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A new Cozy Inn is supposed to open this month in Aggieville in Manhattan, Kansas. Aggieville is just across from the Kansas State campus and has lots of bars, places to eat and little shops. Aggieville is where the ball is dropped on New Year's Eve here in the "Little Apple."

If you decide to take the Kansas route and head down I-70, the Brookville Hotel is right off the interstate at Abilene. Great homestyle chicken dinner, but plan on a nap afterwards. Or if it's a Sunday night, stop by my place for pizza! I live just a mile north of I-70.

The wheat is all cut, but you'll see the incredible Flint Hills and Konza prairie, really, really beautiful this year.

Whichever way you go, have a safe trip!

Pizza- my son and his wife came up this evening. It's a chance to catch up with them. Sunday night pizza goes way back. My niece posted this on her blog...
"And the tradition continues....
In my family, Sunday night is known as Pizza Night. Sunday night, pepperoni pizza, and 60 Minutes, it all goes together. To this day, I can't hear the "tick, tick, tick and the familiar "I'm Harry Reasoner, I'm Morely Safer, and I'm Ed Bradley" without tasting Mom's pizza. For as long as I can remember, we've had pizza on Sunday nights. She always made homemade pizza. She was FAMOUS for her homemade pizza.

In fact, for one of the church bazaars, she put up a gift certificate for 2 homemade pizzas. It brought well over $100. I think she actually ended up making about 5 to fill that gift certificate, as a neighbor bought it, and we had their whole family over that night, plus the 5 of us!

In college, I had several speeches to compose for Speech 102 class. One of the criteria for one of the speeches was an "exciting or overwhelming" fact. (or something like that). I'd just been home for the weekend. As I was driving back to Manhattan, I started thinking of what to write for the speech (which was probably due the next day!). The pizza I'd just had for supper was fresh on my mind. An overwhelming fact........I was 19, assuming Mom made 2 pizzas every Sunday night for my entire life, that totalled up to 1976 pizzas!!!!! Holy pepperoni!!!!! Now THAT was an exciting AND overwhelming fact! Yes, I used this in the speech, and my classmates were quite impressed. I think it might have even been the only "A" I got on any of my speeches! :)

Now that I'm an adult, I've tried to carry on the pizza night tradition. It may not always be homemade, in fact, Pizza Hut is just a quick phone call away, and Mark likes their crust better. My brother and my Aunt Connie have Sunday night pizza nights too. They DO make theirs homemade. They both make AWESOME crust! Bill has a degree in milling science, so he knows his flour, and has a way with gluten!

Homemade to Mom was truly homemade. The sauce was canned from tomatoes from her garden, the crust from scratch, the cheeses from the neighbors dairy, and the hamburger probably came from one of our cows. Homemade to me, is more like semi-homemade! I assemble ingredients into a pizza.

It's my turn and duty to pass the pizza making tradition on to my next generation. And since Plowbaby has now expressed an interest in cooking, tonight was her first lesson."

She followed this with pictures of her 4 year old rolling the dough, putting on the pepperoni and cheese. Just wish her mom was still here to share it.

Sunday, July 26, 2009
Plowbaby turns 4 - the cake
The theme this year was Hello Kitty. Pink, pink, and more pink......with a little bit of orange, blue, green and white thrown in for color!

This by far is my favorite cake that I have made for her, and the cupcakes turned out great too.

I used the "animal crackers" pan by Wilton for the cake, and trimmed the "bear" ears to look like "cat" ears. My friend Deb made the buttercream frosting for me. (I always wonder why she and I can use the same recipe and hers tastes SOOOO much better! - Thanks Deb!) The bow, eyes, nose and whiskers are from rolled fondant colored with Wilton gel.

I had a template to work with, so it wasn't like I was constructing this blind! The template is her snack pack that came with her backpack for school. She even picked the "funfetti" cake mix. YUM!

