Adventure #25- "Are we killing animals??? I can't do that!"

All the girls were able to decipher from my clues that our latest adventure would involve shooting big guns... the question was, at what?? Jessica, in particular, was relieved to find out there would be no bloodshed... hopefully... as we would be shooting clay discs, not living creatures.

We drove out to Powder Creek Shooting Park in west Lenexa and met our incredibly patient, knowledgeable and trusting instructor, Jack. I don't know what Jack may have envisioned when he booked a group lesson for "six female adults," but I doubt his vision included matching outfits with hot pink detailing and lipstick emblems.  He asked us what other adventures we have done lately and I told him our last one was a cooking class (cue Jack's sudden look of understanding).... but, I quickly assured him that we haaaave fired handguns in the past... one time... a few years ago... it went well. Promise.

All smiles at the Shooting Park

After going over Jack's bio and signing waivers, we made our way across the parking lot to the sporting clays course. We heard loud gunshots coming from the trap area of the park, where people of all different ages, genders and sizes were practicing. The loud bangs caused varying degrees of uneasiness amongst us. Alli and Jessica said that they felt like they could puke at any moment. I felt the urge to drop and cover on more than one occasion. Becoming acclimated to the noise and comfortable in its presence definitely took some time. 

We gathered at the first station on the clays course and Jack went over safe gun handling and park regulations.  He then gave us a basic tutorial on stance, posture, positioning, aim and execution of firing the 20-gauge shotgun he brought for us to use. After our lesson, Jack decided Jessi was the first one up! Considering she struggled just to get her earplugs in, I'm not sure why he thought that would be the best place to start (love you, J), buuuuut nevertheless he promised this would be easy and said, "I've never had anyone not hit one on their first try." Oh Jack... I thought you had us figured out. He helped Jessi get into position then stepped back. She yelled "Pull" and Jessica pushed (ironic, huh?) the button to trigger the clay disc to go flying through the air. Jessi tracked its progress with the barrel of the gun, fired annnnnnnnnnd..... missed. She tried again; and again; and nothing. Jack was probably thinking it was just beginners nerves, but I had a feeling this was going to be a common occurrence for us.

Luckily, she looks pretty badass with a gun in her hands, so it wasn't a complete wash....

Next up was Amy who also fired three shots. The result: 3 misses. Sorry, Jack.

Then came Lisa. We all had high hopes for Lisa as she has always excelled at our adventures that involve weaponry. Sadly, we still had yet to see one of those orange discs explode after Lisa's three shots. She did however, appear to be the most comfortable with the gun and unintimidated by its deadly power.

I was up next. I'll admit I had very little faith in my success at this adventure to begin with, and my self-doubt was exponentially higher after seeing the other girls fail to hit a target. My first shot was a miss, but somehow, someway, my second attempt hit the clay right in the sweet spot and blew it to smithereens! Jack was so excited (maybe moreso than I was), and told me to do it again! Welllll, that didn't happen. One out of five isn't great by any means, but so far, I was the only one to accomplish the task... I'll take it.

After me, was Alli who was unable to connect with any of her five shots.

But, when it comes to proper carrying of an unloaded gun, she nailed it...

Finally it was Jessica's turn. She was probably the most apprehensive of us all. A couple of her shots chipped a little piece off of the discs, but she couldn't quite hit them in the right spot to cause them to completely break up. We're going to give her partial credit for hitting them though!

Most importantly, she was able to brush her fears aside and establish a congeal relationship with the shotgun...

After we had all taken our turn, Jack asked if we wanted to move on to the slightly more challenging skeet course or if we wanted to stay with the clays course.... really Jack? We're shooting 1/25 at this point and you think we need more of a challenge?!? His naivety optimism was cute, but we decided to stay right where we were, so off to the next clays stand we went. At this point in time I was feeling a little more confident and was itching to get my hands back on that gun. I could hardly wait my turn, I wanted so badly to prove that wasn't just a fluke at the first stand.  So of course, I proved just the opposite. Didn't hit a single one. Neither did Jessi, Lisa, Jessica or Amy. Alli was the only one to hit a disc at this stand, so we left this station with an accuracy rate of about 2/60.

We did however, have better luck with entertaining ourselves with goodies and gadgets from Jack's box of tricks...

