8 Wonders of Kansas! Cuisine

Let’s face it, who doesn’t love to eat?! I, personally, love to try new things and that includes trying new restaurants – even if it’s something I’ve never tried before.  For today’s look into the 8 Wonders of Kansas! book it’s time to see those chosen in the cuisine category.

Top 8 Wonders, Cuisine

* 1. Bob’s Drive In, Topeka * (AMAZING drive in.  I’ve wanted to try this since I saw it on Diner’s, Driven Ins and Dives on Food Network but had never done it.  When I finally tried it, I HAD to try all of their best.  My menu – Double Cheeseburger, Onion Rings and a piece of pie with satin freeze (ice cream) on top.  Although it was a bit of an indulgence – read: BAD diet day – it was worth it to experience Bobo’s in all its glory. I ate at the countertop and enjoyed the atmosphere as well as the food.)

2. Brookeville Hotel, Abilene

3. Cozy Inn, Salina

4. Crawford County Fried Chicken, Crawford County

* 5. Free State Brewing Company, Lawrence *

6. Guy and Mae’s Tavern, Williamsburg

* 7. Hays House, 1857 Historic Restaurant and Tavern, Council Grove *

8. WheatFields Bakery Cafe, Lawrence

Finalists:

Anchor Inn, Hutchinson

C.W. Porubsky’s Deli and Tavern, Topeka

Carolyn’s Essenhaus, Arlington

Charlie’s Mexican Restaurant, Leoti

Crazy R’s, Goodland

* Fritz’s Union Station, Kansas City *

* Grand Central Hotel, Cottonwood Falls *

* Hibachi Hut, Manhattan * (Glad that even though this closed in Aggieville, it’s still going to remain in Manhattan!)

* Homer’s Drive Inn, Leavenworth * (I always look for this on the drive into Leavenworth)

Josie’s Ristorante, Scammon

* NuWay Face, Wichita *

Olive Tree Bistro, Wichita (this is closed, so it looks like I won’t make it to this one!)

Paolucci’s Restaurant, Atchison

Pho Hoa 1 Restaurant, Garden City

Prairie Nut Hut, Altoona

Trapper’s Bar and Grill, Simpson

I’ve actually been to 8 of these places! Wow – that’s a record for me in a category! I plan on crossing a few more off soon, but which one should be next? Let me know in the comments!

8 Wonders of Kansas! Commerce

The next topic covered in the 8 Wonders of Kansas! Book centers on the businesses that call Kansas home…I can tell by a quick glance through the list that I have A LOT of places to visit on this list.  Some on the list have been places I’ve wanted to visit for years, others are new and interesting places just introduced to me in the book.

Commerce Winners

1. Big Brutus, West Mineral (MUST see this!)

2. Brant’s Meat Market, Lucas

3. Frontenac Bakery, Frontenac

4.  Hemslojd, Lindsborg

5. MarCon Pies, Washington

* 6.  Moon Marble Company, Bonner Springs * My sister and her family live in Bonner Springs, although I just visited this amazing place for the first time this year.  We saw an amazing demonstration and I could have spent hours looking at all they had in the shop. Great place to visit!)

Demonstration of making a marble

So many marbles!!!

7. Stafford County Flour Mills, Hudson

8. Vonada Stone Company, Sylvan Grove (as a frequent visitor to “post rock country” I’m sure I’ve seen some of the Vonada’s handiwork before!)

Finalists:

Baxter’s Bait and Tackle, Stockton

Bowersock Mills and Power Company, Lawrence

Brookover Feed Yards, Garden City

Cloud Ceramics, Concordia

Cobalt Boats Neodesha

Dessin Fournir, Planville

El Dorado Oil Field, El Dorado

Koerperich Bookbinders, Selden

Mill Creek Antiques, Paxico

Millers of Claflin, Claflin

RANS, Hays

Ringneck Ranch, Tipton

The Grasshopper Company, Moundridge

Wichita Aviation Industry, Wichita

Winter Livestock, Dodge City

* Wolf Creek Generating Station, Burlington *

Not very many of these will probably end up on my travel list for the summer, but it is interesting to learn and read about some of the commerce generated in Kansas.  Other than Big Brutus (which I HAVE to see in my lifetime) are there any others on this list that are must sees from you?

