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Des Plaines bids farewell to bookmobile
Library retires aging bus
After more than 42 years of service, the Des Plaines Public Library's bookmobile will quietly fade into the pages of history this weekend.
The mobile library is making its final rounds this week to area schools, parks and community centers. The service will be discontinued after Saturday, Dec. 17, without much fanfare leaving a bittersweet feeling in the hearts of many patrons and library staff members alike.
"I'm not at all happy about it," said Tim Kohmstedt, who accompanied his 8-year-old nephew, Cole Curran, to the library during a stop earlier this week at Devonshire School in Des Plaines.
Kohmstedt said he started a Facebook petition to try to save the bookmobile from being cut, but it didn't go anywhere.
"It's sad to see them go. All these years I've been coming here," he said.
The bookmobile has been a recognizable presence in Des Plaines neighborhoods since June 19, 1969. The service was started on a two-week rotation, initially making stops in 18 neighborhoods. Today, the 36-foot-long mobile library makes about 40 stops and carries a collection of roughly 14,000 items, including books, magazines, DVDs, videos, CDs, and audiobooks.
It is used mainly by youth, who make up 65 percent of checkouts. Its circulation had dropped from 51,612 in 2009 to 48,333 in 2010, while the main library's remained unchanged at roughly 1.2 million for both years. So far in 2011, the bookmobile's circulation is at 40,000.
Susan Farid, library head of circulation services, said the bookmobile allowed for more personal interaction with patrons often lost with the advent of new technologies and self checkout machines at the main library.
"You get to know people a little bit better than you do at the main library," Farid said. "It started getting really sad last week when you realized you are not going to be coming back again."
Farid said students at one school made cards and prepared baskets of cookies for the bookmobile staff members, and sang holiday songs as a farewell gesture.
"It was so sweet. I'm happy for all that we were able to accomplish," Farid said. "You see people that really appreciate the service. Everybody kind of has their own unique reason why they are using the bookmobile."
Convenience is the primary reason for many patrons as it's harder for some people to get to the main library in downtown, she added.
Fifty-nine patrons are presently enrolled in the library's homebound program, which uses a minivan to visit people in their homes. Officials have discussed possibly expanding the homebound service to make up for the loss of the bookmobile.
Many North suburban libraries, including Indian Trails, have opted to do away with bookmobiles in tough economic times. Today, bookmobiles can be found only in a few libraries -- Arlington Heights, Aurora, Cook Memorial in Libertyville, Palatine, Warren-Newport in Gurnee, and Waukegan.
The decision to eliminate the service in Des Plaines was purely financial due to the condition of the nearly 16-year-old bus, Library Director Holly Sorensen said.
It costs Des Plaines $132,660 annually -- roughly 2 percent of the total library budget -- to operate the mobile library.
Officials spent $6,750 to rebuild the bookmobile's transmission this year. It could cost roughly $20,000 to put in a new engine -- more than the estimated $15,000 value of the bus itself.
Library officials decided earlier this year it would be more prudent to end the service rather than spend thousands of dollars repairing the bookmobile, or about $350,000 replacing it.
"To buy a new one was just not fiscally responsible," Sorensen said. "There's no way you could justify that kind of cost."
Library officials have begun to market the main library and its services more, highlighting ways of getting to downtown library, 1501 Ellinwood St., through biking, walking and bus service. The library is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
As for the bookmobile's retirement, officials said they didn't want to mark the occasion as its three part-time staff members are being laid off.
"It's a bittersweet ending," Sorensen said. "Times change and we're trying to stay relevant with our community. … We are confident that we can continue to serve people that used the mobile library with the same kind of great customer service that they have become accustomed to."


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text: bourbonv Posted June 13, 2014 Last week I did an event with Chet Zoeller, Fred Minnick and Susan Reigler in the library of the Bullitt estate at Oxmoor on Bourbon history and tourism. I thought some of you might want to listen to it so here is a link: http://filsonhistorical.org/education/the-filson-bourbon-academy/This will be available to non-Filson members for about a month when we will replace it with the next Bourbon Salon on Craft distilling and experimentation. It will still be available for listening after that, but only to Filson members. I hope you enjoy the podcast. I think it was a very good event.Mike Veach Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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Valve just recently moved Steam Workshop out of beta, and we're already seeing a ton of great mods ready for your clicking.
We've had access to mods before, that's nothing new. But Valve's Steam Workshop completely streamlines the process of adding them in, making the ability to have smarter AI, new weapons and newly skinned enemies an easier process than ever before. And databased, too!
So what's out there now, roughly four days after its official release? Here are a few that caught my eye.
Beautiful, changing skies
A Helm's Deep map
An Aperture space station map
Playing as friggin' velociraptors
A Crash Bandicoot map
Warrior Bug enemies
A super-sexy Coach in formal wear
Team Fortress 2's Scout as a Hunter
The Gabe Newell of Boomers
There are a ton of other maps, skins for the four playable characters, skins for enemies, heck, skins for the defibrillator and ammo packs. There are weapons, from melee and assault rifles to machine guns and grenades. There are menu tweaks and UI changes. New soundtracks and sound effects. Just a metric crapton of things you probably don't need but, hey, you can download now.


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Deep Thoughts Outlander 311: Uncharted
Claire's streak of improbably surviving things that would kill the rest of us continues. This time she lands on modern-day Haiti, her clothes intact and her hair looking way better than it should and narrowly misses the three-day survival deadline. Because she's Claire, she finds a nutty priest (he literally uses a coconut as a life coach), swans about in a fly robe and manages to be called a whore by an older woman whose only daughter ran away with a priest. That's right, Mamacita. GLASS HOUSES. While the first half had some of the comedy that I always love to see, the second half was an emotionally satisfying dessert. I would watch the hell out of a Fersali spinoff.
Spoilers ahead for episode 311.
Here are four takeaways:
A quarter hour is way longer than you think. I understand the need to impress Claire's peril upon the audience, but that's about ten minutes more than I wanted to spend watching her wander around the island. Just for comparison's sake, that's about two more minutes' more screen time than was spent on Culloden, which was much more of a big deal in my mind. I get that it was to illustrate the passage of time and call back to the peril she was in due to hitting her third day sans water, but I wish we had spent more time with Jamie and Fergus, maybe gotten a hint of the storm that broke the Artemis' main mast. Instead we got an extremely aversive introduction to the flora and fauna of Hispaniola. I'm not even talking about the snake. It was the ants that made me want to bathe myself in a cloud of Raid. And how is it that it took Claire about two days to find Father Fogden, but only a few hours to run back to shore to find Jamie? Of course, running to meet your sexy gingersnap puts wings on your heels, but I don't think it adds an engine. Ah, Outlander. You are a time-travel show in more ways than one.
Geography is hard. I can't tell you the number of maps I looked at to figure out where who was when, or how teensy the Turks portion of Turks and Caicos is when you're desperately hunting for Cockburn Town. That strugglebus was on a circuitous route. It was nice to see the Americas featured, however, and to recognize and lust after fried plantains. I was, however, confused by the Spanish subtitles. Following the idea that the show doesn't subtitle Gaelic or Chinese because Claire wouldn't understand them, but did subtitle the French in Season 2, does that mean Claire speaks Spanish? Why then does Fogden translate for her? (An aside: I must congratulate the actress that played Mamacita for her very convincing Cuban accent. I could tell it wasn't native, but I couldn't identify what colored it until I saw she was Spanish and had lived in the U.S. Good job, Vivi.) In any case, because I had to make a visual for my own visual reference, here's my super highbrow map of this episode, for the map dunces like me.
Eat your heart out, Jenny Fraser. There is a new HBIC in town, and her married name rhymes with "Taser." Marsali is adaptable and practical, which is a necessity for joining the Fraser clan, but she also is a girl who, as Fergus says, "speaks her mind." Fiercely loyal, she repeatedly speaks up in Fergus's defense, first to Jamie, and now to Father Fogden. She is a Jenny Fraser for the next generation, imbued with all the grim shrewdness of a country girl and the genetic bull-headedness and managing nature to see her plans through. What is especially endearing about Marsali, and especially this episode, is her perceptiveness. Sheh alone, in Claire's absence had the stones to tell Jamie to snap out of it and trust in Fergus's love for him last episode, and this episode she finally comes clean to Claire about the real status of the Jamie/Laoghaire marriage, and her fears for her own. Claire and Marsali connect on the very deep level of headstrong women who value their agency, and it did my heart good to see Fergus get what he has long wanted, a woman like madame.
More Frasers than you can stab with a branch. Oddly enough, Jamie and Claire's reunion wasn't the emotional high point of this episode. That was reserved for the funny, touching, memorable wedding of Marsali and Fergus. From Fergus's untidy ponytail to Marsali's sweet shawl and earrings, to the candlelight in the reverend's garden are meant to evoke an aura of intimacy and ease. A wedding is a simple thing, really. It's the building of a relationship that is difficult, and the maintenance of the ties that keep a family together. Marsali's tart admonishments for Father Fogden are more than a girl mouthing off: they are the impatient nudges of a woman set on getting her heart's desire, and the fact that this desire is a bastard boy with no last name and only hand speaks to the worth of her character and the love she can give. The fact that Fergus can't even finish chastising her for her outspokenness before claiming that it is one of the things he loves about her shows the same for him. Jamie and Claire's exchange of wry glances also tells the audience that Fergus isn't the only one who appreciates an outspoken female. Finally, Fergus's quiet admission that he has no last name, and Jamie's assertive claim that he is a Fraser brought me to tears. Marsali turns immediately, startled. In contrast, her husband-to-be stills, then turns with shining eyes to regard his father before saying his full name proudly for the first time. So the Frasers grow, having lost both a son and daughters, to claim Fergus and Marsali for their own. In turn Fergus, who once sacrificed a hand to keep Jamie safe, now receives the final portion of the lifetime of care he was promised as a boy: the protection of Jamie's name.


