cool day, hot day, wet day

M&M Catering has to move. The landlord wants them out by July 9. It often seems to me that their little cinder block shack on Middlebrook Pike draws more cars than the laundromat on whose property it sits. When we first moved into our house, the locksmith we hired told us that he also owned the laundromat. I wonder what he plans to do with the extra space.

The M&M folks put up a new banner today announcing their relocation. They are moving down the pike to where Catinella's used to be. The staff told me that they're not turning into a sit-down restaurant. It will still be a takeout place. I should have asked if they plan to build another cinder block shack in the parking lot or if they'll use Catinella's old kitchen.



Even though M&M is only open four days a week, it's been a favorite of mine and of others for years. I root for their success, especially in light of a tragic hardship a couple of years back. When I drive past, I often roll down the windows to get a whiff of whatever is cooking, even at 5:20 a.m.

My wife and I wanted to pick up some BBQ on Father's Day after work. M&M is closed on Sundays so we thought of a place on Walker Springs Road that I've been meaning to try. Turns out that Pup's BBQ is closed Sundays too. Although I understand why they would want the day off (like Chick-fil-A), I wonder if either place considered being open on Sundays and closed another day instead. This wasn't the first time that I wanted some BBQ from M&M on a Sunday.

Since we had driven to Pup's only to find them closed, we went around the corner to the Buddy's Bar-B-Q on Kingston Pike to get our takeout. I knew we were having chocolate trifle for dessert, so I ordered the turkey instead of the pork. I was disappointed to find that the turkey was cold and sliced thin like the processed deli meat available in supermarkets. I was hoping for something more like the pulled chicken at M&M. I microwaved it and doused it with sauce before eating it.

exhibitionists

Two of my former hometowns are hosting exhibition baseball games today. One game is in a brand new stadium, the other in a throwback venue. The Nationals play their first game in Nationals Park while the Dodgers return to the L.A. Coliseum, where they played when they first moved to Los Angeles 50 years ago. Meanwhile my Mets are playing today in the Civil Rights Game in rainy Memphis. I'll watch the beginning of each game on TV. The Mets game came on ESPN at 5:00, the Nationals game started on MASN at 6:00 and the Dodgers game is on NESN at 10:00. The Nationals game is also available for free on MLB.TV. I clicked on to it just in case MASN was blacked out on my TV. The video is the same but the computer stream is using audio from the visitors' radio broadcast.

While the architects and environmentalists are gushing over the new stadium's design and eco-friendliness, I am most excited about the food choices inside Nationals Park. They will regularly have menu items like Milwaukee brats and Philadelphia cheese steaks that honor National League opponents. Some food items will only be available when the corresponding team is visiting, like knishes when the Mets are in town and California rolls when the Dodgers visit.

As a former Washingtonian, I think it is fantastic that local restaurants will have outlets inside the stadium. Who needs a brat when some Red Hot & Blue BBQ or a Five Guys burger is available? My wife will be able to reminisce over some Gifford's Ice Cream. She and her family used to get Gifford's on the way home from the airport.

My next scheduled trips to the D.C. area will be too short to take in a ballgame. When I finally do get to the new stadium, even I should be able to resist the temptation to bring in my own food.

palate pleasing pallet place

Internet surfers frequently find their way to my site when searching for the best BBQ or pizza in Knoxville. I've written about both, although I have to admit that my BBQ postings are a bit outdated. At least two new joints have opened around my end of town since I last visited the topic. There's one on Walker Springs and one on Middlebrook Pike that I would like to try when I can afford both the cash and the calories. Plus I don't eat meat on Fridays in Lent.

This time last year I wrote about having cheese pizza as a Lenten meal. A couple of Fridays this Lent, I timed a salad-buying trip to Sam's Club to coincide with lunch. A slice of their pizza is pretty good, inexpensive and about the size of two slices elsewhere. I got one today and put it in my shopping cart before sitting down at one of their little tables.

in the most sincere pumpkin patch

Fair season is underway. There was a story on "Live at Five" today about a guy bringing his giant pumpkin to the Tennessee State Fair in Nashville. Coincidentally, I caught part of a show on PBS about giant pumpkins today. The show was called "Lords of the Gourd: The Pursuit of Excellence." It was amazing to see a group of people so deeply involved in a world I had never thought about except maybe for the year that I saw some giant pumpkins on display at Disneyland around Halloween. The growers deeply mourned when one of their prizes pumpkins "went down," sometimes due to mice or woodchucks. The pumpkins that survived were cut from the vine and brought to the Cooperstown PumpkinFest.

Kevin & Bean and Ralph were similarly fascinated by a world they previously knew nothing about when they interviewed the makers of a new documentary called "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters." I heard the interview on their August 17th podcast. I don't know if the movie about the world's greatest Donkey Kong players will make it to a local theater. If not, I'll keep an eye out for it on DVD or HBO or IFC, etc. The KROQ crew compared this true life documentary to the great mockumentaries by Christopher Guest, like "Best in Show." The same can be said for the giant pumpkin show.

