I Thought This Was A Typo....!!??

I saw the first sentence of this article and thought it was a typo. The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease. Why doesn't George Bush and his cronies just line us up and offer us each a little glass of Kool-Aid and end this madness here and now! You can read the article here. Between George Bush and China, we can't seem to get a break.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/29/america/NA-GEN-US-Mad-Cow.php

Purple Potatoes

Here is a picture of the purple potatoes before I cooked them. I peeled them for the recipe and used my mandolin to get even slices. They are really beautiful to me, I love the unique color of them. They actually maintain their color when they are cooked, I feared they would turn black or muddy looking. The package compared the taste to russets. I felt they were a little creamier than that and they looked awesome on the pizza.

Potato Sage and Rosemary Pizza

I know that it seems strange to put potatoes on a pizza, I mean why not throw a little pasta on just to really starch it up, but it was really good. I have always wanted to make a pizza with potatoes after watching Martha Stewart make one years ago. How can you go wrong with pizza, potatoes, rosemary and olive oil? I found this recipe in the March '07 issue of Bon Appetit and thought I would go for it. I will post the recipe as they printed it. I used my own crust for the recipe, I had some frozen from last month when I made the Semolina Pizza Crust. You could also use a prepared crust like Boboli for this recipe. When I went to the store for my Yukon Gold potatoes, I got very frustrated because they did not have any. But then I saw the purple ones and did a little dance in the aisle. I had heard of purple potatoes, but never thought I would see them in Kansas City. I thought they would be as elusive as broccoli rabe, either you grow your own or dream of the day that it finally appears in the produce section of your local market. I also used thin slices of mozzarella from the deli at Green Acres as opposed to the packaged shredded kind. This pizza was excellent for dinner with a salad on the side. It would be perfect to serve at a party along with a variety of other appetizers.

Potato, Sage & Rosemary Pizza

3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
12 oz. unpeeled small Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced very thin
1 13.8 oz. tube refrigerated pizza dough
2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary
2 tsp. chopped fresh sage
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 tsp. dried crushed red pepper
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add potatoes slices in single layer, saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Cool briefly.
Unroll dough on rimmed baking sheet. Scatter potato slices over dough, leaving 3/4" plain border. Sprinkle with rosemary, sage, garlic and crushed red pepper. Sprinkle with cheeses to cover.
Bake pizza until crust is crisp and cheeses melt, about 20 minutes. Slice and serve.

A Breakdown in Communication

On Saturday, I had a phone call from a friend who wanted to try my blueberry cobbler recipe. She wanted to know if she could double the recipe, but bake it in a 9 by 13 pan. I told her that I did not think it would be big enough because the 8 by 8 pan was pretty full and a 9 x 13 was not that much bigger. I told her she could up it by a third and probably would be okay.

I heard from Dan that my friend, who shall remain nameless, was not happy with me because she doubled the recipe and made a mess of her oven. She told him I said she could double the recipe. Not that I want to imply anything, but she is blond, so that may be part of the breakdown. Actually, I salute her for attempting the recipe, because I've heard that she is not a cook and she impressed her family on Sunday with her tasty and overflowing cobbler. Good job , "T".

Blue Koi

Saturday night, we went with a group of friends to Blue Koi. Blue Koi is a nice little place on Kansas City's famous 39th Street, a street that features a great mix of food places and even greater mix of people. Blue Koi is one of my favorite places to eat in Kansas City and we just don't get there often enough. It is owned by the same family that own Genghis Khan Mongolian Barbecue, another great place to eat in Kansas City.
There were six of us in our group and they easily accommodated us. We had great service, great food and even better company. We drank wine, had four appetizers and each had our own entree and the bill total was $141.00 with tax. That's not bad when you consider the amount of food we each had.
We started with an order each of chicken dumplings and vegetarian dumplings. We opted for the fried version and each plate had 8 dumplings. They were very tasty and served with a nice dipping sauce. Those were followed by basil chicken lettuce wraps and vegetarian lettuce wraps. Again both were very good and I would be hard pressed to come up with a favorite.
For dinner I ordered the chicken pot roast soup. This is one of my favorite all time things to order and they also have this on their Genghis Khan menu. The soup has lots of large flavorful pieces of pot roast in a perfectly spiced beef broth with lots of big fat noodles. It doesn't get much better than this dish. Unless you order the almond chicken asparagus dish that is their special feature for the summer. Dan and Traci ordered this and it was incredible. It had lots of chicken, grilled asparagus, sun dried tomatoes and almond rice. Lisa and Stacy ordered the ants on a tree, which is another one of my favorite dishes. Kristen ordered the firebird tofu. I tasted some of the shitakes from this dish and really enjoyed it.
This is a great location to enjoy the company of others, while treated to great, well-priced food, good service and some of the best people watching in Kansas City. They are located at 1803 W. 39th St. KCMO 64111 phone 816-561-5003 www.bluekoikc.com.

Beef From Parker Farms Natural Meats

This weekend, we bought some natural grass fed beef from Green Acres Market. The beef came from Parker Farms out of Richmond, MO. I just went and looked them up on-line and was impressed with their mission statement and the way they do business. I grilled burgers with the beef and they turned out really well. The beef had an excellent flavor and I could not detect that "grass fed" taste you sometimes get with this type of product. I will definitely buy more and check out their other cuts of meat. In today's growing uncertainty of our food quality, I am relying more on this type of food. I truly believe that we have to be a little more vigilant on what we are putting into our bodies. You can check them out at this link.

http://www.mda.mo.gov/cgi-bin/agrimomembers.cgi?id=55

Fettuccine Limoncello

I love limoncello and while searching the Caravella website for drink recipes, I came across this fettuccine recipe. I changed it up a bit, it had some strange European directions, but the end pasta turned out really good. If you wanted you could add sliced mushrooms, peas or a nice spicy Italian sausage. The sauce turns out a little sweet, so the addition of Italian sausage would be a good counter taste. We started with a salad that we got from Green Acres Market. We have become addicted to their salad bar which is stocked with great fresh organic products. We topped our mesclun mix with peas, egg, white beans, carrot, green onion, candied walnuts, dried cranberries and roasted red pepper.

Fettuccine Limoncello

1/2 lb. fettuccine
salt to taste
3 oz. pancetta, diced
1 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley, divided
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream
1/2 c. limoncello
4 Tbsp. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Melt butter over medium heat, add pancetta and half the chopped parsley, cook until pancetta browned, about 5 minutes. Turn down heat and carefully add cream and limoncello. Bring to a boil and add, Parmesan, salt and pepper to taste and crushed red pepper flakes. In the meantime cook fettuccine until al dente. Add cooked pasta to the pan along with rest of parsley. Toss to mix . If sauce is too tight add some of the pasta water to loosen.