The Rabbits are so jealous

We have pea blossoms.  You know what that means?

Soon we will have peas.  I see you little pea pod peaking out of there...

Baba au Whiskey Cake and The Rieger Hotel and Grill and Exchange

Just a little sampling of a dessert I've never had before, normally called a Baba au Rum Cake.  This version was  with whiskey and served at a wonderful little restaurant called the Rieger Hotel and Grill and Exchange.  This was after scarfing down one of the best Reubens' I've had in a very long time.  It may have been the corned beef tongue or it just may have been that they understand what makes a great Reuben, careful grilling and the right proportion of meat to bread and other ingredients.  As for this adult dessert?  While it was wonderful, it wasn't exactly my thing.  That's not to say it wasn't done well, it was.  Just didn't connect with my inner dessert freak.  However if you enjoy whiskey soaked cake with whipped cream and creme anglaise, come on down.  The Rieger would love to satisfy your culinary needs.  And the bonus?  The cookbook library in the back.  It's a good thing.

Cooking Close to Home

I have been to the library. This is a good thing. Well, not good for the Barnes and Nobles or the late Borders Books of the world because if there's one thing I know, I have absolutely no self control when it comes to an armful of pretty new books. My personal economy suffers much less from multiple trips to the library. Which is where I found this excellent cookbook.

I have to say that I've noticed lately that a lot of cookbooks currently coming out are hitting the "localvore movement" theme fairly hard. This book is no different. I don't really mind but coming from a background where one grandmother lived on a farm her whole life, where my parents have always had a big backyard garden, where I was taught early that young children make great pickers at the Pick Your Own farm stands (strawberries, yah, green beans, boo) all this talk is old hat. I do have to admit that I don't think my mother wants to go back to raising, killing, plucking and cleaning her own chickens. Fresh eggs are great but chickens are a lot of work.

Having said that, this is a wonderful cookbook with lots of seasonal recipes that appear to be loaded with flavor. If you like a fresh fruit and vegetable heavy diet, you will find a lot to like. Since we're still too early for spring produce, I thought I try the Roasted Two Beet Salad first.

This recipe uses two colors of beets, red and golden, two of each. You're going to roast your beets, unpeeled, rubbed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper in a 375 degree oven for 45 to 60 minutes. To test for tenderness piece with a knife, if there is resistance, continue roasting until the knife slides in smoothly. Let the beet cool enough to handle and then peel off the skin. If you don't want bloody red hands, try some food safe rubber gloves. (Personally I think it's more fun to chase neighborhood children with beet red hands but that's just me.)

So while your beets were roasting, you can whip up the dressing by mixing 1/2 cup red wine vinegar, 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon maple syrup (or honey), 1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme. Now the recipe calls for lemon thyme but I have not seen too much of that in the grocery stores or my garden which is why we're going with the regular thyme. You can whisk that all together or you can do like me and put it in a mason jar, screw on the lid and shake it up.

Once your beets are cooled, cut them into a julienne. Again a bit of a deviation from the recipe which calls for mixing the beets with 1/2 cup sliced red onion and the dressing. Keep the two colors of beets separate. If you mix everything together, the golden beets end up red anyway so add half the onions and dressing to each color beet, refrigerate for an hour and serve the beets together on the plate.

If you're already a beet fan, you will love this recipe. Most beet salads go down the cheese/nut route so it's refreshing to have a salad that concentrates on the flavors of the beets paired with the acidic flavor of the dressing and the flavor of the thyme. If you're not a beet fan (tasted like dirt! And really why don't more vegetables taste like dirt? Carrots I'm looking at you.) more than likely you won't enjoy this. You might taste it off of someone else's plate but I doubt you'd make it for yourself.

Some of the other recipes I'm looking forward to making from this cookbook are Hearty Root Vegetable Chowder, Quebec Tortiere, and Fresh Peaches with Mascarpone and Blackberry Coulis. Oh yeah. You can also check out their website, Cooking Close to Home for seasonal recipes or to buy the cookbook for yourself. I highly suggest this for the added bonus of it being a Maple heavy cookbook. Now if someone can help me find Maple Sugar I would appreciate it.

