Random Photos and Thoughts

Hi folks…sorry I have been AWOL from the blogosphere. Work has been waaay to “work” lately. The new cheffin’ gig is going well, but the Country Club in question is going to the auction block in 6 days, so I may well be looking for employment. I’ve got nothing but good feed back from the menu and the specials, and i rally hope my new Golf Club Overlords decide to keep the status quo …anywho…here’s some pictures: look at them and tell me how cool they and/or I am! 

Steveishungry Goes Country! well, more country

Well folks, despite setbacks life goes on and that means Steveishungry will be Popping Up this month at Southland Books and Coffeeshop, back open under old management. The menu this time will pay homage to the Southern heritage I have at times tried my hardest to escape from, but which i now embrace wholly…sooo here is the rough draft for dinner on January 19th…call lisa at 984-4847 or , even better, sign up on facebook to attend the event…

APPETIZERS:

Pulled Pork and Purple Haze Slaw wrapped up in flour tortillas and grilled, served with moonshine peach dippin’ sauce

Sweetwater Vintage Cheddar and Scallion Biscuits with local honey butter

Benton’s Bacon and Sweetwater Valley Gouda stuffed Tater Skins

House Salad :By Greens with  Avocado Buttermilk Dressing, Benton’s bacon, Pico de Gallo and Fresh Croutons

Zesty Beer Cheese and Potato Soup with Corn Bread Mini Muffins

ENTREES…..

Locally Sourced Meatloaf with Portabella Gravy, served on a bed of Real Mashed Taters and one side item

Grilled Chicken Cordon Blue made with Benton’s prosciutto and Sweetwater Valley, and Moonshine Peach BBQ sauce, served on a bed of rice with one side item

Shrimp, Benton’s Bacon and Avocado Panini with Spinach, Marinated Artichoke Hearts, Sweetwater Valley Cheese served with one side item

Grilled Portabella, Spinach and Swiss Cheese French Dip served with    one side

SIDE ITEMS:

Mashed taters, with or without gravy

Fried Corn, creamy and wholesome

Green Beans, chock full of garlic and bacon

BBQ Baked Beans, secret recipe!

5 Cheese Mac and Cheese

DESSERTS:

Banana Pudding

Whatever Else My Aunt Wants to Make

 

Well, there you go….I’m hungry just thinking about it…Prices will be more than reasonable, especially considering the quality of the local ingredients we’re going to use. This will be probably my best menu yet, methinks….This is the kind of food i can really put my self into..not literally of course, that would be gross.

Photographs…not the Def Leppard song, though, sorry

Ok, I know the song is actually Photograph, singular not plural with the s. Deal with it. That’s how I roll.

Anyway, I got a new phone that does coooool things like take pictures and keep me organized and let’s me play scrabble while driving down I-40 at 85 miles per hour. So look with your eyeholes and leave comments with your fleshy letter poking hand sticks

Box Lunch Menu for the week fo June 14th

Foster’s for Lunch is up and running and taking our first orders for next week. Call 382-1822 or go to our facebook page to order. please try to have orders in no later than 10 AM the day off, the day before would be even better. This will help ensure everything ois fresh and stays affordable.Here is your menu of wonderful choices:

All sandwiches are 6 bucks and served with one side item of your choice, all homemade: potato salad, pesto pasta salad, corn relish and spinach, chips and salsa or seasonal fruit salad. Sides by themselves are 1.50 

Bottled water or 12 ounce Cokes are  75 cents

1: honey roasted ham, egg salad, roasted sweet peppers, lettuce and tomato on a whole wheat roll

2. roasted turkey breast, benton’s bacon, baby spinach, roasted onion, tomato, avocado, provolone cheese and herbed mayo served in a whole wheat wrap or sourdough hoagie bun

3. pimento cheeze, benton’s bacon, lettuce, tomato, fresh basil and optional roasted jalapeno served on thick whole wheat bread

4. whole wheat pits stuffed with humus, baby spinach, olives, tomato, cucumbers, red onion and a feta cheese viniagrette

5. tuna salad, mixed baby greens,  sun dried tomato pesto, artichokes and swiss cheese on rye bread

6.thin sliced pork loin, red cabbage and apple vinegar slaw, baby spinach,Dijon  mustard and cheddar cheese

7. benton’s bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo on whole wheat bread

8.  the big ole salad: mixed greens, spinach, tomato, cucumber, onions, roasted sweet peppers, artichoke, benton’s bacon, cheddar cheese, hard boiled eggs, croutons and walnuts…served with herbed buttermilk dressing

9. any sandwich can also be made in to a salad!!! salads do not come with sides!

dressings…herbed buttermilk, italian, honey mustard and blue cheese

not bad for 6 bucks huh? and of course we can customize your order to your liking…FREE DELIVERY IN MARYVILLE AND ALCOA WITH A MINIMUM 10 BOX ORDER, OTHER WISE 3 DOLLAR DELIVERY FEE…no minimum on pickup orders….