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By itself, the tax package nearing completion in Washington won't get the U.S. economy back on track. But every little bit helps.
And while the U.S. economy is on the mend, it's got a long way to go to repair the damage from the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression.
That's the view, at least, of a majority of economists surveyed in msnbc.com's annual Economic Roundtable.
In just the past month, many forecasters have boosted their outlook for next year, based on a series of positive economic reports. Retailers are reporting a better than expected shopping holiday season. Manufacturers are seeing a pickup in production. And private sector job growth — though still very sluggish — has picked up from the first half of the year
"All of this suggests that businesses and consumer are feeling more confident about the recovery and less worried about a double dip," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for IHS Global Insight.
Behravesh and other economists on our panel said the outlook also brightened on the news earlier this month that Congress and the White House agreed to keep federal income tax rates constant and cut payroll taxes. Behravesh figures the tax plan will add about sixth tens of a percent to the gross domestic product next year.
And there are early signs that companies that have been sitting on large piles of cash are beginning to spend more freely, according to Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.
"We're starting to see pensions and institutional investors go after corporations hoarding cash and say, 'Either give it back or redeploy it,'" she said. "Either way you get some better economic feedback."
But sadly it all adds up to another year of relatively modest growth, not nearly enough to make much of a dent in the painfully high 9.8 percent unemployment rate.
The consensus of msnbc.com's Economic Roundtable calls for the gross domestic product to grow just 2.6 percent next year, even a bit slower than the estimated 2.8 percent growth seen in 2010. The unemployment rate is expected to drop only slightly to 9.2 percent by the end of next year, with the most optimistic of our dozen panelists calling for a drop to 8.5 percent.
"There is some momentum in the job market, but in terms of real healing it's just an incredibly slow, painful process," said Ethan Harris, head of developed markets economics at BofA Merrill Lynch.
After a financial meltdown and the longest recession since before World War II, the economy has grown only modestly, at about half the rate that usually would be expected after a downturn.
A huge hangover from the housing bust is one of the major factors holding back the economy, with millions of homes still facing likely foreclosure. And high unemployment is holding down consumer spending and creating a cascade of unpleasant consequences, including huge budget shortfalls at every level of government.
"I think there is just a tremendous skepticism and lack of confidence in the economy from the business sector," said Harris. "They just don't really believe in the recovery. They don't want to risk overhiring, and that has a self-fulfilling effect."
Our panelists had mixed opinions on the Federal Reserve's latest plan to boost the economy by buying $600 billion in Treasury securities. Those who saw a positive impact said it would be modest.
The group expects interest rates to remain low by historical standards next year, with about half expected the overnight federal funds rate to remain at its current unprecedented low level of zero to 0.25 percent through the end of next year.
Inflation is also expected to remain low; the consensus estimate sees consumer prices, excluding food and energy, rising just 1 percent next year, about the same as 2010.
Despite the improved outlook, many Americans probably won't feel like the good times are rolling again. For one thing, even as the overall rate of growth improves, the economy is still digging out of the deepest slide since World War II.
"This was indeed the Great Recession," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors. "This was a catastrophic collapse of two critical sectors of the economy — housing and finance — two sectors that in the past were needed and usually showed up early in the recovery."
Despite a pickup in growth next year and in 2012, our forecasters expect the unemployment rate to remain stubbornly high for years to come. The consensus pegs the jobless rate at 9.2 percent by the end of next year and not falling back to pre-recession levels of 5 percent for five to seven years — or longer.
The improved outlook will also be felt unevenly: A lot will depend on where you live and where you are on the income ladder. Unemployment levels for college-educated workers have fallen more quickly than the jobless rate for those with less education, for example. And while stock market gains have helped bolster confidence among wealthier households, those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder are getting squeezed hard by falling home prices.
"Most middle-class families have more wealth tied to their housing than to the stock market while the upper crust of society that where the financial market wealth is concentrated," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. "For most middle-class families, they still see some drag in terms of their home values, which many people have looked forward to as part of their retirement savings."
Regions of the country that saw the biggest run-up in the housing boom will take longest to recover as high foreclosure rates continue to bring houses to market at "distressed" prices. That means the housing market won't recover until the pace of new foreclosures returns to pre-boom levels and that backlog of homes is sold, Yun said.
"It's going to take at least a couple of years to fully clear out the distressed properties that need to go through the system," he said.
With the housing market still in a deep hole and consumers tightening their belts, the recovery from the Great Recession is also reshaping the structure of the U.S. economy.
"We've had two decades of debt-financed consumption, and that's coming to an end," said Behravesh. "Consumer spending will be OK. But it will not be the engine of U.S. or global growth."
Part of the slack in growth from consumer spending is already being taken up by gains in exports.
"The export sector is almost 13 percent of our economy, and that's growing at a double-digit clip," said Michael Englund, chief economist for Action Economics. "That's largely because our trade disproportionately is with Asia, and trend growth in Asia is just much higher than the elsewhere in the world. So trade is a huge."
Despite competition from low-cost manufacturing overseas, Englund notes that U.S. companies still dominate industries like oil drilling and agricultural products and equipment. With emerging economies spurring global demand for food and energy, the U.S. will get a boost from American companies that supply the equipment, technology and supplies needed to feed that growth, he said.
That structural shift — and the need to retrain millions of workers for new careers — also helps explain why the unemployment rate is expected to remain stubbornly high for years to come.
"It's going to take five to seven years. Yes, that's a lot longer than past recessions. But this was a much steeper recession."
Following is the detailed forecast of our 12 panelists. For more information on the panelists, including how they did last year, click here.


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We were recently treated to an official synopsis for Marvel's upcoming sequel Thor: The Dark World that shed a light on the story of the godly follow-up, and now the studio has released a full synopsis for Iron Man 3. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige previously noted that the third entry in the Iron Man franchise would metaphorically get Tony Stark "back to the cave," in a place where he's stripped of everything and left with only his intelligence to fight his way back. This synopsis teases just that, as Stark finds himself on a sort of revenge mission after his "personal world is destroyed" by his enemy (Ben Kingsley's The Mandarin). The synopsis also promises an answer to a question that's central to Stark's character: does the suit make the man or does the man make the suit?
Hit the jump to read the full synopsis. Directed by Shane Black, the film also stars Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rebecca Hall, James Badge Dale, Jon Favreau, and Guy Pearce. Iron Man 3 opens in 3D on May 3rd, 2013.
Here's the official synopsis, courtesy of Marvel/Disney:
Marvel Studios' Iron Man 3 pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy's hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale with Jon Favreau and Ben Kingsley, Iron Man 3 is directed by Shane Black from a screenplay by Drew Pearce and Shane Black and is based on Marvel's iconic Super Hero Iron Man, who first appeared on the pages of Tales of Suspense (#39) in 1963 and had his solo comic book debut with The Invincible Iron Man (#1) in May of 1968.
Iron Man 3 is presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures and DMG Entertainment. Marvel Studios' President Kevin Feige is producing and Jon Favreau, Louis D'Esposito, Stephen Broussard, Victoria Alonso, Alan Fine, Charles Newirth, Stan Lee and Dan Mintz are executive producers. The film releases May 3, 2013, and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.


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Previous media releases
UBS SME barometer: Divergent economic circumstances for SMEs and large companies
Overall, the business situation eased slightly in the industrial sector, although differences between large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises are more pronounced. Despite falling income, the economic situation in the service sector has stabilized at a high level.
In recent months, the Swiss economy displayed an increasingly divergent trend: On the one hand, industrials came under increasing pressure owing to falling demand from abroad. On the other hand, the service sector benefited from brisk domestic demand. However, there are now growing indications that the industrial sector has bottomed out, while the economic situation in the service sector has stabilized at a high level. Our forecast for the Swiss economy therefore remains relatively optimistic; we anticipate GDP growth of 1.1 percent for the current year.
However, the barometers fell for both business groups, despite the stabilization seen in the industrial sector. At -0.94 points in August, the SME barometer was well below its mean value of 1.30. Over the past two months, the barometer for large companies also fell to –0.60 points from –0.56 and was also below the long-term average.
Growing differences between SMEs and large companies in industry
According to the survey, large companies and SMEs in the industrial sector are drifting farther apart according to many indicators. The large companies rate the business situation as satisfactory, while the SMEs continue to assess it as poor. This is very probably attributable to the large companies' better profit situation. While the backlog of orders large companies received from abroad also recovered, this continued to decline for SMEs. There were no discernible differences between the two business groups in terms of prices.
Although the economic situation deteriorated somewhat for both SMEs and large companies in the construction sector, the majority of companies still consider the economic situation to be good. However, large companies were slightly better positioned than SMEs. This stands in contrast to the development of prices, which have increased among SMEs in recent months. Both SMEs as well as large companies rated their profit situation positively. In recent months, architectural agencies and engineering consultancies, commonly regarded as preliminary indicators for the construction sector, were considerably more upbeat about their economic situation. This positive rating of the business situation is in all likelihood attributable to the continuing improvement in income owing to rising prices in the third quarter.
Growing demand among large companies in the service sector
As in the industrial sector, the two business groups are also diverging further in the service sector. Large companies expect prices to rise over the coming three months, while SMEs anticipate that prices will fall. The large companies are also more upbeat than their SME counterparts in their assessment of demand for the coming months. This development is also reflected in the employment figures; while the large companies rated the current headcount as too low, the SMEs considered it to be too high.
The profit situation of the SMEs in the retail sector also improved thanks to higher revenues. This contrasts the view of large companies, which continue to anticipate negative performance. Most likely, large companies therefore assess their economic situation as poor, while the majority of SMEs consider it to be good.
The outlook in the tourism sector, however, remained gloomy. Although the situation has eased slightly for all indicators, most companies continued to report falling demand, revenues and income, regardless of their size. In addition, most companies rated their current headcount as too high.
UBS SME barometer
Calculation of the UBS SME barometer
The UBS Industrial Barometer is based on the industry survey conducted by the KOF each month (excluding the construction industry). It is calculated as the first main component of 17 subindicators for the entire industry, divided into SMEs (up to 200 employees) and large companies (more than 200 employees). It is scaled so that its mean value is zero and its variance is 1.
Service sector
The data is seasonal adjusted. Survey responses are evaluated using a diffusion index: the result represents average of companies reporting a positive or a negative trend. It therefore does not represent a percentage rate of change.
Media contact
Daniel Kalt, UBS Chief Economist Switzerland
Tel. +41 44 234 25 60, email@example.com
Sibille Duss, CIO Research Wealth Management Research
Tel. +41 44 235 69 54, email@example.com
UBS publications and forecasts for Switzerland: www.ubs.com/wmr-swiss-research


