Intentions - sushi and rock n roll

http://www.intentionsnightlife.com/

tried out a new sushi place that has only been open for 3 weeks. it is right next door to The Other Place in DTOP. The rolls were very tasty. the head chef used to work at RA(which i love) and has created some of his own wonderful creations here. when you walk in they have a little sushi bar you can sit at or be seated at a table. but as you look back further into the place, it is HUGE! they have a big Bar for drinks in the back as well as plenty of space for night life with the live bands they have on weekends. it is decorated very "rock bar" like with the use of the colors red and black. looks very nice. all the sushi has a name from a rock song too. we tried 2 rolls, that i cant remember the name of right now, but one had beef carpacio with a spicy aioli on top which was great! and we also had another that had mango in it, with tuna and avocado. both were great! i will be going back here. everyone that worked there was very nice and helpful too. go eat here! and if you don't like sushi, they do have some other great sounding items to dine on that are not seafood. so go eat here and then stay for the nightlife!

fresher than fresh snow cones

http://www.ftfsnowcones.com/

while we were down at Chez Elle, we remembered reading about this all natural snow cone place right there at 17th and Summit in the kansas city star. It has all natural snow cone flavors that are not your usual cherry, grape, rainbow flavors. it opened at Noon and there was already a line waiting!! the ones we had today were, Blackberry Lavender, Lime Mint, Espresso & Mexican Cane Sugar, and Pineapple & Serrano Pepper. All these unique flavors went together so greatly and were very flavorful. the Lime mint was very tart with the lime flavor but the real pieces of Mint leaves were so refreshing. the Espresso one was drizzled with some sweetened condensed milk on the top and it was fantastic too. I wasn't sure what to think about the Blackberry Lavender, but i tried it anyway. and it too was great! the blackberry flavors were so strong and meshed so well with the hint of lavender. but my favorite one was the Pineapple and Serrano Pepper. the pineapple was juicy and tropical and so sweet and then a few seconds after you down a couple of scoops of this snow cone the spicy heat of the serrano pepper kicks in. truly a great flavor combo. she has a few other creative flavors too. she is only in the garden at 17th and summit on Sundays 12-7 but other locations thru out the week. she does this all out of a very tiny turquoise and white air stream kind of trailer. check out the schedule on her website. she has even been featured in the Wall Street Journal and the Food TV magazine. definitely a great snow cone !!

Chez Elle Creperie

www.chezellekc.com

This place is so cute. it is at 17th and Summit and very easy to find. when you walk in the door, the menu is posted on the wall. You order at the front and then got to a table inside, or a couch to lounge at, or one of the great patio tables out front and wait for them to bring your food to you. The menu contains 12 savory, 10 sweet, and 4 breakfast crepes along with salads, soup, and pastries. The crepes are the stars here. The ones that we tried are the Chez Elle -roasted chicken, sauteed mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, baby spinach, mozzarella, pesto, topped with marinara sauce; Pollo Verde -Pepper Jack cheese, verde aioli, chicken, and red pepper sauce; Tour Eiffel -Smoked Salmon, capers, carmelized onion, artichoke, herbed cream cheese, and creme fraiche; Patriote -Strawberry, banana, filled with creme anglaise, topped with whipped cream and blueberry sauce. All of them were GREAT!!!! and the portion size is very big and plenty. the flavor of all of them were superb! my daughter even loved them. I would recommend all of these to my friends too. They also make many coffees and smoothies here too. the Verde Aioli on the Pollo Verde was Terrific! lots of Cilantro flavoring. All of the Tour Eiffel's flavors blend so great!! This is a great place, very recommended! GO EAT HERE!

2012

i think this was a pretty good movie that will make you think about future possibilities. the special effects can at times be unrealistic, but for the most part they are really good. i was surprised that it was as good of a movie as it was. it is a good rental to spend your money on. and i was happy to see John Cuzsack(sp) back in a movie that wasn't such a flop. my take is to Rent and watch this movie!