I Need Your Input

Howdy loyal and not so loyal reader, I need your help in the form of input. I am organizing and cooking for a one-night only restaurant serving tapas style food in a good friend’s awesome local bookstore. I would really love honest and blunt input on the menu or pictures or you in your underwear. Either one will work. Please note the prices are tentative and in US dollars

The Menu

Steamed and chilled shrimp and red snapper marinated in lime juice and served with onions, tomatoes, fresh herbs and roasted jalapeno(on the side)
9.00
Cherry Tomatoes stuffed two ways: homemade pimento cheese and basil and fresh mozzarella
6.00
Salsa, 3 ways served with tortilla and pita chips: Pico de Gallo, Salsa verde and Spicy Red Cabbage Salsa
5.00
7 year old Sweetwater cheddar with Local Apples
6.50
Grilled Antipasto veggies with Kalamata olives and Kool aid Pickles
7.50
Potato and artichoke Spears with herbed buttermilk dip
5.00
Deep Fried Pickled Okra with Gumbo sauce
7.50
The Soon to be Famous Southland Sandwich: Sweet Cuban bread stuffed with roasted pork loin, roasted red peppers, smoked sliced turkey breast, fresh spinach and provolone cheese, drizzled with a garlic citrus oil and grilled (kind of like a Cuban but better)
6.50
Bacon wrapped shrimp glazed with a bourbon peach bbq sauce served with sweet chili string beans
10.50
Grilled duck breast on fresh salad greens with wild mushrooms ,Benton’s proscuitto and a balsamic vinaigrette
10.50
Venison Tenderloin  or Chicken Tender Sate with warm peanut sauce and pickled veggies
10.00

 

Whitt’s BBQ in Alcoa

Grabbed some BBQ for me and the Hungryboys on the way home tonght. We opted for a new BBQ place in town, Whitt’s which I believe is a regional chain. The place is nice and clean, lots of seating and the staff was very friendly and informative. To be frank, it is a little sterile to be considered a BBQ joint in my opinion, but it is probably striving to be a restaurant instead of a “joint”. Anyway, we got pork sandwich, some chicken wings, baked beans, and mac and cheese. The BBQ sandwich was moist and tender but did not have enough of the smoky flavor i look for. Plus it was all meat, no charred crusty pieces of pork fat. The thin vinegar sauce that came with it is nice, but I question the choice of slaw, pickles and mayo for condiments. Mayo and BBQ just don’t go together( except for white BBQ sauce for chicken but that is a different story), so I got them on the side. I can do slaw on a sammy if its loaded up with a nice spicy sauce, maybe even pickles, but never, ever would i put mayo on BBQ pork. Sorry. The beans were fairly pedestrian, but nice and sweet. They could use some of the charred ends i was referring to. The mac and cheese was nice and creamy, not too sticky and downright tasty. The chicken wings were by far the highlight of them meal. The sauce seems cooked on and has a slight burn without being overpowering. Pretty straightforward seasoning and tasty, but, like the pork, no obvious evidence of the charring that comes from hours in a smoker. I suspect a smoke/roasting process is going on judging fro the crispiness of the skin at the bottom of the drummies. Smoked wings’ skins tend to pull away from the bone near the non-meaty joint. These looked more like really good oven roasted wings more than smoked ones. Of course the menu never said they were smoked, so maybe I assumed too much, Regardless, they are REALLY GOOD!!! I also sampled some Brunswick stew that was reallllllly good. Probably what i will order when i go back, and I will go back. I would rate Whitt’s a 7 out of ten, with room for easy improvement with a little more aggressive smokiness to the BBQ dishes…here are some pics!! LOO

K AT THEM!!!

Green Acres is the Place to Be

Me and the Familyishungry took a quick trip out to Green Acres flea market today. It was actually pretty dead, due to the cold I imagine, but still had plenty to look at, as well as a chance to grab some fantastic tacos al pastor. The food stands/ restaurants were lively despite the chill and the whole place exudes a lively street fair atmosphere. If you’re ever cruising down Alcoa Hwy on a weekend, stop in for some grub and bargains and lots and lots of cowboy boots. There is always new stuff to see there, and i will update my Green Acres adventures from time to time

We’ve Got A Gravy Kind of Love

The Hungryboys requested breakfast for dinner tonight, one of our lazier meals and not the healthiest but sure is tasty and expeditious. Anyway, as part of the meal I threw together some super simple sausage gravy, which turned out superb, of course, and thought I would share the secret to perfect sausage gravy, with only 4 ingredients.