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Euro Slide Credit Card Wallet
Designer's Note
Our iconic leather credit card case and leather passport holder, the Euro Slide makes a great mini wallet when downsizing to a small bag, or is your must-have travel accessory when traveling abroad. With a passport sized pocket, credit card slots, and an ID window, this travel accessory is simple and convenient.
- Brushed Antique Brass hardware
- Exterior Pockets: Zip pocket and slip pocket, ID holder and 5 Credit Card slots
- As seen on HarpersBazaar.com
- 4" W x 5.5" H x 0.25" D
Orders are processed and shipped from Maryland within 1-2 business days. Free and easy returns within 30 days. Visit our Return Portal for more details.
Our customer service team is ready to assist on chat, email, and phone from 9am-5:30pm M-F. Contact customer service by phone at 866-516-6042 x 1 or by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.
- choosing a selection results in a full page refresh


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Emma is a beautiful suite that suits any elegant occasion. Emma invitations are single sided and cut to shape as standard, measuring approximately 100x140mm. Invitations, save the dates, RSVP (non postcard) and thank you cards (not postcard) from our classic collections come with a superior 120gsm white envelope as standard. Choose from ten colours, but if you can't see the colour you want from the online options, then get in touch and let us know which colour you'd like prior to ordering. Prices | Up to 50 ~ £3.25 per item ~ Up to 90 ~ £3 per item ~ 90+ £2.75 per item | Rear print ~ 50p per item | Guest name ~ 50p per item | Envelope liner ~ £1 per item Need to know more or need to discuss a complex order? Please get in touch for chat.
Emma Reception Invitation
Go large and save! Save 20% off additional individual items prices when you buy invitation bundles of three or more items. Bundles come with an invitation and RSVP (both with envelopes) as standard, then add envelope liners, and/or either tags and twine or bundle wraps to activate the saving!
Need to get more info to your guests? Go for our BIG bundles, which come with either an A6 or A7 double sided information card.
Choose which colour you'd like from ten colour choices. If you can't see the colour you want, then get in touch and let us know which colours you'd like prior to ordering.
Wording and Layout
We can change all the wording for you, no problem! We can also drop some of the graphics off too, if you'd prefer, all at no extra cost. If you would like to make significant alterations to the design, please get in touch with us before you order to check the changes can be made.
Custom Design Additions
We can add elements of custom design to any of our collection stationery, for example; a map or illustration of your venue. Additional fees apply.
Items Available
A full stationery suite, including save the date cards, RSVP, information cards, 'on the day stationery' and thank you cards can also be ordered. Please get in contact for details.
Product Options
Colour Choice
Choose from one of ten colour options online, or get in touch with us to order this collection in a specific colour.
What can I print on the back of my invitation?
Have lots of information you need to put on your invitation? No problem as we can reverse print on single sided items. This could be local accomodation details, directions between venues, gift information... Anything really! If you don't have any more information to add but would still like the back to be printed, we can add the main colour from the front of the design to the back. If you'd like another colour to be printed on the back, please let us know at the time of order.
I'd like a separate information card.
Great, all of our items look fab when bundled! All info cards come double sided as standard and can either be A6 (105 mm x 148 mm) or A7 (74 mm x 105 mm).
Can I add my guest's name to the invitations?
Absolutely! You can order this within the prodcut options above.
Can I have it in a different shape/size?
Wherever possible, we will try to adapt a design to make it fit any shape or size you'd like. Some changes are easy to make, like choosing A5 invitations rather than the standard A6 and you will be able to make simple changes to format when your order online. However, for more complex changes, please get in touch with us before you place an order.
Envelope liners, what are they?
We can line your envelopes with a hand cut sheet, complimenting the design of your items and giving your envelopes are superior feel and weight. Choose any one of the eight colour options online. The perfect way to finish your bundles!
Product FAQ's
How many should I order?
The general rule is to order 10-15% more than you think you need. We have a minimum order number of 35 for all 'before the day' stationery. If you require less than 35, please get in contact for unit prices as these will be higher.
Can I change the colour of the design?
In most cases, yes! If you have a particular colour palette you'd like to use, have a chat to us prior to ordering as in most cases, we can colour match any tone from any image or link you provide us.
Can I change the wording?
Absolutely, all wording can be changed to anything you have in mind.
But I don't have a clue about how I should word it!
No problem at all :) We have lots of experience with finding the perfect wording and can help you throughout the design process.
The design is ace! But what I really want is an illustration of my prized horse, Rocky...
We LOVE to add elements of custom design to our collection stationery. For example; a map or illustration of your venue, or maybe the beloved family furry friend! Anything at all If you have something in mind, just ask. Additional custom design fees apply.
International Orders
I'm not in the UK, can I still order?
Yes, we love our international customers! Shipping can be a little more complex to calculate though so please do get in touch, prior to ordering so we can provide you with a postal quote first.
Paper & Print Info
Emma is printed digitally using industry leading HP Indigo printers, on to our paper of choice; 280gsm fine lined stock.


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The move would "strongly spur the development of the tourism industry, speed up building of an international city (and) expand contacts with the rest of the world," the Beijing Tourism Administration said on its website.
The policy only applies to travellers in transit to a third country, and not for return flights to the capital, whose attractions include the vast Forbidden City.
Eligible nationalities include the United States, Canada, European Union countries, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, South Korea, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
The city will "starting on January 1, 2013, implement a policy allowing foreigners from 45 countries with visas and plane tickets to a third country to transit through Beijing for 72 hours without a visa", the tourism body said.
But travellers would "face punishment" if they left the capital and lawbreakers would be banned for life, Gao Huada, deputy director of the city's exit-entry bureau, was quoted in the China Daily as saying on Thursday.
China's financial hub Shanghai already allows some foreigners in transit to visit the city for 48 hours, its government says on its website, including those from the US, some European countries, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
Other travellers passing through the country are required to remain in the airport.
Beijing's airport is the second busiest in the world, having handled 47 million passengers in the first seven months of this year, according to the industry body Airports Council International.
Shanghai airport ranks 20th busiest with 26 million travellers during the same period.


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AccessibilityOz CEO Gian Wild and Rob Haverty, Senior Program Manager at Adobe explore the accessibility challenges related to PDFs. Topics include how to handle issues such as an existing archive of untagged PDFs on a website.
Video accessibility requires more than simply providing transcripts, captions and audio descriptions. Join AccessibilityOz CEO Gian Wild for a detailed demonstration, discussion, and Q&A about how to make videos accessible to people with disabilities.
Images are used on websites for many different functions, and each require a different approach for accessibility. In this webinar Gian Wild discusses how to ensure your images are both accessible and usable for people with disabilities.
In order to ensure that your eRecruiting materials and other website content is accessible, it's essential that your website include properly formatted tables. In this webinar, Gian Wild of Accessibility Oz provides a hands-on demonstration of coding and sequence requirements for both data tables and layout tables, and the easy way to determine the difference between table types