Jessi got to wear his cool yellow Aviators- Elton John would be jealous

While Alli played in the golf cart...

... and made cleanup fun with his nifty magnetic shell picker-upper

During our time at the second stand, Jack recognized that Amy kept favoring her dominant eye and closing her right eye.  He had made it clear that we were supposed to use both eyes to view the target, so Amy was punished aided by having to wear an eye patch of sorts that Jack made out of a bandaid. Jack said, "now you girls can't make fun of her," to which someone either replied, or I just thought, "that will never happen!" :)

Work it. Own it.

Our third and final stand was a little different as the clays were flying towards us, rather than away from us.  Jack once again promised that everyone would hit a clay on this stand. Alli went first and blew up her very first target! We all cheered with excitement for her, but also for our own potential, as she had so far proven Jack right about this stand. Lisa was also able to obliterate one disc from this stand, but Jessica, Jessi, Amy and myself failed to before we ran out of time. Wah wahhhhh. 

In case you've lost track, we hit a total of four clays (plus a few chips) over the course of two hours, three stations and approximately 100 attempts. Lucky for us, our perception of fun is not dependent on our success, and as often happens, everyone claimed to have enjoyed themselves much more than anticipated.

A few things we learned/observed from our shotgun shooting adventure:

1. The kickback from the gun is so much less painful and intimidating than we all imagined.

2. There are 400-500+ pellets contained within one shotgun shell!

3. Sometimes 400-500+ pellets aren't enough (see above accuracy record).

4. The top sharpshooter in the world right now is a woman! #girlpower

5. You can shoot in mini skirts and high heels... we saw it with our own eyes!

6. Trying to visualize a target and aim a gun with both eyes open is much more difficult than one might imagine.
7. We all need to work on our upper arm strength.
8. Golf carts are always fun, no matter how old you are.

I thought these pics were cool because they captured the empty shells being ejected from the gun:

25 adventures down, so many to go... Looking forward to an escape in June!

Adventure #24- "Love is like a potato. Give it time, it will rot."

What brings people together, provides happiness and builds relationships better than food?? Not much, I say. So it's no wonder that Lisa and I (the foodies of the group) have been desperate to plan a culinary adventure for years now. That's no exaggeration; since our very first moments of Femme-hood, we have wanted to plan a culinary competition much like the TV show "Chopped" through our local KC Culinary Institute.  It's something the Institute has offered for years as a private event, but that option far exceeds our budget. From there, I started brainstorming how I could possibly make this happen for a more reasonable price... maybe we could use a high school home ec classroom and bring our own ingredients??  I was never able to find a way to make it work and we eventually put the idea aside.

This past fall, I attended my first cooking class at the Institute and had such a great time that I started browsing their schedule on a semi-regular basis, looking for other classes I might enjoy.  Imagine my surprise when one day I read about a new class they were offering called "Kitchen Wars," and it sounded to be exactly what Lisa and I have been wanting to do for all these years! I immediately texted Lisa and said, "we HAVE to do this," and of course, she was on board! We originally planned to attend in early March, but the class filled up before I was able to make the reservation. I was so disappointed... again. There weren't any additional offerings scheduled at that point in time, but I put my email on a notification list should another class come around.  As luck would have it, they quickly scheduled another date in April, and this time I wasted no time in reserving our spot! So, long story short, this adventure has been a loooong time coming.

Femmes in the kitchen! Watch out!

As I mentioned, this adventure took place at the KC Culinary Institute in Old Downtown Overland Park. It's a wonderful facility and I highly recommend everyone check it out. You won't be disappointed. Like the TV show "Chopped," our "Kitchen Wars" class was set up as a team competition in which each team is presented with a variety of ingredients that may not seem to pair well together at first glance. There were three teams participating, ours being a team of six. The host, and judge, was local chef Sandy DiGiovanni who has been on similar televised competitions herself. Class started with a glass of wine, a fresh ricotta dip to snack on and a brief review on the rules of competition. Then it was time to get to it!

