Donut King

Donut King is something we passed by for YEARS before we stopped in. And every time we drove by, I said to myself: That place has awesome doughnuts. You could just tell; it's no strip-mall doughnut spot. It's purple. With big lights around the sign. It's flashy.

And since I need to be in a certain mood to really want a doughnut, and I didn't want to be disappointed - we just kept passing it by. 2 in the afternoon? Not a time for doughnuts. 8 at night? Mmmm...no. And then, the first time we pulled in the parking lot, my husband got his door open and one foot on the pavement just in time for them to put up the "SOLD OUT" sign. Our date with doughnuts would have to wait.

Finally, just a couple of months ago, the stars aligned and I wanted a doughnut. A Donut King doughnut. And we made it in in time to bring home not only doughnuts, but sausage kolaches. (At Donut King, this is doughnut dough, wrapped around a breakfast or polish sausage and available with sliced jalapenos.) It's not a traditional kolache, it is more of a klobasnek - but whatever, it's like the world's best pig in a blanket. And these are awesome, especially with jalapenos.

Hmmm....what else can I say to make you go there? On Saturdays & Sundays, they have chocolate-covered doughnut holes. They are open until 9pm, for those of you who enjoy the evening doughnut. They have apple fritters, French crullers, and caramel pecan cinnamon rolls. They take credit cards. Are you still reading this?

Donut King
3913 Chouteau Trafficway in Kansas City
816*452*2012
Mon-Sat 5am to 9pm
Sunday 7am to 9pm

Wheatberry Salad

The bulk foods section of Whole Foods makes me very happy. I'm always the annoying one that walks up and down in front of all the plastic bins, getting in everyone else's way because I can't decide if I want regular couscous or the Israeli couscous or which type of granola sounds best to me this week - I mean I love the ginger snap so maybe I should stick with that or should I try something else? I do a lot of apologizing and excusing myself and eventually end up throwing a couple of plastic bags of something or other in my cart and calling it a day. But with every visit, I come around the corner, and the reaction is...OOH! Bulk foods! And then the whole thing starts up again.

This particular trip landed me a big bag of Hard Winter Wheatberries, because I knew I had seen Ina Garten make a salad out of them and I wanted to try my hand at something new. You can never have too many salads in your repertoire. They turned out to be delicious, even though some of them ended up a little undercooked. (I was so paranoid about ending up with mushy wheatberries that I think I pulled them off the flame too soon.) The good thing was, I like things with a bite. You will too. This salad was delicious for days.

Wheatberry Salad

from Barefoot Contessa Family Style

1 c hard winter wheatberries

kosher salt

1 c finely diced red onion (1 onion)

6 T olive oil, divided

2 T balsamic vinegar

3 scallions, minced (white and green parts)

1/2 red bell pepper, small diced

1 carrot, small diced

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Place the wheatberries and 3 c of boiling salted water in a saucepan and cook, uncovered, over low heat for approximately 45 minutes, or until they are soft. Drain.

Saute the red onion in 2 T of olive oil over medium-low heat until translucent, approximately 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the remaining 4 T (1/4 c) of olive oil and the balsamic vinegar.

In a large bowl, combine the warm wheatberries, sauteed onions, scallions, red bell pepper, carrot, 1/2 tsp salt, and the pepper. Allow the salad to sit for at least 30 minutes for the wheatberries to absorb the sauce. Season, to taste, and serve at room temperature.

Well, Hello There

So, it's been over a month, huh? Hm.

Hello to the approximately three people still checking this blog!

My arm did not fall off. Nor did either of my legs. Sometimes life gets in the way of things we like to do and then you realize how easy it is to slip out of a routine. What do they say? Don't complain, don't explain. Or something like that. So I won't do either.

So...our CSA is in week four and I've learned that I don't really like radishes, there is such a thing as too much spinach, and nothing tastes better than a farm fresh egg. Yum. And Saturday morning excursions to the City Market are still necessary, if for nothing else than a hot cup of coffee and some excellent people watching while chowing down on the Banana Walnut French Toast at Succotash. It has a caramel sauce, people. I kid you not.

I've been composing entries in my head for the past month - now I have to type them all in.

Recuperating

I have a very large and very awkward splint on my left wrist/arm. So while I let that whole thing rest, I'm going to take a tiny break.
Hunting and pecking is slow business.

Quick Bites

**Last weekend we had an exceptionally romantic meal at Cafe des Amis in Parkville. I love how cozy the dining rooms are, and how wonderful the service. I love long leisurely meals where no one leaves the check and then tells you not to rush; at Cafe des Amis you sit and sip your wine and finish your conversations (and eavesdrop on those around you) and then ask for the check when you're ready.

By far my favorite part of the meal was the mussels. Their Moules Marinieres Facon Odile are steamed in sherry wine with shallots and garlic and finished with cream. I wanted to ask for a straw to fully clean the bowl when the bread from our bread basket was gone, but I thought better of it. And I've thought about those mussels every day since, which I think means that they were exceptionally delicious. The rest of our meal was so good - but not mussels-good. I think I'm going to start using that as a new unit of measurement. I'm obsessed.

Cafe des Amis
112 1/2 Main St in Parkville, MO
816*587*6767

**Yesterday, we spun the lunch wheel at work and were ordered by fate to eat Chinese food. I love our lunch wheel - it has been altered to suit our favorites and weed out the spaces that always make us spin again, like "Donuts." It takes all the painful indecision out of lunchtime and tends to lean heavily toward the "Indian Buffet" space we created. It is a magical lunchtime tool - if you'd like to use a virtual version, try the Wheel of Lunch.

We decided to try someplace new to us and so we ventured out to Pei Wei, which is the fast casual concept from the PF Changs people. I loved my lunch - the Thai Dynamite with chicken had a zippy Sriracha chili sauce with Thai basil, garlic, and soy and was served with a huge mound of brown rice. The order of edamame was completely unnecessary but good, and I saw so many other tasty things whizzing by our booth that I hope we spin Chinese again next time.

Pei Wei Asian Diner
9222 Metcalf in OPKS
or
15141 W 199th St in Olathe

Stuffed Turkey Breast

In truth, we overcooked it a smidge, since we didn't have our thermometer on hand, but doesn't our first stuffed turkey breast look delicious??

This is what we ate for Easter, and for our first ever experience butterflying & de-boning a turkey breast, I was pretty impressed. (We ordered it without bones, but the bones were an Easter surprise! And an excellent learning experience.) Next time I'm going to experiment with a pesto & sundried tomato stuffing, as this one had a little too much roasted red pepper for me. All in all, though...good stuff, and I love the presentation with the unexpected color rolled up in that beautiful turkey meat.

For the recipe we used, from cooks.com, click here.

Humor

I am a rabid kottke.org reader. I know I'm not alone, but I just felt the need to out myself. If I'm not sure where I've gained a particular piece of interesting & useful information, I just guess that I've gotten to it through kottke.org, and most of the time I'm right. I've finally turned my husband on to it, and now we have entire conversations devoted to what we've seen on there. Jason Kottke is why I love the internet.

All of that just to say that this list of amusing and clever restaurant & coffee shop names made me so giddy. It's a funny list, with its fair share of eye-rolling and groaning thrown in.

My favorites:
A hot dog place called First National Frank.
A bar called Chez When.

Any local spots to add to the list? Leave a note in the comments.