Ciao Italian Kitchen

My first order of business as a newly pledged local dinee was fulfilled at Ciao Italian Kitchen on North Webb road in the Waterfront. While their West counterpart has been a bit longer established, Ciao's East location exceeded my expectations in regards to typical Italian food.

Our lunchtime dining experience was far more pleasant than if we had gone elsewhere on a Saturday afternoon, but there were enough customers present not to deter us from eating. Tucked nicely in a corner of the North end of the Waterfront, Ciao presents the option of indoor our outdoor patio dining; it being 100 degrees today we certainly opted for indoor. If kitschy, typical Italian restaurant atmosphere is your experience of choice, Ciao may not be for you. Ciao presents a modern take on Italian dining with their chosen decor, my favorite component being the staggered light fixtures in an oval atrium-esque middle area. The kitchen is not tucked behind a swinging door, but instead a stainless steel cook area features their chefs at work where you can hear, see, and smell your food cook. It isn't as distracting as you might think; in fact, my attention was rarely deterred by a distraction from the kitchen, but it was an interesting aesthetic choice that added to the experience. 

After a friendly greeting, the servers write their names upside down on the covered tables and explain that their food is freshly prepared, a detail I quite appreciate. One of my concerns with Italian restaurants is that they can often be stingy with their bread. Ciao kept the fresh mini-loaves of buttered Italian bread with a dipping sauce of olive oil and herb mix coming without hesitation. We didn't choose an appetizer and decided instead to fill up on free bread. Our entrees were safe choices, but were delicious nonetheless. I ordered the Roasted Red Pepper Panini and home made waffle fries and Andy had Pasta Puttenesca. My panini had grilled chicken, grilled onion, green pepper, and a creamy sauce with a satisfying, yet not overwhelming, amount of fresh cut Parmesan waffle fries. This menu item is being given a trial run during the summer to gauge customers' reactions and may perhaps become permenant depending on the amount of people who order their specialty items. I found it to be filling enough, I only finished one half (but I did have a lot of bread), however; I actually would have preferred more of a red pepper taste and a red sauce over the cream sauce which was a little runny and a bit heavy on the garlic. It was a lighter option that was acceptable for a lunch meal, and was ultimately fairly good. 

Andy's Puttenesca had chicken, meatballs, and sausage tossed in a spaghetti noodle and tomato basil sauce. What I loved about this dish is that it wasn't an overwhelming amount of sauce and that it didn't taste like sauce from a can loaded with sodium. It was mixed enough to coat, but wasn't an obvious red and had fresh bits of tomato in it. The meatballs are larger than golfballs and were no doubt his favorite portion of the dish. I found it to be a nice alternative to Spaghetti and Meatballs and he highly recommends it for red sauce lovers. 

Other aspects of dining also allowed our experience to be quite pleasant. 

While there were no children dining with us and we didn't receive a child's menu, their appetizers listed an Italian chicken fingers that are made in-house and served with their home made fries. Also, the crayon table cloth was a nice touch for entertainment and would easily occupy an impatient child during their family's dinner. We did not have to wait long for our food and the service was great. The prices are extremely reasonable and the portions are huge. I made two meals out of my panini and Andy made four meals out of his Puttenesca-- and we are NOT light eaters. The prices did not exceed fifteen dollars and both of our dishes were under ten.  

Unfortunately, we did not save any room for dessert, but we saw a large plate of tieramissu pass by and it looked delicious. Next time we may have to go for indulgence and have only bread, wine, and dessert!

Happy Dining!

Chain Free's the Way to Be

I recently overheard a meeting between a business owner and his marketing specialist where they were  discussing marketing techniques for their restaurant in Wichita. Business management is not a topic which particularly interests me, so I made no attempt to listen to the conversation. I then heard a snipet of information that I found intriguing: Wichita has the highest number of restaurants per capita second only to Philidelphia. 

What?

The restaurant industry in this city is exponentially over-saturated, and with poor excuses for nourishment at that, but I'm willing to bet that over half of those eateries are chains. So where are all these restaurants? Why are they all here? And why on earth do I rotate between the same ones???

Perhaps it is that we are suffocating in a cloud of industrial, corporate induced comatose brought on by the same chains that continue to bring customers in day after day, year after year, and continue to build their establishments on every street corner. 

Or maybe I'm just naive. 

I have lived here one year and I seldom reach beyond my comfortable and "affordable" means and eating habits. 

