I ♥ Cinnamon Rolls.

Today we ate cinnamon rolls.

I went to Story , a lovely little Prairie Village restaurant, this morning with Britt for an event dedicated to cinnamon rolls. 

How excited do you think I was???

The answer is "very".

Judith Fertig is a writer {and blogger!} who lives in Overland Park and has published several cookbooks.  Her latest is titled i love cinnamon rolls.  The event included the book, lunch, and a demo by Judith! 

We arrived to the sold out event and were immediately seated and served coffee and a warm cinnamon roll to enjoy while we poured over the book.  Oh my word...  I don't even know where to begin to think about choosing a recipe to make.

 

Do I start with the simple and lovely Traditional?  Or do I choose a more exotic selection such as Mexican Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls, Cinnamon Bear Claws, or Szechuan Pepper Rolls with Ginger Glaze???

 

Did I mention she includes several vegan recipes???  I'm going to write a book called I ♥ Judith Fertig.

 

Then I'll probably make the Whole Wheat Pumpkin-Pecan Cinnamon Crowns.  Because, ya know.

Judith prepared her traditional cinnamon rolls while we all oohed and ahhhed and I took notes. 

Mine never rolls out that nicely.

 

She was super funny and had lots of great tips.  I was very jealous of the fact that she could demo, uninterrupted, and how everyone laughed at her jokes.  Demonstrating for adults, happily sipping their wine, seems much more fun than demonstrating for 12-year-olds.  Not once did she have to ask anyone to stop talking or touching each other.  And she didn't have to ask anyone to move or send anyone out of the room.  Lucky.

Cinnamon Confetti.

Judith addressed lots of questions about ingredients, baking times, and how to test for doneness.  Besides being very informative, she really conveyed the love that goes along with baking, especially baking bread.  There's something wonderful about working with dough.  I think she nailed it when she called it therapeutic.

After the demonstration was over, we moved on to lunch.  I've been wanting to try Story for quite some time now.  It's a small place, and the chef/owner was present and working away on our made-from-scratch meal.  They had no problem adjusting the pre-fix meal to vegetarian.

Drool-worthy menu.

The first course was a Butternut Squash Bisque.  Yum!

Delicious!

Judith sat down at the table next to us and was so sweet to chat with us while we ate.  She told us a bit about her career and how she came to love food, cooking, and writing.  I felt a little bit star-struck.

The chef prepared me an out of this world ravioli with spinach and mushrooms instead of the fish that came with the meal.  I wanted to lick my plate it was so good.  I refrained.

And dessert was an interesting mix.  It was a lemon cake with grape sorbet and cinnamon walnuts.  Very yummy, but not a combination I would have ever thought to put together.

And then, as if we hadn't received enough goodness, we were sent home with a couple of tiny cinnamon rolls.  I probably should have saved them for Drew, but I couldn't help myself.  They were too cute not to eat immediately!

 

Hey little cuties!



What a fun event!  I'm so thrilled to have met such a lovely, successful woman and shared some cinnamon roll love!  I have a feeling you will be seeing a few cinnamon-roll posts this winter.  Get excited!

 

 

Check out Judith's blog if you are interested in her work.  She has posted several of the recipes from the book, including those insanely-amazing-sounding pumpkin crowns!!!

A Majestic Evening

I'm so out of the habit of blogging that I didn't take any pictures at supper club this month... 

Also, I forgot to do supper club for like 3 months.  My bad.

This means I'm going to have to rely on words to describe the evening.  And that's a big job.  Because it was quite an evening.  I'll do my best.

Drew's birthday was Friday.  He's been wanting to go to The Majestic for months now.  So we made a reservation and invited some friends.  Because supper club without friends is just supper.

We showed up right on time for our 7:30 reservation.  We were told it would be about 10 minutes until our table was ready.  So we sat down at the bar and ordered some fun drinks.  The bartender was great*.  He wouldn't let me order my first choice because he was sure it wasn't for me.  He recommended something that came out pretty & pink* but didn't taste too sweet and frilly.  I loved it.  He even got Drew to try a new beer*... which he totally loved. 