There was a table in the middle of the room that was covered with various condiments, fresh and canned fruits and vegetables, oils and seasonings. Each team was given two minutes to browse the items and take mental notes on what was available there. We would be allowed to take three items at a time from the table for use in executing and enhancing our dishes. Then, we were presented with a tray of ingredients, including raw shrimp, mini corndogs, brown and serve rolls and applesauce. We were told that we had 20 minutes to make an appetizer that included all these ingredients and we had three minutes to come up with a plan and decide which of the extra items we wanted. Each team then moved to their own work station that included counter space for prep work, a four burner gas stove, and various pots, pans, bowls and utensils. Our plan was to finely chop the corndogs and use that as a breading for the shrimp that we would then fry and place on a roll to make a slider of sorts. We decided to add raspberry balsamic vinegar and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce from the table of extra ingredients to the applesauce and make a topping for the shrimp.

Unless you've had a similar experience, I think it's impossible to imagine the adrenaline and anxiety that was pulsing through each of us at this point in time. As soon as we were set loose and the timer started ticking, I said, "Oh my God, this is legit." Lisa and I left our wine glasses at the dining table, but some of the other girls brought theirs to the work station. Lisa observed, "You brought your wine?? There's no time for wine!" It was pretty awesome how each one of us naturally found our own niche in the process and how quickly and smoothly we got to work.  Lisa and Amy chopped the corndogs while Alli and Seabrin peeled the shrimp, Jessi reduced the applesauce concoction on the stove and I tossed the rolls in the oven.

Seabrin was our designated runner and as we realized we needed new ingredients, she zipped throughout the kitchen collecting whatever we needed. We procured some flour and eggs in this fashion and Amy and Lisa were then able to bread the shrimp, while I fried them in a skillet. Jessi retrieved the rolls from the oven and Seabrin and Alli started working on plating. Seabrin ran back to us after a trip to the extra ingredients table, and announced, "Guys, I've got a lemon and a jalapeno!" She was so excited, no one questioned her intentions, we just let her run with it. She ended up making some very colorful and artful (though unpalatable) garnishments with these items.

Once time was up, each team presented their appetizer to Sandy with a bit of an explanation on how it was prepared. Seabrin was designated as our presenter, and it was a role she was born to fill. She talked so much nonsense really sold it to Sandy, with promises of it being a life-changing eating experience. Here, Seabrin is presenting our appetizer, which we aptly named "Seaside County Fair"...

While we sat down to dine on our first course, Sandy and the two other employees monitoring our class took our creations behind closed doors to be judged on taste, presentation and creativity. We were all rather pleased with ourselves and our spontaneous cooking skills. Someone said, "I've definitely eaten much worse." After all the shrimp were devoured, we enjoyed a spinach and strawberry salad put together by Chef Sandy, while the other employees cleaned up everyone's messes... we didn't even have to clean up our own mess!! It was the icing on the cake. During the clean up, one of the employees may have "burned" her hand on a metal cookie sheet that was left sitting on a burner Jessi failed to turn off. Whoops! That surely won't help our cause...

After a brief reprieve, it was time to get back to work. For our entree course we were given a tray with marinated turkey breast, bacon, baby brussel sprouts, raisin bran and vanilla pudding on it. All the rules were the same as for the appetizer, except we were given 35 minutes to complete this round. There could not have been a better group of girls to receive brussel sprouts as a challenge. They are little green bites of heaven, not some dreaded childhood torture, for this crew. We order brussel sprouts at any given opportunity and are always looking for new and different ways to prepare them. We decided to go with a tried and true oven roasted version of the sprouts, to which we would add bits of bacon, raisins (from the bran cereal) and almonds. We also decided to pan sear the turkey, and came up with the idea of making a polenta cake-like patty out of the cereal/pudding mixture.

Here we are doing prep work for our entree

Once again, everyone had their role to fill. Lisa and I came up with most of the ideas and planning, Seabrin was our fast and efficient runner, Lisa and Jessi cut, seasoned and prepared the brussel sprouts, Amy and I transformed the turkey breast into bacon wrapped medallions, Alli tackled the bran cakes, I was again the designated fry cook (we decided all my years of late night Town Topic trips overly qualified me for this position) and Seabrin outdid herself with the plating (apple slices with maple syrup drizzle and freshly grated orange zest- nailed it!). Although we each had our own piece we were responsible for, it was really a team effort. While I had my hands covered in raw meat juice, Lisa would spoon feed me bites of things to get my opinion on the flavor. When I suggested that the bran cereal cake needed something else, but I just couldn't put my finger on what it was, Seabrin suggested apple and promptly shredded some apple to add to the mixture. It made me so happy and proud to see how flawlessly, effortlessly and seamlessly we worked together; we were a well-oiled machine. And seriously, how often is it that six female cooks in one small kitchen can get along so well??

