Come one, come all ... An Merican Adventour

Happy Memorial Day!!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend that included an extra day off work, good food, and time with family and friends. But if yours didn’t, I feel for you, mine did not either. Work beckons.

I wanted to stop in and invite you all to an awesome event coming up in KC this Wednesday night! Drum roll please ….

An Merican Adventour


An Merican Adventour is an all ages eclectic concert happening on Wednesday, May 30th at Arts Tech featuring the likes of 2 traveling bands -- Listener and La De Les – alongside 2 great local acts -- Ebony Tusks and Max Justus.

And now I’m going to totally rip off all the description from the Facebook event page (that you should join!)  because I can’t say it  better myself …

“Make plans to be here to kick off your Summer!

Only 5 dollars to see all 4 acts of this great bill!

Doors at 7:00PM. Show starts at 8:00PM
Listener, La De Les, Ebony Tusks, Max Justus
$5

Arts Tech
1522 Holmes Kansas City MO 64108

Come check out and support this awesome space that are up to some very cool things!

ArtsTech’s mission is to better the lives of underserved urban youth through the development of marketable artistic and technical skills. ArtsTech accomplishes this by:
1. operating a center for youth enterprise that provides hands-on training and experience in visual arts, graphic design, photography, ceramics, silk-screening, and computers; and
2. building and managing collaborative partnerships that use art and technology as educational tools for the benefit of youth in the community.

Come on out and lets have some fun!”

 

All right, who wants to come?? Word on the street is, some Purple Carrot baked goods for all to enjoy are making an appearance …

An awesome time, at an awesome just $5 price tag, supporting a great organization! Hope to see some of you there

Motorino Pizzeria Napoletana

Time for some New York pizza!

After our lunch at Angelica Kitchen, we stopped by Motorino Pizzeria Napoletana. Yes, we had just eaten. The idea was to get a pizza to go … Ha.

Motorino Pizzeria Napoletana



Motorino serves Neapolitan style pizza, which happens to be what Erik is so obsessed with.  Some days, all I hear about at home is wood fired pizza ovens, Caputo flour, San Marzano tomatoes, and bufala mozzarella. (No, we don’t even eat cheese, ha). He is completely enamored with everything that is authentic Neapolitan pizza.



Where all the magic happens.



We ordered the marina pizza to go.

We got about exactly one block down the street before Erik had to stop and try it. Probably not even that far.

There’s nothing like pizza fresh out of the oven, and especially since we were in NYC, it was an injustice to wait any longer. Plus, I’m positive there’s always room for some pizza in our stomachs!



Delicious pizza! Erik is turning me into an obsessed pizza lover too, slice by slice.



Motoronio used to be Uno Pizzeria Napoletana, started by Anthony Mangieri, who now has a pizzeria in California. Erik would have loved to try Mangieri’s pizza (and whenever we make a trip to CA, you know we will be there!) but Motorino still serves a great pizza.

I liked the quote on their menu board …

“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six”.

Ha, that’s about right for me every time!




Now I’m hungry for some pizza!

Angelica Kitchen

Happy Wednesday!

What’s everyone been up to this week? I got to meet with some friends for lunch yesterday at Blue Nile and then worked the rest of my afternoon at Mudpie. It was a nice break up of my usual work day.

Moving right along … there’s just a few more New York restaurant posts to come and today we have …

Angelica Kitchen

I seemed to see Angelica Kitchen popping up everywhere on favorite vegan restaurants in NYC, and a pizza place Erik wanted to try was close by so Angelica Kitchen it was.

Angelia Kitchen is located at 300 East 12th Street and they’re open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.



It was so fun while going to new restaurants in New York to have a wide range of menu items to chose from. Kansas City is really coming along in the veggie world and has a lot to offer, but of course it’s way too different to be able to compare the two.

I decided on a special of the day, which was the quesadilla.



And Erik got the “Wrapsody” which consists of a “seasonal selection of roasted vegetables, balsamic marinated beets, creamy hummus, dill pickles, sunflower sprouts & arugula, folded & wrapped in a soft whole wheat tortilla”.

We ended up splitting both items so we could try more food. Our favorite of the two was the quesadilla, but to be honest, we didn’t love either option. They were both okay, but neither of them made me eager to want to go back. It seems like everyone online raves about their cornbread so afterwards I was sort of wishing I would have tried it instead!





Coming up, a few different pizza places in the city to further Erik’s pizza passion 

Prima Pizza

Onward with New York eating!

After lunch at Poppy’s, we opted for Prima Pizza for dinner. Erik grew up going to Prima, so it holds sentimental value and we usually always visit when we’re in New York. And now that Erik’s obsessed with pizza it’s even more of a necessity.



Prima is located in Cornwall, New York on Main Street and is a tradition pizza joint with multiple delicious pies on the menu as well as subs, salads, pastas, and more. They even ship pizzas anywhere in the United States overnight.



Our pie included lots of tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and basil. Simple and delicious.



It’s the crust that counts …





Prima, I’m sure we’ll be back!

El mustache

Hey all!

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. I still have a lot of pictures and places to blog all about, but for now just wanted to stop in to say hi. We went to a family member’s wedding this weekend here in KC, so my dad and grandma were in town.

One of the most exciting parts is that my dad brought the retro flower quilt my mom has been slaving away on for me. It is finished! And I absolutely love it. My mom is the best! I’m going to take some more pictures later, but for now here’s a photo of the whole thing:


THANK YOU, MOM! I love you!

