FINALLY, A KNOXVILLE KIND OF PLACE TO EAT IN ROANE COUNTY

I went to lunch today with my wife and daughter, and it was our first time at Redbones on the River in Kingston, Tennessee. The luncheon turned into the day’s big meal!

The old home, situated across from the Kingston City Park on Watts Bar Lake, has been turned into a very nice looking restaurant, with beautiful shiny wood floors, dark wood tables and chairs, with just the right amount of light coming in from outside. You can also sit outside, on one of two decks (upper and lower), if you prefer the summer heat to refreshing air conditioning! Not us, we appreciate old fashioned AC!

There are sitting areas all over the place, including upstairs near the tastefully decorated bar, which features a good selection of pulls, including my favorite – Fat Tire? After the wonderful meal, I sneaked up the stairs to get a “bar shot” for my bar collection on Flickr.

We ordered the fried green-tomatoes as an appetizer and, wow, they were fantastic! They were those droopy, soggy kinds you get some places, these were crunch fried with a horseradish dip. They were simply a wonderful way to prepare your palate for your entrée.

Judy and I ordered half-rack of Baby-back Ribs, baked potato, and Spinach Maria, while Tracy wanted the Chicken Alfredo with broccoli.

We had thought about a club sandwich, a burger, or a salad for lunch, but after seeing all the steak, seafood, pasta dishes, we decided that lunch would be our dinner meal as well. There was no forcing us to only eat one meal today either. After finishing the generous meal, we were too stuffed for dessert, even though the Chocolate Bar Cake kept calling our names!

So, the next time you are looking for a classy place to eat, or just have drinks with friends, but don’t want to drive the 40 miles to Knoxville, check out Redbones on the River in Kingston. You’ll be glad you did.

QUICK AND TASTY RIBS

We were a little rushed for our evening meal tonight and there was little to be found in the pantry. However, I finally found a rack of frozen baby back ribs in the freezer, a packet of heat and eat rice pilaf, and enough lettuce, carrots, onion, and tomatoes for a small salad each.

The quickest way to get juicy tender ribs is to boil them for 45 minutes on low to medium heat.

I cut the rack in to so they would fit into my boiler, filled with water that just covered the meat, poured in a beer (not one of favorites – too precious to waste), added salt, garlic powder, and a little cayenne pepper for subtle flavor.

While the boiling was going on I opened a Blue Moon for myself and relaxed.

I then took the ribs out of the water and placed them on a slightly oiled Pampered Chef baking dish. I covered both sides of the ribs in sweet honey barbeque sauce and tomato catsup. I baked them for 1 hour, taking them out in 30 minutes to recover them in more sauce.

That left time for another Blue Moon!

Say hello to my little ribs! Delicious!