Kansas City MO

We left Kansas City about a week ago and really enjoyed our stay. I didn't do a lot of cooking there mainly because there were so many great places to eat.  The time I would have spent cooking I spent working out.  It could be really easy to get fat on this journey we have been on and I have to make a conscious effort to workout regularly! The one thing we really like about this adventure is visiting all of the cities we normally wouldn't see.  Its one thing to visit a city for business,  but the cool thing is we get to do both business and pleasure.  Kansas City isn't a place we would ever think to go on vacation and yet we get to experience it like we are!

Its pretty rare that Chris's business www.rms-ontheroad.com and my blog and food interest ever meet but they did in KC! Justus Drugstore http://www.drugstorerestaurant.com was the reason.  This is a great place in the small town of Smithville MO just north of KC that is owned by Chef  Jonathan Justus. Everything here is locally sourced down to the herbs and garnish.  These folks are on top of their game and the food was outstanding!  The bar is a world of its own.  They have more house made infused liquors and bitters and herbal tinctures for drinks than I have ever seen and it is just incredible. Chef Johnathan's mother ran the local pharmacy for something like 45 years.  After she closed it, he decided to start his restaurant in the same building.  He also wanted to keep the name.  Funny thing is the State board of pharmacy didn't like that idea and filed a lawsuit against him, claiming that the restaurants name could confuse people into thinking that he could heal people with his food. Crazy right!? (As far as I am concerned he could! I am a believer!) Well, he won and got to keep the name. Chris was very interested in this story since her business and the reason we are on the road is to help support small independent pharmacies survive in a brutal environment.  So we had a nice time chatting with him about his journey in creating the concept.  The food was outstanding and again I wish I would have taken more pictures! But I have a few, so here you go...If you are reading this Chef Jonathan, I am sorry if I dont get all of the descriptions right...blame it on the wine, oh and ya the cocktails!

Fried striped bass pate with an arugla salad and a soy citrus jelly.

The Farmers Platter wild persimmon seed spiced rabbit terrine, house made sausage, house smoked Berkshire bacon, pickled and grilled vegetables, bone marrow mousse, and a beef tongue pastrami

 I have to make a comment on this...I am a newbie when it comes to offal and Charcuterie.,as well as some things on this plate (Beef tongue and bone marrow).  I  have always wanted to try them and this seemed like the right and safest place for it so thank you Chef Justus! I tried to play it cool but I was a little intimadated when it arrived. I really enjoyed everything! The only thing that was a little weird for me was the bone marrow mousse.  I'm sure it was only because of my own head and had nothing to do with the preparation or maybe it is just an acquired taste.  I will give it another try for sure.

A look at their many house made liqueurs

Indian summer sazerac

Ceviche soup special with fish broth and pea shoots

On to the other side of the coin, due to my alter ego and at a friends suggestion I ended up at The Peanut http://www.peanutkc.com/ Kansas City's first bar and grill. Here we noshed on hot wings, BLT's and local brew! It was old, grungy, had intentional mediochre service to the non regular patrons and was equipped with a cigarette machine! Not that I smoke (very often) but I love the nostalgia. I felt right at home...this place would be a hit in Portland OR!  I have to say in all honesty the BLT wasnt the best I ever had.  The bacon was a little over cooked for my liking  and was slightly bitter tasting but it wasn't terrible.  The wings were very crispy, juicy, spicy, tangy and GREAT! The bluecheese has a very garlicy kick that is best enjoyed with a friend! Its a conversation about commitment that you should have prior to ordering!

I know it is "supposed" to be all about BBQ here and yes, I had some of that too. I do love BBQ! It seems to be the first thing everyone wants to suggest.  So, I went to two BBQ joints and liked some things about one more that the other and vis a versa. 

Arthur Bryants http://www.arthurbryantsbbq.com  and Smoking Guns www.smokingunsbbq.com . 

I know I know, everyone is going to say you should have gone to Oklahoma Joes or Jacks Stack or Gates. Well, I didnt get to all of them and was so busy getting to everything else that I will have to save it for KC II the sequel.

