Mystery Nibbles and Sips While In Absentia

Life continues to be wretchedly busy and finding time to write has become more and more a chore, so I find myself vexed regarding the many events and moments I haven't written about.  The best way I can think of to recapture the ever-more distant past is to write about them as captions for various photos of dishes, drinks and moments I've experienced over the past few weeks...or months...so in spirit of Vanity Fair's annual Hollywood Issue, allow me to introduce them...

The Tart - Top left is the goat cheese, apricot and honey tart that was the marvelous meal-capper at one of Willow Springs Mercantile's recent wine dinners.  We sat in the new wine cellar area and shared the lovely repast including wedge salad and pasta with locally made Caldarellos' sausage with Keith's parents.

The Ale - Parkville Brewfest is one of the best known local celebrations of all things craft beer.  Nearly 50 local and regional breweries were represented and I got to catch up with old friends Linda, Shannon and Joel while sampling the various suds.  Hundreds of brew hounds attended and the uber-talented School of Rock kids were the entertainment highlight.  My personal favorite was the Contact High from Four Hands Brewery with its hints of orange zest pictured at right.

The Nirvana Pie - 2013 was a bang-up year for The Missouri Wine Fest. 

Record crowds descended and sampled several different Missouri wines.  The Fest, one of Keith's DEP organization's biggest fund-raisers changed it up to accommodate the larger crowds this year and the result was a move to the Elms Park grounds and extending the fest to two days.  Some marvelous food additions accompanied the changes and two of the most popular were from Bobkorn and   Table of 5 Catering.  Rob, the genial proprietor of Bobkorn, created a delectable gourmet blend of popcorn featuring cheddar, rosemary, garlic and truffle oil.  Table of 5 was the hotspot for gourmet pies and they created some tasty wonders with their awesome portable wood-fired pizza oven.  My fave was the pie pictured at left, called Lisa's Nirvana with arugula and goat cheese. Serious yum.  The lovely Daphne of DEP and the proprietor of Willow Spring Mercantile is pictured at right.

The Caviar, the Molecule and the Grain - We've had precious little time for cooking of late, but we

have enjoyed a few successes.  I made a righteous cowboy caviar based from this recipe but changed it up using Greek vinaigrette instead of Italian dressing, zesty diced pickled green tomatoes in place of half the regular diced tomatoes and using canned chipotle corn instead of frozen corn.  Superb!  The "molecule and the grain" in question came from this awesome Quinoa (the grain) with Roasted Garlic (the molecule-looking roasted garlic at right) recipe from Cooking Light.  The roasted garlic makes it and it is so healthy and tasty.

The Sauced Face - our first weekend at the lake with the family this summer was also a birthday

celebration for young Tanner.  The birthday boy designed his own menu for the gathering and indeed it was one after my own heart.  His dad's killer buffalo wings were the spicy star and astoundingly, he remembered a coffee cake K and I had brought one year and after a brief panic of trying to find the recipe, we whipped it back up.  That cake was the Barefoot Contessa's Sour Cream Coffee Cake (Keith is drizzling at left) and the recipe is here.  As for those kick-ass wings, well, Tanner's sauced-up face says it all.

The Reward - Finally, we ran another Color Run 5k, this one at Arrowhead Stadium.  Our post-race reward is one of our favorite pizzas, the St. Louis style pictured at right from Imo's pizza.

There's a brief and small look at our busy summer.  Just had a great weekend I'm hoping to write about soon and I have some more to write about the hometown visit soon as well...