BBR-The Soil Neighborhood

The Soil Neighborhood

by Dan Yunk and Steve Swaffer

Second in the series of Kansas Farm Bureau books is The Soil Neighborhood by Dan Yunk and my friend Steve Swaffer.  Learning about dirt soil isn't that much fun for most kids, so when a book tells the story of underground to kids in a fun way I tend to like it.  

Once again Kailey is visiting Grandma and Grandpa.  Kailey wishes dirt didn't exist, so she wouldn't have to take baths.

Grandma explains there is a whole neighborhood under a wheat field who work together to make soil a good place for plants to grow.  

Rocky, Clay and Sandy work with earthworms and bacteria to make the soil a place that plants like for their roots to grow.

Soil is important for lots of things we use everyday especially food like I mentioned in the Soil-It's What's For Supper lesson.  

Other books in the Farm Bureau Series include:

• Milk Comes From a Cow?
•  Farmers and Ranchers Care about their Animals
• Celebrate Wheat!
• Growing Up Strong

These books can be ordered on the KFB website.  The staff at Kansas Farm Bureau has worked hard to have great resources to go along with the books.  There are free lesson plans for teachers and parents as well as videos and fact sheets on the above web page.

What is your favorite kids book about farming?  Is it on my Book Barn List of ag books?

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Courtney's Places Review

So this week happens to be the birthday of my aunt and my brother.  They both don't live in Kansas.  One is in Houston, the other in Connecticut.  My parents thought it would be a great idea to go out to eat for their birthdays and I could share it here on the blog for them to enjoy!  Ok, well they might not enjoy it as much as we did, but oh well!

We went to another Italian Restaurant this time in the tiny town of Toronto, Kansas.  There are a few more businesses here than where we found Josie's, but still not much. It is also important to note that you need to make reservations for this fine eating establishment!!

The building is very unassuming and plain from the outside.

The owner has an interesting story of how she ended up in Toronto on the back of her menu.  I thought you might enjoy.

Every table is covered in linen tableclothes.  The waiter is always dressed with a tie and service is superb.

The dinner started off with the specials recited by the waiter.  Of course, there is a menu, but the specials sounded way better.  Do not go to Courtney's if you are in a hurry as there is only one person in the kitchen, but the food is worth the wait.  Here is our salad.

Multiple greens, mushrooms, olive, capers, tomato, peppers and two kinds of cheese! And warm fresh from the oven breadsticks, too!  My kids loved these.  :)

And then the entrees arrived...

 Chicken, alfredo sauce and pasta with yet another bread stick.

 The pork chop special for the evening.  The guys said it was great and it was juicy and moist cooked to perfection.  The pasta was amazing..I stole a bite when my hubby wasn't looking.  ;)

My little man and I shared the Tour of Toronto which included Chicken Parmesan, Lasagna and Fettucini Alfredo.  It was so good.

Since we were celebrating birthdays, of course we had to get dessert and make  ourselves totally miserable for the ride home.

 Death By Chocolate.  Homemade chocolate sheet cake, chocolate ice cream, homemade chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a cherry.  Oh MY!

 Homemade cream puffs with homemade butterscotch sauce.

 The Peanut Butter sheetcake with crunchy peanut butter frosting.

The Neopolitan Cheesecake...a layer of chocolate, a layer of strawberry and a layer of vanilla topped off with whipped cream, sliced strawberry, fresh mint leaves with a drizzle of chocolate sauce over the top.

The waiter was kind enough to take a group picture for us complete with 2 empty chairs for the guests of honor that did not join us.  LOL

Happy Birthday Aunt Carolyn and Willis!  Hope you had great days!!  We sure enjoyed your birthday dinner.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

W4DW- Josie's Italian Restaurant

What's for Dinner Wednesday?  Well, I haven't cooked much.  We've been eating a lot of what I cooked earlier like things in my Farm Wife Meal Planner.  We did go out to eat about a month ago to one of my favorite restaurants.  If you have to pick your days carefully, they are only open Wednesday through Saturday and don't open until 5 pm.

Josie's is located in the small town of Scammon, Kansas.  I have yet to find another business in town other than the gas station on the highway, but there is always a crowd at Josie's.  They serve authentic Italian food with recipes their great grandmother used to make.  YUM!

The service is impeccable something you usually don't get in a small town and they have a bar as well.

If you go be sure to request the anti-pasta, with your salad.  In fact, I give the boys my salad and just have the anti pasta.  ;)

Olive oil, green olives, black olives, garlic, artichoke hearts, mushroom and pastrami. 

My oldest son thought he needed the full size lasagna last time we were there.  He ate the rest for lunch the next day.

One of my favorites is the toasted meat ravioli.  The red sauce is out of this world.  It doesn't over power you with garlic and is almost sweet to the taste.  You can now even buy jars of the sauce at the restaurant.

The alfredo sauce was pretty good, too.

The dessert selections are amazing.  We love the cheesecakes.  The Turtle Fudge is our favorite.

The boys found out that the last trip the kids got free Dibs with their meal, but one of them still wanted cheesecake.

I hope you stop by Josie's sometime if you are ever in Southeast Kansas, Southwest Missouri or Northeast Oklahoma it isn't far from any of them.  It certainly is a hidden gem of an eating establishment off the beaten path, but well worth the drive.

And no I was not paid to do this post.  They don't even know I exist.  I just love good food and would like for them to continue to have a successful business.
-A Kansas Farm Mom