Wichita has such a uniquely diverse population that it seems a shame to waste our caloric intake and hard earned dollars on a well-established corporation rather than an underappreciated local business. 

It is a shame, and I now relinquish myself of their control and my own naivety. 

While I have been McDonald's free for a few years now, I sheepishly admit my shameful cravings for the other fast foods that should have been long banned from my lifestyle. Being from the Midwest, Braum's is my number one pick for fast food, any time, hands down. And Braums, I commend you for using horomone free feed and treatment in your meat and produce, but most everything I want from your menu is still fried and was probably frozen. While I do retain a bit of my dignity by avoiding the monopolized corporations, I could do even better. 

Not being a native Wichitan, I have been blindly unaware of the plethora of dining options that are quietly tucked away in some of the cities most interesting areas, and in my ignorance I have continued to run willingly into the arms of Applebee's half-price appetizers and McAlister's tasty, fresh sandwiches. In my research, I've found that there are innumerable amounts of authentic, amazing, local, and fresh options run by genuinely hard working people whose passion is to serve up their favorite foods to the residents of Wichita. 

For example,

Due to its extremely diverse population, there is no shortage of any type of food in Wichita one could ever desire. Delano, Old Town, and Riverside are blessed with built in atmosphere perfect, and essential, for a restaurant. Indeed, many entrepreneurs have taken advantage of this very opportunity and have left their mark on the American food industry with their trendy, hip, or laid back, your choice, of bar and grill scenes.

Wichita also has an amazing selection of Medeterranian foods where you'll be served up quality, healthy foods by the friendliest people you'll ever meet for an unbeatable price. 

Authentic Mexican food is difficult to come by especially considering that I grew up in a town whose population was and remains to be approximately half Hispanic; I am one of the pickiest of the picky when it comes to the US's take on Mexican.

Sure, there are several Tex-Mex options that have migrated here from the South, but they're sadly not what I'm after. But look no further, ladies and gents, there lies some of the most fantastic Mexican food I've ever tasted within the city limits of our very own Wichita, Kansas. If you travel a short distance West, you will come upon an indescribable selection of authentic Mexican food served up fresh and daily and are exponentially paramount to anything dished out by a national chain. No fear though, East siders, there's a fix in your neck of the woods as well!

Did you know Subway is the worst possible place in this city to get a sub sandwich? The fact that I could make a better sandwich in my own kitchen aside, there are some delectable delis that should be the prime choice for our weekday lunches  without having to settle for long lines, sub-par food, and re-purposed shredded paper lettuce. 

I could literally go on and on.

Therefore, I hereby make a pledge to my body and wallet to consume only foods prepared at local establishments  where I can indulge in my favorites in addition to branching out and expanding my palatal horizons. It is my hope to highlight my experiences in the best way possible to turn others and myself off from the bland regularities that could be experienced identically around the country or even the world. 

So there it is, documented and published to hold myself accountable. I am no longer able to circumvent my convictions.  

So long MSG injected Great Wall sweet and sour chicken, farewell Wendy's value menu, I bid thee all adieu! Here's to a journey to find the best local eats in Wichita and locate the establishments most worthy of my precious time, money, and nutritional allotment. 

So far, no regrets. 

Common Core and I may both coexist after all...

In my omnipresent haste and need to be right, I would like to retract a few of my concerns previously voiced in regards to the implementation of Common Core (which is now being referred to as College and Career Readiness) in addition to answering a few of my own questions. I've taken a page from the transcendentalists and the results have surprised me. 

1. CC is a set of standards meant to provide benchmarks for students throughout their educational journey. Therefore, students, parents, and teachers should be able to better determine when a child is falling behind in a subject. 

2. CC requires that 70% of material read by students be non-fiction; not solely via Language Arts, but across the entire spectrum of subjects being covered in the school year. It is assumed that the remaining 30% be used in the Language Arts classroom whereas History, Science, Music, Math, etc. be contributing more non-fiction material than are currently being done. 

3. CC is desperately trying to get teachers to go against the grain of teaching to the test and teach meaningful and relevant material that will also be covered on standardized tests. CC encourages project and activity based learning to ingrain information to the long term memory versus memorization solely for the school year or a test. 

4. Schools may choose to forego their individual state's form of standardized testing and may choose the ACT instead. 

While College and Career Readiness has yet to be fully integrated into our education systems, I feel more at ease with the information and experience  I have gained thus far with CC. My personal teaching style is definitely more activity based and incorporates several non-fiction pieces that relate to current events which, unbeknownst to me, was one of the goals of CC Language Arts all along.

Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

So, I digress. 

Common Core Questionings

A wise educator from my days in secondary school once advised us to always question authority. In a culture where it's easy to perpetuate your own self-importance and self-appointed authority, people whose heads have bloated with ego then consider themselves to be an oracle of knowledge because they have a few likes on Facebook. Fortunately, most of these people have no pull in the real world (unless you count the right to vote), but their opinions do influence the multitudes of people who unfortunately, aside from pop culture, do not pay attention to current events. Lemmings such as these DO have substantial influence upon their community and their families and continue to perpetuate propaganda and the uninformed opinions of their quasi-conscious acquaintances. While the topic of common senseless people will always put me on a soap box (note to any future students who want me to veer away from assignments or hear my horrific stories from years of dealing with the public for minimum wage) these people are not the focus of my concern, but are certainly incorporated in it. Common Core is a newly issued state based set of standards for the subjects of math and language arts. These standards pose to alleviate the chances of falling behind for students who move from state-to-state, but more realistically and universally by unifying curriculum of all states to make the post-high school job market an even playing field. How? By creating benchmarks at every point in the student's career, the checkpoints will serve as a conference to check-up on their progress and see what needs to be focused on in their personal studies.

Idealistically speaking, the system sounds perfect and, hey, isn't that what educators should be doing in the first place; making sure that their students aren't falling behind? But how can we be sure that all teachers will comply with these standards; because the world is certainly not devoid of terrible teachers who are too protected and hidden by teacher unions. We can't regulate what teachers who weren't teaching before will be teaching under the new standard and this won't magically hold students more accountable for what they are or are not learning.

I haven't totally disregarded Common Core, but I just cannot begin to see how mass, uniformly regulated education is a good thing because the little people, in this case students, actually get overlooked!
Something that has recently raised concerns with the implementation of Common Core are the falling behind of the more advanced students; there is currently no program within the state standards for their education because these benchmarks don't allow for early advance. This isn't to say that there won't still be gifted classes offered, but for the more advanced student not in the gifted classroom, the teacher will be concerned more with the students who have not hit their benchmarks, and we've come full circle to No Child Left Behind.
My biggest concern with Common Core lies not within the voiced questionings above, but in the required curriculum. Districts have been told that they can still create their own plans according to what they would like their content to be, which I'm assuming pertains more to language arts than math, but the standards have required that 75% of what students read in school be non-fiction.
As someone whose degree emphasizes the importance of literature and the role of fiction in society and culture, my eyes popped out of my head. But, before gearing up my rant-and-rave-to-blow-off-the-steam engine ensued, I decided to research it a bit more. What did I find, but the statement from the Secretary of Education who could have regurgitated my rebuttal to this mandate to a tee. It reads "while fiction is a great way to express ones emotions and connect people together, it won't get you the corner office." WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS? Fiction is the common thread that triggers empathy and understanding for people or groups for which we wouldn't typically associate with. What this country needs, more than ever, is connection, understanding, and an element of unification. Fiction and the continually oh-so overlooked Arts helps us to understand history and people and development of our own language. If we don't teach them, who will?! What isn't covered at the secondary level, will now have to be covered at the collegiate level, and let me just emphasize that these PhDs will be far less than thrilled to have to cover how to annotate poetry or text or question why kids didn't read To Kill A Mockingbird and won't be able to connect any literature currently taught in classes to previously read works because they'll be reading high school fiction. College professors will now have to completely change their curriculum!

In order to make this regulation run smoothly, there needs to be an established, reputable set of non-fiction books that can be turned to, something not currently established. We cannot continue to trial and test books that have no sustenance or place amongst literature; this only causes students to lose interest in literature because they're reading bad literature! It's not as simple as turning to the tried and true favorites like Hamlet, The Adventures of Huck Finn, Dante's Inferno, or Of Mice and Men. Before changing the standards, we need to have an abundant selection of GOOD material to choose from.

I will put a positive plug in for CC because I do agree with one statement made by Mr. Secretary and the premise behind the language arts standards. Non-fition, narrative specifically, helps build up writing tremendously. One of the most overlooked and under-fulfilled skills of students today is the importance of being a good writer. We've heard for years in regards to math classes "When will I ever use this again?" and teachers spew out their cliched answers to which students continually disregard. I would like to profess from the highest mountain that EVERYBODY NEEDS TO KNOW HOW TO WRITE AND COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY!
I'm certainly not talking about writing creatively, but rather writing a research paper, an email, a report, what have you, even something as insignificant as 'FOR SALE' on back window of a car (I once witnessed a FER SALE sign). Yes folks, communication, GOOD, effective communication, is the one thing which must not be lost among our culture. So, I support the reasoning behind reading non-fiction! I do, however, suggest that we listen to those currently working in education and trust their judgements and value their opinions. As a junior in high school, we read 'The New Yorker' each day, but we still kept time for the literary fiction I fell in love with.