The cupcakes....just your standard chocolate cupcakes with white buttercream frosting and confetti sprinkles. They were yummy too!
Posted by Kansas Plowgirl at 12:13 PM 3 comments
93rd Annual Crawford County Fair

The County Fair starts this week. We have been out working on the fairgrounds getting buildings and pens cleaned up, grass trimmed and mowed, a new "ice house" has been constructed and painted. (That is "we" as in : the Fairboard members, 4H families, FFA members and other community leaders). Plowboy wonders why I spend time out there, it's because I enjoy it, and I believe that Crawford County has a great Fair, and I would like to see it keep improving.

The following press release was written by a long-time Fair supporter. (Thanks Kari!)

GIRARD, KS — Plans for the 93nd Annual Crawford County Fair are underway. The Fair is scheduled for Wednesday, July 29 through Saturday, August 1, 2009.

It features exhibits from 4-H and FFA members, Open Class exhibits, in which anyone can participate, and will include a variety of livestock shows and the 4-H Livestock Sale on Saturday. Complete rules and classes are available in the premium catalog, available at the Crawford County K-State Research & Extension Office at 120 E. Buffalo Street in Girard or online at crawford.ksu.edu.

In addition to exhibits and displays, there will be two nights of ACRA/IPRA Rodeo (locals welcome) action provided by the Williams & Long Rodeo Company of Cambridge, Kan., and sponsored by Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Pittsburg. Additional chute sponsors include Labette Bank, Pike’s Fertilizer and Molle Automotive.

On Friday, grandstand entertainment includes the third annual Tuff Trucks Figure 8 Event sponsored by Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative and on Saturday, the popular McCune-Girard Young Farmers Demolition Derby will be an action-packed event.

All grandstand events will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for all of these events will be available in advance of the shows only at the Grandstand ticket booth.

In addition to the Grandstand shows, each night of the fair will feature free musical entertainment on the Midway Stage. This year’s line-up will kick-off with Diversity on Wednesday evening. Thursday will feature Pittsburg’s own, Area 51. New to the Crawford County Fair on Friday night is the KKOW Colgate Country Music Showdown. See some of the area’s best talent compete for a spot in the state competition. Wrapping up the free music series, back by popular demand is “Little Elvis,” Duke Mason.

As always, no fair would be complete without a carnival. Southern States Amusements will have games and rides for your family’s entertainment.

So mark your calendars and plan to join us for the 93nd Annual Crawford County Fair east of Girard on Kansas Highway 47 from July 29 to August 1.
Posted by Kansas Plowgirl at 10:35 AM 0 comments
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Kansas Plowgirl
I'm just a simple girl, leading a simple, but yet busy farm life. My hubby and I have been married for 16 years, and we have a wonderful 4 yr old daughter. We farm with hubby's brothers, and raise dryland corn, soybeans, and cattle.

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* ▼ 2009 (22)
o ▼ November (1)
+ Happy 18th Katie!
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+ And the tradition continues
+ Out with the old, in with the new: CAR FOR SALE!
+ The end of one chapter, but the beginning of anoth...
o ► July (3)
+ Plowbaby turns 4 - the cake
+ 93rd Annual Crawford County Fair
+ I've been missed?????
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Find a sweet & spicy rub and rub it well into both sides. Sear well on both sides using hot coals or a griddle or electric skillet. Place a flat rack in the bottom of a large roasting pan, then wrap the seared brisket in heavy foil and place on rack. Poke a few holes in the bottom side of the foil so some of the juice drains out. Cook at 200-225 for 30 minutes per pound until very tender.
I usually make it one day, let it cool and then slice and reheat the next day w/bbq sauce if you like. Being meat&potato people, I would probably fix scalloped potatoes or a potato casserole. Doing both the day before is nice because the mess is cleaned up.