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A year ago I wrote, re investing in social marketing, "The social loop will share superficial characteristics with the display loop, but it's really completely different… the area with the most near-term leverage will be tools that help communicators understand the impact of how they are communicating and then help them make better decisions." This has turned out to be completely true.
I've been thinking about social marketing for five years. It has seemed obvious that major advances in marketing technique will occur through the social channel, but it was never clear to me exactly what those would be. I looked at and worked with a couple dozen social media marketing companies before throwing up my hands and declaring non-prescience.
My rule of thumb is that when the evolution of the landscape seems unknowable it is usually because the technology that will underpin the advance is still in flux. The obvious solution is dropping a level deeper in the stack and looking for investments there. In mobile, that meant Flurry four years ago and Media Armor a year ago. In social, it meant Awe.sm.
The smartest guy I ever knew in the ad business (like being the tallest dwarf, I know…) said, of managing people, "Whatever chart you put on the wall goes up."
That was me, the tallest dwarf, from back when I knew Clay, when he was just another guy.
I worked at IBM during the heyday of the Six Sigma movement. I was a design engineer, trying to optimize a very small piece of the central processor of what became the System 390 series of mainframes. As a design engineer there were several layers of abstraction between me and the silicon: the design language was a visual one–I wrote a flowchart which was compiled into a set of logic gates which were then mapped onto silicon. Aside from tweaking the logic gate-level design to try to get better performance, I spent my time at the flowchart level, as did most of the engineers.
Six Sigma methodology has you measure processes, find causes of errors and remedy them. The idea is to improve processes until there are fewer than 3.4 defects per million. IBM had a company-wide mandate to implement Six Sigma. I was subject to this mandate.
I asked my manager how I was supposed to measure my 'defects' and why would I even want to if I had to define them in such a way that I essentially never, ever made that type of mistake. He said "How are you going to improve if you aren't noticing your mistakes and figuring out how to stop making them?" "I already do that," I said, "I'm just not marking them down on some stupid piece of graph paper thats been pre-printed with a normal curve." He said "But then how can we manage it?"
Ah, Bach.
You can't manage what you can't measure. Stupid as managing designers on the binary idea of defect/not-defect and on such a stringent scale, constantly knowing how well you are doing so that you can constantly improve is extremely powerful. This idea, probably more than any other, drives my investment strategy: things that are not being measured are being managed poorly; creating new ways to measure creates ways of doing things immensely better, it creates entirely new businesses.
The fact is, you do get what you measure, whatever graph you put on the wall will go up. But the moral of that pithy aphorism was meant to be: be careful what you wish for.
If what you are measuring in social marketing is Likes or Follows, that is what you will get. But how closely aligned are these measures with what a business really wants: happy and loyal customers, higher sales? You don't know. No one knows. This particular loop hasn't been closed. Because the social gesture cause and business result can't be tied together in a measurable way, it can't be managed and it can't be improved.
I invested in Awe.sm's seed round because they provide core social measurement functionality, the ability to tie social actions into their actual results, to close the loop. I re-upped into their Series A because they're now doing something even more interesting: they're providing this functionality to other developers via API. Instead of being just an analytics player, they're now enabling the creation of an entire social marketing infrastructure that can use measurement to provide a ever-improving feedback loop.
I may have gravitated to marketing in part because dealing directly with people is too messy to ever even approach Six Sigma, but the engineer in me still believes that by measuring you can improve, and by linking measurement and algorithms you can create a feedback loop that allows you to improve adaptively and in real-time. This idea has revolutionized online advertising over the past few years. It's going to revolutionize social marketing over the next few.


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Sled hockey goalie and four-time Paralympian Steve Cash has led Team USA to three gold medals in his career at the 2010, 2014 and 2018 Paralympic Winter Games. Cash also competes in club sled hockey through Disabled Athlete Sport Association, a Paralympic Sport Club based in St. Louis.
Based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. Paralympics, a division of the nonprofit United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, is dedicated to becoming the world leader in the Paralympic Movement and promoting excellence in the lives of people with disabilities.
Since its formation in 2001, U.S. Paralympics has been inspiring Americans to achieve their dreams. Through relationships with hundreds of organizations across the country including National Governing Bodies/High Performance Management Organizations and Paralympic Sport Clubs, U.S. Paralympics is making a difference in the lives of thousands of people with Paralympic-eligible impairments every day with educational opportunities and sports programming.
In 2013, U.S. Paralympian Tatyana McFadden became the first athlete, able-bodied or Paralympic-eligible, to win a marathon grand slam. She won in Boston, London, Chicago and New York.
While grassroots programming is an area of emphasis for U.S. Paralympics, the organization is also the National Paralympic Committee in the United States, as recognized by the International Paralympic Committee, and is responsible for elite sports programming including sending a U.S. Paralympic Team to the Paralympic Games, summer and winter. U.S. Paralympics operates as the NGB for six sports: alpine skiing, cycling, Nordic skiing (biathlon and cross-country skiing), snowboarding, swimming and track and field.
Whether you are exploring Paralympic sport for the first time or are ready to compete for Team USA, U.S. Paralympics has opportunities for you. From Alaska to Florida, no matter where you are, there's an opportunity for you to explore your potential through sport development programs and grants like the William E. Simon Olympic Endowment for the Support of Athletes.
But the success of U.S. Paralympics is about more than athletes.
You can coach.
You can classify.
You can volunteer.
You can be a part of the Paralympic Movement.


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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attempting to prove to the nation that organic lawn care techniques are safe and effective, one of the highest profile lawns in the world is about to try a massive 'green' makeover.
The two-week project involves plowing a section of existing lawn at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., adding compost, other natural soil amendments and fertilizers before reseeding the area. The project was organized by SafeLawns.org. Representatives from the natural lawn care company will return to the Nation's Capitol frequently in the next two years to continue an organic maintenance program on the area that measures more than four acres.
The National Park Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, which both partnered in the project, will now evaluate each of the three plots; one maintained conventionally by the National Park Service, a second that has received standard organic treatment and a third that has had a complete organic
"This is a pilot project to demonstrate whether environmentally friendly soil treatments such as compost tea can improve the viability of the soil enough to make grass more viable under the extreme compaction conditions of the National Mall," according to the National Park Service website at http://www.nps.gov/nama/parkmgmt/upload/SafeLawns.pdf. The three block comparison is between the U.S. Capitol Building and the Washington Monument, starting at 3rd Street and extending to 7th Street.
"This is exactly the kind of high visibility project we had in mind when we conceived our organization in February of 2006," said Paul Tukey, founder of SafeLawns.org and author of the best-selling book, The Organic Lawn Care Manual. "If we can grow resilient grass on the National Mall, where 27 million people trample the lawn each year, then we will have demonstrated that we can grow grass anywhere. Most importantly, we'll have proved that you can grow grass without relying on chemical fertilizers and pesticides that can harm wildlife and contaminate drinking water, as well as cause harm to people and their pets."
The SafeLawns.org mission is to create a broad based coalition of nonprofit and for-profit organizations committed to educating society about the benefits of organic lawn care and gardening, and effect a quantum change in consumer and industry behavior.


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What a place the Grand Canyon is. It was and is a place like I've never seen before. Each view was more beautiful than the last. We all had such great time running over the two days. We ran S-to-N (S. Kaibab-N. Kaibab) on Day 1, then N-to-S (N. Kaibab-Bright Angel) on Day 2. Words can't do it justice; neither will the pictures, but enjoy my feeble attempt.
(View from the top of the South Rim)
(Amazing color variation on the South Rim)
(Another amazing view)
(Some sweeeet single track)
(S. Kaibab buttery trails)
(Nice trail, not so nice camera work)
(Heading up Bright Angel) (view back down Bright Angel. . . see ya next time GC!)
The trip to the GC was worth every second of travel and every penny spent. Definitely something that should be on every ultrarunners' bucket list. Here is a good logistical review if you would want to plan your own adventure. . . you should!


