Tuesday, May 15

Reception 5:30 p.m.

Dinner 6 p.m.

$95/person

A selection of white and red wines have been specially chosen to pair with unique food offerings not on the usual menu at Mestizo. Chef Brad Rishmany will educate guests on the food and wine selections throughout the evening. Limited to 40 persons. On the rooftop at Mestizo. Reservations required. 913-752-9025 or mestizoleawood.com

The Chaz on the Plaza culinary team led by Executive Chef Charles d’Ablaing presented a seven-course Chef’s Tasting Menu dinner April 17 at a limited seating event promoted on a first reserve basis through consumer engagement channels.

The dinner featured selected new menu items from Chaz’s spring dinner menu:

First course offerings of She-Crab Soup, a creamy bisque with female crab harvested off the Georgia coast flavored with a smoky tomato whip and sherry minionette; and Rabbit and Goat Cheese Ravioli with honey-thyme glazed carrot foam, pancetta and asparagus.

New main courses are: Deconstructed Beef Tamales, a generous portion of tender braised beef short rib atop a pablano polenta with blistered tomatoes and salsa verde; Rock Shrimp Campanelle, a pasta dish with arugula pesto, caramelized cherry tomatoes, summer squash, goat cheese and balsamic reduction; and Seared Quail with cherry compote, quinoa, morel duxelles and truffled frissee.

The new menu also features Chaz signature items tweaked for the new local harvest season, including two served at the tasting dinner: Chaz Salad with cinnamon toast, sweet tea poached blackberries, Gorgonzola and strawberry vinaigrette; and Diver Caught Scallops with corn and parsnips, cilantro-lime butter and toasted carrot sprigs.

Dishes drawing special praise from first-tasters were the She-Crab Soup, Deconstructed Beef Tamales and Chocolate Orange Torte with Grand Mariner ganache, dehydrated orange slice, candy hazelnuts, honey ginger ice cream and fresh raspberries.

Information, menus and reservations are available online or by calling 816.802.2152.

Great events all week long including the area’s first Dine Out for Hunger Project … and all of the fun culminates with the ever-popular 2012 Ooh! Outpouring of Hope at the Independence Events Center on May 4, 2012

IMAGINE your delight as you arrive at the Independence Events Center and witness street performers, musicians and more!

ENJOY the indoor and outdoor environment where you and 750 of your closest friends can visit and sample some of the areas best treats!

EXPERIENCE Kansas City’s biggest indoor/outdoor block party featuring “streets” inside the Independence Events Center filled with vendors, musicians, tables, chairs, food, drinks and more … all in an effort to support Community Services League!

Your tax-deductible tickets to the event will assist us to:

- Provide more than 600,000 meals to 20,000 families

- Provide more than 40,000 pieces of clothing for children

- Help keep a roof over the heads of more than 300 of your neighbors

- Help more than 400 individuals find meaningful employment!

Tickets

Tickets for the 2012 Ooh! are on sale now and start at $75/each with private VIP, business, and event sponsorships available too!
Click here to purchase tickets. 

Click here for more information on 2012 Ooh! Sponsorships! 

Can’t make it that night (or any time that week)? Please consider a contribution to support the annual efforts at Community Services League!

Whether you are into cooking, dining out, calorie conscious or have special diet needs there is an app for that and more!

Trozzolo Communications recently contacted me to see if I would be interested in testing out some foodie apps and if so the great folks over at Verizon would loan me out an ipad2 and a Motorola Xoom to try them out on.

I have to tell you I am having a blast with these gizmos and am super bummed I have to send them back. The Xoom is in android format and some of the apps are available for android-based gadgets as well as ipad and iphone.

As I searched the app store, I found more than I could ever use. There is truly something for everyone whether you need gluten free recipes or want to make your own dog treats; you can find it all with a touch of the finger.

All the apps I tried were free and listed below is my take on them. This is just the tip of the iceberg so if you have an ipad, iphone, or android device and love food, go ahead and explore for yourself. It is quite entertaining, educational and informational.

The first app I tried is called Grocery IQ. This app is available for both ipad and android and once I played with it on the ipad, I immediately installed it onto my android phone. This app is handy especially for the phone. The ipad itself is equipped with a scanner but I found the ipad might be a bit big for carrying around the grocery store. My phone is the perfect size so I downloaded a scanner app from the market. This app allows you to make a grocery list by either typing in products, scanning them, or both. Finished off the last of the ketchup? Scan the bottle before putting it in the recycling bin and it will be added to your list so you are sure to never forget anything again!

The next app was called Fooducate and I love it. It is not available for android. It uses the same scanner method as Grocery IQ, but instead of adding it to a shopping list, it gives you a nutritional score of the food. It gives the product a grade from A – F and the reasoning for it. It pulls up all the nutrition facts about the product and even gives suggestions as to what would be a healthier choice. This app is great for those that are health conscious or just trying to eat a little better.

For dining out, I tried Urbanspoon, Local Eats and Yelp. All of these are available for both the ipad and android and can give you information about all the different restaurants around. When traveling this app will allow you to find out what is close and read reviews to find out what is good so making the decision on where to eat becomes a snap! Other apps that involve dining out are Foodspotting, Eat Street, Snapfinger and many others.

At Foodspotting you can see pictures of what other people are eating. Like what you see? Information includes where to find it so you can try it for yourself. Foodspotting is member based so you too can join in on the fun and share your favorite dish with the world. Snapfinger is an online take out ordering service and Eat Street is an app that will find all the local food trucks in your area. There are tons of options regarding restaurants. I even found an app for the newly opened Story Restaurant in Prairie Village.

