Guilty Pleasure #1

I value good food. But not all good food comes from a top rated restaurants. Sometimes, good food can come in the form of grocery store Chinese food. This is one of my weaknesses:


General Chicken, Cashew Chicken, Fried Rice, Egg Roll and Crab Rangoon.

Our local grocery store chain, Hy-Vee, has a Chinese Express in most of their stores. It's quick, relatively cheap, and damn good. It's not authentic Chinese food, more like an Americanized version of the classic Chinese dishes. In other words, it's as Chinese as Taco Bell is Mexican.

What I love about it? The sauces are done perfectly. Flavorful but not overpowering. The proportion of meat to veggies is excellent, neither component is lacking. And the dishes were the chicken is fried like the Sesame Chicken or General Chicken? Outta this world. Even under all that delicious sauce, the chicken is still crispy.

I've probably eaten my weight in Hy-Vee Chinese food over the years. I love it that much.

If you haven't been, go. now.

Hello, Fall!

Alright, summer.
It’s been fun. We had some good times this year and I’m always sad to see you go. But, it’s time to move on. Football has started. The temperature is dropping. Pumpkins are resting on their vines. Apple orchards are preparing for the first crop. Fall is knocking on the door and frankly, I’m pretty glad he’s back. Sorry. It’s not you. It’s me. I’ve moved on.

In the spirit of fall and the apple crops that are almost ready, I’m going to share with you one of my favorite recipes. It’s a really easy side dish that is perfect on chilly evenings. Pairs great with pork dishes.

Drunk Apples
Start with a bunch of apples. I used roughly 6 cups of peeled,cored, and sliced golden delicious apples.

Next, melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat.

Add the apples and toss to coat. Cook until tender.

Next, add 1/2 cup sugar and 1/3 cup whiskey. Stir until well mixed.

Let simmer over medium heat until the sauce is reduced to syrup.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Reason Why I'm a Fat Kid #1

I was a bridesmaid in a wedding this weekend. It was a beautiful wedding on a perfect day for an amazing couple. My favorite thing? The cake. My favorite part of any wedding? The cake. The waitress at the head table was bringing the bridal party their cake and she brought me one piece. Just one piece. From a wedding cake made by Carefree Patisserie. A cake with four different flavors (white almond, strawberry daiquiri, peanut butter/chocolate, and red velvet). The 4 bridesmaids at the end of the table ordered a slice of everything to share among themselves. Well, that sounded like a good idea and high jacked their cake sampler. For myself. I'm not ashamed. I enjoyed every little bit of it!

Smokin'

My dad is a pretty proficient griller. Don’t tell him I finally admitted that, though. When it comes to meat and fire, he does a pretty damn good job. With the 3 day weekend at hand, he decided to fire up the smoker. He does not joke when it comes to smoking meat. He makes his own rubs for the meat, can rattle off the attributes for the different types of wood he uses, wakes up a the crack-o-dawn to start the coals, and spends the entire day tending to the smoker. This is the result:


Believe it or not, that’s a pretty empty smoker for Pops. Usually, it’s jammed packed with a turkey, some sausage, a brisket or two and whatever else he can get his hands on. He loves it. Someday, I'll have him teach me his ways but for now, I'm perfectly happy just enjoying his hard work. Who doesn't want to sink a fork into this? I'll be the first to tell you that pig did not die in vain!

While Pops was at the grill, I was inside whipping up the side dishes. I tried a new one this weekend and was pretty impressed with the results.

All you need is a box of cornbread mix (I used Jiffy) prepared and baked as directed on the box, two cans of whole kernel corn (drained), two cans of black beans (drained), a cup of chopped tomato, a ½ cup of chopped green onions, a pepper (red, green, gold, or all of the above!), a jalapeno or two, a package of bacon that has been cooked crisp and chopped, 2 cups of shredded Monterrey jack cheese, 1 cup sour cream, one cup miracle whip, one cup salsa, and one package of dry ranch dressing mix. And a pretty glass bowl. (I guess you could use any ol’ bowl, but this salad is pretty enough that you’ll want to put it on display)
Assembly is easy.
1. Mix together the miracle whip, salsa, sour cream, and ranch mix and set aside.
2. Mix together the tomato, the green onions, the pepper and the jalapeno and set aside.
3. Crumble the half the cornbread into the bottom of the bowl. Follow with layers of half of the drained black beans, half of the tomato/pepper/onion mixture, half of the corn, half of the cheese, half the bacon and then half of the sour cream/miracle whip/salsa mixture.
4. Repeat the layers with the remaining ingredients, layering them in the same order.
This is the result:

Actually, the result was a bunch of empty dishes and some very full bellies. My family knows how to cook almost as well as we know how to eat!

