Author: sfarrisyoung

Springfield Style- The Farris’s return to Leong’s Teahouse

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A couple of weekends ago when we took family friend, Emily, to visit mom and dad, we went to the new Leong’s Teahouse.

This dish made of deep-fried chicken, brown oyster sauce, green onions and cashew nuts was created by Mr. Leong as a way to appeal to local tastes. The popularity of fried chicken meets chinese culture recipe helped put chinese restaurants on almost every busy corner of the city. There are so many “cashew chicken” restaurants in Springfield that you can get a lunch special for under $4.00 (with crab rangoon included). As most Springfieldian’s are (I’m sure Brad Pitt included), I was shocked to find that Springfield style wasn’t widely available outside of southern Missouri. If it was on the menu, there were often “additions” or “subtractions” that just didn’t make it Springfield style. The first time I ordered Cashew Chicken in Kansas City I was floured that it wasn’t deep fried. I just had no idea there was any other way to eat it! A family fight over the original recipe closed the first Leong’s. Now due to Springfield Style fate, a son of the originator has officially opened a new Leong’s. This being Emily’s first trip to the area, we had to go.

Crab Rangoon, of course

East meets West again. They now serve BBQ as well, so John had salad and fries.

 

The original!

Mom and Emily trying it out.

 

Dad ordered sweet and sour chicken.

 

Honestly, most of the meal was spent discussing how the new Leong’s just wasn’t as good as Hong Kong Inn. I know, you would think we would be totally blown away by the originator, but the years have changed our taste buds and we prefer the Springfield style we grown to love in Leong’s absence. We were actually more of a Jade East family when I was little because they were close to our house, but Hong Kong Inn reigned supreme during my middle school/high school/ college years, and let’s face it, they’re still on my speed dial.

I’m glad we got to taste the real deal once again and share local cuisine with a new friend, but alas, all we can say is , Thank You Mr. Leong for creating this deep-fried delicacy and inspiring others to do so too.

 

 

 

 

Steph’s Birthday in 3 Acts: Act 3- Dinner

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Our before dinner activities included…

Pretending like we were at the beach, but we were really in the front yard.

Then we headed downtown to the location where St. Mary’s Hospital use to be. Yes, I was born at 6:48 pm at St. Mary’s Hospital across the street from Hallmark Cards. I don’t know what that says, but I think it helped me get a job there. All that’s left of the hospital is the corner-stone and the bell from the chapel.

I got it in my head that I had to ring the bell at the time was born…so I did.

Of course then we tried to take some trick photography…

After our antics, we went home to make dinner. As many of you know, I really love Paul Newman’s Vodka sauce. Love isn’t a strong enough word really…thank you Paul for creating this jar of thick tomato-y pleasure.

This year I decided to stuff mushrooms with garlic, basil, and tiny mozzarella cheese balls.

The mushrooms sautéed for a few minutes in oil then I let them simmer in vodka sauce for thirty minutes on low.

I served this up with spinach and regular fettucine and JY’s famous toasted bread. And of course we stuck a candle in it.

This plate kicked-off my new daily ritual of posting my favorite meals to facebook!

We watched Shakespeare in Love, one of my favorite movies, drank wine and I gave myself permission to eat all of one of my giant british chocolate bars. If you haven’t heard about my love of Montezuma British Gourmet Chocolates, then you my friend need to come over and see my chocolate chart. I covet them for special occasions and there’s hardly any occasion more special than a birthday.

Needless to say, I only got 3/4 of the way through. When I say, “I’m going to eat the whole thing,” that’s never a good sign for my belly. Being newly 35, I heeded my belly’s warning.

Steph’s Birthday in 3 Acts: Act 2- Lunch

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Our pre-birthday lunch activity was riding bikes on the trail at Corporate Woods. It’s not the Katy Trail, but it’s still a good time!

I can hear you shouting about public affection right now, Lyn.

For lunch I made one of my favorite things: Dad’s sautéed veggies in rice with veggie buffalo wings. Dad doesn’t do the veggie buffalo business, but he taught me how to saute veggies in butter and worcestershire sauce when I was a sophomore in college. It’s one of my favorite summer meals and since I love to cook myself lunch, I had to have it for my birthday,

JY had veggie corn dogs.

We had peach pie with blueberry ice cream for dessert.