One fun app for dining out especially when traveling is called Show Foodie, this app list places that have been featured on different TV shows like Food Wars, Diners Drive Ins and Dives and Man VS Food.

For cooking and recipes there are about a zillion, and you can find them both for ipad and android gadgets such as the Xoom. There are apps on how to cook every kind of cuisine imaginable as well as special diet needs such as diabetes and gluten free. The cooking and recipe apps I tried where epi from Epicurious, Reipe Grazer, Eating Well and Lite 42. Epicuirous features recipes from various magazines such as Gourmet and Bon Appétit. With a touch of the screen, the recipe ingredients are added to a shopping list and you are good to go. Recipe Grazer is a feast for the eyes with tons of photos and recipes from some of the best blogs around. Eating Well features healthy recipes from the magazine and Lite 42 features recipes and information from some of the hottest restaurants across the country.

If you are trying to watch your waistline there are plenty of diet and food logging apps including Spark People, Diets 2 Go, Best Diet Foods, My Food and Calorie Track.

For pure entertainment, there are plenty of foodie games.

I loved ,loved, loved playing with the iPad2 and the Xoom and they are now on their way back and I am on my way to convincing my hubby I need one of these! If we do decide to purchase one of these devices, I would have to go with the iPad2. In my opinion, I found it a bit lighter and a little easier to search with. Both were great and super cool. Remember if you love food; there is an app for that.

This year’s Artist Series wine is an exquisite Cabernet Sauvignon hand-selected by The Capital Grille’s own Master Sommelier, George Miliotes. The Cabernet was hand-crafted at Napa Valley’s Freemark Abbey Winery by Ted Edwards, in collaboration with George Miliotes, one of only 186 Master Sommeliers in the world. Fewer than 1,000 cases of this unique wine, blended solely for The Capital Grille, will be produced.  The wine’s grapes were harvested from carefully selected vineyards in Napa Valley, where differing elevations and a unique terrain result in the perfect conditions for creamy, roundly textured flavors.

The Capital Grille invited artists and wine lovers to submit original art for the bottle’s label, during a competition held last fall. The winning painting, Complexity, by Missouri-based artist Julie Agee, was chosen for the way the vibrant colors and abstract lines perfectly complement the robust flavors and subtle undertones of the wine. The artwork will appear on every individually numbered bottle of The Capital Grille Artist Series Cabernet Sauvignon.

Featuring more than 350 Old and New World selections housed in floor-to-ceiling, temperature-controlled wine kiosks, The Capital Grille also offers a Captain’s List of 125 collector wines.  Additionally, guests have the opportunity to lease a wine locker, personalized with an inscribed brass nameplate.

The Kansas City Capital Grille is located on the Country Club Plaza at 4740 Jefferson Street.

For more great food finds in Kansas City visit the blog at What You’re Missing KC!

If you have a great food find in KC, you think we are missing, please contact us.

Kansas City, Mo. (March 1, 2012) – The craftsmen at Farm to Market Bread are feeling their Irish as they bake crunchy, savory Irish Soda Bread just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. The bread is available for a limited time, March 9-17, at select stores.

Made with all-natural buttermilk, raw sugar, sweet golden raisins and chunks of butter, the bread is perfect for breakfast, dessert or as a treat with coffee. Production Manager Craig Flaker modified a scone recipe shared by a pastry chef in New York City to create Farm to Market’s Irish Soda Bread.

“The lore surrounding Irish Soda Bread is as rich and varied as the country where it originated,” says Farm to Market founder and Chief Baker Mark Friend. “We are proud of our version of this traditional Irish bread and the care and quality that go into every loaf.”

Farm to Market Irish Soda Bread retails at $4.99 per loaf and will be offered in select Kansas City-area stores from March 9-17:

· Cosentino’s Brookside Market

· Cosentino’s Downtown Market

· Cosentino’s Brookside Price Chopper

· Cosentino’s Price Chopper, 95th & Mission

· Marsh’s Sun Fresh, Westport

· HyVee ,77th & State Line Road

· Hen House, 87th and Lackman

· Corinth Hen House

· Camelot Hen House, 119th and Roe

· Prairie Village Hen House

· Deer Creek Hen House, 135th and Metcalf

· Fairway Hen House

· Hen House, 6234 N. Chatham

Lawrence residents can find Irish Soda Bread at Community Mercantile.

About Farm to Market Bread Co.

Farm to Market Bread Co.  was founded in 1993 to bring handcrafted bread made with fresh ingredients to Kansas City-area tables. Farm to Market breads are delivered daily to local groceries and restaurants. Follow us on Twitter: @FarmToMktBread.

Check out this list to pick your perfect place!

I was invited on behalf of Seasons 52 to try some of their new winter menu items at their Kansas City location on the Country Club Plaza.

The new Winter Menu items offered at Seasons 52 include:
• Organic Tomato Stack Salad – with arugula, blue cheese, chopped bacon and a balsamic glaze
• Grilled Venison Chop on Venison & Mushroom Ragout – with truffle mashed potatoes
• Farmer’s Market Vegetable Plate – with roasted Bosc pears, butternut squash, grilled tofu and almond   tabbouleh
• Roasted Spinach Stuffed Silver Dollar Mushrooms
• Golden Beets – with wasabi sour cream

Read more about the menu items on the Blog.