How I Spent a Saturday in God's Country (Kansas)

Today is going to be a big day on the grill for me, another Lamb Chop recipe, several grilled vegetables (eggplant, portobello mushrooms, and a new dessert, Chipotle Creme Brulle)!

But yesterday was a great day...no grilling, but a great day non-the-less...

Started with inviting out neighbors over for breakfast, Jim and Herme, the MRS and myself were going to head out, and we had a perfect day for it... Temps in the low 70's, no humidity and scattered clouds just enough to look pretty.

Since this is a food blog, let's talk just a little food... I had some of the bacon wrapped sausage wrapped around stuffed peppers that you are probably sick of hearing about. If not, Click HERE for how I made em the day before.
Nothing is plain around here...Take those silly little pancake shappers, or large metal cookie cutters and put a slices of the sausage in the center, carefully pour pancake batter around the edges making sure they get in all the hidden spaces (and be sure to spray them VERY well with a spray canola oil so they don't stick.

Flip em over carefully and let the ooohs and ahhhs start, Pouring a little maple syrup on the sausages taste fabulous!
Then we were off to the PLAZA ART FAIR. The plaza is a local outdoor shopping mall with lots of yuppie overpriced restaurants, beautiful setting and yuppie shops. Once a year, they close the streets down and invite artists from around the country to pay a huge fee and sell their wares. Very expensive, or very cheap if you just want to walk, look and enjoy... Guess which category I feel into.

Kansas City is known for Jazz, and the good folks that organize this event add a stage for a little walking around background music.


Art is in the eye of the beholder, but a string of hand carved, hand painted chili peppers is art to me!
Jim and Herme are drinkers, dog lovers (they have two), and lovers of art that features dogs drinking... It's art to them!
This was very popular, wire mesh dancers, hung in a mobile with that pretty blue sky Kansas is so well known for (Wizard of Oz and that whole tornado nonsense really set the states' image back, this is how Kansas looks almost 5 or 6 days a year, why we get a bad weather rep, I'll never know).
Kitchen utensils are art to us foodies as they are, but if you have a certain creative eye, they become art to everyone else (love the forks for feet)...

Music lover and closeted head-banger Jim liked the heavy metal guitar playing statue...

I personally liked this image of metal monsters invading your garden and stealing your garden gnomes. I would have loved to add this to my Deck landscaping, but was too cheap.

It's a little hard to tell from this angle, but these are mostly mouth bodies, bulging eyeballs and legs and toes made from spikes

We walked around for a couple hours,

We enjoyed the architecture (YES, Kansas has Architecture),

We walked some more...

We enjoyed the setting...

Jim and Herme offered to spring for drinks at the yuppie bar... That beauty with the orange slice was mine, something called a Bocce Ball that I LOVED. I browbeat the bartender into giving me the recipe...

2 parts Orange Juice
added to 1 part amaretto liqueur
shaken to chill and garnish with the orange
and just a splash of pineapple juice

IT WAS TERRIFIC!

'We were lucky enough to get seats on the balcony over looking the street, great for people watching, and art discussions while enjoying our afternoon cocktail...

Felt very classy (burb)

Then the waiter announced half priced appetizers (did I mention how cheap I am), and our friends demanded we order a few to split... Their treat...whoo whoo.

these little Bruschettas with fresh mozzarella and some really good balsamic vinegar were perfect...

And then we ordered our car and chauffeur to take us back to the Cul de Sac...

All in all, just a typical day in Kansas... Don't you wish you lived in Kansas???