Garden Hopes and Dreams 2012

Keeping my fingers crossed that the mild winter does not mean a repeat of last summer's scorching heat.

I have big hopes for my tender pea tendrils. I loves me some fresh from the garden peas. My brother hates them. That boy just ain't right.

This is an incredibly hardy collard plant that I planted last year and just left alone during the winter. Low and behold, tasty (or really bitter, I'll find out) new leaves. BACK OFF RABBITS!!

This is my wonderful bay leaf plant. Needs to be repotted but I love the flavor of fresh bay leaf in my chicken stock.

And LOOK! My rosemary plant if blooming. So pretty. Please wish me gardening luck that everything survives and thrives. Because I'm hungry.

Bwhahahahhahahah

Well, OK? Not exactly the first food products when I think of Southern Food but apparently I'm vastly behind the times.

Mapril Dim Sum Sunday

HAPPY MAPRIL!

HAPPY DIM SUM SUNDAY!

HAPPY MARCH MADNESS!

I had to throw that last one in there because the Kansas Jayhawks pulled off the upset last night and it's pretty much been insanity here in the prairie hood. But back to Mapril. As you recall, the inspiration for Mapril is to celebrate all things Maple in the dreary time that is the end of March and hopefully the end of winter and the beginning of April and spring. My good Canadian friend to the north, Susan of 29 Black Street, still has bits of ice and snow and gray in her world. She needs some hot pink flowers and lovely maple dishes to blow those winter blahs away. For some of us, spring apparently is done and we're heading into summer. Our predicted high today is 88 degrees so hot pink sunburn may be in my future.

I had three maple dishes lined up for Mapril Dim Sum Sunday. Sadly it was not to be and I have no one to blame except myself and not trusting my own damn common sense. You see when searching the internets for inspiration and ideas, I generally use Google image to find potential recipes. Generally my theory is if a photo makes me salivate then it must be, at the very least, a decent recipe. This has worked out fairly well in the past. Bit me in ass this weekend. You see I saw a photo and ended up at this recipe. They used a quick soak method of cooking beans but only had 30 minutes of post soak cooking time. This is where I learn culinary life lessons so you don't have to. Dried beans don't cook in 30 minutes. I don't think dried beans soaked over night cook to tender in 30 minutes. I don't know how long these freaking beans took because I spent all evening with them, gently tending to their needs. I finally decided that I actually wanted to get some sleep so I dumped them into the crock pot and went to bed. This morning found them tender but all the other ingredients cooked to mush. They are ok taste-wise. I'm sad for the cup of beautiful maple syrup that boiled away in the process. I am glad to know that I should stick with the chefs, authors, and websites that I trust. People who actually know how to cook, test and write recipes for the general public. My only guess is that someone was writing a recipe for a pressure cooker version of baked beans but forgot to cook in a pressure cooker because that's the only way this recipe is so not wrong.

Still, they do make for some pretty on this hot Sunday. Guess I'm the April Fool for making this recipe. Keep visiting the comments during the day to see who else decided to get all maplely (yes I know it's not a word...).

March Madness Southern Food Bracket

We've been keeping a close eye on Garden and Guns Southern Food March Madness . Sadly some of my favorites went down in flames. I still loves ya Soft Shell Crabs, She Crab Soup, Fried Okra, Fried Green Tomatoes and Peach Cobbler. I also can't believe that CORNBREAD(????) beat out Mac and Cheese or Shrimp and Grits lost to Hoppin' John. In the end I still see Fried Chicken taking the trophy. Wait....is there a trophy? Still time to vote but you better hurry.