Po's dumpling and noodles

http://www.posdumplingandnoodle.com/

my mom and i were on our way to a different restaurant and it was closed and we saw Po's Dumpling Bar. so we went in....there was only 2 other people in the place and 1 server. it looked clean so we went ahead and sat down. the menu is very large! everything from apps to noodles, to rice to soup. we asked the server what he would recommend since it was our first time and he suggested the starters, so we ended up just having the starters. we ordered the pan fried onion cake, shu-mai, cha su buns, and traditional steamed dumplings. first came out the onion cake. it was about the size of a small tortilla. the onion taste was mild but yet still evident. not sure what it was made of but i think it was some philo kind of doughs with onions and fried up. it was good. the next 3 things came out together. i was most excited for the Cha Su Buns! these are steamed buns with a pork filling in them. the first time i had these was about a year and a half ago up in Chicago at the Taste of Chicago from a place called Wow Bow. well these are amazing! they tasted exactly the same. the steamed bread is slightly sweet and fluffy and the filling is greatly delicious too. now the Shu-mai is a small form of steamed dumplings that are slightly different from the traditional steamed dumplings. We did enjoy the Shu-mai mini dumplings more than the Traditional ones, they were more delicate and tasteful. now don't get me wrong the traditional dumplings are good, we just liked the Shu mai ones better. I will definitely be going back to Po's. Oh and more people did come in by the time we were leaving....we were there at a weird time for eating. so everyone go to this restaurant!

julie and julia

Meryl streep has done her best acting to date in this movie. i never thought that Julia Childs was that great of a person, but this movie has made me love her. Her and her husband had a huge support system with each other. this movie makes me want to cook. I love how Julie used cooking to find happiness in her life. this movie is one that i never really wanted to watch, but now i am glad i did. I was at home sick and it was the only thing on. I decided to watch it and it is a fabulous movie. I think it might definitely be more of a chic flick, but still a good movie. So i say, if your home sick or have nothing better to do, then watch this movie. You will be happy you did.

Iron Barley in St. Louis

before going to St. Louis i did some research on where to eat and Guy Fietti from Diners Drive ins and Dives show cased this place on his show one time. i figured it had to be good to get on the show so we went here for dinner 1 night. it is the smallest place ever! and we waited for over an hour to be seated. but while we waited we hung out at the bar. and the bar section of this restaurant is very cool and laid back. everyone was nice, employees and patrons. beer selection was good. atmosphere = fun. we didnt even mind waiting that long to get seated. well when we did get seated, the kids were ready to eat! i ordered a duck salad. it was probably the best $14.00 duck salad that i have ever had! i also got a meal there that was good, but the Duck salad is the way to go. all the food that came out looked and smelled great! no one had any complaints. so if you are in St. Louis then head on over to the Iron Barley and have a beer and some good food with a good time to be had.

Charlie Gitto's in St. Louis on the Hill

my mother and i took my daughter and another mom and son to st. louis for spring break. while we were there we wanted to eat somewhere on The Hill. we were looking thru the St. Louis tourist books and had it narrowed down to Charlie Gitto's and Ragatti's. well as we were reading about Charlie Gitto's we noticed that it said they have gluten free pasta! well the little man that came with us is lactose and gluten free so we called right then and got some reservations. when we got there it looked very old school Italian. we were seated right away. our server was phenomenal!! i think his name was Ray. We even got to talk with the head chef. they make all their pasta there fresh to order by hand! we ordered a shrimp cocktail and some calamari. the shrimp were the size of my hand! and the calamari came with this splendid dipping sauce. my daughter got to try calamari for the first time and loved it. we had an absolutely fabulous dinner. i had a spicy sausage in rigatoni pasta that was amazing. my mother had a scallop wrapped in smoked salmon in a lobster cream sauce that was to DIE FOR! words cant describe the greatness of this dish. cadence had a plate of spaghetti with a meatball that was good too. cadence got a slice of cheesecake for dessert. im lactose intolerant so i couldnt eat it, but i had a nibble, and i think it was the best cheesecake i have ever tried. so creamy and good. so def go to Charlie Gitto's on The Hill. I wont ever go back to the Lou with out going there!