Restaurant Pet Peeve #1

Last week, I went to Mullets in Des Moines. It’s my hands-down, all time favorite summertime bar in Des Moines. I love to head down there on a mild summer night, grab a seat their patio at a roughly built wooden picnic table with some friends, order a cold beer, and watch the sun sink below the skyline of the city I love.

Mullets is the newest bar in the Full Court Press family and it lives up to the standard of its brothers and sisters. All the Full Court Press bars have the same characteristics: Great location, unique theme/concept, interesting food on the menu, a drink menu that offers more choices than Bud and Bud Light, and an easy transition from daytime family restaurant to Des Moines night life hot spot. Every bar that they open is an instant home run and Mullet’s is no exception.

Except one little thing. One tiny, itty bitty detail that Mullets, along with A LOT of other restaurants, overlook. The salads.

Welcome to my first pet peeve of the restaurant world. Lackluster salads on an otherwise great menu.

At Mullets, I ordered the Grilled Tuna Salad. The menu describes it as Grilled Ahi Tuna slices over a bed of iceberg lettuce, spinach, walnuts, dried cherries, and Maytag blue cheese. Sound good to you? Eh. It was okay, almost disappointing. Let me point out a few components that this salad had that annoy the crap out of me about restaurant salads.

#3. Iceberg Lettuce
Can you point out a more pointless ingredient in American Cuisine? Seriously. Although it is the most popular lettuce and most commonly used lettuce, it is by far the lettuce that is the dullest in flavor. It brings nothing but a crunch to the plate. With so many other types of lettuce, it annoys me when restaurants default to iceberg. Thanks for not even trying to make this an interesting plate.

#2. Blue Cheese
I’ll admit that I’m not head over heels in love with Blue Cheese but I do love it in small, well executed amounts. However, it keeps popping up on menus all over the place. Even where it shouldn’t. Like on a salad with SEARED TUNA. Seared tuna is a delicate flavor and the blue cheese completely overpowered it. The tuna could have packed its bags, left the salad and nobody would have ever noticed. Blue Cheese is a bully. If the other flavors on the plate don’t compliment it, then the blue cheese flavor takes over. I don’t know where this trend of sprinkling blue cheese on everything started but I wish it would stop. I think it’s one of those things where places are trying to be “fancy” and use more unique ingredients, even when they don’t need to. I can see the logic that they use. The chef felt like they need a cheese on the salad because that’s what the public expects, but they want to be cutting edge and use unique ingredients, so instead of using the standard shredded cheddar, the chef slaps some blue cheese over the top. On this particular salad, cheese wasn’t even needed! Don’t add ingredients just because you feel that’s what the dish is supposed to have, add it because the dish wouldn’t be complete with out it!

And my #1 pet peeve for restaurant salads:
The salad dressings.
In my opinion, if any thing, salads included, is on the menu, it should receive as much consideration and planning as an entrée. The ingredients should be though out as to how the flavors are going to play together. Salad dressings can alter the taste of a salad completely. I don’t understand why a chef would let the patron choose such an important component of the dish themselves. I don’t pick the seasoning on my steak or the sauce that the pasta comes with, so why should I pick the salad dressing? This salad from Mullets had the option of all the standard dressings, Ranch, Italian, Honey Mustard, Blue Cheese, or a Raspberry Vinaigrette. The thought of taking a beautifully piece of seared tuna and pouring ranch dressing all over it makes my skin crawl. Disgusting.

I don’t mean to give Mullets a hard time. I know culinary excellence is not their main priority. They happened to be the last place I ordered a salad.