Mapril Dim Sum Sunday

Susan of 29 Black Street thinks it's time for a little Mapril Dim Sum Sunday. I would have to agree because while it's an explosion of spring color here in the Midwest, up in Canada there's still ice and grayness. She could use some Mapril goodness. It's a quickie since we're going to do it this Sunday but hey...you could incorporate Peeps into your Mapril dish. Actually I was hoping for a special Angry Birds version of Peeps but looks like it's not happening for 2012. So make a dish with maple syrup, Canadian if you're trying to suck to Susan or good ole American maple syrup if you want to make me happy. Take a picture, post what you made and come back here on Sunday and leave a comment in the post I'll have up. We'll all come visit all your lovely Mapril creations.

But no cheating by ordering these awesome maple peeps from the Pieces of Vermont online store.

Simplicity

It's March 23. Last March we were still dealing with winter, grayness and snow. It was so bad that I was trying to cheer up my good Canadian buddy with a series of recipes celebrating Mapril. I was planning to do it again this year but winter was a no show here in KC. We've already had a week of weather in the low 80s. LOW 80s! Right now things are growing.

Things are blooming.

Things are....happening.

Them bunnies is FORNICATING under there, I SEES THEM!

As you can imagine, we are ecstatic about the weather but it leaves us confused as to seasonal cooking. It's too hot for stews and soups, way too soon for spring veggies. I pondered this as I was sitting on my couch and eating a banana. I love bananas. This particular banana, just beginning to turn ripe, triggered a flash of curiosity. This banana would taste good paired with rosemary. I didn't know how and it's not very often that I have these sort of insights regarding food. Real chefs do, they do all the time. They dream of food and wake up ready to make the recipes they dreamed the night before. I am not a real "chef". However I am a good googler. Not too much out there in planet google on "bananas with rosemary" except for one very lovely recipe. Yes ladies, it's the very pretty Eric Ripert in a short little video making grilled bananas with rosemary and maple.

I LOVE simple. AND it has maple. So I'm calling it, a MAPRIL 2012 recipe. Brush some softened butter on a cookie sheet or broiler pan lined with aluminum foil. Peel your slightly under-ripe bananas and cut them in length-wise. Brush the bananas with softened butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brush with maple syrup. Top with rosemary leaves and broil roughly 4 - 5 minutes. When browned and removed from the broiler, lightly brush with bourbon.

Serve while still warm. Eric suggests this would be a good side dish for white meats such as chicken or pork and because your bananas are under-ripe and not yet overly sweet and you've roasted them, they are a starchy almost like a potato especially when you salt and pepper them. The rosemary is a perfect pairing with the flavor of the bananas and the maple syrup. I'm not totally sold that you need the bourbon but who am I to argue with Eric Ripert. No, I'll thank him instead for a stupid simple dish.

Photo Artistry

Have you ever wanted to turn your favorite photos into tiles? I have and now there's a way to do just that. ImageSnap turns your photos into tiles of many sizes. Like a backsplash for your kitchen? Maybe turn your favorite bird or butterfly photos into an outdoor tile grouping on your porch? Or maybe even chicken portraits of your backyard birds? The possibilities are endless.

March Madness

I know it's time for a whole lotta college basketball silliness. Office bracket pools and constant television coverage. FEH!! However there is one bracket I wouldn't mind putting some money down on.

It's Garden and Gun's Ultimate Southern Food Bracket. You can go to Garden and Gun to vote for yourself. While you're there enjoy a fantastic website for southern food. I'm guessing their hardcopy magazine is just as nice as the website. Will have to look for it in my area. And if you're like me, you'll be googling Frogmore Stew (which is neither froggy or stew-like). Also did they leave any of your Southern favorites out of the bracket?

GO SOFTSHELL CRABS!!

Photo by Helene Dujardin

Check Please Kansas City, with a Top Chef Twist

2011 was the year I turned 50. No big deal, no big events but it did cause a wee session of "Life in Review" introspection. What I found was a woman fairly comfortable in her ample skin, a bit of a recluse, happy to be puttering in the kitchen and the digital darkroom. Still there was room for personal envelope pushing. Not exactly a bucket list mind you but more traveling down some avenues that might lead to whole new adventures. This is what I was thinking as I filled out the digital application for the Kansas City version of Check Please!