I usually don't have much for lunch - but today was a nice exception.
We had a soup pot-luck. There were 6 different kinds of homemade soup,
several loaves of homemade bread, a plate of relishes and some cookies for dessert. Now I just want to take a nap! If we did these too often we'd never get any work done.
White chili w/ chicken
Gumbo w/chicken and smoked sausage
Borscht
Chuckwagon stew
Broccoli cheddar
Baked potato w/bacon & cheese

We have them several times a year and they are hit and miss. One was a soup theme and we had about 8 types of soup and the rest filled in with salads, breads, desserts. We have our share of store boughts, but would rather have staff participate and enjoy rather than thinking they needed to bring something over-the-top, from scratch in order to take part.
One of the best potluck stories isn't from work but from a social group that gets together every month for dessert and conversation. This took place back in the late 1950's or early '60's. (the group, mainly farm wives, has been together in some form for close to 80 years) They had a Sunday night potluck and brought the husbands to share the meal. EVERY member brought a pie! No meats, no vegies, no salads, just pie. Since then they usually send around a sign-up sheet so there's a little protein! I'm sure the old farmers loved the pie, but would have appreciated some meat and potatoes first.

There's a book called "The Perfect Mix" by Diane Phillips that has
"90 gift-giving ideas for bread, soup, dessert and other homemade mixes."
Check to see if your library has it. Lots of great ideas.

We live in the country so have no one to buy for, but that doesn't stop me from doing it anyway! There is one neighborhood where a co-worker lives where about everyone in town goes to trick or treat. She has had as many as 1200 kids come to her door.

Several years ago my 2 sisters, 2 daughters, niece and nephew and I met in KC to go to a show but first had lunch at the Savoy. My niece had car trouble and a kind soul had driven her clear through KC to the restaurant. When the rest of us arrived she was settled in the big window booth having drink and calming her nerves. Our waiter had taken good care of her. He looked like he had been with the Savory almost since it opened - well over 100 years! He gave us such wonderful service and told us great stories about the history of the Savoy and Kansas City. The Savoy was a favorite of Harry & Bess Truman and there's a plaque marking the booth they always used. The recommendations and food were excellent and it proved to be the beginning of a very memorable weekend. We've been back to the Savoy a few times since and always enjoyed great service and food, but that waiter and that day will always stand out.

I'd have to echo a lot of the selections...Ruth Reichl, Calvin Trillin, Buford's Heat and add Michelle Lee West's "A Food Obsessed Life"
I enjoyed "Julie and Julia" and foodie mysteries are one of my guilty pleasures. Not great lit - but a fun distraction and the Diane Mott Davidson books have some great recipes.
Currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It makes me wish I had worked a little harder at putting in my garden. Barbara Kingsolver is coming to the Prairie Fest at the Land Institute in September. Really looking forward to hearing her discuss the book.

I thought about this thread as I was eating a pretty average buffet lunch with my mom and wishing there was some place a little nicer we could have gone. When you're 100 miles from anywhere, Applebees sounds pretty fancy. The cafe was where Mom wanted to go and that's what counts. I drove up (about 80 miles) to go to church with her and spend the day. As I said, lunch was so-so, but the day was beautiful and it was nice to have time for just the 2 of us. Mom's 87 and pretty amazing. She just bought her first pair of blue jeans as well as a 42" flat screen HDTV. One of the best things for me was channel surfing and coming across a replay of the KU-Memphis game. Watching the end of that game on the big screen was great!

We have a Traeger grill which is electric and uses pellets (hickory, cherry, etc.) It's great for things you want to cook slowly like ribs or brisket. It makes a wonderful beer can chicken. Things stay very moist. You just have to remember to check the pellet chamber and makes sure it stays filled. It doesn't work well for steaks and burgers because it doesn't sear the meat so I'm looking for a griddle or something to preheat that might to do job. Our local butcher had 6 oz. fillets on special last week for $2.49 each and I ended up cooking them inside using a cast iron skillet. Soooo goood!