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Fry Day Night Lights
Billy insisted that I sample one of his deep-fried Oreos. He was selling a variety of deep-fried treats during the Carter High School football game on Friday night. The menu also offered deep-fried Twinkies and fried green tomatoes.
Coincidentally, I had been thinking about DFOs since a Twitter conversation I had that morning with the Tennessee Valley Fair, Dave & Thomas and Overtly Trite. However, Billy didn’t use actual Oreos. From the glimpse I got of the packaging, it appeared to me that the cookies were Great Value brand. I have to give Billy credit. The DFGVDFT&SCSCs (deep-fried Great Value Double Filled Twist & Shout Chocolate Sandwich Cookies) tasted fine.
It’s a Sunshine Pray
“All Saints Coming Together” was the theme of the outdoor celebration at my parish yesterday. Catholics who normally attend one of five weekend Masses were asked to all gather for the same liturgy and to bring their own chairs. The Mass was the culmination of a week of prayer, which was preceded by home visitations.
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To supplement the photos I took with my own camera, I asked a few friends in the congregation if they would each send me a picture or two to share here. I wanted to see which they chose as their favorite. Gary Loe, Kathy & Keith Ely and Kim McCready all were quick to respond. The photo credits are included within the alt text for each picture.
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The Mass also received coverage on WBIR. Right before he was about to be interviewed, I shouted “say something clever” to my pal Fr. Michael Woods. On camera, he quipped that the idea was inspired by a Baptist tent revival, even though it may have had more in common with the Sermon on the Mount.
Capelli d’Angeli
Personalities from WVLT bookended my Saturday. I started the day by helping out at the Shoney’s KidCare Photo ID Program. Star 102.1 and WVLT are the media sponsors. Allison Kropff and Sara Shookman worked the same shift as me. David Aldrich showed up to relieve them. Of the three, I had previously met Allison. She told the others that I regularly watched their noon newscast. They wanted to know if I downloaded Chef Walter’s recipes. That got me started on a mini-rant about how the cooking segment spent too many precious seconds showing the floral centerpiece instead of showing the food.
I didn’t know until I arrived that Chef Walter Lambert would be one of the other judges along with Missy Kane, Tony Spezia, Marilyn Roddy and others at the Pasta Cook-off benefiting Family Promise of Knoxville that evening. I had voiced a TV spot for the event a couple of months ago and was asked to be a judge when Kim Hansard had a scheduling conflict. My choices for the top three pastas were the same as most of the other judges. I liked a buttery three-cheese ravioli, a spicy Cajun penne and a refreshing pasta salad made with grapes, nuts, celery and chicken.
Know What I Mean?
Vern Lindsay invited me to be a guest on his cooking show about a year ago. Then his kitchen flooded and everything was put on hold while it was rebuilt. We finally taped the show on Thursday. Once it is edited, it will appear on the Charter Main Street channel.
I could choose to cook anything I wanted. Of the things I like to cook, I thought chili and BBQ would take too long. Omelettes would be ideal. Vern said to buy whatever groceries I needed and he would reimburse me. With that caveat, I decided to kick things up a notch with a pound of Benton’s Bacon.
The famous bacon was in short supply when I stopped in at the Strawberry Fields Market on my way to Vern’s house. I bought the last pound they had. Robin Wheeler told me that demand was exceeding supply and that it might be a while before she got more in stock. You can’t rush the dry-curing and smoking process.
Once the taping started, I showed Vern how to bake the bacon. I first tried and liked the method after my field trip to Benton’s in March. Then I cooked some omelettes, describing how each person could customize the ingredients. The choice of sauce and cheese determined if it was a BBQ, Italian or Mexican omelette.
At the end of the show, Vern made a baked French toast with a maple and raspberry sauce on top, using fresh bread from the Old Mill Bread Company. It made my sweet tooth happy.
Deluxe Apartment in the Square
After 16 years in the Old City, the challenge facing Einstein Simplified is getting the word out about our imminent move to The Square Room on Market Square. Our first show there will be on August 31. On Thursday afternoon, Aaron Littleton and I were interviewed by Erin Donovan live from Market Square on “Live at Five at Four.”
Dave Snow has a contact at the News Sentinel, who interviewed some of us during a technical run-through at the new venue. Greg Wood’s article appeared online Thursday and is supposed to be in the paper on Friday.
The Square Room is a performance-centered venue. It has a larger capacity than the group’s recent home in Sullivan’s third floor Great Hall and a more extensive sound system (with more microphones) since the majority of the venue’s shows consist of live music.
“It comes with all sorts of bells and whistles,” member Paul Simmons adds, pointing out the dual projector screens on either side of the stage. The group says this will allow them to incorporate new aspects into the show.
Troupe member Frank Murphy explained that the TV screens and high-quality PA system might allow them to introduce a game where two performers narrate dialogue over video clips, whereas Sullivan’s setup didn’t provide them with such an opportunity.
The publicity tour continues next week when most of the group will be on Tuesday’s “Bowl of Oh!” on Knoxivi.com. I also gave it a plug while taping a guest appearance on a cooking show on Charter Main Street. More on that tomorrow.
Symphony for the Devil’s Food
Somebody at my wife’s office will get a nice surprise for their birthday today. Last night my wife whipped up a batch of brownies for the staff party. They have one-and-a-half Hershey’s Symphony bars in the middle. The candy was supposed to be for my grandmother but I got the wrong kind. Grandma now prefers to only eat the bars without nuts and toffee.
My wife used Duncan Hines brownie mix with three eggs for the cake-like consistency, as opposed to two eggs for fudgy brownies. After pouring half the batter into a pan, she placed the chocolate bars on it and then covered them with the remaining batter. If the Symphony bars hadn’t broken in transit, she could have just dropped them in there whole. After it cools, she will frost the top with Pillsbury dark chocolate frosting.
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Goodbye Mellow Brick Wall
If you add up all the Tuesday nights I have performed at Patrick Sullivan’s over the past eight years, it would work out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 365. Einstein Simplified celebrated its 16th anniversary and its final show at Patrick Sullivan’s on Tuesday night. Next week we begin performing weekly at The Square Room.
The old joint has quite a history as a saloon, a boarding house, a bordello, an upholstery shop and a saloon again. To me, it’s distinctive architecture defines Knoxville’s Old City. I took a few pictures on Tuesday night of things that I want to remember about Patrick Sullivan’s, starting with the wall I would see during countless games of Blind Freeze Tag.
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