HOW TO TRAIN A DRAGON

This movie was awesome, and i didnt even see it in 3D! the story line is great, the voices with the characters are great. everything about this movie is great. by the end of the movie you want to have a pet dragon. I wish i could have one. i will def be buying this movie when it comes out on DVD. you do not have to have a kid to go see this movie

SAKURA SUSHI

This sushi restaurant just opened up in the new Summit Fair Shopping Center in Lee's Summit off of Chipman Road. I was so excited to try it hoping that it would be like RA Shushi in O.P. only much closer to me. Well my mom, daughter and I went last Friday night and needless to say, we will not be going back. We get there and the atmosphere is okay...for a new restaurant I expected it to be a little nicer. I got there before my mother did and was thinking someone would come and ask me about a drink but nope. After my mother got there they came over and got our drink order. their menu is quite big and did take us some time to look it over. when we did finally try and order we could barely understand our server because she spoke such broken english. my daughter even whispered in my ear, "mommy, i cant understand her." we ordered 2 sushi's, 1 cooked and 1 raw. my daughter got the sweet and sour kids meal, then my mother and i split the crab stuffed shrimp in a peanut and wasabi sauce. well we got the cooked sushi 1st. it was ok, nothing special. then came my daughters meal. their kids meals are all 7.95 and i do have to say her's was the best of all of ours. it came with a spring roll, 2 fried scallops, rice, and sweet and sour chicken. We were starting to wonder where in the world was our Raw Sushi??? turns out she forgot to order it. well we got our meal and it was OK, nothing special at all. You couldn't even taste the wasabi. we finally got our 2nd sushi and we didn't even eat but 1 bite each. it was nasty and the server didn't even care. I had to track her down to get our bill. we were there for over an hour and a half. the service was poor and everyone else around us had the same complaints. don't waste your money

the ninja kitchen appliance

http://www.ninjakitchen.com/

I was skeptical about this at first just because it has an infomercial. BUT my grandma got it for me for Christmas so i thought might as well try it out right?? well it sat in my kitchen for a while and then one day i said to myself, "self lets make some hummus with the new ninja." so i did. and this is just awesome! i love my ninja. it was sooo easy to use and the clean up is way easy too. i definitely think this will replace my food processor. it is definitely worth the $$. it is 59.00+shipping on their website, but Sam's club has it for much cheaper http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=442187

go buy it, you wont be disappointed

jack gage's tavern

www.facebook.com/jackgagekc

This place just opened up December 1st and i haven't even heard about it! tonight i was planning on going to JJ's on the plaza then my mother on the way there said, "oh by the way, we aren't going to jj"s we are going to jack gage tavern." the KC star did a write up about it and my mom saw it and it sounded good. So we get there, 50th and main, and the place looks nice. we sit at the bar with Nate and Will as our bartenders. we got there about 3:30 or 4:00 so it wasn't busy at all. we got an Amstel light each for our drink and looked over the menu. Everything looked great! we didn't know what to get. we didn't even get past the app's! we had 3 of them. Seared ahi tuna, portabella fries, and the fried green tomato & crab tower. First came out the Tuna. it was good. had a nice pepper on the outside of it and served with a ginger slaw that was tasty. then the portabella fries and the crab tower came out together. the portabella fries were great! it was slices of portabella mushroom fried in a light batter served with a mayo based dipping sauce. Sooo yummy. the fried green tomato & crab tower was amazing! it had a Fried green tomato for the base, then there was lots and lots of crab stacked on top of it with Gouda melted all over it. then a mustard aioli was drizzled all over it. it was absolutely delicious. then our friend showed up and ordered the Kentucky hot brown. it was an open faced sandwich that had tons of turkey and ham with a swiss cheese sauce smothered all over it! then bacon too!! i couldn't eat it because of all the cheese but 2 people said it was awesome. i did try the fries that came with them and they were good too. nice seasoning. i thought it was all very well priced with great food. we even got to meet the head chef. he came out and said hi. they have a brunch sat and sun that we are gonna try tomorrow. definitely try this place