I liked Arthur Bryants ribs better than Smoking guns, but on the other hand,  I liked smoking guns burnt ends more than Arthur Bryants;  it is mainly because Arthur Bryants chopped the burnt ends up really small and doused them with sauce.  I prefer my BBQ suaceless so I can add just a drop here and there.

Arthur Bryants burnt ends

Smoking guns burnt ends

So, as you can see they are very different but I liked that I could really taste the meat and smoky fat on the smoking guns version.

Other honorable mentions are Strouds Fried Chicken www.stroudsrestaurant.com This was pretty close to where we were staying and we went there twice to get take out.  Great chicken and great chicken noodle soup!

We stayed at the Worlds of Fun RV park on the North side of town.  It was a nice park and probably, from what I hear, the only one worth staying at  in the KC area.  The only downfall is the thunderous roar of the roller coasters at night with the screaming kiddies...But I got used to it and tuned it out pretty quickly http://www.worldsoffun.com/public/lodging/village/

I hope you enjoyed my little tour of Kansas City and get a chance to check it out for yourself!

The Twin Cities

Minneapolis had some great food finds and a welcoming energy that we really enjoyed! We stayed in Prior Lake, MN which is about 10 min SW of "The Cities" at Mystic Lake casino RV Park (It was the best option in the area). Here are a few interesting fact about Mystic Lake Casino (www.mysticlake.com/ for future reference).

1. It is a "dry" casino so there is no alcohol allowed on the tribal property. :-/
2. It is one the highest profiting casinos in the country.
3.There are about 250 tribal members that get a check from the profits of the casino that range anywhere from $30k to $80k per month starting at age 18.  Yes, you heard me right it is not a typo "per month".  I don't know about you but I don't think any18  y/o kid should ever have access to that kind of money. It has gotten the nickname by some locals of being called "Mistake Lake". For our purposes, it was a good place to stay.


Now, we had a couple really great food experiences but the one that I really loved the most was probably Brasa! http://www.brasa.us/ What a great spread of all organic and locally sourced fare!  This place is a Cajun/ Creole style rotisserie. We ordered a little of everything on the menu and here is a look at that!

Rotisserie chicken, pulled pork, cornbread w/honey glazed,collard greens with smoked turkey,yellow rice/ beans,crispy yucca, roasted yams with andouille

It was all just fantastic, quick, simple, inexpensive, all local and organic, which made me very happy! It is a place that I would probably hit a least once a week if I lived in Minneapolis.  What a great concept this owner had and it showed; the place was a crowded, local, hot spot!

Other Minneapolis notable mentions was are Hells Kitchen located right down town (not related to Gordon Ramsey) We like it there a lot too! Im sad to say we didnt make it to Piccolo which I hope to try next time!

Next we went to Duluth for the day which was a few hours north up on Lake Superior.  I heard through Twitter about a place called Northwest Smokehouse. You can also try it yourself and buy right online! http://www.northernwaterssmokehaus.com The pictures on their website are better than anything I could take.  The place is very crowded and very small, so it was hard to get any good shots.  Please trust me when I say being from the Pacific NW I am a major salmon snob.  The smoked salmon I had here was the best I have ever had.  It was light, very moist, buttery, tender and perfect! So was the smoked whitefish and the house made salumi.  I made a nice smoked salmon Benedict a couple days later that was outstanding, and pretty healthy too as far as Benedict's go.  I started with a whole wheat English muffin, braised kale with onion & garlic, the North Waters smoked salmon, a poached egg and topped it with a made for scratch hollandaise with a little fresh dill, cayenne and red onion garnish. 

We also found the cutest old school malt shop in the whole entire world called the Portland Malt shop http://www.portlandmaltshoppe.com/.  It is perched up on top of the hill looking over Lake Superior. I am a big fan of malts. I think they are way better than just a regular old milkshake. These folks are mixing up the real deal!

What a perfect ending to a great day! Except for this part...I couldn't finish my malt so, it melted while sitting in the cup holder of the car and on the drive home my iPhone got dropped in and went for a swim! ...Occupational hazard I guess!