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Washington (CNN) – Polling that indicates a post-convention bounce for President Barack Obama is merely a "sugar high" that will dissipate by the time voters head to the voting booths on Election Day, Mitt Romney's chief pollster wrote in a memo Monday.
"Don't get too worked up about the latest polling," Neil Newhouse wrote, the day after Gallup's Daily Tracking Poll, along with some other surveys, indicated that Obama received a "bounce" after last week's Democratic National Convention. The Gallup poll showed the president opening a five point margin over Romney, and was conducted September 2-8, a time window that included the entirety of the convention in Charlotte, North Carolina-as well as two days before and two days after the event.
- Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker
- Check out the CNN Electoral Map and Calculator and game out your own strategy for November.
CNN will release a post-convention poll at 4 p.m. ET Monday, with the numbers debuting on CNN's "The Situation Room" and on the CNN Political Ticker.
In his memo, Newhouse reiterated the Romney campaign's longstanding position that a persistently weak economy would outweigh other factors leading up to November's general election.
"The reality of the Obama economy will reassert itself as the ultimate downfall of the Obama Presidency, and Mitt Romney will win this race," Newhouse wrote. He went on to cite disappointing Labor Department figures, released Friday, that showed a job market struggling to rebound.
"President Obama is the only president in modern American history to stand before the American people asking for re-election with this many Americans struggling to find work," Newhouse wrote. "The key numbers in this election are the 43 straight months of 8% or higher unemployment, the 23 million Americans struggling to find work, and the 47 million Americans who are on food stamps."
In an attempt to quell worry among Romney supporters, Newhouse pointed to an expanded map of states the campaign regards as competitive, including Wisconsin and New Mexico. He also cited the Romney campaign's sizable financial advantage over the Democrats.
"All of this is not possible without resources, and the Romney-Ryan campaign and the Republican Party have a real advantage," Newhouse wrote. While the Obama effort revealed Monday they had out-raised Romney and the GOP in August, the Republicans retain their cash-on-hand advantage after months of out-fundraising Democrats.
@ Terry, believe what you want. Mittens the kittens is a wimp and he only wants to be president because it is a lifelong dream of his for show not to make America better. This man talks out the side of his mouth and when someone does this they are nothing but a big fat liar period.
The DNC bounce is supposed to just cancel out the RNC bounce. So, we should be back to square 1 right now. Are they admitting the RNC was lousy and didn't have any affect on voters?
Your 3-day Obama Hate Fest in Tampa netted you a whopping ONE-POINT bump in the polls.
In light of that, whatever negative comments you have for the President's FIVE-POINT gain sound like so many sour grapes.
The enourmous dollar investment you put into your hate and lies fest netted you nothing.
Prepare yourself to get the same return on your investment with your political ads.
@Terry, and all the lefties don't mention when Obama changes his mind on something. People get new information and change their opinions every day, including Obama. But it is not "flip-flopping" when he does it. The hypocrisy of the left is simply amazing. They wonder why this country is so divided. It is mostly their fault, though in fairness, it is not entirely their fault, just mostly.
I read a article in politico yesterday, advice to Romney campaign zip it do some work tell Romney to give speech on his plan with specific
"post-convention bounce for President Barack Obama is merely a "sugar high" that will dissipate by the time voters head to the voting booths on Election Day, Mitt Romney's chief pollster wrote in a memo Monday"
REALLY, Wondering whay Mitt did not receive his own measure of sugar high bounce after the RNC convention!
Romney better known as ROB -ME has changed his mind so many times
what if Romney gets in THEN changes his mind and delcares the MORMON church THE ONLY "REAL CHURCH" – now that would be a real SUGAR HIGH – more like a narcotic high !
Canada VOTES OBAMA – we believe in true honesty
...which is one 'sugar high' more than the Rombot got, both when signing up Ayn Rand, er, I mean, Paul Ryan (not his real last name, incidentally) and/or after the Republican Business Conference in Tampa.
Talk about fox and sour grapes....what a whiny bunch the Grand Old Party has become.
Keep talking Mitt, I voted for Obama in 2008 and i will vote for him again. I will not turn my back on him and for those who voted for him in 2008, please don't you either.
The trouble with the American economy started under George Bush foLlowed by the global melt down.Obama is on a rescue mission. He deserves a second termm
Romney is just a dream of the rich!
The RNC Hate Fest was the same as it was in 2008. A convention hall of angry people feeding off the negative energy and lies spewed by those on stage.
It was fun to try to count how many minorities were in the audience; alongside their bloated red faced, Caucasian bigoted brethren. I totaled about 11 for the entire convention. That's not to say, some may have been counted twice over each day.
But Clint Eastwood took the cake. All he needed to say was "Why did I come into this room?" Eastwood really took the wind out of Romney's speech. And it's hard to take the wind out of a windbag.
Reagan had an unemployment rate of 7.8% before the start of his second term after the unemployment levels reached 10.8% during his first term.
And Reagan won his second term by a landslide.
What's more – tax rates on the rich are lower under Obama than they were under Reagan when Reagan stood for reelection.
Obama is in for a landslide.
All of my family is voting for Obama. And we don't even take sugar in our tea !!!
Here is the deal the GOP thought that we were stupit. Yea we all not there yet but it is getting better. We do know that GB started this and Obama will clean up their mess. If this is sugar bring it on............ This is bigger than the economy. Its bigger than you Mitt. You are not fit for the 21st century. We don't forget. Pass me the SUGAR please.
I wonder what the republican CNN John King supporter has to say about this on his map? Not forgotting David Gregen who was a consultant for Bain Capital.No matter what Republicans want the world to believe, Obama is still popular worldwide and one of the best US Presidents ever! He polls amazingly high in Canada more than all our politicians.
"And Reagan won his second term by a landslide. "
People on both sides really need to stop trying so hard to compare this all to Reagan's elections in one way or another. There are so many significant substantive differences that it really just looks silly to try to square-peg-round-hole the analogy.
-"FORWARD"...to where..?
The D-Convention with all those speeches...speaker afer speaker all fired-up with "Deliberated Reidicule Sarcasm" but without a word or call for Unity...attack after attack on the terrible Republicans..but without any specifics or plans to back their slogan "FORWARD" Pres Obama not done yet in his"FIRST' but promises to do it in his "SECOND"......IF????
Contrary to the Dems Claim....Republicans always had plans going way back...LINCOLN ended slavery...Eisenhower ended segregation...Regan (with Gorbachev's collaboration) ended the cold war....and yes Ryan had a budget-plan in Congress...for the better of worth..which the Dems love to put asunder "WHY"? because the never presented a budget of their own..just attacks....Romney no matter how hard the Dems spin-it never adopted a Ryan-budget..get it!! all Romney did ask Ryan to join his GOP-ticket Romney Is the Presidential candidate who will formulate a"Grand Plan" perhaps in concert with Ryan to put America on the path to a real Recovery...The Romney/Ryan campaign most likely will release the specifics in due course at the right time and place...
Really? The GOP convention was an exercise in national unity? Speech after speech bashing and ridiculing the President, not a mention of policy or how they would unify the country, and topped off by Clint Eastwood's performance art? Please, you should have stopped there. The statement that the GOP has "always had a plan": have you read about Hoover's response to the Crash of 1929? Was his response a plan suitable to the situation? Nixon said he had a plan to end Viet Nam: he did not bother to tell people it involved years of prolonged air attacks at a huge cost in both blood and treasure. The GOP has had no plan to deal with economic problems, only to dismantle the government they have repeatedly attacked as an impediment to the economic freedom of their wealthiest backers. There is no plan from Romney except the one that is the most politically expedient for him. He did endorse the Ryan Budget, and the President has submitted a budget ( he is required by law to submit one) on time every year. Its the GOP that deliberately fosters instability by self-righteously claiming that they bear no responsibility for the mess they handed the President. One final thing: if the situation is as dire as the GOP says it is, than why don't make their plans known and present the voters with a clear choice? Probably because they don't have a plan. Romney has run for the office longer than Obama, yet he still cannot convince people he deserves a shot: why? You don't hand government over to the guy who threw you out of work and pocketed the money with a smile, then tells you he knows what's best for you. Ryan? He's never held a job in the private sector, yet he has no problem with government taking care of him and his family. A pair of hypocrites, spouting a lie they don't even believe, just so they can have something to fill their resume, that's what the GOP is offering as an alternative.