AND we had to stick a candle in it even though it was only lunch. This started with John’s birthday this year when we were in England. I was trying to create a birthday/home feel in a foreign country, so I stuck birthday candles in all of John’s meals. When it came time for lunch, John said, “Where’s the candle?” I think we’ve started a new tradition!

Stephanie’s birthday in 3 Acts: Act 1- Breakfast

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I started a new ritual of getting up at dawn on my birthday and having a cup of tea outside. It’s a peaceful and caffeinated way to start my new year and I really love it.

Another little tradition I brought back last year was having breakfast pancakes in bed. This is something my mother always did for me growing up and, of course, the tradition fell off my adult radar.  Cooking early in the morning is one of my greatest joys in life. The house is quiet, my focus is devoted to the flour on my hands, the way the wooden spoon stirs around the bowl, and the sizzle of melting butter…

I love the way morning light looks on my oven and colors the batter. Yes, I do love my pancake moments.

Lyn’s advice about adding another spoonful of baking powder made the pancakes thick and tall, just the way I like them (thanks sis). I also like my pancakes a little pale as well as golden. Mom and dad will remember how I use to beg for them to be a little gooey in the middle– I still like them pale, but not so gooey.

I know it’s totally silly because I made the pancakes, but I get SO excited hearing him come down the hallway. It’s probably the happiest moment of my very happy day. Think about a birthday tradition you use to have as a kid and try it as an adult– you will not regret it– I promise.

John and I ate our pancakes, investigated my birthday horescope, and read the funnies together. What a yummy good way to start my big day.

Meals and miles on the Katy Trail!

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Lynley, Aunt Linda, Jessica, and I all went for a ride on the Katy Trail a couple of Friday’s ago. The Rocheport trail is our favorite spot, with the bluffs, the river, and the trees– it’s just biking heaven. I almost rode over 2 snakes, 5 tiny toads and 1 very tiny turtle (my new power animal I think). Good job saving the turtle, Lyn-lyn.

After an hour and half on the trail we stopped by a local eatery, Abigail’s. Linda said the food would be wonderful and not only was that true, the restaurant was full of kitschy mobiles and bicycling stuff. I loved it! Finding outstanding food in little towns can be like finding a needle in a haystack, but it’s so worth the search (nothing against little towns at all…just saying).

Note bike rims as pots and pans holders and Linda humoring me.

Before lunch we used our limited table crayons to draw things we wanted on the paper table-cloth. Lynley drew chips and dip and a picnic, Jessica drew kale and her hammock, Linda had Jessica draw her a cowboy (some specifics: brown boots and a “My baby rocks a beer gut” as his cell phone ring– I know TMI).

I drew…

Raspberry Pie with Blueberry Ice Cream

That’s really all I want: to write, to be content, to love my honey, and eat homemade pie (with ice cream whenever possible). It’s kind of nice to actually know what you want in life and to see it represented in crayon after a perfect bike ride.

For lunch I ordered the Seacake (salmon, cod, and crab) with fresh tomatoes on a spring salad. Yum. (bread too).

Helmet hair.

Lynley and Linda split a pretzel bun turkey sandwich and Jessica had a turkey quesadilla minus the cheese.

For dessert, they did NOT have any raspberry pie with blueberry ice cream. They did have blueberry pie with a coconut cream drizzled on the plate. I know it wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but there’s time for all kinds of pie in this life and not enough time like this with my family.

Sunday, July 24, 2011: A McCartney Meal and a bittersweet anniversary

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I’m not going to lie to you, but yesterday was a hard day. A year ago Sunday two wonderful things happened to me: I started my 6 month sabbatical and I (with all my family) saw Paul McCartney in concert. Both events changed me as a person in ways I can’t even begin to explain, so Sunday was there was some reflecting and serious sadness going on…and that’s just the truth.

To celebrate our first meeting with our pal Paul, I made a meal from one of Linda McCartney’s cookbooks and homemade cornbread with the Sanford’s baked beans.

At the last moment I decided to add a swirl of honey to the top of the corn bread and it made a crispy, sweet coating…very interesting.

Sanford baked beans is a recipe from our beloved and neighborly-basically-family members, yes, you guessed it, the Sanford’s. John and I leave out the bacon which might drive one of the Sanford’s a little crazy, but hey…we just don’t dig on swine.

Linda’s meal all took place on the grill. It involved marinated vegetables and veggie sausage kabob and egg dipped, garlic stuffed cornmeal potatoes.