Fargo

Although we have left Fargo and since moved on to Minneapolis MN for a few weeks, I still wanted to pay tribute to a cool little town.  I must say I had a really lame preconcieved idea about what our culinary finds might be.  Fourtunally, I was totally wrong and pleasantly surprised about how much I really liked this little town. There were several cute shops, very cool drinking holes and a few great restaurants. Hotel Donaldson (check out thier menu) http://www.hoteldonaldson.com/eat.html was one such place. We stopped in to check out their happy hour menu.  I was so impressed with it, that we ended up having dinner! The food was prepared perfectly and the presentation was spectacular. They have a rooftop garden from which many of the restaurants ingredients are sourced, as well as a listing on the menu of all other sources for the ingredients they use.  They are down with eating locally and have a strong alliance with local farmers. These folks have passion and they put it exactly where it belongs and that is on your plate! You have taught me a good lesson about making assumptions Fargo, and I truely apprieciate it...Thank you

A picture of the asparagus salad with quail egg, lamb bacon, horseradish & beet vinaigrette.

Taco Tuesday!

Hey folks! Well we are in Fargo ND for the next few days.  It has been a little stormy the past couple of days. Which, always puts me in the mood to put on a good movie and cook all day! I am a BIG fan of Mexican food and as I have been driving around Fargo I haven’t seen one Mexican restaurant other than chains.  So, I decided to satisfy my craving by making some tacos! Now I really love carnitas, crispy pulled pork how could you go wrong? On the other hand, I also like chili Verde... delicious stewed pork in silky, green chili sauce.  So, I thought I would try and combine them to fill both desires and put them in a taco!

They came out amazing and here is how I did it...

Carnitas "Verde" style

Meat

3-4 lb. Pork roast (You can use Pork Butt if you like as well.) They were too big for our little RV oven.

1/2 cup whole milk

Rub

(You can adjust this to your liking)

2 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. chili powder

1/4 tsp. coriander

2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. cayenne

1/4 tsp. smoked paprika

1 tsp. spanish paprika

1 1/2 tsp. Oregano /Mexican oregano

Pinch clove

Pinch cinnamon

Verde Sauce

6-7 fresh tomatillos husk removed cut in half

1 tomato cored seeded quartered and halved

1/2 white onion quartered

1 or 2 (your preference) fresh jalapeno seeded and rough chopped

2 Pablano chilies cored, seeded and rough chop 1" pcs

1 Tsp. fresh chopped Marjoram

1 small bulb top cut off for roasting

1/2 cup chicken stock

Cover meat all over with rub you may have some left over. Wrap meat in plastic and put in fridge overnight

 

Put meat in roasting pan and let sit for about 45 min before putting in oven.

Preheat oven to 450

Rub pork with 1 tsp. of oil.

Roast pork for about 20 min remove

Turn oven down to 325

Add chopped vegetables to roasting pan surrounding meat cover with chicken stock

Place back in oven, cover with a cookie sheet (helps it brown on top better than foil and still retains moisture)

Roast for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. It should be fork tender and want to fall apart when lifted.

Remove and it should look like this...

Remove meat and let rest for at least 30 min

Transfer Verde to small pot put on med heat add the fresh chopped Marjoram. You can add a little more stock if you want a looser sauce.

Reduce by half then use a hand blender to blend sauce.

Sauce should look like this when done...

Pull Pork discard fat

Return to roasting pan drizzle and toss with milk (a little at time you may not need the entire 1/2 cup).  You just want the meat just coated not saturated or soggy. Also add 3 or so tablespoons of the Verde sauce and toss.

Return meat to a 350 degree oven to crisp up for about 30 to 45 min stir meat and scrape pan occasionally.

I made a quick slaw to accompany my tacos, but you can certainly serve your taco’s with whatever you like...

Slaw

2 cups cabbage slice very thin

1 diced jalapeno or habanero if you want it spicier!

1 tablespoon oil

1 tsp. rice vinegar

2 tsp. pineapple juice

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Season to taste

Serve

Place meat and slaw on a heated corn tortilla ( I put mine in a pan with a bit of oil to crisp it up a little)

Drizzle the meat with some of the Verde sauce

Add a litttle diced raw onion if you like and your done!

Enjoy...Chow!

