Ryan & Samantha

Today is the last day in February, and we’ve visited lots of great places in Wichita this month. Living in Wichita gives us a unique perspective on the town, but also means that we’ve been almost everywhere and seen almost everything already. That makes it hard for us to narrow down what we would blog about. Since so many other travel blogs and magazines exist, we don’t want to reinvent the wheel by making our posts comprehensive (we aren’t nearly as good of travel writers as Rick Steves). We’ll simply post about the places we’ve been, things we’ve seen, and people we meet along the way as we explore this great state.

That being said, we’re postponing our Wichita posts until the very end of our Kansas journey. Stay tuned…

Inspired from our visit to 105degrees, I made ravioli from the chef’s recipe book for dinner tonight. This ravioli has a ricotta-like filling made with blended cashews and tarragon and the ravioli “noodles” are actually thin slices of red beet. They’re each topped with chopped pistachios and drizzled with sweet yellow bell pepper sauce. It was so brightly colored, with great flavors and a good mix of textures–very enjoyable to eat! It really did taste like baked cheesy ravioli, so it is amazing to me that this was created only from raw vegetables and nuts.

For dessert we had a dark chocolate ganache tart with vanilla cream, from the same recipe book. For those of you a little unsure about raw foods this tart will change your mind! It is made from maple syrup and chocolate, and tastes like thick melt-in-your-mouth fudge.

As an early Valentine’s Day treat Ryan took me to Oklahoma City for dinner at my new favorite restaurant: 105degrees. A huge thank you to our great friends Tristan & Leslie who gave me a gift card to this restaurant on my birthday!

105degrees specializes in what’s called “living food”–greens, fruits, vegetables, and nuts that have very minimal processing. There’s no traditional cooking, sauteing, or baking because above 105 degrees Fahrenheit or so the live enzymes in the food start to break down, making the food less nutritious. All the food they prepare here is fresh and put together in very creative ways. We ate from the winter menu and were amazed at the beautiful (and delicious!!) works of art they brought to our table.

Ryan started with the Mezze: Zucchini Hummus, Eggplant Chips, Marinated Olives, Hemp Tabouleh, and Falafal. Ryan raved about the hummus, which was made using macadamia nuts instead of chick peas. The eggplant chips were especially tasty–crispy and a little spicy from the marinade. Mmm.

I started with the Kale Caesar (salad), Pine Nut Parmesan, Rosemary Croutons. Curly kale is pretty stiff and more fit for garnish (or smoothies) than a salad. The remedy? Massage the kale! It was very soft and crunchy, and the creamy pine nut cheese and crunchy croutons were a perfect fit.

Ryan’s main course was Coconut Curry with Smoked Cashew Custard, Broccoli, Red Chile, and Bean Sprouts. He thought the coconut “tofu” was great!

I had Cannelloni with Pignoli Ricotta, Sun-Dried Tomato Marinara, and Pistachio Pesto for my main course. Wow. The “noodles” are paper-thin slices of zucchini. The cheese tasted better than ricotta and the marinara was perfectly sweet.

Dessert was THE best part, and so delicious that we forgot to take pictures! Ryan had a hazelnut feast called the Gianduja Tasting: Hazelnut Fudge, Hot Chocolate Hazelnut Float, Hazelnut Butter Cup, and Hazelnut Semifreddo. I had the Pomegranate Red Velvet Cake with Lemon Frosting, a layered cake garnished with sweet pomegranate sauce and juicy seeds. It was easy to forget that we were eating living food and not the traditional dessert filled with refined sugars, butter, and white flour.

Since we had a nearly 3-hour drive back home we ordered a mocha and a malted classic smoothie to go. The plastic cup my smoothie came in said it is made from 100% corn and that it is compostable. I’ll add it to my compost pile and let you know how it goes!

Before we left we took a look around their gift shop, which was filled with artisan products, pure beeswax candles, body products, and living foods. They had a good selection of dried teas, homemade kombucha tea, and ice cream. One item I couldn’t pass up were the glass drinking straws (made from the same type of glass as Pyrex).

Ryan and I had such a great time together trying out all the different foods! The food was some of the best food I have ever eaten. I’m glad that I already have a few of the recipes and will have to get the chef’s other recipe book so that we can make these dishes at home until we can go eat there again.

I recently read an article in the NY Times about how Americans travel to other states or other countries, learning about the history and landmarks of other places, and yet don’t even know their own local areas. The article encouraged the readers to get out and explore their own area before spending lots of money to go other places. That really made me think–I’ve known people who have lived in Kansas all their life and can tell you more about Yellowstone or the Eiffel Tower than they can about landmarks in their own state (Kansas has landmarks? You mean like the largest ball of twine?).

Kansas is more than just sunflowers and The Wizard of Oz. The state has been home to presidents, astronauts, entertainers, and industry pioneers. It contains the world’s largest tallgrass prairie, landscapes with badlands-like canyons, and wildlife areas that attract over 300 species of migrating bird from all over the country. Kansas has a rich pioneer history, with the Santa Fe, Chisholm, and Oregon Trails running through the state, where wagon ruts can still be seen today! Our state was also part of the Civil War and has scars to show for it; there are graves, memorials for battles, and several forts still standing that tell the history.

This year Ryan and I are on a quest to visit the entire state and share its landmarks, historic places, and people with you. We’re using the Kansas Official Visitors Guide as our guidebook and will go to every region in the state: eastern wooded hills, Flint Hills, central prairie, and the western high plains. We’ll blog about each visit in the hopes of encouraging more Kansans to go out and see what their state has to offer.

Our first stop: Wichita. I can’t wait for you to join us!

Today, January 29th, our beautiful state Kansas turns 156 years old. Growing up I was surrounded by Kansas history and spent a lot of time at the Kansas Museum of History volunteering in the gift shop with Grandma Betty. I’m pretty sure that’s where our tradition of making Kansas Day cookies started. Each year Grandma Betty would bake sugar cookies in the shape of a sunflower (with a chocolate star in the middle) and the shape of the state of Kansas (with a chocolate chip on the capitol Topeka) for me and my cousins to take to our elementary school classrooms. This year I was able to carry on that tradition! I took 10 dozen sunflower and state cookies to work and shared them with faculty and staff. A few already knew that today was Kansas Day, but many did not so I had the opportunity to give some state history and tell them how my Grandma made these cookies for us when we were young. I handed them out in the morning and by the afternoon I heard people saying “happy Kansas day!” or “did you know today is Kansas day?”

In addition to giving our Bible blog a facelift, we also recently held a contest to get a new name. One was chosen, and Blogging the Bible has now become The Blog Testament! The new home is at www.blogtestament.com. Once there, you can still find all your favorite old posts (hopefully), and find links to all the wonderful resources we mention on the blog. Also, don’t forget to change the links to the RSS feed in your favorite RSS reader (like Google Reader).

Head on over to check it out!

If you are a first-time or repeat visitor, please stop by and sign our new guestbook. We’d love to hear where you’re from and what brought you by our site!

Thanks for reading!