Cooking and plating our finished product

I'm realizing these photos don't accurately or effectively display the level of stress (fun stress) we were under throughout this process. Thirty-five minutes never went so fast! If you have ever seen any kind of timed cooking competition on TV, seriously, picture that.  It was intense. We were constantly hearing timers go off, everyone was moving and talking fast, we were making a huge mess from working so furiously, Sandy was yelling out time-checks, "Three minutes to go!!!" It was such a rush!!! But, it was not without its hazards. Somehow, between me frying the bran cakes and Jessi blotting the excess oil from them with paper towels, one paper towel got a little too close to the gas flame. There may or may not have been a momentary fire danger, but thanks to Jessi's quick reaction (swatting flames with a paper towel... a PAPER towel), a major crisis was averted. The judges and other teams were none the wiser, despite me yelling, "Hit it! Hit it!" and then, "We just set a paper towel on fire!" Discretion is not my strong suit.

When the alarm bell rang, Chef Seabrin again presented our dish to Sandy with that one-of-a-kind Seabrin flare...

While we sat down to eat our dinner, the judges retreated to their private quarters to determine a winner. I have to say that we did a damn good job with the time we were given. Our dish was so unique and full of so many different flavors that popped on their own AND at the same time, melded together perfectly. We were feeling pretty good about our odds of winning when the judges returned and informed us that they were never actually going to pick one winner, but instead wanted to acknowledge each team for their individual strengths (winning isn't everything, yadda yadda yadda). Each Femme was presented with a certificate for "Most Fearless Use of Ingredients".... I'll take it, but really.... who won? One of the judges asked us who came up with the bran cake/pudding idea (for the record, it was me) and said it was amazing! Alli and I were then convinced that we had won, "the proof is in the pudding... literally," she said, and she wasn't going to quit until she found out who scored the highest. The judges refused to officially announce a winner, buuuuutttt... two of the three judges (remember, one didn't care for us much after the burner incident) whispered to us that we won. We WON!!!! Or maybe they whispered that to all the teams... but, I'm sure they didn't. :)

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Despite some hesitations and uncertainties amongst certain members of the group, in the end, it turned out that EVERYONE enjoyed this adventure as much as Lisa and I hoped we would. We were all still thinking and talking about how much fun we had the next day, and Alli went so far as to say, "one of my favorite adventures ever!" Please, do yourself a favor, attend a Kitchen Wars class!

Adventure #23 - "I need Patrick Swayze's arms around me"

This past weekend, Meagan planned an adventure that promised to be laid back, low-intensity and maybe even a little relaxing... pottery!  As her email clue mentioned, "Patrick and Demi make this look good"...leave it to us to make it look bad.... in some cases, really, really, ugly bad. ;)

We arrived at the Kansas City Clay Guild in Waldo around 5pm on Saturday evening.  We were greeted by our instructors, two women and a man, and we each claimed our own potters wheel.  We received a brief explanation on the use of the wheel and a basic demonstration from Paisley, our lead instructor.  Paisley had a kind of new-age vibe about her and an almost ethereal voice.  Her fluid hand movements made the process of throwing clay look so natural, instinctual and carefree... almost hypnotizing... though it could have been the afternoon of day drinking that was causing me to be so entranced by the process.  (Spring has finally arrived in KC! We HAD to be outside on a patio!)

She quickly turned a raw lump of clay into a smooth cylindrical tower, then worked it back to a low, circular mound, and back up to a tower, and back down to a mound.  We were told to start our project with this up and down movement of the clay in order to loosen it up, smooth any lumps, and generally become one with the clay.

Next, we were each given a rectangular chunk of gray clay and instructed to work it out in a sort of folding and pressing movement.

I cut Amy's face out of the photo because, trust me, she'd want me to ;)

We did this for about five minutes and then returned to our wheels to begin the "fun" part.  I use quotations because depending on who you ask, this adjective could easily be replaced with "embarrassing," "impossible," or "dirty."  