Wilson, I think the difference is that people can have a change of heart. People change and their views may as well. However, to have changed on just about every issue, sometimes going back to the original, is nothing but flopping. Especially if it occurs when you notice the other guy getting a "bump" in the polls.
How else can you explain how Romney was going to get rid of Obamacare in it's entirety, but now he just wants to get rid of some of it. If I was a conservative, I would be mad. But I would also be delusional and probably believe whatever lie created to cover for it.
Yes it's a sugar-high and "HOW SWEET IT IS!"
And how bitter it will be when liers Mitt and Ryan loose in November.
As far as fundraising goes – I gave $100 to the Obama campaign in August and if I can do it – so can all of you Dems and pro Obama Independents and Republicans out there. We've got to fight off those millionaires and billionaires who are funding Romney and his super pacs. I intend on giving another $100 this month and another in October – so if by chance we do loose to these guys – we know that we did what we could to help out Barack Obama and our cause for fairness and justice. Come on all you pro Obama folks – time to put our money where out hearts are and don't let this be an election won by the wealthy of the far right. Please contribute today – right now – it will make you feel good about youself and your beliefs.
Neil Newhouse is also the Romney advisor that said: "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers."
Maybe what he meant by that statement was that he was actually going to ignore the facts he was seeing in his polling numbers. It seems that Neil Newhouse is quite content now to delude himself that Romney is somehow still going to win on the issue of the economy. Delusional Neil thinks that everybody in America is waiting with rapt attention at the monthly employment numbers (like he apparently is). Listen to the way that Neil is trying to spin the facts now:
"The reality of the Obama economy will reassert itself as the ultimate downfall of the Obama Presidency, and Mitt Romney will win this race."
I hate to be the one to break the news to Neil, but he's missing the forest for the trees. The problem with Neil's little "ultimate downfall" theory is that there are a large number of Americans who actually are not as stupid as Neil and the Romney campaign seem to think Americans are. It seems the inconvenient truth of the entire matter is that a majority of Americans don't look at the economy and automatically think it is Obama's economy. Quite the opposite, Neil. People still see this economy as Bush's economy, and they see Romney as more of the same old tired ideas with nothing new to offer.
Neil thinks that America is on a "sugar high" and will come down from it and ultimately blame Obama and vote "anybody but Obama." Unfortunately for Neil, he has got it exactly backwards, and he is actually the one on a sugar high. Why is Neil Newhouse on a sugar high, you ask? Because Neil Newhouse's candidate is Willard Mitt Romney, and Neil has the problem of making that piece of crap taste good to the American people. The problem for Neil is:
Mitt Romney is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you're going to get.
You supporters are obviously those that I go to work everyday to support and are among those who think you are "entitled".
I am "entitled" too.......I am entitled to a president that will SUPPORT the Constitution of the United States of America and let me live under those laws. Obama is alllowed to have a website for blacks who support him, buttons that say "vote black and you will never go back". Good for him since he is exercising his right of free speech give to him under our Consitution. Since I have those same rights I want to start a "white people for Romney" website and wear a button that says 'vote white"......how far do you think I will get with that? I have never been a racist but it is getting increasingly more difficut to stay that way.
Let's see. RNC ends and Willard gets a 2 point bounce that is gone in three days. DNC ends and Barry gets a 7 point bounce that is still there. Great enthusiasm Repubs! Now how do you explain Willard stating that it will take him at least 8 years to fix the economy, even though he complains that Barry couldn't do it in 3.5 years? How do you explain that Willard stated he liked portions of "Obamacare"?
just on the basis of how the economy was when Obama took the Office, it is very ridiculous to accuse him after after four years of hard work, i could bite to that in 2016 but not now!
They want to take the WH and mess again and humper the recovery.......No way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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On 9 May 2011, the Information Commissioners Office published new advice on how UK organisations can comply with new EU law which will come into force on 26 May 2011 concerning the use of cookies technology. This requires organisations running websites in the UK to obtain informed consent from visitors to their websites in order to store and retrieve information on users computers through cookie techniques.
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Table Hopping – January 2012
"Top picks to hit Restaurant Week – January 20-29"
What is Restaurant Week?
Kansas City's Restaurant Week will be January 20th-29th, 2012. During this week, you can choose from hundreds of local restaurants, eat for a steal, and feel good knowing a percentage of the sale goes to Harvester's, our local food bank. Every participating restaurant you choose dine at that week, helps to feed another hungry family or child in KC. Each restaurant will offer a special fixed lunch menu, 2-courses for $15, and a dinner menu, 3-courses for $30. This does not include tax or tip. To view the participating restaurants, and see their lunch and dinner menus go to www.kansascityrestaurantweek.com. You can support a favorite restaurant during this week, or try a place you have always been curious about. Go on. Explore!
600 Ward Parkway
Kansas City MO 64112
(816) 389-2900
The newest jewel is the crowning jewel in the Bread & Butter Concepts crown. This is the company that also owns BRGR and Urban Table. Gram & Dun is Kansas City's newest gastrobpub, which opened to great crowds and fanfare in the old Baja 600 location on the Country Club Plaza right before Thanksgiving. Owners, Alan Gaylin and Glynn & Jean Roberts, poured some serious money into the overhaul of this space and the gorgeous outdoor patio, thus bringing KC another great locally owned restaurant to our beloved Plaza. Executive Chef Bradley Gilmore has created a rustic, comforting menu full traditional Southern dishes with a twist. MAKE: reservations before you go via Open Table, or you will find yourself waiting.
(At the Kemper Museum)
4420 Warwick Boulevard
Kansas City, MO 64111
(816) 561-7740
Executive Chef Jennifer Maloney, and her Sous Chef, Janet Ross, are the "tour de art" force of culinary excellence, behind the cuisine at Café Sebastienne located inside of the Kemper Museum. Instead of serving stuffy "museum food," these two are committed to sourcing and using local ingredients in season. The quality & freshness of their dishes is evident in every bite. The quality of art on the walls, matches the quality of art on your plate. Café Sebastienne also serves the best brunch in town on Sundays, and their lunch & dinner menus are a solid collection of soups, salads, sandwiches and entrees. DINE: in their colorful, art-filled dining room for more intimate conversation, or sit out in the sun-filled atrium for a more raucous dining experience.
Mestizo by Aarón Sánchez
The first question everyone asks when they walk into Mestizo: "Is Chef in the house?" Unfortunately for us, celebrity Chef Aarón Sánchez will only have time to visit his new restaurant in Leawood occasionally; with the filming of his new show "Heat Seekers" on Food Network. His restaurant is a sexy affair with a decidedly spicy décor. The menu is focused on a more authentic style of Mexican cuisine. He borrows dishes from all over Mexico to make up his menu, and makes his own tortillas in house. His tequila list is second to none, with very impressive selections. UP: on the rooftop is bar that will rock when the weather heats up. Until then, there are heaters and some protected seating. Bundle up and brave it.
703 Southwest Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64108
(816) 472-8272
La Bodega – Leawood
4311 West 119th Street
Leawood, KS 66209
(913) 428-8272
Owner, James Taylor, has two bodegas that are now under his charge. His original location downtown on Southwest Boulevard is decidedly more bohemian in its feel, but the second location in the One Nineteen Shopping Center is a sleek little stunner in its own right. Lucky for you, they both are participating in Restaurant Week. This Spanish style tapas bar continues to be the perfect choice for large groups of friends or family, because when you share plates, you can order more dishes to try. Excite your palate by ordering a wide variety of cold and hot small plates and a fine bottle of Spanish wine or a pitcher of sangria to share. ALONE: No worries, simply sit at the bar at either location and put yourself the hands of the capable and friendly bar staff.