Here’s pictures from our grilling process– John was the man in charge of the keeping the fires burning.

pre-grilling/ post-boiling

Ok, here’s the story on the potatoes. The Linda McCartney cookbook I have is used and the cook who owned it before me took detailed notes on what was good or not and why and altered the recipes. If you’ve read Harry Potter then you’ll get the “Half-Blood vegetarian” feel of this next section. The cook noted that these potatoes were “bland, despite the garlic, but the cornmeal crust had a nice crunch.” I thought, “I can add garlic powered and pepper to the cornmeal and that will solve the bland issue.

Dang it! It didn’t work. I have to remember the Half-blood vegetarian is always right.

For dessert we decided to walk down to Sonic for ‘Blasts.”

I got Oreo and John got Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup…can you tell which is which?

They were both almost too melt-y to eat, so we ate the whipped cream off the top and put them in freezer to “reconstitute themselves” as John said. Guess what’s for dessert tonight!

Sunday Night Dinner: July 17, 2011- Happy National Ice Cream Day from a Busy Kitchen

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This Sunday was national ice cream day. So I started the day off right with a little ice cream after lunch.

I spent the afternoon making a Midsummer Corn, Tomato, Fennel soup for our Tuesday night meal. I made the broth myself and added corn cobs to it. The recipe also has potatoes in it, a lot really, so I have no idea why they aren’t in the long title.

John hung up our new kitchen radio. As many of you know, music in the kitchen is key for our meals and cooking, so when the old one bit the dust we were in a sad state. After he drilled for a long time and finally got it up there I promptly asked, “What if I don’t like it there after all?” Yeah, not the response he was looking for. Good job hanging that puppy up, honey.

For dinner we had one of my favorite summer meals: mint and garlic tiny tomatoes (baked with olive oil in the oven), bread, and fresh mozzarella cheese. Salads too, of course. You can tell which salad is mine– NO CELERY. The things I do for love.

Here are the tomatoes– before baking. We used herbs from our garden and there are a few of own Juliet tomatoes thrown in there.

After baking…

I bought store bread because I am still studying Julia Child’s baguette recipe, so I felt a little like a failure there, but still it was all very tasty.

We talked about the tour de france and even did a conversation starter: “What new thing do you really like doing?” John said pizza/dvd night on Fridays (he likes seeing me excited to make our homemade pizza) and I said eating a more vegetarian diet, meditating, and working out at work. The tomatoes agreed.

For dessert we had mixed berry cobbler and, you guessed it, homemade ice cream!

What else are you going to have on national ice cream day? Well, I guess a lot of things….

I made your naan, Lynley!

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Check it out!

I made it plan with lots of butter. John thought it tasted kind of like donuts and agree, but then what’s bad about that? We had cauliflower curry, ginger carrots and rice with our homemade naan. Quite the feast for a Tuesday night, but that’s what happens when you skip yoga. See Lynley’s early post (I think it’s during the first or second month) if you want the recipe!

Sunday Night Dinner: July 10, 2011: July 4th BBQ a little late

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We ALSO had to eat our BBQ a little late (due to travel last weekend). Ours, of course, was meatless, but I did sit by the grill in the driveway and drink a beer while our tempeh and corn got all smokey and good. Yes, I did forget to take a picture of that– blame the beer.

I made dad’s pasta salad! I decided to use vegetable spirally noodles to add a little bit of color and veggie goodness. I think it looks just as nice as his.

We had smokey tempeh (which I grilled in a cast iron skillet on the little charcoal grill), deviled eggs (I ran out of mustard and used Dijon instead– they were different, but just tasty) and garlic buttered corn on the cob. A last-minute addition was parmesan Jiffy biscuits!

Rosy cheeks from beer and July heat.

We talked about important things that night. What I want to do with my life, how to be more creative, how we should take a honeymoon every year, how we can do a better job saving money. Every once in a while you need to have those kinds of talks and Sunday night dinner just seems right for a heart to heart. It’s quiet and focused, even with Fleetwood Mac in the background

For dessert, I decided to make a peanut butter pie with real whipped cream that I saw on TV (Man VS Food). An Amish recipe that uses chunky peanut butter combined with powdered sugar and vanilla pudding — so it’s really more of a vanilla pudding pie with peanut butter crumbles layered throughout. I had to make up the recipe, but I love vanilla pudding and John loves peanut butter, let’s just say it’s the best of both worlds.

Yeah, I liked it.