The Little Pig

We were at an outdoor shindig recently, and the menu
was potluck PLUS bbq and beans from The Little Pig
in Belton, MO. (Check out the link for store info.)

We're pretty fussy about our bbq, no doubt about it,
and honestly, we probably wouldn't have eaten at
The Little Pig without this first introduction.

The ribs were the most tender I've ever had--in fact,
the meat literally fell off the bone, which was fine
by me. The burnt ends were big hunkin' tasty chunks,
but not really what I think of when I think burnt ends.
The beans were worth eating, a nice vinegar tang to them.

My mom and dad loved it, and have eaten in the tiny
restaurant several times. We also bought my dad a
gift certificate for his birthday, which gave Scott
an excuse to have a sandwich for lunch when he picked
up the cert.

Not my first choice for bbq, but not bad at all.
Scott likes to stop by for a turkey sandwich at lunch.
My mom and dad like the pulled pork and ribs.

:)

So much food, so little time . . .

Okay, yes, we're still out there eating!

Latest Mexican--Maya's Mexican Bistro.

It's one of the prettiest Mexican restaurants we've
visited, and the service was fantastic. Very friendly,
fast, attentive but not weird. Know what I mean?

Chips and sauce were okay. Not great, not yuck,
but okay. Scott had the carnitas, and they were,
well, okay, as well.

I fared a little better with the smoked chicken
burrito, which I thought was worth a second visit.

So, great atmosphere, excellent service.

Would we eat there again? Scott says while he
wouldn't go out of his way to eat there again,
it would be, umm, well, okay.

Okay?

tomatoes (and a no-cook salsa recipe)

One of my favorite summer things is home grown tomatoes.

We had the good fortune to be the lucky recipients of
a friend who was going on vacation's second picking of
not only tomatoes, but jalapenos--THANK YOU, Chuck!


So, of course, that equals a batch of salsa.

This recipe was easy to make, easy to adapt to our tastes,
and I like that it uses all fresh ingredients.

Ingredients--for all, you can add more or less, to make
this salsa just the way you like it! Chop the veggies
smaller or larger, depending on the texture you like:

* 3 tablespoons finely chopped onion (I used about 1/2 cup)
* 2 small cloves garlic, minced (I used 3 medium cloves)
* 3 LARGE ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeds removed, chopped
* 2 hot chile peppers, Serrano or Jalapeno, finely chopped
(I used three--added some seeds for more heat)
* 2 to 3 tablespoons minced cilantro
* 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons lime juice (I used 1/2 cup)
* salt and pepper

Preparation:
Put chopped onion and garlic in a strainer; pour 2 cups boiling water
over them. Let drain thoroughly. Allow to cool.

Combine onion and garlic with chopped tomatoes, peppers, cilantro,
lime juice, salt, and pepper. Refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours to blend
flavors. As much as you'll want to dig in right away, believe me,
it's worth the wait!!

the answer to the question . . .

. . . is YES, it DOES make my bum look big!

Bad news--haven't been eating out as often.
(AT ALL, actually.)

Good news--lost five pounds, and my jeans
fit again!!!

:)

Cafe 75

One of the benefits of going to work is that our shop is right next door to Cafe 75, located in the Westbrooke Shopping Center, at the corner of 75th and Quivira.

I'm telling you, they have great sandwiches, some lovely soups (DH particularly likes the smoked pork soup), and the cupcakes are delicious. That's pretty magnanimous, coming from me, as we have a pretty high standard for baked goods. If it doesn't taste at least as good as something we make at home, we generally won't
even bother to waste our calories eating it.

What we eat at Cafe 75: Sandwiches, chips, soups, cupcakes.

What we think: I can personally recommend the turkey press (pictured), the Chipotle pork loin, and the Blueberry Almond Chicken Salad. Never had a green salad there, but they look wonderful, too. You can't go wrong with the warm, crispy, perfectly seasoned waffle chips! The service is friendly, the take out is fairly fast, the atmosphere is bright, clean, and cheerful. The cupcakes choices change out, but all the varieties we have been fortunate enough to taste, we very much enjoyed.

The little things count: They package the take out orders very nicely, and that's right, that sammich better come with a pickle! (It does.)

Would we eat there again? And again, and again . . .

*****Sad update--the Cafe has since closed, but Executive
Catering is still up and running, albeit at a different location.*****

Topsy's Popcorn

We were at Metcalf South yesterday, where there happens to
be a Topsy's. I have this thing for cinnamon popcorn, so
we stopped in--they even had a fat free variety, which I'd
never tried.


It was the best cinnamon popcorn I've ever eaten.
I don't know if it was a random mistake, or if Topsy's
has gone extreme in their flavoring, but this was so
spicy, it hurt (in a good way).

You notice there's no pic of the actual bag of corn,
right? Because we ate it all before we got home . . .

Mr. Gyros

Today we lunched on take out from Mr. Gyros.
This was only our second visit to Mr. Gyros, which is really
strange, since the restaurant has been around for (according
to their website) 25 years, and we've been eating out in KC
together for almost 30!

Today we ate:
Gyros (duh, right?), baklava, and galaktoboureko.

What we thought: The gyros are great. We like the tzatziki--
it could have more garlic in it as far as I'm concerned, but
Scott says "don't mess with it." He also likes the super soft
pita.

The baklava was pretty good; I like mine layered, with a touch
more lemon flavor, but the amount of syrup was good--NOT soggy.
I do NOT like soggy baklava.

Which brings us to the galaktoboureko. Soggy. I've only had
galaktoboureko once before, but it was nice and custardy, not
soggy. So, I dunno if it's always like that at Mr. Gyros, or
if the custard had started to separate, or what.



The small things matter: Excellent napkins, nice weight
plastic ware that doesn't break when you try to eat with it.

Atmosphere: We went at lunch. They were super fast with the
service, not particularly friendly (probably due to being mega
busy). Very clean, bright, cheerful. The people waiting in
the vast line behind us didn't seem to mind a bit, probably
anticipating the good things to come.

Eat there again? No doubt. Like I said was our second visit,
so that ship already sailed.

Any new suggestions for Greek in KC? Besides Tasso's, and the
Mediteranean fare at Jerusalem Bakery?