First, we rolled our clay into a ball, then plopped it smack dab into the middle of our wheel.  Then it was time to get those wheels spinning!  This was done with a foot pedal, similar to a sewing machine. The next, and as I later learned crucial, step was to secure the bottom of your clay by pressing one finger down around the bottom edge while the wheel spun.  This locked the clay into place on the wheel.  Once this was done, we started the up and down movement of the clay as I described previously.  Surprisingly, this required more arm strength than I expected, and I soon could feel a little burn in my biceps.

After doing that a few times, we could begin to create a vessel by placing downward pressure from our fingers into the middle of the top, thereby creating an opening.  We then used our wet hands to mold the clay into various shapes and sizes.

I was the first to finish with a very basic cereal bowl-type style in probably under ten minutes.  I didn't necessarily think I was done with my project, but one of our female instructors came up to me and essentially told me I was done and helped me remove my bowl from my wheel.  I later realized she was saving my bowl from my over-zealous plans to turn it into something maaaarvelous.  

Due to the fact that I finished so quickly, I received very little feedback or assistance from the instructors, but some of the girls sure needed it, while others received some unappreciated guidance. Several of the girls later told me that our male instructor came up to them just as they were completing their bowl/pot and literally smashed it right in front of them saying something to the effect of, "good job, now do it again, but better."  Seabrin said he was right over her shoulder at one point and said, "Now, what's going on here? Are you working the clay, or is the clay working you?!" I'd say someone takes their pottery a little..too..seriously... for our intents and purposes anyway.

After a photo-taking break, I grabbed another hunk of clay and began a second project.  This time around, my clay kept flying off the wheel every time I tried to begin working it.  I tried at least four or five times, each time loosing pieces of it as it went sliding off the wheel, until I ended up with a sloppy, soggy lump.  There was probably as much clay on my hands and in the waste basin as remained on the wheel.  Alli asked if I was making pottery or playing in the mud?  Finally, I said something to one of our instructors and realized that I was forgetting to seal the bottom edge to the wheel.  Aha!  Once I was past that issue, I again created a basic cereal bowl structure and then tried to sculpt that into something more artistic with curves and dimension.  I got about one curve in and the side wall collapsed inward.  It was then that I realized the instructor who stopped me prematurely on my first piece did in fact know what she was doing when she halted my masterpiece.

Fortunately, I had realized by this point that I was less interested in finishing a piece than I was in simply working with the clay.  I enjoyed the slick feel of it spinning between my fingers and watching it constantly change form with just a little gentle pressure from my hands.  Personally, I did find it calming and rather fun.  I'd definitely like to do it again.

Meghan on the other hand, may disagree.

Notice in the photo above that Meghan's wheel is empty.  She was really struggling to get the hang of it and basically kept having to start over until she was left with a pile of desecrated, unusable clay.  After this photo was taken she started anew with a fresh lump of clay and eventually ended up with a completed piece... though it took the entire ninety minutes we were there... and I'm pretty sure she told me that our male instructor essentially made it for her.  Oh well.  I'm proud of her for not giving up, or losing patience.  This is just another great example of the spirit of adventure we all share!  Whether we do well or not, we just keep on trying... and we always try to maintain a sense of humor and not take ourselves too seriously.  

Which brings me to... cropped photo commentary!!! A little lighthearted way I like to poke fun at my friends!

Here you will see the face of concentration....

a little tongue involvement always helps

 While here, you will see the face of defeat. Or is it annoyance? Or someone who needs a drink?

pout those lips

Pretty sure these are the faces of people who are glad they're not Meghan right about now...

Jessi: Ahh. I feel so much better about my baby pot now.
Meagan: I wonder if I booked enough time??

Finally, this is what we call "abstract art"....

Who's playing in the mud now?!?

In the end, we each ended up with at least one solid, formed, usable bowl/pot. 

Lisa was the clear stand out of the group, creating the most complicated and skillful pieces.  At the end of the adventure, when we each had to choose a glaze color, one of our instructors pointed out a few options that would accentuate any detailing etched onto the clay.  Alli chuckled and said, "I don't think any of us did any detailing."  Lisa quietly piped up, "I did."  Alli's response, "Of course you did!"  

Nice work, Lisa!

We had to leave our creations there to be fired and we all chose to have our instructor glaze them for us rather than schedule a repeat visit to do it ourselves.  So as of now, none of us have seen the finished-finished product... let's hope a little glaze goes a long way!!!