To bring it back around to state fairs, I recently saw a news story about the World's Largest Self-Propelled Whole Hog Rotisserie at the Alaska State Fair. Mmm... BBQ...

hardly knew ye

Knoxville520, a local entertainment website is shutting down this week. Every once in a while, I would be reminded of the site when somebody would click through to my blog from their post about Abby Ham.

The demise of Knoxville520 made me wonder about all the other great local websites that get overlooked. For example, somebody named Chris posted a comment about BBQ tonight on my post from yesterday. He directed me to a post on his own site about an upcoming BBQ competition in Blount County. What local sites do you recommend?

the same but different

Each student brought a different dessert to a recent event at school. I couldn't go but my wife did and made me wish I had. She said I would have loved the S'mores Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches. The cookies are similar to regular chocolate chips but with half the flour replaced with graham cracker crumbs. A slightly melted marshmallow gets squished between two cookies. Maybe I can get her to make them for my birthday this year.

Earlier today I tasted a new twist on a well-known marshmallow recipe. We are in Virginia for a family gathering this holiday weekend. One of my brothers-in-law made something similar to the classic Rice Krispies Treats. He started with a recipe from "Good Eats" on Food Network. Although the TV recipe calls for puffed brown rice, he used organic Kamut Puffs because that's what he had in the pantry. Instead of flax seed oil, he coated the pan with olive oil, again because it was handy. Like the recipe, he added chopped almonds and assorted dried fruits to the mixture. It was fantastic. I may never want regular Rice Krispies Treats again. Sorry Snap, Crackle and Pop.



The main course at today's feast was BBQ from a place called The Barn Door Restaurant & Catering Company. The pulled pork was excellent but the item that had everybody talking was their "Hawg Wings." They seem to be small rib bones with a lot of meat on them. Either that or they found a way to make the proverbial pigs fly.

still smiling

Food Network's Guy Fieri was in town on Thursday. I recorded a radio interview with him for our cluster's public affairs program that morning. Later in the day he was on WBIR before attending a benefit for the Abundant Life Kitchen, a joint program of the Knox Area Rescue Ministries and the Second Harvest Food Bank.



When Guy won "The Next Food Network Star" competition last April, I wondered if he was the same spiky-haired person I had spotted in Lynchburg a year a half earlier. It was. I showed Guy the photo we posed for back then. He wasn't famous at the time. I just had a feeling that he would be.



We were at the Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational Barbecue. Guy was filming a TV pilot which fell by the wayside when he entered and won the Food Network contest. As winner of the competition, he got his own show called "Guy's Big Bite." He has another show starting soon called "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," which sounds like a show I would want to host if I were a chef.

long distance information

The restaurant business is tough. I'm still bummed that Copeland's closed shortly before I moved to town almost five years ago. I noticed today that another of my favorite places, Corky's Ribs & BBQ has closed their restaurant over in the fancy-schmancy Sequoyah Hills part of town. I like my ribs like I like my comedy, dry. I would order the dry ribs to get a taste of Memphis, home to the original Corky's. I first enjoyed dry ribs in Virginia at Red Hot & Blue. I even had some on my last trip to Fairfax in October. When I called tonight, the outgoing phone message at Corky's said that they will relocate. I hope they do. They used to have another location that was more convenient to me. We would eat at the Corky's at Cedar Bluff and Peters Road somewhat regularly but I was still surprised by its closing. The restaurant was decorated with the kind of pop culture detritus that can be found in almost every Cracker Barrel, Famous Dave's, Fuddruckers, etc. One of the items on the wall at the Cedar Bluff Corky's was an antique advertising sign for Griesedieck Bros. beer. I wish I could have bought it from them before the restaurant closed. My wife is related to the Griesedieck family and it would have made a good gift for her or for her brother. Maybe she'd like a t-shirt or a hoodie someday instead.

after life

Happy Dia de los Muertos! Today is All Souls Day, a day to remember our deceased friends and family members.

You've probably never worried about what will happen to your email after you die. CNET News ran a story a few weeks back about taking your passwords to the grave. Some email providers will give your password to your survivors upon proof of your passing. If I were to die unexpectedly, I would want my wife to post something about it here on the blog, which means I have to make sure she can find the necessary passwords.

I once wrote that I wanted our friend Mary K. to sing my favorite arrangement of the "Litany of the Saints" at my funeral. Last night I heard my wife sing it beautifully at the All Saints Day Mass. If Mary K. isn't available, my wife could do the honors although I had already asked her to sing "Ave Maria." The "Litany of the Saints" turns up in my blog search results occasionally, including a couple of times this week. The litany music that I like so much is by John D. Becker.

After the death of proprietor Robert Martin, I was worried about the future of my favorite BBQ place. His family members kept the place open and continued serving great food. Every year at this time they would put up a sign announcing the date they will close for the winter. Well here's huge news. The sign went up today but it said that M&M Catering will now remain open all year long!