8 Wonders of Kansas! Art

So, I’ve seen the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in KC, I’ve been to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums in the Vatican City, but how much of the art in KANSAS have I seen?

Art Top 8 Wonders:

1.  Birger Sandzen, Lindsborg

* 2. Blackear Bosin’s Keeper of the Plains, Wichita *

* 3. Blue Sky Sculpture, Newton *(ate a salad from Wendy’s in front of this sculpture once…)

4. Charlie Norton’s Buffalo Bill Bronze Sculpture, Oakley

* 5. Garden of Eden and Grassroots Art Mecca, Lucas * (Okay – as cool as this place is, it kind of freaked me out when I went there – I was pretty young.  S.P. Dinsmoor is buried in a concrete coffin on the grounds of the house – and you can view the body…which I did…BIG mistake! Don’t get me wrong – the sculptures are cool – well worth a visit down K-18 close to my mom’s hometown of Lincoln!)

6. Gordon Parks, Fort Scott

* 7. Joh Steuart Curry Murals, Topeka * (immediately think of John Brown with his Bible and rifle when I think of these murals located in the capitol building in Topeka)

8. St. Mary’s Catholic Church, St. Benedict

Finalists:

* Thomas Hart Benton’s The Ballad of the Jealous Lover Spencer Art Museum, Lawrence * (most recently visited this museum and saw this painting two years ago during state journalism contest held at KU)

Boyer Museum of Animated Carvings, Belleville

Davis Memorial, Hiawatha

Do-Ho Suh’s Some/One, Nerman Museum of Art, Overland Park

Elizabeth “Grandma” Layton, Wellsville

* Kansas Art Collection, Beach Museum of Art, Manhattan *

Lester Raymer’s Red Barn Studio, Lindsborg

M.T. Liggett’s Metal Sculptures, Mullinville

Martin H. Bush Outdoor Sculpture Collection, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita

Pete Felten’s Stone Sculptures, Hays and Statewide (this ge’s half of a star because I have seen the 4 famous Kansans he created for the Capitol rotunda in Topeka)

Poco Frazier’s Justice, Topeka

Post Office Section Art, statewide

Stan Herd Earthwork, Atchison

Tiffany Windows, Topeka

Tom Otterness’s Dreamers Awake, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita

Wichita High School North Exterior Paintings, Wichita

Felt like I was off to a good start with this one…but ended up with only 6.5/24…the list increases. Luckily most of these art pieces are located near other places in the 8 wonders guidebook!

Disney World Trip Rewind…the characters.

As I start going through the (tons of) photos I took on the trip to Disney World, I thought I might post some of my observations of the trip on here…up first, meeting the characters…

Having been to Disney World twice already, I kind of knew the ropes for riding rides, seeing the park, etc. However, I have never traveled with a 6 year old…who wants to meet ALL the characters…this was definitely a new experience!

It all started at Epcot.  We knew we wanted to start in the World Showcase and work our way back to the front, so we hopped on the ferry to take us over to Morocco. We had read in the time schedule that Aurora would be in France pretty close to the same time we were getting there (and she’s Rebecca’s favorite) so we headed to her meeting spot first.

Waiting patiently to meet Aurora

We lucked out by being about 5th in line, so the wait wasn’t too bad at all.  As we were walking back through the World Showcase, we noticed that Belle would be arriving in about 15 minutes, so we hopped in another line to wait for her!

Belle signing the book

As you can see, Belle has an autograph book with her…that’s how Disney gets you hooked.  You HAVE to get all the characters you can to sign the book! You just HAVE to…As we headed through Morocco, then Italy, and finally Germany, we noticed a line forming – for Snow White.  This one was MUCH longer, but we got in the line anyway and waited for our turn.