Life on the road...again

As you may have noticed I haven’t blogged in quite some time.  Well it’s time to get back at it!  I guess life has been getting in the way and I haven’t mastered the art of balancing my blog and life as well as I probably could. Life on the road makes my perception of time very different for some reason. Time seems to pass by very quickly and yet it doesn’t feel like it.  Being at home in Portland was also sort of weird after being on the road for 8 months. It didn't feel like we were gone 8 months at all! Being a tourist in my own town was something I have never done and I highly recommend it.  For some reason I didn’t really want to blog there.  It was like the blog was a part of my “other” life on the road. Being at home was more of a private personal experience that I just wanted to marinate in for a while to recharge for our next upcoming leg of our tour, heading East.   

When we left Portland we headed to Jacks Resort jamesonlake.com the place where we came up with this crazy plan of living on the road for Chris’s customer service campaign rms-ontheroad.com  Chris had a few customers in the area and we wanted to visit our friends. We also thought it would be nice to go full circle and bring the result of our vision back to its place of inception.

 Jacks Resort jamesonlake.com is owned by our friends Ginger and Anna.  It is outside Ephrata WA about 30 miles.  Let just say it is literally out in the middle of nowhere. There are little to no services of any kind for at least 20 miles around. It is very peaceful with stunning views, and abundant in all kinds of wildlife. We saw tons on deer, coyotes, hawks, bald eagles, snakes you name it; I wasn't thrilled about some of it, or the "possibility" of running into some of it, mainly rattlesnakes.  I am somewhat of a city girl AKA "scaredy cat".   The resort was closed during our stay with no public access so we had the entire lake virtually to ourselves.  It is a wonderful hideaway if you really want to unplug and get away from the world.  They have a little restaurant that is open during fishing season and Ginger makes some tasty pies! The fishing on Jameson Lake has a top ranking in the state for trout. We fished elsewhere because the lake wasn't open for fishing while we were there. I caught one nice trout and let it go because I looked it in its eyes and felt bad (silly, I  know).  Ginger caught 2 beautiful trout.  We grilled one, smoked the other and it was fantastic!

We are now in Montana and it certainly is not known for its culinary influence on the world but it is a beautiful State with very nice people nonetheless.  Sometimes I feel that us city folks don't appreciate these small towns that are quilted throughout our country.  We have often preconceived ideas about the people and chuckle at the simpleness of how they live and their limited resources for shopping dining, etc.  But these places make me realize that you can slow down,relax, quit looking for the "next thing" and just be in the moment. 

That said, now I can't wait for the next thing! We will soon head to Fargo ND then Minneapolis MN which I am VERY much looking forward to.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival Ashland OR

Its been awhile since I have blogged, as I had anticipated it might be.  I have been running around my hometown getting caught up on visiting family and friends and tying up any loose ends before we head back out on to the open road for the next year. 

Over the past 3 years we have gone to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland OR.  It is just an amazing time, year after year it seems to get even better.  Now, I gotta say, I am not Shakespearean proficienato or anything.  In fact, I was actually the kid that used toothpicks to keep my eyes open during my literature classes in school.  This is not that kind of Shakespeare.  This is Shakespeare modernized by super cool hip and very, very, talented and creative people.  It is often very funny and sometimes they even throw in a little hip hop music every now and then.  There are however the "heavier" "tragic" more traditional plays as well, if that is your flavor.  For sure another "must do" if you ever visit Oregon. http://www.osfashland.org/

Now to the food...We went to a great restaurant  called The Loft  http://loftbrasserie.com/ at the recommendation of our hotel ( The Palm Cottages http://www.palmcottages.com/ ) manager and it was outstanding. Comfort French fusion is what you get here and they know their stuff.  I can often tell if I am going to enjoy my food right off the bat, if the have good bread.  I swear, I could have sat with the lovely bottle of rose' and 10 loaves of that bread and pound of butter, all night. Following that, I had the beet salad with goat cheese hazelnuts with a sherry vinaigrette and my friend Latania had the green butter lettuce salad, with Djion vinaigrette. Both of our salads where amazing as you can see by the pictures.  Then I ordered the special of the evening, braised lamb shank, with herbed polenta, with a port reduction and micro greens. Perfecto! Everything was cooked perfect and all of the flavors were balanced and complimentary to one another.  The herbed polenta was outstanding.  Latania (a vegetarian friend) ordered the truffle scented macaroni gratin...Yes, it was as you can probably imagine, unbelievably good with it's creamy rich truffely perfection! Of course I ordered dessert don't be silly! I ordered the lemon cheesecake and it was also delicious! I am pretty picky about my cheesecake.  I cant stand when it is really heavy and/or dry.  This was moist, light, creaminess, followed with refreshing and very lemony flavor that was outstanding!  Most everything was locally sourced which I really appreciate!