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In his 1776 manifesto, The Wealth of Nations, economist Adam Smith promoted a marketplace unregulated by government, largely based on the belief that when consumers are free to buy things they want from merchants, the relationship is mutually beneficial because "We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love."
Over 230 years later, government, in the form of a prosecutor in Staunton, is cracking down on a merchant who sells a product the Commonwealth's Attorney finds "cheap, animalistic, and wrong." However, this time, a different sort of "self-love" is at issue.
A new adult video store has set off a powder keg of outrage that has divided the town, and resulted in the indictment of the store's owner on eight felony obscenity counts that could net a total of 80 years in prison.
Is pornography protected under the First Amendment? The law doesn't say, but soon 12 Valley residents could decide the future of a billion-dollar industry.
If the arrival of an adult video store has changed Staunton, it isn't evident at a glance. From small downtown boutiques and restaurants to the quiet stoicism of landmarks like the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Mary Baldwin College and the green expanses of Gypsy Hill Park, everything still brims with small-town charm. Even on Springhill Road on the outskirts of town where the store is located, icons of Americana like little white houses, a tiny gas station, and a brick church dot the rolling landscape.
Blink and you miss the porn. With its freshly paved parking lot, brick storefront, and sign with a grinning man-in-the-moon logo inviting motorists to check out "DVDs, magazines, novelties," After Hours Video could easily be mistaken for something innocuous. The only outward indications of what's inside are the opaque windows and the "must be 18 years of age or older to enter" sign on the door.
The interior looks much like any video store– except for a little more exposed flesh on the movie posters, and titles like I Dream of Jenna (Jameson) and The Morgan Sex Project instead of I Dream of Jeannie and The Blair Witch Project.
Make no mistake, though. There's nothing discreet about the merchandise.
The DVD cases depict men and women with genitals in full view, and engaged in all manner of sex acts, some of which push the limits of anatomical possibility. The novelty display does include such kitschy fare as fuzzy handcuffs and edible underwear, but also less polite items like a hand-operated pump that's purported to give "the perfect b***job," and a sex toy about the size of a wine bottle.
Just who's buying these sorts of products?
"Young people, old people, middle-aged people, men, women, doctors, lawyers, everybody," says a cashier who would only identify himself as "Tom."
The customers who came in during the Hook's recent afternoon visit to After Hours were not stereotypical porn purchasers. They were almost exclusively women, except for one man who took his turn inside the store after his wife perused the offerings and then left to keep an eye on the two toddlers strapped in the back of their minivan. Most patrons bypassed the videos in favor of the other, more giggle-inducing products.
"Our sales are probably even between videos and toys," says Tom, "but everything in here sells."
Ask Tom about the obscenity indictments against his boss, Manassas-based businessman Rick Krial (who refuses to comment to the media before the trial), and you'll get an earful.
"There will never be a legitimate adult business that will carry anything illegal," Tom says. "These people make money, and they're not going to jeopardize it because some perverts want to watch some sick s***. Everything we sell is completely legal."
Krial was Tom's landlord in Fredericksburg, and he convinced Tom to relocate to the Valley when he told him he was opening After Hours in Staunton. Tom finds it hard to believe anyone who's actually met Krial could think of him as Public Enemy #1.
"He's really down-to-earth, responsible, and I've never heard him raise his voice," Tom says.
While After Hours just opened in October and Tom hasn't been around Staunton long, he says he's seen enough to know that Staunton has bigger problems than their arrival with pornography.
"We just had a violent robbery over at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel; a young boy just got shot downtown; the 7-11 got robbed; there's a big meth problem here. I saw six homeless guys huddled on one street corner the other night," he says, "and yet this prosecutor says he wants to go after porn."
But if porn is as big an issue as some are making it, Tom thinks what he does is actually part of the solution.
"I check the ID of anyone who looks even close to 18 [including this reporter], and nobody can see anything from the outside," says Tom. "If you want porn from a video rental place with a back room, you've got to walk past kids renting Dumbo."
The Hook also made a trip to another shop near Staunton's Colonial Mall called Backstage Video, and found that it carries much the same type of X-rated movies and gadgets, but with nobody checking ID at the door and nothing to prevent anyone underage from entering. However, several signs do warn "Proof of age required for purchases and rentals."
So far, no indictments have been handed down against Backstage Video.
That could stem from the fact that Backstage, on Route 250, is just outside the Staunton city limits. In the city, Staunton Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Robertson wields the prosecutorial power, and he has strong contentions about pornography.
"It increases prostitution, pimping, sexual deviation, teenage pregnancy," says Robertson. "People who watch that stuff sometimes turn to child molestation, it desensitizes rape as a crime, it undermines family values, it brings an influx of people into the community who may be undesirable, it increases traffic in illegal drugs, and it's an attack on the basic dignity of man."
Robertson insists that the fervor with which he's going after After Hours doesn't make him a right-wing crusader. He's a lifelong Democrat, he chaired the local party for 12 years, believes in "liberal causes" like curtailing global warming, and says that while he's no fan of dirty movies, he does enjoy the muckraking documentaries of Michael Moore. He even says that he respects Hugh Hefner.
"I would never go after Playboy," says Robertson. "Jimmy Carter gave them an interview. I've been a fan of Gahan Wilson's cartoons since the '60s. Look at the political and artistic value there."
"Political and artistic value" are key words when it comes to defining obscenity in the eyes of the law. The final word on the matter remains the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Miller v. California. In order for a jury to find that speech is obscene– and thus unprotected by the First Amendment– it must meet three criteria: "a) whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by state law, and c) whether the work taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."
Although the very same movies After Hours sells are available for purchase elsewhere in Virginia, and in every home with an Internet connection, Robertson believes that once a Staunton jury applies "contemporary community standards" he will ace "the Miller test."
"I'm going after things that are just one wretched sex scene after the next," he says. "I'm going after things like double penetrating women, slamming them in both orifices, multiple strangers ejaculating on the faces of women. That's what these movies are about. They have no artistic value, and I'd be hard pressed to find a jury around here not to find that obscene."
However, in his 20 years of experience at the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, executive director Kent Willis says that his organization– which has defended everyone from nude dancers in Shenandoah County to a Richmond art gallery with naked gay men in its window– has never lost an obscenity case.
"The Supreme Court made obscenity hard to prove on purpose, because they understood that every guilty verdict in an obscenity case takes a piece out of the First Amendment," Willis says. "The Court didn't want government, particularly prosecutors, imposing its view on individuals."
Willis adds that in the jury room, just as in the video store, there's no accounting for taste.
"It's hard to convince 12 people something is obscene," he says. "With what a lot of people consider to be pornographic, some of it is obscene and some of it is not. There are no exact guidelines."
But if what's considered obscene in Staunton might also be obscene in Augusta County, or in nearby Waynesboro, or further west in Harrisonburg, why aren't there more obscenity indictments in the Shenandoah Valley?
While Charlottesville's history includes the spectacle of a 1980s porn prosecution against a shop called the Pleasure Chest, the 2002 opening of Ultimate Bliss on Angus Road raised eyebrows but netted* no arrests.
"I've worked with city officials to make sure everything we do is approved, and look at how long we've stayed in business," says owner Greg Sakas. "Nothing we do is illegal."
Sakas, who operates 12 other stores, thinks Charlottesville officials appreciate his carding policy as well as the subdued appearance of his shop, which was previously home to Reines Jewelers.
"I guess the question is," says Sakas, "with murder, and rape, and everything else, what do you think police need to be concentrating on?" He volunteers that he has been embroiled in legal challenges in Suffolk and in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
"Prosecutors usually have much higher priorities," says the ACLU's Willis.
"I agree that I have bigger fish to fry, and I fry those fish everyday," prosecutor Robertson counters. "Most of what I deal with are gangs and drugs. I've got a rape jury trial coming up. I've been a prosecutor since 1971, and I know how to prioritize things. Of the four attorneys in this office, I'm the only one working on this case."
Robertson says he's just trying to do his part in prosecuting pornographers who, in recent years, haven't faced strict enforcement of the Supreme Court's 34-year-old standard.
"In the 1970s and '80s, we got quick and routine convictions," he says. "But when Janet Reno became attorney general, she dismantled the obscenity task force within the Department of Justice. Then, in the mid-'90s, the Internet explosion came, and companies like DirecTV and Comcast started offering this stuff, and it gave it an air of legitimacy because the federal government wasn't prosecuting it."
In 2001, it seemed to Robertson as if changes in Washington might reverse the trend.
"When President Bush was elected and John Ashcroft became attorney general, they started up the obscenity task force again," he says, "but then 9/11 happened, and the Department had to shift all their people to terrorism."
Since Robertson doesn't have to look for Al-Qaeda in the Queen City, he says he has the chance to pick up the slack for the feds. But if Robertson hopes to strike a blow for obscenity enforcement in this case, he'll have to do it against a formidable legal foe.
Name a cultural icon who has horrified parents and angered social conservatives over the last 30 years, and odds are pretty good that Paul Cambria has been that celebrity's attorney. He made his name defending Larry Flynt when the Hustler publisher first faced obscenity charges in Ohio in the '70s. Since then, Cambria has advocated on behalf of such shock shillers as androgynous rocker Marilyn Manson and gangsta rapper DMX. In addition to Flynt, Cambria also continues to represent most of the other major American porn producers, such as Vivid Video, VCA, and Wicked Pictures.
So integral is Cambria to what he calls the "adult entertainment" business, that when it looked as if the new right-leaning Bush administration might clamp down on his clients, he drew up a list of sex acts to omit in order to avoid prosecution. Since then, the "Cambria List" has provoked debate within the porn industry and even snagged the attention of the PBS documentary series Frontline.
Now he has taken the case of Rick Krial and After Hours Video. What brings a big city lawyer like Cambria to Staunton?
"Anytime an adult's ability to make a choice is on the line, it's worth it to lend whatever competency you have," he says.
Some have wondered how well his slicked-back hair and tailored suits will go over with a jury in a historically conservative city, but Cambria says he already feels right at home.
"It reminds me very much of where I grew up, in a small town called Fredonia in upstate New York," he says. "There's so much culture here, and it's a sophisticated city. Sophisticated people are not afraid to make choices."
On November 20, Cambria and Robertson had their first skirmish. Robertson was arguing a motion to exclude Cambria from the trial on the grounds that because he also represents major porn distributors, he won't be able to provide his client with unbiased advice.
Judge Humes Franklin Jr. asked Robertson no less than four times, "Where are your facts?" before ruling that Cambria can remain on the case.
Despite the setback, Robertson says he's not afraid of going toe-to-toe with his higher-profile opponent. "Mr. Cambria," he says, "is a top-flight attorney, and I look forward to it."
Cambria brushes off any notion that a jury, even in one of the reddest parts of a red state, could find After Hours' merchandise obscene.
"This is the typical male-female adult entertainment that can be seen on cable, satellite, or a computer," he says. "It's garden variety."
Whether garden variety porn equals obscenity in Staunton will be determined by a jury drawn from a pool with mixed opinions on the issue.
A petition presented at a November city council meeting contained over 3,000 signatures in favor of two anti-pornography ordinances. One required future adult businesses to apply with the city for a permit, and the other banned such businesses within 500 feet of "daycare centers, schools, churches, and residences." Both passed unanimously.
Much of the support came from the congregation of Calvary Assembly of God, located just around the bend from After Hours on Springhill Road.
"We're trying to reach out to the community spiritually," says Pastor Kevin Persinger, "and this goes totally against what we're trying to do."
Not only does Persinger object to the store being so close to his church, he also believes the store's out-of-the-way location will boost its sales.
"If you're going to have that kind of filth, it should be closer to other businesses where it's not as easy to slide in and out of there," he says.
Dowtown Staunton merchant Jan Landis, owner of 17 East Beverley Antiques, is a bit more ambivalent. While she concedes After Hours has a legal right to exist, it still seems part of a trend that's hard to swallow.
"There's just so much sexuality in our society that wasn't there 30 years ago, and it just seems like places like this lead people to want more and more of it," she says. "I remember 15 years ago seeing MTV and the video for that song 'Baby Got Back,' and I couldn't believe my eyes. Now, I suppose that's tame."
Unlike Persinger, she's glad about the store's distance from the commercial downtown center near her store.
"That's such a better location," she says. "Downtown is an old, Victorian destination, and I wouldn't think it would be appropriate here."
But a petition at After Hours' front counter boasts 1,600 signatures of its own at press time, and some local retailers doubt the wisdom of prosecuting porn.
"It's asinine," says David Fischer, owner of a small chain of music and video stores called Crossroads CDs and Tapes. "It's a waste of time. [Robertson]'s going to make the town look bad, and he's going to look like a fool."
Still, earlier this year, when Fischer heard about the growing tumult over the possibility of an adult video store, he stopped renting his small selection of X-rated DVDs in his Statler Boulevard store.
"We were more concerned about image than indictments," says Fischer. "If people are up in arms about it, I don't want to be a part of it."
Angie Berry knows the feeling. At celebrate!!, a downtown gift and card shop, she used to offer (behind a curtain in the back of the store) such bawdy items as phallic pasta, edible body lotions, and candy panties. Then what she calls a "small segment of the population" started complaining.
"None of it was pornographic in any sense," she says, "but I feel like the people who were most upset with it were also the most vocal, so we put some of it behind the counter. She adds, however, that "some of it is still sprinkled throughout the store."
Berry admits she got nervous when Robertson walked into her shop not long ago.
"My heart skipped a couple of beats," she says.
It turns out the prosecutor just wanted to buy a card for his sister. "I had to lead him past some of my 'butt cards,'" Berry says with a laugh. "I don't normally linger with customers, but being nervous about what's going on, I stayed with him all the way to the counter."
She says the flap over After Hours has made her consider going to After Hours Video to sign the petition, and perhaps even wage a bit of civil disobedience.
"We have a small room off to the side," she says. "After the first, we're going to take all that stuff you wouldn't want kids to see and convert it into a naughty room."
As for the emporium at the middle of the controversy, Krial and After Hours Video should have their day in court around the appropriate date of Valentine's Day 2008. Cashier Tom can't wait: "The more they write about us in the newspaper, and put us on TV, the better business gets," he says.
Staunton Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Robertson says that while he wouldn't bring obscenity charges against Hugh Hefner, he won't hesitate to "go after things that are just one wretched sex scene after the next."
Despite having had such big name clients as Larry Flynt and Marilyn Manson, attorney Paul Cambria (right) took the case of Rick Krial and After Hours Video because "an adult's ability to make a choice is on the line."
As the owner of celebrate!!, a cards and gifts shop in downtown Staunton, Angie Berry caught flak from some of her neighbors for selling "butt cards."
For indicting After Hours Video, Ray Robertson has been lampooned by Staunton News Leader editorial cartoonist Jim McCloskey in a series of cartoons featuring Robertson's bumbling superhero alter ego "Porn Man."
Should pretrial proceedings happen according to schedule, After Hours Video's day in court will come in February.


