Chicken spiedini is very much a source of Kansas City pride. Those radio ads featuring Kansas City’s Garozzo’s Italian Restaurant which were always running during halftime of Chiefs games were an enormous source of fascination to me and my friends. The husky voice of Michael Garozzo telling his audience about the latest entrees and the more popular menu items felt utterly authentic and unique.

Garozzo’s chicken spiedini is the cornerstone of their menu. I know it is my favorite item! The following recipe is a close approximation of it.

The greatest challenge to this recipe is the preparation, but don’t let that intimidate you. The boneless, skinless chicken breasts will need to be pounded thin. This I find can be a chore. One of the things I do to help ease the noisy, messy, laborious hassle of pounding the breasts thin is to take a very sharp chef’s knife and split the chicken breasts through the middle, parallel to the cutting surface. That means were are slicing the breasts’ thickness into two equal halves. It can be slow because you don’t want to cut yourself but I can’t stand trying to pound a full breast into the thinness required for this recipe.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/3 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 T of chopped fresh parsley
2 t grated lemon zest
2 cloves of minced garlic
2 T olive oil
2 T butter

Preparation:

1. Place chicken breasts between sheets of plastic wrap, pound chicken gently with mallet until very thin (about 1/8 inch thick.) see instructions
2. On waxed paper, combine bread crumbs, cheese, parsley. lemon zest and garlic.
3. In shallow dish, combine olive oil and melted butter
4. Dip chicken into butter mixture, coat with crumb mixture.
5. Tightly roll up and secure with wooden toothpicks, if needed.
6. Cut into 1-inch-thick pieces, thread onto metal skewer
7. Remove wooden picks
8. Repeat with remaining chicken
9. To Grill; place skewers on lightly grilled gird over medium hot coals
10. Cover and grill for five minutes per side or until chicken is cooked through.

Enjoy!

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This wedding was awesome! Amanda’s an educator. Those of you who know me know I hold teachers in very high regard. It was a pleasure to try my very best for her and Evan! Enjoy.

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With two fistfuls of drinking straws from Panera Bread, Gorilla Glue and an old cereal box, I created a fun little light device I used for Rachel and Brian’s wedding. You could say I have a MacGyver streak in me. The device helped make a nice portrait below.

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Rachel and Brian sure know how to throw a party! What an awesome couple. Brian is an educator (applause.) Rachel is a budding doctor currently doing her residency in South Carolina, they both went to the University of Missouri (more applause.)

As a photographer, sometimes you just know after the first time you meet a couple that they will be a constant source of awesome pictures. I call it the spark. It has more to to with a couple’s interaction and energy around one another than anything. There’s no end to the joy these two share. Boy, do they laugh and smile a lot!

I love what I do.

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After a few days of basking in the glow of your engagement ring a lump in your throats can occur upon realizing just how much work needs to be done. The couple must scale a summit called Mt. Our Wedding. Don’t worry, chances are you have overcome more difficult challenges. We can help with the first task of plannning a Kansas City wedding: picking a venue for the big day. Everything else falls into place after that.

As photographers in Kansas City, we have shot ALOT of weddings in this town. We love working at so many locations picking just a handful was rather difficult. For this list we limited our selection to venues that allow for both ceremonies and receptions to take place at the same locations. There are a lot of great reception-only venues and a ton of great churches in Kansas City, we hope to profile some of them in future posts.

Here are 10 awesome venues for your wedding in Kansas City:

1. Powell Gardens:Powell Gardens might just be our favorite. The sprawling gardens are located about 30 minutes east of Lee’s Summit on U.S. Highway 50. The chapel is Powell Gardens’ signature feature. It features an A-frame design and sits atop a hill overlooking the entire location. Regardless of when your wedding is on the calendar there are many beautiful locations to shoot. It is an expansive, sprawling place. The bride’s dressing rooms are located a good distance from the chapel and the reception hall requires a car ride, or trolly, from the chapel. Hence, I advise two photographer teams for weddings we are commissioned to shoot here because of the extensive distances involved. But the pictures are always a thrill.
2. Tiffany Greens: Looking at this list, it seems as though we are partial to golf clubhouses and their potential for wonderful weddings. Five out of the 10 locations are golf course clubhouses. We do like them, despite not having an ounce of golfing skills. Our favorite outdoor weddings have nearly all taken place at golf clubhouses. The landscaping is always beautiful with terrific light and color with excellent interior options in the event of bad weather. First on our list is Tiffany Greens. The clubhouse is a regal building with a spacious outdoor porch area overlooking the golf course. Tiffany Greens is located near KCI airport so there’s a wide selection of hotel accommodations within a short distance of the clubhouse. We’ve made some really nice pictures in front of the stone fireplace at the center of the clubhouse.
3. The Clubhouse on Baltimore: We like urban settings. There’s no shortage of fun, contrasting environments to put a beautiful couple. The Clubhouse on Baltimore is a perfect location for this. The venue features several rooms for weddings. Don’t be surprised if another wedding is going on in one of the other levels simultaneous to your wedding! Don’t worry you won’t even know they’re there until you jump on the elevators. The Tudor room is a striking, spacious room. Its centerpiece is the tall stained-glass windows near the dance floor. There’s a balcony area overlooking the dance floor.

