Food Tour of Iowa

On Superbowl Sunday, at a party (i.e. just another reason to eat and knit together) at Knitted Together in West Des Moines, one of the ladies at my table casually mentioned that there was a restaurant located in Des Moines that served dim sum and from what she had heard was fairly decent. Well, after I picked up my jaw at the thought that dim sum had finally made it's way here, I was quick to dismiss the thought since I highly doubted it would be anywhere near as good as what we get out in Los Angeles. I couldn't help but wonder however so a couple of the ladies and I decided to check it out.

When I got home that night I decided to Google the restaurant to see when it opened and found great new blog, that actual showcased some of Iowa's culinary delights for the rest of the world. Yes, there is more to Iowa than corn, pigs, and soy bean. Really! Don't believe me? Well check out Ben Gordon's Food Tour of Iowa blog, you'll be stunned at the lovely pictures showcasing some very tasty looking food from Iowa and all over. Ben, a young, charming, talented food enthusiast, takes you a tour of how diverse Iowa can be from the organic sustainable farms to the higher-end dining scene available here. It's nice to see someone blogging about the bounty of Iowa and how it's not all about big farms and bad food. There's a reason we feed the world and that's because Iowa produces some of the best there is to offer. Please join me in my support of a new fellow blogger in hopes that the future of really good food continues on and not everyone in the future will be eating highly processed crap from a box. There is hope yet, methinks.

As for this blog you all can look forward to some new post showing up soon. I now have a good kitchen to work in and Ben has my creative juicing going about what great food we have available. I'll let him show you all the world of restaurants and farms while I play around with some wonderful new and not so new products found in Iowa. In the fridge currently is cinnamon raisin dough proofing gently and a new bacon made locally that I picked up to try. Stay tuned for updates soon.

**Note: This plug has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Ben is cute and single.***

OnigiriFB wanders off muttering about her girlfriends and their devious minds. Hrmph!

Chickpea, potato, and spinach curry.

New year, new post, new me! I told my doctor that my New Year's Resolution is to be healthy. In keeping with this resolution I decided to give vegetarianism a try.

My first foray into vegetarian cuisine is a chickpea, potato, and spinach curry. I've heard that this is a standard Indian dish and often served with rice or chapati. Since I didn't have or know to make chapati I decided to have it with whole wheat tortillas. That worked very well.



I didn't really use a recipe but used ideas from a few different recipes I've made before. Don't let the ingredients list scare you it's really easy. Give it a try, it was divine.

2 cans of chickpeas
2 potatoes, cut into small chunks
1 frozen box of spinach
1 can of diced tomatoes, juice included
1 can of coconut milk
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch of ginger, grated
1-2 Tbsp of curry powder
1 Tbsp tumeric
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 Tbsp chili powder or 1 serano chili, chopped(optional)
2 Tbsp of oil
cilanto to garnish


Saute onion, ginger, and garlic in oil on low to medium low until brown. Add curry powder, tumeric, cumin seeds, and chili (if using) fry about 1 minute. Add chickpeas, potatoes, can of tomatoes, and can of coconut milk. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add spinach and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve with brown rice and/or whole wheat tortillas.

Help me! I've been bit!

Fortunately, I haven't been bitten by the cold or flu bug like my friend Emi of Knittrips. Hope you get well soon!

I have, however, been bitten by the knitting bug. With the crisp days of fall showing up in Iowa I've found knitting to be the perfect hobby. I spent most of this weekend holed up in my house knitting hats. I'm in love with the Umbilical cord baby hat pattern from "Stitch N Bitch" by Debbie Stoller.



So easy and So cute!



So easy and cute I ended up making two! Oh well, a baby can never have too many hats, right?

Thank you BAM for lending me the pattern.

**Special Thanks to Ollie the Oliphant, model.**

Not so lazy Sunday morning.

My usual Sunday routine is to sleep in until as late as possible and then laze around in bed until the bladder says, "GET UP!". For some reason this morning I woke up clear headed and a lot more energetic than normal. What to do, what to do? Well, cook, of course!

Monkey Bread

2 cans of home-style biscuits
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven, 350 degrees. Combine cinnamon and sugar in plastic bag. Cut biscuits into quarters, toss in cinnamon/sugar mixture. In pie plate, arrange coated pieces. In saucepan, combine melted butter and brown sugar, boil 1 minute. Pour butter/sugar mixture over biscuit. Bake 25-30 minutes. To serve, invert pie dish over plate.

Ahhhh! Yum! Breakfast is served.

Hrm... wonder what other goodies I can make today....

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

A few people have bugged me about the lack of recent post on this blog. Since illness reared it’s ugly head I haven’t been able to cook as much so posting about nothing didn’t seem like something other people would read. However, looks like with the summer sun my illness has decided to give me a breather and I find myself cooking, reading, living, and loving life again. In commemoration of this feeling I decided it was time to post on this blog once more. This time around I think I’ll be going back to blogging about whatever the heck I feel like. If you don’t like..... well too bad! Stick around. My life might not be that bad after all....

Tea Time Thursdays VIII - China Green Tea

Welcome to the eighth edition of Tea Time Thursday. Today I was actually going to feature a different tea but, after trying the China Green I knew I had to write about it. I actually had an opportunity to taste this tea in the tea store the first time. A week later I was back in Gong Fu Tea to pick up some, it made that much of an impression.

I noticed that it didn't taste the same when I brewed it at home. Today I had a chance to try it again in store and was lucky enough to borrow a bit of Mike's time. During our conversation he mentioned that green teas really need a gentler temperature and a little less time to brew. So now ,per Mike, I will be picking up a thermometer to make sure the water is only 175 degrees or I will have to try letting my kettle sit for 5 minutes off the heat after bringing it to a boil. The optimal temperature of brewing green teas is 175 degrees, because if the water is hotter you release the tannins in the tea making it bitter. I'm hoping I got that right, if not Mike or Rusty please correct me.



This tea is very mellow with almost a sweet after taste. I'm in love with the how mild it taste. I was also surprised to learn that it is a green tea from China. For some odd reason I thought green teas only came from Japan. You learn something new everyday, huh?

If you like green tea I highly recommend you try the China Green. It's very nice and my current favorite. Yeah, I know that doesn't say much since I change favorites practically every week. You try drinking these teas and see if you don't fall in love with them. I dare you.

Enjoy!

Tea Time Thursday Friday?

Er... oops! I totally spaced today was Thursday. I knew, I just spaced it though. Or I should say yesterday since it's 12:30am right now. My rule is usually if I haven't been to bed it's still Thursday, so here goes. Sorry, everyone, I promise to do better next week!

Well.. I did have something planned but it got interrupted by a very special gift. Please excuse me for a minute...

*jump up and down and squeals like a teenager at a boy band concert*

Ok, sorry had to get that out. You see, this week I was the lucky recipient of a package from Montreal, Canada. Mon ami, Joel, a tea purveyer who resides in China and owns Golden Teahouse in Montreal, sent me a bunch of new teas to try. They are mostly Oolong teas and then one package of Chrysanthemum pearls which I had requested. I can't wait to try them and tell my readers ALL about them!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Joel! I heart your gift.