Bartender = 10

A few minutes later we were escorted downstairs to our table.  We were set up right in front of the stage** where a hilarious trio of jazz players* were performing.  The room was small and the music was loud.  It was a fun atmosphere to enjoy our dinner.

Ambiance = 10

Our waiter was friendly and apologized right away for the fact that we were sitting directly under a speaker** and that he would basically have to shout** in order to communicate with us. 

Service = 9

That didn't stop DeAnna from asking for a vegetarian recommendation.  The Majestic is big on steak.  Which we knew.  So it was no surprise that the vegetarian options were slim.  This did not dampen our spirits.  We had fantastic drinks and the boys were quite pleased with their delicious-o steaks.
 
Food = 10 {Drew} 7 {Jamie}

We ate happily, enjoyed the somewhat unconventional jazz performance, and chatted loudly to be heard over the music.  As we received our checks, we all agreed that this was just a fantastic experience...

... and right as the boys were signing our bills, a man who we assumed was the manager came over to our table.  We assumed (wrongly) that he was checking on our experience and making sure we'd had a magnificent time.  He was not.

He informed us that he had received some complaints about our noise level, that people were trying to listen to the jazz, and asked that we keep it down.  No really.  That's what he said.

We were all seriously dumbfounded.  Like, we thought he was joking.  We were signing our checks and obviously getting ready to leave.  Not to mention the music was loud.  I'm still seriously confused about the whole situation.

Really Rude & Ill-Timed Waiter = 0

I was seriously sad because that guy put such a bad taste in my mouth and really ruined the whole experience for me.  We were just saying how much we loved the whole experience.  And then that happened.  Boo. 

We left the restaurant.  But we didn't let that ruin our night.  We headed to Manifesto for a nightcap. 

Manifesto is supposed to be a speak-easy type place below the Rieger Hotel.  I had texted for a reservation but they told me just to show up.  We walked around like idiots trying to find the place... feeling like maybe we aren't cool enough for such a thing.  When we finally found it, we realized we definitely aren't cool enough as there was a crazy wait for a table. 

I don't like waiting for booze, so we hopped across the street to Affare.  It was here that we saw the greatest mustache of all time*.  And we took the only pictures of the night. 

Happy Birthday!

Welcome to Supper Club!

Okay, so I'm going to pretend the whole stinky-waiter/manager butthole thing didn't happen and try to give an objective restaurant review. 

The Majestic was really a great experience (minus you-know-what).  If you are looking for a nice dinner out and are thinking of going somewhere like Capital Grill or Plaza III or some place like that for a nice steak dinner, think of The Majestic instead.  The bartender alone is worth it!  Just please remember to keep your voices down. 


*No photo
**Important to the story later, so remember this information

Whack!

I am still in awe of the fact that I am allowed to not only supervise children, but influence them.  I often feel very unqualified.  I didn't go through a traditional teacher education program, so sometimes I feel like I missed out on some of the rules.  Most of the time I just hope that I'm not totally screwing them up. 

 

A few weeks ago, while in our fruit unit, we had a "weird fruit" day.  I went to Whole Foods and bought the weirdest fruit I could find. 

 

FYI, the selection of weird fruit available in Kansas in October is sad.  But middle school kids think a kiwi is weird.  So pomegranates, star fruit, plantains, and coconut really blew their mind.

 

I was totally unaware of the process that is required for cracking into a whole coconut.  I had to Google it, then head over to the Wood Shop room to borrow a hammer and nails.  

 

Fortunately for you, I have it on tape.  I asked one of my students to snap a photo (for the blog of course) and she suggested a video. 

 

Brilliant. 

 

My students are brilliant.

 

Unfortunately for me, this was one of those instances when my vocabulary was inappropriate for middle school.  I didn't even realize it.  Drew watched the video and pointed out that you can't say, "whack it" to 12-year-olds. 

 

See for yourself:

 

 

Not so bad, right?  I'm sure it isn't the worst thing I've said in front of them. 

Thank you for continuing on with this ridiculous and random post.