have been very positive. 

Being a retired old time retailer, I love seeing the reuse/repurposing of old downtown department stores.  The J.C. Penney building was constructed in 1925 but for the last 20 years it housed Sullivan’s Downtown Restaurant.  Pistol Creek Hospitality is behind Bella and the restaurant is managed by Spaces in the City, a company that manages 5 other restaurants in the greater Knoxville Tennessee area.

Here are a few photos of the interior of Bella… We would describe it as a modified and softer version of the popular industrial look that one sees so frequently these days.  Love the lighting, the brick and the stone work!  Whoever first decided to backlight the liquor bottles behind a bar is to be congratulated…very clever and it lights up the room.  The overall color scheme at Bella is subtle but warm and the whole atmosphere is welcoming.  There is plenty of separation between tables, something we really like to see.  We were seated at the booth at the back left against the wall…

We kept the drinks simple.  My Miller Lite came in a chilled glass ($4.00) and Laurie had a glass of the Seasonal Sangria. ($10.00)

What to do for an appetizer or starter?  The Roman style fried artichokes, the calamari fritte and the crispy octopus all sounded tempting…but the Grilled Focaccia Bread Service with a roasted bulb of garlic, basil pesto and goat cheese, caught our eye and our choice was made. ($12.00)

We love quality focaccia bread, we hadn’t had a roasted garlic bulb since we moved from Chicago to East Tennessee…and the pesto with goat cheese just ensured our decision.  Our waitress drizzled olive oil over the top of the warm bread and we promptly devoured 3 of the 5 hunks of bread, all of the goat cheese and most of the pesto and garlic bulb.  Excellent and very, very satisfying.

I was tempted to go for the Prime Sirloin with parmesan truffle fries or the Tuscan Shrimp with penne pasta, but in the end I decided to order the Herb Roasted Chicken. ($24.00) It came with lemon basil butter, green beans and roasted fingerling potatoes.

As you can see, it was half of a chicken… The chicken was not only large and juicy but the herbs and lemon basil butter made it pop.  The roasted fingerling potatoes were very nice…especially after I sprinkled them with parmesan cheese. 

My only disappointment was the vegetable, or lack thereof.  Thanks to my medications, green vegetables are off my menu.  I was really surprised that Bella lacked any options that weren’t green.  I thought that some sliced tomato with a little salad dressing would be a slam dunk…but they weren’t an option.  My only choice was cherry tomatoes…something that I eat for a snack all the time at home.  So I doubled up on the fingerling potatoes.

I was a little surprised when Laurie opted for the Veal Milanese, an herb crusted bone-in veal chop, with lemon-butter, arugula salad and whipped potatoes. ($28.00) I thought for sure that she would order a pasta entrée.

As you can see, it was a great looking veal chop, framed by the arugula and highlighted by the potatoes with gravy.  Laurie thought that her meal was excellent!  She gave me one little bite of her veal chop and I concurred with her evaluation…

The good news with all this food is that we couldn’t really finish it all.  We ended up taking home 2 hunks of that focaccia bread and about 40% of that bulb of roasted garlic.  Our waitress gave us a bit more goat cheese and pesto too.  I took home almost half of my fingerling potatoes as well as the chicken thigh and leg.  In addition, a little of that veal chop remained along with a bit of the whipped potatoes.  Now this is what I call great leftovers!

When we finished our entrees, Crystal, our waitress informed us that because it was our anniversary, we could have a free dessert.  It was the Zeppole/Italian Donuts.  These excellent light pastries came with powdered sugar, pastry cream and chocolate ganache. (Normally $12.00) Trust me…there were no leftovers!

The first photo above shows our celebratory dessert with a little tower and, if you look closely, you can see a bit of smoke rising from the top.  Laurie couldn’t get her camera on and focused before the sparkler burned itself out… The close-up photo though is drool-worthy!

Crystal, our waitress was thoughtful and attentive.  The ambiance and the food were both noteworthy.  It was an anniversary dinner worth remembering.  We would recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting or living in the Maryville/Knoxville area.  Bella is located at 121 West Broadway in Maryville Tennessee.  Phone: 865-205-4111.  Website: www.bellamaryville.com. 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave and Laurie