Step One…cook sausage( I used all natural Wampler’s from right down the road near Buttermilk Rd on Hwy 70) crumble it as you go. Leave the sausage in the pan. Most gravy recipes tell you to remove it and just use the grease. Well, screw them, that is waaaay to much effort and this method produces better results anyway. Step Two…after all the pink is cooked out of the sausage and you have crumbled it up into nice small bits, sprinkle on a generous quantity of Wondra flour. It is a very fine flour made for gravies and sauces and is almost impossible to clump. It allows for super easy, super simple thickening and doesn’t use any extra fat or corn starch or anything nasty. It is awesome for breading things for frying too, but a little pricey to use too much of. You want to add enough flower until you don’t see “loose” grease in the pan. It will look dusted(see the pic) like a prairie in the valley after a winter snow storm or the mustachio of  a 70’s era porn star turned coke fiend. Cook like this, stirring , for around 5-8 minutes or so to cook the flour.

Step Three…Add some whole milk, stirring constantly, heat on med-low, until desired thickness. If it’s too thin cook a little longer or add a pinch or two of the Wondra , if it’s too thich, add a little more milk. Using whole milk means you don’t have to worry about it scalding as it can handle a little rougher treatment than lower fat products. Plus, you’re eating freaking gravy, some skim milk will not save you or your big ol’ butt. You only live once, right? I’d rather die young stuffed full of gravy than live forever eating steamed veggies .Step Four…put this yumminess on some biscuits and eat! Seriously! Go make this right now, there is no reason not to. The gravy will keep in the fridge for a week or so, unless i am around, in which case it won’t last very long at all.

Fried f’in’ Pork Chops

I was roasting a pork loin at work today and decided to go ahead and slice off 4 chops to make a quick lunch for me and CousinSteveishungry, whom i just happen to work with. I took the Pork chops and beat them flatter than Gary Busey’s front teeth. The chops went into an egg wash, then into some seasoned cracker crumbs. They were seasoned with various spices, both malevolent and benign, and crushed to a fine crumb with a few chunks of crackers hanging around. This is where the fact that i work in a commercial kitchen comes into play. I chucked these bad boys into the deep fryer, running at 365 degress , and they crisped up and floated in a manner of minutes….i hit them with a little kosher salt ate the living hell out of them…I had three of the 4, and i think Linda was scared to ask for seconds…this dish made me think of Homer Simpson, and i truly think he would love these beyond the point of obsession…should i strive to please the palettes of cartoon characters? probably not…but i might as well, really…what would Bugs really really want? carrots? too obvious…or maybe just obvious enough…this is officially off topic

The World Famous Roadside Cafe

This is the World Famous Roadside Cafe and it is possibly one of the finer BBQ joints i have encountered. It is on state highway 70 in Roane County and is unassuming, to say the least. The parking lot is usually full, and parking can be confusing. The place is for 21 years and over, which means you can smoke while you eat, or eat while you smoke. I do not smoke, for the record, but i do like eating in a place void of Teenagers and children. When you walk in the door you instantly feel like a bit of an outsider and the bar has been populated with the same fellows every time i have visited. It is, to be honest, not the most welcoming place. It took a handful of drive-bys to gather the gumption to go in and I would not recommend sitting at the bar unless invited, which has not happened to me yet. I do recommend eavesdropping on the waves of conversation wafting from the regulars at the bar. They talk of local politics and sports, national politics and sports, and then some more politics and sports, plus a smattering of gossip and flirtatious comments aimed at the very attractive bartender. Above the bar is either sports or Fox news on the big screen, both of which are easy to turn into background chatter. The place is small, sitting maybe 25 people, including the seats at the exclusive bar. Prices are very reasonable with my pork sandwich with beans and a pint of Sammy Adams being only 8 bucks and change. The portions are large without being absurd. The beans are unbelievable and are what really drew me into this place. They are spicy with a touch of sweetness, chunks of peppers and onions and big hunks of spicy Italian sausage, all in a nice sauce, not to thick or tomatoey. I have tried the ribs, which are wonderfully smoked, then grilled to serve with their house-made BBQ sauce. They also make some BBQ nachos, Frito pies, homemade chili, great looking burgers, etc etc etc. Simple menu, not too pricey and well made. What more could you ask for, really? This place has become my favorite place to fuel up for a round of disc golf at Roane County Park, and is really a nice slice of the local flavors, both