Now you can to drool on your keyboard....you might want to go get a towel.

Local toffee flight

I had a craving for something sweet the other day.  I remembered my mom had given me a box of Oregon Filberts/Hazelnuts when we were in Bend. I have been wanting to make something with them so, no time like the present. (I have always wondered why they have two names. So if you have too here is a link on all you want and need to know about Filberts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazelnut)
My craving went beyond just sweet I really wanted salty too, and maybe spicy or chocolatey! There is a salt shop called The Meadow http://www.atthemeadow.com/shop/in Portland that I had just visited so, I was excited to try some of my purchases. How can I combine all of my desires into a one recipe? A toffee flight! I used a basic toffee recipe I found online and made the necessary substitutions to make the flight of 3.

The three toffee were finished with 3 different salts from The Meadow.  I bought the small Meadow package shown in the tins. I added some cayenne and chili powder and Alaska Pure salt to one of the toffees, some local Oregon Dagoba brand chocolate with the Marlborough Flakey Salt to another and lastly was plain with the Sel de I'lle de Re`salt

 

Ingredients

    1 pound unsalted butter (preferably Plugrá)

    1 cup white sugar

    1 cup brown sugar

    1 Tbsp. corn syrup

    1 1/2 to 2 cups raw almonds , chopped finely or ground loosely (with skins on)

    2 tsp. vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean (scraped or split so the seeds will come out inside the toffee)

    1 tsp. salt

    Salt for finishing (optional)

    Melted chocolate , for dipping (optional)

Directions

Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed pot on stove top. In separate bowl, mix together white sugar, brown sugar and corn syrup, add to melted butter. Add 1/4 cup water. Cook mixture on medium-high heat, stirring with a wooden spoon. Using a candy thermometer—most can clip onto the pot—cook until 240°, stirring hard and fast to make sure nothing is sticking to the pan and your toffee doesn't burn. At 240°, add the almonds. At 260°, lower the heat and finish cooking until your candy thermometer reads 300° and reaches the soft ball stage. It should take about 15 to 20 minutes total to reach the 300° mark. The mixture should be a beautiful, bubbly, golden brown color. At 300°, turn off heat immediately.

Add vanilla (if adding vanilla beans, you must fish them out when you pour the toffee before it cools) and add the salt. Stir quickly. Pour the mixture out onto a marble slab that has been greased with butter, or grease 2 rimmed baking sheets (10" x 15" or around that size). Smooth out the toffee to 1/4-inch thickness. After about 5 to 10 minutes, you can score the toffee with a knife in order to break it up later. Using hot water and wiping the knife clean after every slice can help in scoring the toffee. You may now let the mixture cool. When cool, you can sprinkle with a dash of fleur de sel (French sea salt), break them up and wrap them in cellophane or an airtight container to maintain the freshness.

They came out fantastic! My favorite was the one with cayenne and chili. The sweet crunchy nuttiness with a bit of spicy and salt was awesome! I think the toffee envelope cold be pushed farther by adding herbs maybe sage or lavender? I will keep playing and experimenting with these it is easy and tasty!

Oh Portland, you are just the greatstest city ever!

Home again, home again, and I'm doing my jiggity jig! I have to say, I might find it hard to blog very often for the next couple of weeks we have a lot going on.  There are people to see and business to take care of while we are here for the next month.
It is SO nice to know where I am going when driving around town.  I can throw that GPS in the glove box for awhile. I was running all over town yesterday it was so nice to see some of my old favorites!  Made a trip to Voodoo doughnuts http://voodoodoughnut.com/index.php, Bernie's Southern Bistro http://www.berniesbistro.com/  and Park Kitchen http://www.parkkitchen.com/for a late evening cocktail and snack with a couple of friends. I will continue to post my pictures and links of cool places. For those food lovers out there who have never been to Portland you should really make an effort to get over here and check out all of the great restaurants.
I am really going to need to make sure I get some exercise while I am here, or we are going to have to get a bigger motor home; because I want to get in every last bite before we hit the road again in August!