Check Please is a public television program that originated in Chicago in 2001. Ordinary folks visit three restaurants and then "chat" about their experiences in studio. Currently only four other cities host a version of Check Please and a fifth, Seattle, will start their version this year. Back in early 2011 I filled out the application and then promptly sent the link to my two of my most reliable dining buddies, hoping they would fill it out and we could all be on the show together, making the experience much like what we do already, eat, gossip and talk about fracking. However, my two buddies have much more detailed and busier lives than I do and the application link was soon lost in over-burdened piles of electronic noise. Months passed and no response was ever received to my submittal, leading me to believe that I had been rejected. That was until September when I received an email that I had indeed been selected and here's your three restaurants to visit. It was another Put Up or Shut Up moment. But really, was it that hard? Go eat food and then go talk about it on camera? For most people, probably not. For the lifelong behind the scenes, never in the limelight person, yeah, it was hard. But I did it anyway.

I have to admit, it was kinda surreal. I did snap a couple of photos before we started the in studio segment.

This is my place at the table. The one thing that bugs me about this show is the empty plates. I know it's set dressing but damn it if you're going to set the table, you better be putting some food on those plates. So I brought my own food. That's a photo of one of the appetizers from one of the restaurants we reviewed. Overall it was a fun experience and I'm glad I didn't punk out. You can watch the episode here. But because it's food and tv and me, it couldn't be without a whiff of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. You see back when we were filming I happen to mention that one of the restaurants was for sale on Craig's List and said how bizarre to try and sell a restaurant that way. (News that R-Bar is up for sale on Craig's List.) Apparently that triggered a whole landslide of "what the hell do we do now?" from the producers. The way the show is set up, more than likely what happens is the producers send out a general letter to many restaurants saying that they are considering reviewing your restaurant, is that ok with you? For the most part, restaurants like publicity enough that they will take the chance that they won't get a bad review. I know this because I asked while we were waiting for the studio segment if any restaurants had refused to participate and only a couple had during the history of the Kansas City version. Once the restaurants respond, the reviewers are sent out anonymously to eat at their three assigned restaurants. They send in their reviews and wait to see if they will be chosen to review on camera. Once the studio segment is done, camera crews are sent out to the restaurants to do the "hero" segments. Nice shots of pretty people in the restaurant, closeups of the food and owners talking about their business. So when it came to the restaurant up for sale I'm guessing they weren't too interested in allowing cameras in to shoot food for a concept that might be revamped if sold. As it was they were barely operating at the time and only open 3 nights a week and running on a severely limited menu. So the producers scrambled to save the segment. But in a bizarre twist, they brought in three totally new reviewers and...

...had them go to the restaurant, order drinks and food and then filmed the review segment in the actual restaurant. The focus of this last piece was liquor because this particular joint, at that moment, was trying to promote itself as a bar first and gastro pub second. I say at that moment because in yet another twist they announced in February that they've hired a new chef, thought about opening an additional night a week and teased that they might, just might serve lunch. Now I think this particular restaurant came out smelling like a rose in the whole Check Please deal because folks, the food when I went there was absolutely horrid. I didn't use the word horrid in my on camera review but I was honest when it came to the food. I thought the decor was beautiful, the thought the service was good but I thought it was way overpriced for the quality and quantity of food I ate. Or tried to eat. I don't remember specifically how the other two reviewers rated their food so I won't put words into their mouths but I don't think it was as glowing as the subsequent three new reviewers. I have to say that makes me sad for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons I wanted to do this was because it seemed an honest representation of ordinary people reviewing their experience in a restaurant. No one told me what to say or what not to say. Just be myself. I've seen previous reviewers who had strong opinions about whether food is good or bad or overpriced so it's not always a total valentine for the restaurants. Who I feel really bad for is Jadh, the young woman who chose this restaurant as her favorite and had her segment totally removed from the show. She got punked which is sad because she was really good on camera.