In recapitulation: no, fiction will probably not grant you the corner office; yes, writing and communication desperately needs more attention; yes, writing can be improved by reading narrative non-fiction; but, will this program be effective? Only time will tell.
Let not my thoughts disrupt your beliefs, for I neither condemn or condone an untested program not yet experience by myself; but in the mean time, keep your skepticism, ladies and gents, and let your questions lead you to the answers.

Ground Turkey Enchiladas and Cream Cornbread

Ground Turkey Enchiladas and Cream Cornbread 

Andy is a pretty picky eater, especially when it comes to Mexican food. Until the last year or so he orders chicken strips and fries when we go out; he's 23. Since our relationship, we've both agreed to broaden our horizons as far as ordering something we wouldn't otherwise and eating vegetables and such.

This was the second Mexican dish I served up for us, the first being very mild quesadillas.. think kiddie style without peppers, and he was pretty happy with it. Unfortunately for him since our household rule is whoever doesn't cook has to clean, enchiladas were a pretty big mess to clean up after. 
But first,
I must give credit where credit is due.
The cornbread is a family recipe from my Aunt Pam who gave me a wonderful cookbook full of her personal favs and old family recipes for a wedding gift!

Here's my recipe that served up about 6 small meals:

Ground Turkey Enchiladas Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Equipment:
Skillet
Spatula
Can opener
Measuring cups
Cutting board
8x8 pan

Preheat oven to 350

Appx. 8 oz of ground turkey
1 can of enchilada sauce (more may be used, but this was sufficient for us)
1/2 cup of lite sour cream
1/2- 3/4 cup of mild cheddar cheese (shredded)
5-7 whole wheat tortillas (or however many you can stuff in an 8x8)
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 cup of salsa

1. Cook meat in a skilled. When meat if halfway done, add in the onions.
2. Continue to cook the meat and onions until the meat is done and onions are nice and tender.
3. Bring the heat down to low so as not to curdle your sour cream.
4. Add 1/2 can of enchilada sauce and stir into meat and onion mix.
5. Add in cheddar cheese and stir until it starts to melt.
6. Add in sour cream last and stir until all ingredients are blended; be careful not to let mix begin to bubble.

Remove from heat.
Spread some EVOO around in the bottom of your 8x8.
On a flat surface (I reused my cutting board area) place tortillas in a pile to begin assembly.
Scoop about 1/4 c. of meat sauce into tortillas.
Then fold up tortillas burrito fashion: top and bottom "corners" folded up, then "sides" folded over with folds on the bottom of the pan.
Continue until you're out of room in your pan and out of meat sauce. Ideally this will happen simultaneously; however, you might have one or two overstuffed shells. :)

Now that you have a pan of warm, plump burrito-like entities, you're ready to sprinkle the goodies on top.
Because I like cheese, on go a half-handful of cheese (save the other half for the end)
followed by the remaining enchilada sauce and a couple small dollops of sour cream.Then comes the salsa; I didn't add much, just enough to give it a kick of salsa flavor( but my Grandma and I make homemade canned salsa that doesn't take much for a kick).
Gracefully spread the ingredients atop the tortillas until they look pretty mixed
*I do tend to leave my burrito ends sticking out a bit so we can see where to cut.
And more cheese if you please.

Pop that baby in the oven for about 20 minutes. Really this is to your discretion because I had my cornbread going at the same time, so my oven was nice and warm. All you really need to do is toast up the tortillas and get everything nice and melty because everything is already cooked.

Voila!






So it's not beautiful, but I have no claim to visual artistry and it's yummy!
Also, we don't use microwaves and this reheats beautifully in the toaster oven if you put a plate in on bake for about 10 minutes.






Cream Corn CornbreadPrep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30-45 minutes
Serving size: 16 squares

This cornbread made a lot for two people, but it's difficult to cut in half because everything comes from a single serving box or can and I'm just lazy enough to not want to deal with that, but for those of you who have more than two people in your family, it won't take you an entire week to devour this.