   I have covered many weddings in the Walnut room. As the name suggests, it is adorned in beautiful walnut wood. The room has a long and spacious bar with windows surrounding the room. On the other side of building but on the same level as the Walnut Room is the Old Grill which is a terrific cocktail hour location. I love the Old Grill room. It has great light. We have a gallery of images from this venue.

   They even let couples go to the roof overlooking downtown Kansas City for a brief time to make some quick pictures. It’s stunning.


4. Hillcrest Country Club: We shot our first wedding at Hillcrest Country Club in 2008 and it immediately became one of our top ten favorites. It is located near Bannister Road and Interstate 435 in Kansas City. The clubhouse features a spacious locker room with ample mirrors which is a wonderful and spacious dressing room for the wedding party. This is a common benefit of golf clubhouses as a wedding venue.

   It has a ton of space with beautiful interiors.

   Our first time there, we covered an outdoor wedding in May. The venue is surrounded by flowering plants that were in full glory that day. They have had a recent renovation in the past two years.

5. The St. Joseph Country Club:: O.K., so it’s not in K.C. but it’s close enough and certainly deserves a mention here. An outdoor wedding near the clubhouse’s putting greens facing to the west allows for wonderful light to bathe your entire ceremony. There are some fun interiors with a restaurant in the center of the clubhouse that has awesome light during the late afternoons in the spring and fall. Check out our gallery of images from the St. Joseph Country Club.

   We especially love the clubhouse’s ballroom which has a stage built into the center wall near the dance floor. It’s a natural fit for a DJ and their sound system.

6. The Madrid Theatre: Located on Main Street in Midtown Kansas City, The Madrid Theatre is a retro glamour venue for your wedding. The architecture is in a 1920’s Spanish revival style and will wow your guests. We liked the big stage at the front of the theatre. It’s a natural location for a wedding party table. We also love the second floor with additional chairs and tables overlooking the main floor. The angels on the ceiling and carousel bars provide fun details.
7. Georgetown King’s Clubhouse We’re big fans of this place, we should be. Chris Cummins, Glow Imagery’s owner and chief photographer, will be married here in August of 2009. Georgetown is located in Merriam, Kan., near Shawnee Mission Medical Center and it is a bit of a secret. It features an indoor pool, bar area and multiple rooms connected to one another with a Colonial, Monticello style of decorating. It looks as if Thomas Jefferson could have lived there. It has two Elegantly Furnished Parlor Rooms, Stately Pub Room, Spacious Dining Room, Resort-Style Pool.

   The venue is perfect for smaller weddings of 70 people or less.

8. Adams Pointe Golf Club: Located in Blue Springs on Adams Dairy Parkway, this golf clubhouse is a striking building with some great views. We shot a Halloween wedding there a couple of years ago. The staff at the clubhouse were very helpful and supportive of the couple’s fun theme and decoration ideas. When our clients are happy, we are happy.
9. Lenexa Conference Center:: Frequent readers of this blog have read my praises for this place. You can check out Ashley and Cale’s wedding pics from recent posts to get a front-row seat for this venue. The Lenexa Conference Center offers a distinctive Kansas ambience to your wedding. It has hillsides planted with native prairie grasses alongside the impressive barn structure. The historic buildings are a large farmhouse and a renovated barn that is equipped with all the bells and whistles of technology. They even have built in audio-visual equipment you can use for an awesome slideshow at the reception.

   The combination of rustic roots, great location, and modern amenities makes this location a gem for Kansas City’s couples.

10. Arrowhead Yacht Club: This is another hidden locale for Kansas City weddings. Located in Greenwood, Mo., Arrowhead Yacht Club sits on the banks of a private lake. The serene waters are within 50 yards of the clubhouse’s patio and are a terrific spot for an outdoor wedding. If Mother Nature refuses to cooperate, the clubhouse features sufficient space to move a ceremony indoors. Check out our gallery of wedding photos from Arrowhead Yacht Club. Maximum guest capacity 225 seated, with patio 250.

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