Our third princess of the day.

About this time, everyone was getting hungry (I’d already eaten a brat with kraut in Germany, but the rest of the crew (minus Rebecca) wanted to eat.  So, they stopped to eat something while we headed to do something fun.  We stopped at a mister and went by the fountain when I noticed a sign:

We had stumbled upon something to do…meet Mickey, Minnie and Pluto! And, get this, the line was SHORT! I didn’t know what a gem this was at the time, but I would discover (at Magic Kingdom) that it was serendipity that we met Mickey, Minnie and Pluto at Epcot instead of MK. She loved meeting these characters – especially Pluto who gave her the biggest bear (I mean dog) hug out of all of the characters.

So, those were all of the characters we met at Epcot – which was a pretty good day if I do say so myself!

The next day was Hollywood Studios and Downtown Disney – where we could have met a few characters, but Rebecca was tired and wasn’t too jazzed about meeting Mike and Sully or Buzz and Woody, so we took a day off of autographs…however, we would make up for it the next day.

Monday was our turn to go to the Magic Kingdom (my favorite of the 4 parks) and it was character city! If you are planning on going (and you want to meet the characters – like the princesses or Mickey/Minnie, GET THE FASTPASS!!! I’m not even joking.  We stood in line for over an hour to meet the princesses…and while I love Rebecca and she LOVED meeting the princesses, my idea of a good hour at the Magic Kingdom is not standing in line to meet the princesses for over an hour…maybe an hour to ride Splash Mountain…at least it was air conditioned.  I was so glad that we’d stumbled upon meeting Mickey and Minnie at Epcot so we could skip that line!

Here are most of the characters she met at the Magic Kingdom – some repeats, but she hit all the “big” ones.

All in all, meeting the characters was an experience none of us will forget – although standing in the lines was a bit of a hassle, seeing her smile when she met the characters was worth it.

8 Wonders of Kansas! Architecture

The next section of the 8 Wonders of Kansas! book looks at the beautiful architecture found in the 34th state in the union.  Although people my think of us as a “fly-over” state, there is some beautiful architecture within the state’s 82,277 square miles of the state…let’s see how many of these I’ve actually visited…

Top 8 Wonders:

* 1.  Chase County Courthouse, Cottonwood Falls * (I love this gorgeous building and have been there many times – thanks to only living about 25 miles away)

Courthouse in Cottonwood Falls

2. Cooper Barn, Colby

3. Fromme-Birney Round Barn, Mullinville

4. Holy Cross Church, Pfeifer

* 5. Kansas State Capitol, Topeka * (If you are a Kansas resident and haven’t at least seen the capitol building, then you aren’t really a Kansas resident in my opinion.  Visited the inside of the building for the first time in 4th grade – still remember that experience!)

6. Lebold Mansion, Abilene (I’ve heard this is now privately owned, so no tours)

7. Ness County Bank, Ness City

8. Seelye Mansion, Abilene

Finalists:

Adobe House, Hillsboro

Brown Mansion, Coffeyville

Chapel of the Veterans, Leavenworth (how is it I’ve never seen this and been to Leavenworth tons of times?! – maybe I have and just didn’t know it?)

* Dyche Hall, Lawrence * (thanks to another field trip, this time in 5th grade, I’ve been here – might be worth a second visit as I didn’t pay much attention to the architecture of the building – maybe because I was 10?)

* Franklin County Courthouse, Ottawa * (been here too, but didn’t pay much attention – worth a second look)

Historic Fox Theatre, Hutchinson

John Mack Bridge, Wichita

Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Ulysses

Masonic Center, Salina

Muchnic Home and Art Gallery, Atchison

Osborne County Courthouse, Osborne

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Damar

Sampson of the Cimarron, Seward County

* Topeka High School, Topeka * (gorgeous building, when I’m in the cafeteria, I feel like I’m at Hogwarts…)

Wichita Carthalite, Wichita

Windsor Hotel, Garden City

Uh oh…looks like I’ve only seen 5 of the winners and finalists in this category…I suppose I’ll have to rely on you to help me narrow down this list to the MUST sees for this summer. Have you visited any of these places? Tell me where I need to go in the comments!