Surrogate

I watched this DVD the other night when i was laying at home sick. Not the best work Bruce Willis has done. I cant even believe he signed up to do this movie actually. Its kind of the same concept as Avatar as in a human controls its Surrogate thru their mind. Only everyone on earth has a Surrogate. This keeps humans alive and safe and disease free because they dont ever leave there house. Only their Surrogates leave and work and play and such. And most peoples surrogates dont even look like them. its just weird. and dumb. dont rent it!

RA Sushi

http://www.rasushi.com/

I heard this place was very good, so i drove by it today to check it out while i was in Overland Park. When i got home I started talking to my mother about it and we decided, why not lets go eat there! so off we went. When we walk in there it was very busy but we were able to get right in. We ended up sitting at the sushi bar and watching the sushi chefs prepare the rolls and such. Lets start with the atmosphere though. It was very cool, hip, and upbeat. the decor was very modern with the emphasis on the colors red and black. they played music that was kind of almost like a dance club, but didnt get annoying at all. it kind of made the atmosphere more fun. the waitress that we had there was very nice and polite. it seemed that they had several wait staff there ready to help out. this place was a big place with many tables too. We lucked out when we went and got in on their Happy Hour! their happy hour is Monday - Saturday 3-7 P.M. they have many 1/2 price apps and sushi items to choose from as well as drink specials. We got the Blue Claw Crab Cakes with a Ginger Mayo and the Scallop Dynomite. they both were great. although i couldnt eat much of the scallop dynomite because it was made with cream and butter but i snuck a bite or 3. it is scallops and Asian mushrooms baked in a special sauce. the crab cakes were moist and yummy! all of their apps sound great! one that sounded especially good was the Pineapple Cheese won tons! kind of like crab Rangoon with out the crab. Well then we also ordered some sushi rolls. We got 3 (which was way too much food for the 2 of us) Spicy Tuna Roll, Mango Lobster Roll, and the Rainbow Roll. The Mango Lobster one was our favorite. It was a lobster mix with avocado and cucumber rolled in rice with a slice of Mango on top sprinkled with a mango tabiko sauce and then a kiwi wasabi sauce on the side. sooooo goooood. the Spicy Tuna Roll was great too. just a nice hint of spice. and the Rainbow Roll had a California roll inside with slices of salmon, tuna, yellow fin, and shrimp and avocado on top to look like a rainbow. this too was good. and then i just had to order the Wasabi Mash Potatoes. they were yummy as well. just a not to strong flavor of wasabi with nicely prepared mash potatoes. there were so many other Sushi items that looked great, like the Viva Las Vegas roll and the Zonie roll. after we paid the bill i was looking at the deserts even though i was way too full to even think about any more food, but the chocolate stuffed fried banana drizzled in a Kahlua Carmel sauce and chocolate ice cream sounded amazing. maybe next time i will try that. but for us getting 2 appetizers (both were half price from Happy Hour) and 3 Sushi Rolls (1 was half price) and then the mash potatoes the bill was only $30.68!! what a deal. granted we only drank water, but still!! i will definitely be going back here. and very soon!

One Bite Restraunt

http://www.onebitegrill.com/
So I found this website for this Japanese Styled Tapas place. It looked and sounded awesome, so we had to try it. My mom, g-ma, daughter, and I went out one night after I got off work. It is right behind the Sam's Club and Babies R Us out off of 135th and Antioch. we got there and it was really really small. only about 8 tables and then the bar to eat at. for some reason the website made me think it would be in a bigger place. Their website is nice though. The staff was extremely nice. I got the One Bite Tonkatsu, the golden fried crispy pork cutlet with their sauce. well, turns out it is just an unflavorful pork tenderloin cut into strips. My mother got the Drunkin Steak which was the best out of what we all had but still just not right. and then my g-ma got the All about Shrimp. this was grilled shrimp with the shell still on and then it also had a terriyaki sauce on it so it was messy to try and get the shell off of it and then when we did, the shrimp was tough. It also came with Fried Mushrooms that were huge! My daughter just ate off of all of our plates. One Bite was in my opinion very pricey for the amount and quality of food you receive. The bill was about $20.00 per person! I was just not impressed by this place at all. I will not be going back.