El mustache

Erik has recently taken it upon himself to grow a mustache, ha. If you haven’t been around for awhile and don’t know my husband very well, it’s mostly a joke, but as you may be able to tell … he’s having tons of fun with it.



Someone at the wedding even asked Erik if I was his daughter. I didn't quite understand until I saw this next slightly creepy picture.

I now see how that might have happened … ha! I love my husband.



And on a slightly more serious note, here’s me and my wonderful grandma!



After everything hard and sad that’s happened to us lately, it was nice to have a weekend filled with positive, good things! We are blessed.

What did you do this weekend??

Poppy's Burgers & Fries

Onward with the New York eats posting!

The funeral was in Highland Falls and we were staying with relatives in Monroe. On Sunday, we made the rounds driving by the sights Erik grew up around, old houses, familiar surroundings, etc.  As lunch time drew near, we headed to Beacon.

Last time we were in NY, Erik and I really liked Beacon, so it was fun to see what had changed in the past few years. Though to a smaller scale, we decided it was kind of like Crossroads meets Westside here in KC. Trendy, artsy, and has a fun vibe.

Poppy’s



We decided to try out Poppy’s for lunch. It’s located at 184 Main Street and is a simple burger joint serving up local, grass fed meat.

Their menu consists of five different sandwiches, two choices of sides, and an array of different burger toppings to chose from. Their cooler of drinks includes a large selection of cane sugar sodas, organic iced teas, juices, and seasonal local and New York State beer.

 

Once ordering at the counter, your meal is brought out to you in a simple paper bag, burgers wrapped in foil. I liked the simplicity of it all.

Our greasy fries [that tasted pretty good to me!] …



And their veggie burger which is a bean patty with lettuce, tomato, and aioli.



I really like Poppy’s concept of simplicity and quality with local, natural sourcing.

As we walked out after our lunch, we noticed that “Chef Poppy” is a past winner of Food Network’s Chopped.  I’ve watched a lot of Chopped in my day, so it was fun to discover.

Thanks, Poppy’s!

The Candle Cafe

So many pictures, so little time …

Upon getting back from New York last week, I jumped right back into work and trying to get things done around the house since everything had been so up in the air and crazy the past few weeks. Now I’ve had time to go through all my pictures, and it’s time for some of the more upbeat New York highlights, that is food! We flew into LaGuardia so before heading north to where we would be most of the week, we stopped in the city for lunch.

I sent out a tweet before we took off asking if there were any NYC vegan restaurants I could not do without, and JJ suggested Candle Café. I had heard good things about it before, so that is where we headed.

Candle Cafe



We went to Candle Café East, located at1307 Third Avenue between 74th & 75th St, which is the casual version of the more upscale Candle 79.

We started lunch with a side of guacamole. Can’t ever go wrong with that! It was just the right amount of chunky, and full of flavor.



Our meals consisted of seitan burgers and the Indian platter special.

 

The consensus was all definitely all positive and I especially loved my Indian platter! My favorite part was the curried sweet potatoes, but each part of the Indian dish was full of flavor and went so well together. As I’m staring at the picture, I’m wishing I had that plate of food in front of me right now … yum!



There were so many other menu items I would have loved to try from other entrees and sides, delicious sounding soups to yummy looking drinks and juices.





An overall great dining experience, and if I lived closer, I would definitely be a frequent visitor.

Little Freshie

Hope everyone had a lovely Mother’s Day!

My mom also had a birthday last week, so she had double the holidays celebrating her. Sadly, we only talked via phone since she’s 6 hours away in Nebraska, but at least she’s got plenty of quilting to do to keep her busy ; ) My dad will be in KC next weekend and will hopefully be bringing the retro flower quilt my mom has been slaving away on for me. I can’t wait to see it completed, it’s a really neat quilt! Check out her blog for a sneak peak. My mom is the best!!

Now onto part II of our relaxing Saturday … after checking out Café Gratitude, we headed over to Little Freshie for some coffee.

Little Freshie



I mentioned Little Freshie briefly in a blog post not too long ago, and I was so excited to hear they were open when we got back from NY. If you’re not familiar, it’s a new hand crafted soda fountain and espresso bar located right next door to Fud at 811 W 17th Street. The Westside has long been one of our favorite Kansas City spots and it’s so wonderful to welcome Little Freshie.

It’s started by Lindsay Laricks, who is also the creative genius behind Fresher Than Fresh snow cones. If you thought Fresher Than Fresh was awesome [like we do!] then you will  be overly delighted with her new storefront.  The design, décor, and overall atmosphere of Little Freshie is perfect, I don’t think Lindsay could have done it any better.

  

Erik and I both got the pour over coffee. I’m typically a tea drinker, but can’t seem to stay away from coffee at least a couple times a week. Erik doesn’t care for coffee much at all, but even he really likes this.

What is pour over coffee, you ask? It’s a method of brewing coffee (as far as I’ve seen one coffee cup at a time upon ordering) in which you pour hot water slowly over the ground-up beans with the idea of extracting more flavor. It seems to be one of the latest food trends, and I think I know why … it makes really good coffee!



Along with their drinks, they have an assortment of treats such as macaroons, scones, cookies and other sweets, as well as a small retail display that houses some pretty cute merchandise.

So basically, everyone needs to stop what they’re doing and go to Little Freshie right now, because you will love it!

The end.