Overall Wonders (7 out of 24)

The 8 Wonders book is split up into 9 different categories. For each category there are 8 winners and also the finalists for that grouping.   The first category lists the overall winners of the 8 Wonders. Some of the ones from the overall list also appear in the other lists, but I thought this would be a good place to start when looking at where to go.  Here is the overall list and the places I’ve visited already are marked with a star:

Top 8 Wonders (overall):

1. Big Well, Greensburg

2. Castle Rock and Monument Rocks, Gove County

3.  Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, Barton and Stafford Counties.

* 4.  Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, Abilene *

* 5. Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchinson * (to be honest, I know I’ve been there, but it was like in 7th grade and I don’t remember much about it…)

6. Kansas Underground Salt Museum, Hutchinson

7. St. Fidelis Church (Cathedral of the Plains), Victoria

* 8. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (Flint Hills), Chase County *

Finalsts:

Arikaree Breaks, Cheyenne County

Ball of Twine, Cawker City

Big Brutus, West Mineral

* Blackbear Bosin’s “Keeper of the Plains,” Wichita

Brookeville Hotel, Abilene

* Chase County Courthouse, Cottonwood Falls *

Cimarron National Grassland, Morton County

Constitution Hall State Historic Site, Lecompton

Davis Memorial, Hiawatha

Fort Larned National Historic Site, Larned

* Garden of Eden, Lucas *

Gypsum Hills Scenic Drive, Barber County

* John Steuart Curry Murals, Topeka *

Lake Scott State Park, Scott County

Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site, Republic County

St. Mary’s Catholic Church, St. Benedict

So, as you can see…I’ve only been to 7 on this list…not a great start, but I guess it’s better than nothing! If you want to look more into any of these check out the website here!!

As I start to build my list for this summer, I’m going to ask for YOUR help! Have you been to any of the places on this list? Which of those are MUST sees?

What I plan to do this summer…

Awhile ago I purchased the 8 Wonders of Kansas! Guidebook compiled by the Kansas Sampler Foundation.  The book is the culmination of a contest conducted from 2007-2010 and highlights 216 of the best places to visit in Kansas.  As a life-long Kansas resident, I have visited many of the destinations in the book (which I will discuss in my next blog post) but there are hundreds that I haven’t visited. 

My plan this summer is to check more of these unique and fascinating places off my list and to see a little more of my home state in the process.  I hope to take at least 4 mini road trips this summer to tackle much of the list – and maybe visit a few more here and there along the way.  I know there is no way that I will get through the list in one summer, but I’m excited to start the process of planning a few of the trips! 

As expected, I will take you along on the journey with me.  I hope to write about and (of course) photograph my experiences along the way.  Are you ready, because I can’t wait to get started!!

The one where I try something new.

A few days ago I posted a simple question to facebook. “I’ve never had brussel sprouts…but I kind of think I would like them. Anyone out there like them? How do you prepare them?”  Let’s just say, the answers were quite varied.  People either love to love them, or love to hate them.

The first responses I got were ALL positive.  People loved them, the were “the bomb,” “awesome,” basically everyone was telling me they were great and what I’d seen on TV with people hiding their brussel sprouts in milk or trying to feed them to the dog were just a Hollywood fabrication…not the reality. Then, the naysayers began – HATE was tossed around, NASTY, there was a “don’t do it” and even a preparation method that had you salting and tossing them in olive oil before pitching them in the scrap heap…Like I said – a totally polarizing vegetable. Probably one of the most polarizing foods besides mushrooms (by the way, I am totally on the LOVE side of the mushroom debate).