AVATAR

This movie is amazing. I thought all the nerds were crazy when they said they saw it 2 or 3 times, but i would definetly go see it again. Although this time i would go see it at the IMAX 3D instead of just 3D. Words cant describe how cool this movie is. it makes me want to be a 10 foot tall Blue Avatar when i grow up! the effects of this movie are crazy! and the way they have the avator look like the actors is amazing. i can not say enough good things about this movie. except you have to go see it in the theaters in 3D! dont wait for video for this one!

some older movies that i saw a while back

What Happens in Vegas: it is really cute. I laughed quite a bit. i think that ashton and cameron make a good love/hate couple. i guess i can see alot in me in her. I would definetly try to make his life hell for 6 months too for 1.5 million dollars. they have good chemistry in the movie. it works. go watch it.

THE MUMMY- the 3rd one Give me a break, it was horrible. the 1st 45 minutes of the movie were so slow i almost turned it off. And Yeti's?? Pa-Lease. they should have stopped at the 2nd Mummy. Oh and they didnt even have the same girl in it "evie" they got Maria Bello to take her place. I hate when they do that to characters. They should just leave them out of the story line.

Sex and the City: Granted i did not watch the series.....but i did watch the movie. i'm glad i didnt spend money to watch it in the theater. yes it was a cute movie, but i think the best part of the movie was when Charlotte pooped her pants. I watched it alone at home one night. I cant imagine a guy wanting to/having to watch this movie. overall if you are a girl and have no other movie to watch, go ahead and watch it. nothing better to do...

Bring It On: In it to Win It: ok ok i know i am 29, but i just love dance/cheerleading movies. it makes me think of high school days. The 1st Bring it on as good. This one is cheesy, or maybe i have grown up a bit. i mean who names there squad the "shets" sharks and jetts put together. it sounds like "shits" but whatever. And then they have a cheer rumbe in the middle of the street at night time. this isnt westside story! pa-lease.

Love Guru: This was a typical Mike Myers movie. My daughter loves him as Austin Powers so we rented it. It has its moments, but definetly not one of his best movies. If you are a fan of him go ahead and watch it, but otherwise your not missing much. Pound it, lock it down, Cut the pickle, tickle tickle......

Lake Placid 2: This is horrible!! do not waste your time. there is nothing special with the special effects in this movie. they are horrible. totally a budget movie. and the acting was horrible. burn it in the fire!

MUSHROOM BARLEY SOUP

I haven't made this recipe yet, but I am this weekend. I had it at a friends house and it is so yummy! It is a perfect winter hearty soup. You wont be disappointed. The mushrooms in this recipe make the whole meal.

MUSHROOM BARLEY SOUP
Yield: about 11 servings

1-1/2 pounds boneless beef chuck, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 Tbs. cooking oil
2 cups finely chopped onion
1 cup diced carrots (usually put in about 2 cups)
1/2 cup sliced celery (usually put in about 1 cup)
1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) beef broth
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) chicken broth
2 cups water
1/2-1 cup medium pearl barley (usually put in about 1 cup)
1 tsp. salt, optional
1/2 tsp. pepper
3 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley

In a Dutch oven or soup kettle, brown meat in oil.
Remove meat with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Saute onion, carrots and celery in drippings over medium heat until tender, about 5 minutes.
Add mushrooms, garlic and thyme; cook and stir for 3 minutes.
Add broths, water, barley, salt (if desired) and pepper (to taste).
Return meat to pan; bring to a boil.
Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until barley and meat are tender.
Add parsley.