Materials:
Large mixing bowl
Medium sized Pyrex- I used a 9x11
Rubber scraper

Preheat oven to 350
Ingredients:
1 box of Jiffy corn bread mix
1 can of cream corn
8 oz. of sour cream
1/2 stick or 1/4 cup of melted butter or margarine
*Since we don't use a microwave we used a small microwave safe bowl placed in the toaster oven on warm for 5 minutes; this is less messy than using a saucepan.




Pour mix into the Pyrex and bake. To determine if they're done or not, I use the toothpick method.

Since I usually cook these dishes together, I mix up the cornbread first and pop it in to bake, then prepare the enchiladas and leave the enchiladas in with the remaining time for the cornbread (about 15 minutes).

Simple, Homemade, Crock Pot Oatmeal

As we continue our journey of healthy eating, we've taken the next step with our breakfast. Quaker advertises their heart healthy whole grain oats, but not only can they be pricey, but they're pretty sugary as well. I've experimented with a few different recipes and even with a differing outcome each time, all have been yummy!
This recipe is my favorite because it's ready when you wake up in the morning- great if you have kids!- and doesn't leave the messy pans that stove top oats would.

Crock Pot Oatmeal

Again, I apologize for the lack of photography skills and artistry; all I promise is yumminess!

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 8 hours
Serving Size: 6(ish)

Materials:
Small crock pot
Measuring cups

Ingredients:
1 cup of steel cut or old fashioned oats; NOT quick oats!!
1 cup of water
2 cups of skim milk
*This recipe is a runnier version of oatmeal, so if you prefer a more solid breakfast just cut back the liquid a tad; you can always add more milk in the morning to help cool off the oats!

Additional Yummies:
1 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon
1 Tbs. brown sugar
1/2 apple diced
OR
small handful of cranberries
(these can be added prior to the cooking process)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Honey, Brown or White sugar, extra milk, or chopped pecans or walnutscan all be added in the morning to each individuals taste!

Cook on low in the crock pot for 8 hours over night; when you wake up in the morning just stir and scoop into a bowl!

The Art of Non-Microwaving

The amount of time I've spent using a microwave to reheat or cook food compared to the time I've spent not using one is relatively large. My husband and I both were raised using a microwave. Of course I'd always heard nasty rumors about why you shouldn't use them and how oncologists wouldn't keep them in their homes and so on, but as I was leaving for college I made darn sure I took a microwave to my dorm room and then to my college house; it seemed essential.

Never did we really consider not having one in our home until we were registering for gifts at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for our wedding. As we perused through the appliance section to choose one of two previously agreed upon expensive gifts for the list, we came upon the toaster ovens and microwaves. Both of us had pretty archaic microwaves that were hand-me-downs from either our parents or older, already college graduate siblings, but both of us had always wanted a toaster oven. We agreed to put it on the list to see how it did and if we didn't receive it then we would use some of our gift money to purchase a less expensive microwave at somewhere that was not Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but since we would be living in an apartment once we moved, both were not an option.

Luckily we received the toaster oven as a gift from Andy's aunt and uncle (Thanks Wayne and Diane!) and we decided to leave our old appliances where they belong: in college. We've been microwave free since May 2012 and are now huge advocates for the toaster oven or any other means to prepare food.

At first, it was tricky. Our first leftovers in our apartment was spaghetti and meatballs. The meatballs were easy and we popped them in the toaster oven in an oven safe dish, but the noodles were more difficult and quite frankly, something we hadn't thought about. However, we have since figured out how to a.) more moderately ration our noodles because they're just as easy to cook fresh with leftover sauce and b.) re-heat noodles we don't want to waste: by boiling a tiny bit of water and adding the noodles until they're hot; it does take practice and trial and error.

The benefits of not having a microwave are fantastic.

• Leftovers taste better than they ever have in our entire lives.
• Toasted cheese might be as good as grilled.
• The toaster oven won't heat up your house like an oven will. 
• Breakfast toast is better than the toaster.
• Hot dogs and buns can be cooked together and always taste like the fair.
• Quick, yummy s'mores!

The list is endless really and the only real drawback to not having the microwave is the time saver; what you could heat in 30 seconds takes around 5 minutes, but this is a sacrifice we were willing to make and just needed to be worked into our schedules. Not having a microwave really forces us to be creative.

I'm going to try as often as possible to put reheating information along with the cooking info on the recipes and even have a link specifically pertaining to the toaster oven.

Please feel free to ask questions!!

Cheers!