I really wish chefs would not skip over the salads on their menu. Do them well or don’t do them at all.
And if you’re in Des Moines and want an example of a restaurant that does salads well, even their side salads and house salads well, go to Centro. Amazing. I’m almost drooling thinking about their house salad. Maybe I should go pick one up before going to work…

I love food like a fat kid loves cake

I have decided to start a blog. I know, I know. Everybody take a moment to welcome me to the year 2003. I’m a little behind on this blog trend but I figure its better late than never, right? I want to use this first post to set the foundation for this little piece of cyberspace that I’ve decided to build.
Who I am…
I am a lot of things. You can label me a lot of different ways. I am a woman. I’m a daughter, a sister and an Aunt. I’m a Midwesterner, a suburbanite, and an Iowan. I work in the grocery business. I am an employee. I am a boss. I’m 26. I’m a runner, a snowboarder, and an adventure seeker. I’m pet owner, a car owner, and a Blackberry addict. I am a socially liberal, fiscally conservative, twice a year Catholic. I’m a former fat kid. All labels I wear proudly because each has shaped my world perspective in its own way. When it comes to food there is a whole set of labels that will have some influence on how and why I write each post. So here are some things you should know about me in order to understand the posts that are to follow.
-I am no expert.
I have never been to culinary school or taken a cooking class beyond Home Economics in middle school. The food knowledge that I have accumulated is a result of my own curiosity. Growing up, I helped my parents in the kitchen as much as they would let me. I bombarded my poor parents with a million questions. Thankfully, I have very patient parents and they answered as many questions as they could, encouraging me to do, learn and try more. I definitely caught the cooking bug young. The first dish I ever made all by myself was scrambled eggs I cooked for my parents from a recipe in the Boxcar Children’s Cookbook. I was way proud to see something I made enjoyed by other people. I was hooked. I continued to cook, to learn, to improve. There were some hits, some misses, and some dishes I have banned from being mentioned.
-I cook a lot.
And I do okay in the kitchen. At least that’s what my mom says. I can follow a recipe. I can even tweak recipes to make them a little better. I keep learning and I love introducing new flavors, new ingredients, and new techniques to my repertoire. However, my skills are limited. I can’t make a pie crust that doesn’t come from a box. I can’t even come close to a perfect brunoise. I know because I’ve tried and failed at both. Miserably. All the failures and all the successes I’ve had in the kitchen keeps me moving forward and striving to learn more. A lot of what you will read on here is me tying to conquer something new.
-I watch a lot of Food Network and Top Chef.
I am very grateful of food television. Just like MTV brought Run DMC into the living rooms of surly teenagers in the Midwest who would never had access otherwise, The Food Network and Top Chef gave me access to concepts, chefs, and restaurants that I would never heard of had I not tuned in. Before Top Chef and Food Network, I thought a nice restaurant was Applebee’s, I had never heard of Foie Gras, and Thomas Keller was just another name. But I watched, and I watched religiously. I took notes. If I saw an unfamiliar ingredient, or a chef I didn’t recognize, I researched it and by researched, I mean I turned to my ol’ buddy Wikipedia. Now, I have a greater appreciation for the finer things in the world of food.
-I eat a lot.
My favorite thing about food? Eating it. I love food like a fat kid loves cake. I am the opposite of a picky eater. There is no food that I will not try at least once. Sure, I have a list of favorite foods just like everyone else, but there are no foods that I refuse to eat. I appreciate quality food like “top shelf“ olive oils, fresh, organic, in-season produce and artesian meats from small farms. I love cheap food like breakfasts at greasy spoon diners, gas station hot dogs and food on a stick from the fair. I love trying new, modern restaurants with chefs that are reshaping the food landscape across the country. I love eating a established family restaurants that haven’t changed the menu in 50 years with chefs that are using recipes handed down from generations before them. I love food. All types, in all venues, cooked by all sorts of people, in all sorts of ways.

What I want this blog to be:
I came up with this idea mostly out of frustration. I read a lot of blogs but none talk about food the way that I wanted them too. I love to cook, but I’m not feeding a family on a budget or having a dinner party. I love reading restaurant reviews, cooking tips, recipes, and trends in the food world, but I hate going to 17 different blogs to get the variety that I am seeking. So my goals for this blog are to incorporate all the things I love about food into one site. This blog will include everything: some how-to’s, tips, recipes, menus, trends, restaurant reviews, and even some food centric posts about politics. I’m going to let some of my friends play along, so you can expect some posts from them too. I am no journalist, so expect some grammatical errors and some spelling mistakes. I hope everyone enjoys what I have to say, and if you don’t just be respectful.

I hope you have an understanding about who I am, where my love for food comes from and what I hope to share with all of you. Hopefully, you’ll be back to check out what I have to say!