Personally, I’m a pretty big fan of veggies.  I like all the “normal” ones – LOVE broccoli, cauliflower, okra, steamed cabbage. There are a few I don’t particularly like, but I will eat most of them.  So, I decided that maybe it was time for me to take the leap and try brussel sprouts.

I headed to the store yesterday afternoon (the day before blizzard #2 in less than a week was supposed to hit) and realized that the produce section was a ghost town…the shelves were bare,..no lettuce, no tomatoes, no celery, no potatoes, NO PRODUCE…except…that’s right, you guessed it – they had brussel sprouts (could this be a sign that I shouldn’t try them?)

I bought a container of sprouts, some EVOO, made sure I had some garlic, pepper and salt…I was ready to go.

After assembling the ingredients, I preheated my oven to 400 degrees and started cutting the brussel sprouts in quarters.  (I did trim a little of the stems off).  After quartering the sprouts, I drizzled a little EVOO on them and made sure each of the brussel sprouts were covered

Next, I covered a pan with aluminum foil (just to ease with clean-up)  and put some salt, pepper and garlic on the brussel sprouts.  Then they headed to the oven for 20 minutes.

I did turn the sprouts over about halfway through so they would get done evenly, but for me 20 minutes was a perfect amount of time to get them done but not overdone.  I pulled them out of the oven, and prepared to try my first ever brussel sprouts…

Here it is…the moment of truth…would I be a brussel sprout lover, or a brussel sprout hater? Turns out, I am a lover…I loved the flavor (especially with the garlic added) and roasting them was the perfect choice.  Not sure I would feel the same way if I steamed them, but loved them this way!

So what about you? How do you feel about brussel sprouts? Is there a veggie you’ve always wanted to try?

The one where I get crafty.

I knew this time was coming…after more than two weeks of a break – school starts tomorrow.  So, how did I spend this last “free” day…making a craft! Add another pin to my “I made that” board!!

Today’s project was a Heart Argyle Valentine’s Wreath that I got from HERE:

What you need – Wreath form, 2 colors of felt, yarn, heart pattern, marker and hot glue gun.

First, you want to wrap your wreath form in yarn – this is actually kind of time consuming, so find a good movie andget to it!

Next use your heart pattern and trace hearts on your felt – the number you need will depend on how big your hearts are – you will need an equal number of each color…I maybe should have cut mine a little smaller…

Be careful to make sure that you can’t see the marker anymore when you flip it over….and plug in your hot glue gun!

Place your hearts in an alternating fashion around the wreath and hot glue them in place. (Atticus wanted to be in the picture…)

Finally, glue a piece of yarn to the back and wrap it around the wreath in a diagonal over the hearts…then take another piece of yarn going the opposite direction.  Ta da!!

The one where I’m apparently promoting great value products…

Tonight was the night to tackle one of my pins on pinterest…today’s pin was a recipe for Yummy Cheesy Broccoli soup.  You can see the original post HERE or you can read the recipe below. Disclaimer: I didn’t realize until I assembled the ingredients that I bout all Great Value brand products…sorry if this looks like a commercial for their products

Ingredients you need:

21 oz. chicken broth, 20 oz. frozen broccoli, 1 can rotel, 8 oz. reduced fat easy melt cheese

You can also add in other ingredients that you might want.  I’ve seen variations with onions, carrots, cauliflower, etc. – you can also add in spices to kick it up a little. I did throw some garlic powder and pepper into mine.

First off, you need to put your chicken broth, rotel and broccoli into a pot and cook for 8 minutes (until broccoli is tender).  I decided that I wanted my broccoli smaller than what it was – so I spent some time cutting the broccoli up once it got tender enough.

While you wait the 8 minutes, cut your 8 oz. of cheese into smaller pieces so it will melt more quickly.

Add in the cheese and allow it to melt completely…then all you have to do is serve it up. It makes about 8 1-cup servings with about 100 calories per serving – not too bad!

This was a really easy meal to prepare and it packs a nice little punch with the heat in the rotel.  I’m glad I will have this for leftovers this week!!