So there you have it. Mostly good, some bad and I got a great t-shirt out of it.

Cuckoo for Cocoa Beer

Americans have been known to participate in some interesting fads.

The good citizens of Kansas City are no less immune to a goofy fad than Americans in general. This is a tale of one such fad.

Kansas City happens to be home to the Boulevard Brewing Company. Probably their best known beer is their Pale Ale.

They sell quite a selection to cover your yang for beer. But Kansas City is not only known for barbecue and beer. Happily we can add gourmet chocolate to the list of good things to come out of Kansas City, thanks to Christopher Elbow.

I get way more excited about chocolate than I do beer plus the boss doesn't care if you go out at lunch and throw down a couple of chocolates. Hell, my boss asks me to bring some back for her.

I don't know who originally came up with the idea but back in 2010 Boulevard Brewing decided they needed a Valentine's beer to add to their speciality/seasonal roster. Why not make a chocolate beer? Better yet, team up with man known for chocolate in Kansas City, and make a Christopher Elbow chocolate beer. So they made a batch, put out the word in early January 2011 and Boulevard Christopher Elbow Chocolate Pale Ale sold out fairly quickly. Not only sold out quickly but apparently made an appearance on Ebay at a price way over it's original selling price. Local beer lovers took notice. Chocolate lovers took notice. Opportunists took notice. 2012 rolls around and Boulevard announces that yes, Chocolate Ale will return for the Valentine's holiday. However the marketing campaign for the beer went into overdrive. The brewmasters were giving television interviews. Christopher Elbow was everywhere pushing the beer, newspapers, magazines and radio. January was an onslaught of Chocolate Ale hype. When the beer finally reached the stores, the lines were deep and the people were waiting to buy as much as they could.

I think it sold out locally the same day it was released despite the brewery making three times as much as the year before. I didn't notice until I saw the signs up on just about every grocery store I frequent saying they were out of Chocolate Ale and wouldn't be getting any until 2013. Really? None to be had in the city? Yes, pretty much that was the scenario. I wondered if I could get a bottle from an online distributor? Certainly the KC madness couldn't reach into other areas? So I found a online beer seller and ordered a bottle. Or I should say that I thought I ordered a bottle. They took the info, my credit card number and shipping address. Actually the shipping was more expensive than the one bottle of beer. So I waited. It wasn't until later into the next week when I realized that I hadn't received a shipping notice or tracking number. The reply to my email inquiry as to when I would receive the beer I ordered made me realize that the stupidity had indeed reached even further out of Kansas City. The online beer seller was saying that when I had made my order that they actually didn't have any in stock. That I had neglected the big red warning that said just that. Of course I immediately called Shenanigans because had there been a big red warning (as there was now on their website) I wouldn't have ordered it. I would have kept on googling for a beer seller that actually had it in stock. Beer seller did not like my logic or the fact that I cancelled my order. I thought that was the end of the Boulevard Beer debacle but there was one more chapter waiting to be uncorked.

Turns out at least a third of the batch Boulevard sold had some "unwanted flavors". WHAT?? Punky chocolate ale? That's right and they would buy back that funky beer (after jumping through some hoops). This was just too rich. Even better? The online Beer Seller emailed me again claiming to have gone out and purchased more chocolate ale from other liquor stores in their area to keep up with demand for the beer. He also felt the need to add that his other customers were very happy with their service. This made me chuckle heartily. Whenever someone feels the need to say how well they are doing something it almost always means ass covering is in full effect. I couldn't resist one last email poke. "This beer you purchased, was it the beer that Boulevard is recalling for being nasty?" I can only assume that Beer Seller is just too busy accepting accolades from his many happy customers because my email in-box has been empty, waiting for his response.

So there you have it, a little February mania over beer and a little peek into life in Kansas City.