Support the Fort!

One of the reasons I love Fort Scott so much, is that this is a town that knows it's history. Our National Historic Site has been the cornerstone of our existence since 1842. I'm so pleased to be on the board of Friends of Fort Scott NHS (www.friendsofthefort.com) a group formed to help develop and promote the Fort. We worked hard to gather enough votes to be named one of the Eight Wonders of Kansas History, and now we're asking for your votes again. And this time it's not just about honor; it's about cold, hard cash! The national or state park that receives the most votes by August 31 wins $100,000 grant made possible by coca-Cola's Live Positively initiative. VOTE AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT!
To vote, go to www.livepositively.com and click on the "Vote for you park!" button.
Type "Fort Scott" and hit the enter button. You can also use the zip code search button.
Click on the red "Vote" button next to the name of our favorite park-Fort Scott!
In addition, for every vote cast, Coca-Cola will also donate $1 to the National Park Foundation up to a total donation of $200,000.
Thanks!

First Class Left-Overs

Our Tuesday Farmers Market (4 to 7 pm) is becoming quite the event. Yesterday, Chris Maycomber, chef and hardware king, cooked up some delicious treats at the market. Unfortunately, I was busy with our own part of Tasty Tuesday in the store and was unable to come over for a snack. But Chris is a great guy and gave me some left-overs! I'm glad no onc could see me last night hovered over a bowl of delicious flavors while watching NCIS! Yes, I probably won't be able to get the stains out of my top, white of course, but it was worth it! I don't have Chris' recipe, but I can share the recipe I used for tabbouleh, borrowed from Ina Garten.

Tabbouleh
Ingredients
1 cup bulgur wheat
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/4 cup good extra-virgin olive oil
3 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup minced scallions, white and green parts (1bunch)
1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves (1 bunch)
1 cup flat leaf parsley (1 bunch)
1 cucumber, unpeeled, seeded and medium sized
2 cups cherry tomatoes cut in half
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Place the bulgur in a large bowl, pour in the boiling water and add the lemon juice, olive oil and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Stir, then allow to stand at room temperature for about an hour.
Add scallions, mint, parsley, cucumber, tomatoes, 2 teaspoons salt and the pepper; mix well. Season to taste and serve or cover and refrigerate. The flavor will improve if the tabbouleh sits for a few hours.

Busman's Holiday

Thanks to the great work Rosemary is doing for us, we've been taking off one afternoon per week. So we jump in the car and travel around the area to some other historic downtowns to check out how they're doing. Overland Park is an easy choice with their strong culinary vibe. Next came Burlington where they continue to struggle, but have a couple of great shops and some nice loft apartments.
Last week we went to Springfield, MO to look around. In addition to their historic downtown square, there is an area known as C-Street. (www.itsalldowntown.com/cstreet) C (Commercial) Street is in the midst of an upturn, but it's painful to walk down the street and see the empty storefronts. It's easy to understand the comments visitors make when they come to Fort Scott when the shoe is on the other foot!
We commiserated with some other small business owners and enjoyed looking around at D Cloud and Company Restaurant Supply, Bridgefield Galleries, Historic Firehouse #2 (now an event venue) and a great vintage clothing store, Decades.
We enjoyed our visit, but as usual; we came back feeling the same as we always do-downtown Fort Scott rocks!

Cool Food for Hot Days

Here is the recipe we used Tasty Tuesday for a great snack.

White Bean and Roasted Eggplant Hummus

Ingredients
1 (1 1/2 pound) eggplant trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
Olive oil for drizzling, plus 1/3 cup
Kosher salt for seasoning plus 1/2 teaspoon
Freshly ground black pepper for seasoning plus 1/4 teaspoon
1 (15 oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1 clove garlic
1 cucumber cut into 1/4 inch thick slices

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place oven rack in middle of oven.
Place the eggplant on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 to25 minutes until golden brown. Set aside to cool.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine the cooled eggplant, beans, parsely, lemon juice, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Pulse until the mixture is coarsely chopped. With the machine running. gradually add 1/3 cup of olive oil until the mixture is creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Place the hummus in a dipping bowl and serve with the cucumber slices. Alternatively, spoon the hummus over the cucumber slices and arrange on a serving platter.

Another Tasty Tuesday

There is such a bounty of beautiful produce at the Fort Scott Farmers Market, that it's difficult to decide what to make. In addition to making the Cool Cucumber Soup again (we ran out last week) we made Blackberry Crisp and White Bean and Eggplant Hummus. Delicious! We received a suggestion for next week to make tabouli salad-yum!


Fresh Blackberry Crisp

Ingredients
4 cups fresh blackberries
1/2 cup sugar
juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons flour, plus 1/2 cup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter-must be cold

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl combine blackberries, sugar and lemon juice together with 2 tablespoons flour. Pour into deep dish pie plate. In seperate bowl blend remaining 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar and butter. Mix until crumbly. sprinkle over berries. Bake for 30 minutes until bubbly.

*I think next time I make this, I'll add some chopped pecans and quick cooking oats to the "crisp" mixture.

M. Tofu Sure Gets Around!

That M. tofu sure gets around! Here he is in Paris. I'll bet he ate well there!

Tasty Tomato Tuesday

We had a great time last night with wonderful food for Tasty Tuesday.


We started out with a beautiful insalata caprese. The "Arkansas Traveler" tomato purchased from Sweet Rose Farm might just be the BEST TOMATO EVER! Along with the mozzarella cheese and basil, I drizzled some of our best unfiltered, extra virgin olive oil and 15-year old balsamic vinegar on these sweet beauties-PERFECT!


Many apologies to the folks who missed out on the cool cucumber soup-I couldn't believe how fast we ran out! I think this recipe will be tried again before summer is over-ere it is so you can try it:

Cool Cucumber Soup


3 Cups plain nonfat yogurt


1 English cucumber (about 1 pound), cut into chunks


1 scallion, white and green parts, coursely chopped (about 1/4 Cup)


3 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill, plus springs for garnish


Salt and freshly ground black pepper


1 medium tomato, seeded and diced


2 teaspoons olive oil


Directions


In a blender, combine the yogurt, cucumber, scallion and dill. Pulse until pureed. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into individual bowls. Top each serving with 2 tablespoons tomato, drizzle with 1/2 teaspoon olive oil and garnish with a dill sprig.


Makes 4-1 cup servings

All-Class Reunion

The All-Class Reunion was a blast! What fun to chat with folks from all over the country who went to high School right here in Fort Scott. The twins out front had their best "Fort Scott Tigers" caps and t-shirts on and some of our visitors signed in with their graduation years. Most of our guests were pleased to see Main Street still intact, if a little sparse. We of course invited them all to return to Fort Scott to be part of what we hope is a revitalization of our historic core. We still need a real coffee shop downtown along with a pizza shop, shoe store and more!

We will be open 7 days a week all summer long; and invite you to visit especially Saturday mornings and Tuesday afternoons so you can enjoy the Farmers Market in addition to our great, locally owned retailers downtown!