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Swollen feet and ankles
When you're pregnant, your body holds on to water it would normally get rid of. Your feet, ankles, hands, and fingers may swell, especially at the end of the day. This "puffy" feeling is just a normal part of pregnancy. It's usually better after a good night's sleep, but there are some things you can do during the day to keep swelling at bay:
- Put your feet up when you can. Elevate them while you sleep.
- Avoid salty foods.
- Drink 8 to 10 glasses of water a day. Your body needs it anyway!
- Try wearing compression stockings. They help blood flow back to your heart rather than pooling at your feet.
- Move around. Don't sit or stand for too long.
- DON'T take water pills (diuretics).
Call us if you notice swelling in your face or puffiness around your eyes, or more than slight swelling of your hands. We'll need to see you to make sure it's not a sign of preeclampsia.


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Brooke Burke has been named the new co-host of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."
Host Tom Bergeron announced that Brooke would take over for Samantha Harris on "Good Morning America" on Monday morning.
Brooke was crowned queen of the ballroom on the seventh season of "Dancing."
She has previously hosted "Rock Star: INXS," "Rock Star: Supernova," TV Land's "She's Got the Look," and E!'s "Wild On." As an actress she has made appearances on "Less than Perfect," "Las Vegas," "The Bernie Mac Show," the new "Melrose Place" and "Monk."
"Dancing" returns with a two-hour season premiere – with contestants that include reality star Kate Gosselin, "Baywatch's" Pamela Anderson, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Olympics figure skating gold medalist Evan Lysacek – on Monday, March 22 at 8 PM on ABC.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: 'Dancing with the Stars' Season 10: The Rehearsals!
PLAY IT NOW: Kate Gosselin On 'Dancing' Wardrobe: My Kids Have To Be 'Proud' Of Me
PLAY IT NOW: Access Extended: Brooke Burke's Sexy Photo Shoot
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Dancing With the Stars - TV - Reality TV


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Art for Kids: How to Make an Illuminated Manuscript
Do your kids like art projects and books?
Want a fun, creative activity with a bonus art history lesson to go along with it?
In this article I'll share the fascinating history of the illuminated manuscript. Then you and your kids can create a personalized illuminated manuscript of your own.
Why Illuminated Manuscripts?
Before the days of printing presses and mass-produced, full-color books—before the e-reader was even imagined—books were written, decorated and painted by hand, one page at a time, often by monks quietly working for hours upon hours in their monasteries.
They wrote on parchment (a stiff, flat, thin material made from animal skin that was used in ancient and medieval times as a durable writing surface) and included beautifully decorated letters, borders and important scenes, making each book a one-of-a-kind piece of ancient art.
These decorations often included radiant colors accented with gold and silver, creating a glowing, "illuminating" effect that gave these special books their name: illuminated manuscripts.
You and your kids probably don't have the time (or the quietness) to copy entire books like the monks did, but I'll show you a simple way to recreate the colorful, glowing, illustrated letters that fill the pages of old.


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When at the Velveteers tavern we planned the hosting calendar, I chose the month of September when I would have been in Sicily.
Despite the good propositions, life in my family house can get easily out of hands. Too lazy, too relaxed, with rhythms other than my owns and the possibility that at any time somebody could drop in my room startling the hell out of me; it is not an easy environment where to concentrate in front of a screen, let alone that the TV right there, beside me. TV is indeed a strange beast, if you don't have it you don't miss it, but if it is around it will inevitably attract you like a magnet and so you are lost zapping between channels trying to find something watchable; settling often over a re-run of decades old TV-series (god bless Angela Lansbury and her Murder, She Wrote series!).
Days pass by like sand between your fingers; a coffee and chat with mom, some TV, some more chat with sis, more TV, brainstorming with mom about dinner, more TV. You don't even notice and it is already dinner time and for me that means that I get to cook when all the others are already sit to dine (we have got only 3 working hobs). And so here I am, rather late for my monthly Velveteers post.
When I proposed to cook Caponata as the September Velveteers' dish, I wanted to make it a family business but actually only I ended up eating the plated dish at the end of the shooting since we had already planned a chilli con carne night. I did though brainstorm with mom about the traditional way we are used to make this dish in my household so it still involved all the needed family members.
What is Caponata then? It is just one the best examples of vegetarian cooking in Sicilian traditional cuisine. A sour-sweet composition of fried eggplants, crunchy celery, capers, olives, onions and tomato (sometimes also peppers, potatoes and almonds); it is usually served cold or at room temperature as starter, side dish or over a crispy toasted slice of bread.
I did include in the description also tomatoes even if my mom almost kicked me out of the house when I mentioned them in conjunction with caponata. I must admit that I agree with her. Tomato for me makes this dish a tad too thick and rich, too saucy.
The origins of the dish are as controversial as they are the word's ones. Said to come from the Latin caupo (tavern keeper) or even from a sailors' joke (they were used calling capuon the dry galettes biscuit they had to eat); the dish has clearly morish-arabic origins considering that it is based on eggplants and that the use of sugar is quite extensive in this savoury dish. Who knows how it was called back then...
Eggplants have had a rough gastronomic life in Italy. Believed to be poor men's food, eggplants were disdained by the aristocratic cuisine throughout the centuries in Italian culinary traditions. They became soon associated with Jewish culture and so, as prejudices grew stronger, as something to be avoided. The vulgar etymology of the Italian name for eggplant, melanzana, didn't really help. Believed to come from "mala/mela insana" (unhealthy/poisonous apple) for most people the name casted already a judgement on the vegetable. The actual origin of the name seems to be Arabic, from the Persian bâdengân to be precise, to which Italians added the word mela (apple) making it "mela bâdengân/badingian" to become then melangian and so melanzana. It is curious to know that the other widespread denomination for this fruit, aubergine, comes from the same Persian word via the Catalan dialect.
It was only at the end of the 19th century that the renowned Italian gastronome Pellegrino Artusi wrote in his "Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well":
"Till forty years ago eggplants and fennel were rarely seen on the markets in Florence; they were despised as considered food for Jews, whom would then display here, as in other more important matters, that they have always had a better instinct than Christians" (liberally translated).
Not for nothing Artusi is considered as the father of Italian gastronomy for including in his book recipes from all the different regions newly united under the Italian flag.
Eggplants are now an easy go-to vegetable. Fried or grilled, fresh or pickled, as side dish or main dish, many are the preparations that feature them. In Campania, they even cook them as dessert in a thick dark chocolate sauce; chocolate was indeed liberally used in the south of Italy in the past.
Where I come from, fried eggplants, either in slices or in cubes, are a beloved addition to the Sunday meal of rigatoni pasta in fresh tomato sauce and basil. The combination, crowned by a sprinkle of milky-white grated salted ricotta cheese, works so well that it gained it a parallel with Vincenzo Bellini's (not the cocktail!) masterpiece: The Norma.
Back on track, in my version of the Sicilian Caponata I have included the tomatoes, despite I believe them to be a post-Columbus corruption of a perfectly working archaic recipe. In my interpretation though, tomatoes are used as an integral element for the sour sweet component in the eggplants rather than as a linking sauce for the whole dish.
Sicilian Caponata
Ingredients (serve 2 as an appetizer):
Fried eggplants:
- 1 medium eggplant diced (ca.200g);
- Canola oil to fry;
- Sugar and vinegar to taste.
- 2 fresh tomatoes (220g), pureed with some water and sieved;
- 1/8 tsp Baking Soda;
- 1tsp vinegar;
- Sugar to taste;
- Salt.
- 1/2 small onion, sliced;
- 1-2 tbsp Olive oil;
- 1tsp sugar;
- 1tsp vinegar.
- 1 tbsp sugar;
- 12 sticks 1" celery without the tough external fibres;
- 1-2 tbsp water;
- 1tbsp vinegar.
- 1 small green pepper, horn-like variety (3 pimientos de pardon would work perfectly);
- 1-1 1/2 tsp sugar;
- 1-2 tsp vinegar.
- 3-4 pitted green olives in brine, sliced;
- 2tsp capers;
- Vegetable oil;
- Almonds, lightly toasted.
Put the diced eggplant in a bowl with water and salt; cover them with a plate and keep them submerged for roughly 40minuets to let them expel their bitterness.
Transfer the pureed tomatoes in a small saucepan and place it over low fire with the baking soda and some water if needed. Let it simmer down till it will be reduced to 1/2 tbsp or so of glaze; season it with the vinegar, sugar, salt and set aside.
Gently fry the onions in the olive oil till golden brown, transfer the oil in a little bowl and keep aside. Season the onions with some salt, vinegar and sugar to make them sour sweet and set them aside to cool.
At this point the eggplant should be ready to fry. In a large frying pan put enough oil so that 1 layer of eggplants will be submerged, and warm it up on medium fire. In the meantime, drain the eggplants and dry them using paper towel. To check the oil temperature, immerge the tip of a toothpick in it and if it will start bubbling then the oil is ready for frying.
Fry the eggplant dices in two or three batches to not overcrowd the pan and lower the oil temperature, this will ensure you a less oily end product. With a slotted spoon, move the eggplants around so they will colour uniformly and when they will look golden brown transfer them on some paper towel set on a cooling rack to drain and cool down.
For the celery, in a small skillet caramelise the sugar with a little water on a low to medium fire. When it will be golden brown add some water to dilute it and create a syrup. Add the celery sticks to the hot syrup and increase the fire under the skillet. Sauté for few minutes the celery adding the vinegar; the celery should still be crunchy at the end. Set the celery aside to cool down in the leftover syrup.
To make the sour sweet eggplants, transfer them to a skillet with the tomato jelly, some sugar and vinegar to taste if needed and toss on medium fire; once properly coated set aside to cool down.
Pan fry the green peppers in a little skillet till they will look blistered, add now the sugar and vinegar to make the sour-sweet.
When ready to serve, fry the cappers in some vegetable oil.
To assemble your caponata, spoon the eggplants over the plate, decorate with some peppers, the fried onions and the celery sticks. Scatter the fried capers, olive wheels and the almonds on the caponata.
Create your sauce by whisking together some oil from the fried onions with all the sour sweet syrups leftover from the various preparations; season it with salt and pepper if needed and drizzle over the caponata.
If you want to transform this dish in a more substantial main course, add to it some grilled swordfish dices.
The 4 Velveteers was started by Alessio, Aparna, Asha, and Pamela, who are passionate about different cuisines and food in general. Each month, we will attempt a new dish and share our experiences and the recipes we used. If you're interested in joining the Velveteers, please feel free to drop by our Google group.
Do, check out what the other Velveteers have created:
Aparna's Eggplant and Fig caponata;
Asha's Sicilian Caponata over Z'atared Lavash Crackers;
Ken's Olive oil Financiers with Caponata Jam;
Madhuli's Yotam Ottolenghi's Caponata;
Sarah's Caponata;
Veena's Sicilian Caponata.