Are eggs now designed by NASA?

Happy belated 4th of July all!  I am still in Bend visiting my family.  I had an interesting experience this weekend and wanted to run it by you all.   My mom has a friend that was throwing a little BBQ for the holiday weekend and my mom volunteered me to make deviled eggs.  I love them and have had great reviews over my version, but what a pain in the butt to make; especially for a party that is expecting 25 guests. I don't know if I am just going crazy or if NASA is getting into the incredible edible egg industry, but eggs seem like they are getting harder and harder to peel. The membrane that is between the whites and the shell is like thick space-grade rubber and the shell seems thinner.  It is almost impossible to peel without damaging the outside of the white.  Now, I'm pretty sure I know how to how to make a hard boiled egg and here is what I do...

*Place the eggs (mine organic) in a pot and cover with about 2" of water.  Bring to a boil and then shut off the heat and let them sit for about 15 or 20 min. Rinse with ice cold water until cooled.

Round one became egg salad because I could not get the damn egg membrane to separate from the whites so they were not presentable for deviled eggs... (Side note: we are T minus 1 hour to the party and I am frantic). I get online to see if there is some magic trick I don't know about and, thank God, I find this video.

 

I am like "no way he just did that; Woo Hoo baking soda in the water!" I run to the store buy two more dozen eggs, add the baking soda, get them rolling, and cool them off.  I started to peel the eggs and NOPE it didn't frickin work. I was so crushed and frustrated.  I have never had this much trouble before.  Well, I did once and a friend of mine said you shouldn't use really fresh eggs. It's best if the eggs are least a week or two old. The first batch I had attempted met that criteria and were a disaster as I already mentioned, so that wasn't the issue.

Thankfully, we got enough peeled to get the dish together. Baking soda appears to have helped a bit,  but I am a perfectionist and I wasn't doing back flips over the presentation, if you know what I mean. Fortunately, they were delicious, so no one really looked at them before gobbling them down and they were gone in a flash. 

If you know of any tips of ideas please let me know.  Have they added something to the hen's feed to make that membrane stronger and thicker for shipping? Does organic make a difference? Should I boil them in smaller batches?  Hit me back with you best egg disasters or tip and tricks. Thanks!

 

UPDATE: House Hunters RV Edition

Well, we heard back from Pietown Productions and we are not going to be in the upcoming episode of HGTV's House Hunters RV edition.  They picked someone that was in line in front of us. Originally, we were a part of the casting call for a season of the show but they decided to just do one episode for now so they went with there fist pick.  We are still on the radar as first runner up if they decide to do more than one episode! So, we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I will keep you posted.

joolz, in Bend Oregon

As you may know we are now in Bend OR. This is the town of my birthplace, where we bought the motor-home and where my mother, brother and sister currently reside. If you have never been to Bend you should definitely check it out http://www.visitbend.com/! If you are into food, shopping, skiing, boating, hiking, fishing, camping, and especially golf, Bend Oregon is a place you should add to your travel itinerary.
 We had dinner at Joolz http://www.joolzbend.com/ last night.  It's the kind of place you want to hang out all day and nibble on small plates and do wine parings with their extensive wine list. There are many local fresh ingredients done to perfection.  The food is best described as Mezza meets Mesa. The first plate we had was Hummus on the Range (hummus with pan seared local Elk) followed by Kibbe (lamb meat balls with roasted tomatoes and garlic) and the  Halloumi cheese sun kissed Tomato appetizer. Delicious oven roasted cauliflower was to follow and finally a date cake with warm caramel sauce that was simply out of this world good,good,good! I am by no means a baker but this cake really makes me wish I was and may even make me try. (again) My brother had the lamb and chicken kebabs. The lamb was tender, juicy and perfectly cooked.

We will for sure be back to Joolz before we leave town.  Anyplace with such a great happy hour is always on my list of places to frequent!