dang, missed the edit window!
Do you ever catch any shows by Alison Krauss? She’s won 26 Grammy’s and was once my neighbor in a small IL town. She’s got a voice like an angel, and plays bluegrass fiddle. Last I heard she’s living around Nashville now.
I can’t remember the last time I was north of Clarksville. I-24? The scary mountain roads I do remember are all east of here. The one I remember not wanting to be on in icy weather is the section of US41 or US41A between Sewanee and Winchester. We twisted and turned so much that the compass in the car went crazy and at the bottom of the hill I had to drive in a circle three times to reset it!
The scariest section of Interstate is on I-40 between Knoxville and Asheville as you’re going past the Smokies on the east side. They have sand-filled run-offs for trucks losing control on that downgrade on the eastbound side.
There are also those sections of the roads running north from Chattanooga through hilly country where major pileups caused by sudden dense fogs happen every year or so.
I see it’s time for you to list some of the colorful expressions in your area (pronouned ay-ri-yuh with stress on the Ay part) because you surely do have some yourself! 
I am familiar with her, but I don’t remember hearing that she lives around here. Yes, she’s a great singer and musician and I recall her on some specials when she guested with Chet Atkins. You can tell how long ago that must have been.
It would be a real eye-opener to see how many celebrities live within 50 miles of Nashville, or at least have houses in the area. Some of them have other houses near other entertainment centers like LA and Austin and such. Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon for example.
There’s one of the maps websites (Bing or Google perhaps) that has aerial views of the stars’ houses in this area (and other places, too) and it’s easy to see they enjoy spending some of their money on places to stay when they’re not on the road.
And gosh dont they deserve some cocooning time after living on the road for months at a time?
Alison has sung/played with all kinds of ppl! Even Robert Plant from that UK rock band Led Zeppelin. And Yoyo Ma the Chinese-American celloist.
This is one of those sites I mentioned: Virtual Globetrotting looking at Dolly’s “area.” 
Check out some of the others.
Alison’s for instance, although she must have asked that the actual location isn’t made available to gawkers. Maybe there’s other confirmation of where her home (one of them at least) is located.
No doubt! Do you have any stories or impressions of her you’d like to share here?
Alison started out playing fiddle at 14 but my first memory of her was when she played dive bars in a college town in IL. Smokey and boozy. A far cry from the venues she now plays! I always knew she had talent but she is so shy, then and now.
So many extremely talented people, musicians especially, are like that. It’s a rare one who is both highly gifted with the musicianship and the gift of gab at the same level. Even Elvis was basically shy. Jerry Reed comes to mind as an exception: he could play and bullshit with the best.
Thats some spread Dolly has there! Tennis court and all. Im glad to see Alison’s is a bit more subdued, but she doesnt have the years in the biz that Dolly has. She prob has a nice practice studio in there somewhere tho. And a lovely view of the mountains. Good for her!
I think this at least confirms she was living here in July 2013: At 42, Alison Krauss is the queen of bluegrass where it says:
Believe it or not, Dolly’s place is modest by comparison with others I’ve run across on that “Virtual Globetrotting” site. In fact, the C&W stars tend toward a little less ostentation than the up-and-coming rappers and (as my mother used to call them) “screaming yahoos”. (That’s Yay-hoos, just in case you might see yah-hoos.)
Good find! (The Boston Globe piece on Alison) Im always charmed by her modesty, given what a superstar she is.
Hm, I love finding new and interesting stuff to do with wonton wrappers baked in muffin tins - they can be blind baked and filled with stuff or baked with stuff in them.
Blind baked:
*nacho stuff - diced tomatoes, onions, pickled jalapenos, sharp cheddar cheese, guacamole, salsa, sliced black olives. You could actually use fresh corn tortillas instead of wonton wrappers.
*7 layer dip in a shell - refried beans, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, chopped olives [or whatever you put in your 7 layer dip]
*shrimp/lobster/chicken/egg/ham salad - diced meat. diced onion, celery, cuke, mayo - whatever your cold salad recipe is.
*little dirt cakes - a single gummy worm, crumbled oreos and whatever else goes in a dirt cake in the wonton shell.
*egg rolls - saute up an egg roll filling and spoon into the wonton shells hot from the oven.
Baked in the shell:
*crab rangoon - cream cheese, crab or fake crab shredded, dab of mustard, dab of garlic, dab of ginger.
*pizza - pizza sauce, small dice pepperoni, shredded cheese - or whatever pizza toppings you want to dice finely and put in the sauce in the shell.
*florentine - leftover cooked rice, shredded spinach, some basic white sauce mixed and dolloped into the shell, then top with stuff like a medium cooked shrimp, a cube of foie gras, a cube of wagyu steak, a cube of chicken, a stuffed baby portobello top and then topped with a sauce ranging from hollandaise to bearnaise and baked.
*quiche - fill the raw wonton shell with pretty much any quiche filling and bake.
[we really like doing a wonton Sunday afternoons]
Chinese hotpot/steamboat. You don’t need thespecial pot, we have one but we also have classic fondue pots as well and they work just fine though I would actually find a source of the little baskets as they make it worlds easier. [the special pots come in either charcoal or sterno, we have sterno] [we have stainless steel pot and baskets] It looks really neat to have the firepot set up and burning, with the food all nicely arranged around it, and bowls of dipping sauce for people to set up for themselves. Though I have been considering making a special hibachi table for the back yard and getting a huge commercial hot pot so we could do it as a picnic, I bet we could fit 6 people around the one I have in mind. Plus I would love to have a hibachi table for grilling as well. We already have a combo grill/takoyaki maker that is electric we use inside but I would love a charcoal or wood fired hibachi outside.
That’s some mouth-watering sounding goodies there, aruvqan! It’s been years since I got my wok down for some stir fries, or the hibachi out for some kushiyaki. But that may have to replace the shrimp dip for me!
Nice ideas for party finger foods aruvqan! And eliminates the double-dippers!
Yo, Chefguy! What’s your solution to a party spread? It’s been a good while since I got more elaborate with my snacks than opening a bag of Nice! brand Traditional Snack Mix (your basic Chex Mix in the Walgreens house brand).
So y’all go ahead and make my mouth water some more.
ETA: Have you noticed how we went from Dolly’s spread to the party spread? Great segue!
Well we’re all about flight of ideas/loose associations here at Z’s Place! 
What about a White Trash Theme for a party since its fast easy and cheap?
Y’ever been to a place just outside San Antonio TX called “RenMar’s Bistro”? Dont make a special trip (it might not even be open anymore) but its a real “trip” Ill tell you! The owner told me that he catered a party once and the hostess only wanted “deep fried everything foods”. Yechhhh…
Talk about “circling back”! I believe that thread of yours was the first time I had paid attention to your username to know it. Have you ever had the thought to jazz up some haute cuisine dishes from France, Italy, India or China with ingredients like collards and fatback? Vienna sausage and truffles? Carp almondine used to be what we would expect to see at the company cafeteria, which we nicknamed Gus’s Swilleria. He even had a regular menu item of “stuffed stuff” and it was true mystery meat.
“Swilleria” sounds like the usual corporate fare!
Does Zoe have a guac recipe to share with us? Here’s mine if anyone is interested: (no one has gagged yet on it! always a good sign)
Serafina’s Guac
avocados just soft to the touch
roma tomatoes
sweet red onions
tomatillos
jar of salsa verde (temp to yer likin - I use medium)
everything chopped big and mixed up well but dont mush up the avocados - let em be in big pieces
can add roasted chilis to yer likin or add Tabasco
Doritos Lime flavored chips go well here.
And an ice cold Corona!
Oh well thank you! :)Sometimes one will surface from the dustbin of my memory at an a propos time.
Circling back to Chattanooga … some lovely homes up top of Lookout Mtn! The ride down on the funicular is kinda fun too.
And speaking of driving in mountains, going to PA from the west thru the tunnels is always fun. Amazing they built those things with only TNT and pickaxes at the time IIRC.
