Philly Cheesesteak Omelet

We still had a small amount of meat left from some Philly Cheese Steaks, so I decided to make it into an omelet. It was really easy to make and it translated well. First,

Apricot Danish

As I walked by their display case, this Danish was literally eyeing me down. When I walked up to the case, it seemed less like like a giant eyeball and more like an egg in the middle of a pastry.

Mexican Beers

Happy Cinco De Mayo

                     Celebrate With Limes and A Sober Driver

Cinnamon Roll

Tate has started Tee-ball. Unfortunately, three of the eight practices have been cancelled. During the latest cancellation, I let him pick something else to do. So what does a five year old pick? Go to the library and pick out movies and books. Once we were done, we went across the street to the Bread Garden and met up with Leigha. Once there, we let him pick out a drink and a treat. He picked this cinnamon roll and

Greens and Bacon

Since I decided to cut my juicing short, I had a lot of extra fruits and vegetables stockpiled. This is a combination of several types of greens.

Eggs Benedict Pt. 2

This was my second attempt to make Eggs Benedict, and it went much better than last time. There are several things that I did differently, and I was much happier with my hollandaise sauce. The first was that I

Egg and Cheese Quesadilla

Most of the time, I think of quesadillas and grilled cheese sandwiches as the same thing on different breads. Lately (because we got 200 tortillas for $1) I've been trying out new combinations and techniques with the quesadilla. This particular quesadilla had

Inappropriate Food Pictures

Insert Pithy Comment Here

Plopp Chocolate

Nobby's Nuts Smoked Bacon 

Blueberry Scone

The Bread Garden makes a bunch of tasty treats that you can buy for half price after 4 p.m. I got this Blueberry Scone and was pleased when it wasn't

Navy Beans with Ham Shanks

Thanks to my dad for submitting this. He made it by
Adding a shredded carrot and diced leek for flavor. A small shredded potato to thicken and a dash of balsamic vinegar for earthiness.

Piel De Sapo

One day, when I was shopping for some produce to juice, I came across this melon. I had never heard of Piel De Sapo before, but I was intrigued. While it looked like a small watermelon, upon picking up it up, it was firm yet soft to the touch, I smelled it and got a few wafts of sweetness. So I did what anybody does these days when they have a question; I googled it.

A & W Rootbeer Float

When I was a kid, my dad would take me to an A & W occasionally. It was always a special treat to me, and it wasn't always because of the food. I thought that it was really cool that you could order from and eat in your car while it was parked in their parking lot. Plus, it was really cool when they would bring your food out on a tray WHILE ROLLERSKATING!

Vegetarian Tacos

Vegetarian tacos are something that my older sister, Amber recommended to me once. This is a great meal to make quickly. All that you have to do is

Giant Soft Pretzel with Cheese

There are several origins to the invention of pretzels. What all of them hold in common is the church. Italians claim that the 'pretiola'  was invented by one of their monks as a reward to kids that have memorized their prayers. The Germans claim that the 'Brezel' was invented by bakers. Regardless, both the Germans and the Catholic Church still hold strong ties to the food today

John's Ice Cream

John's Ice Cream is less than a mile from my house. Occasionally, we will walk with the kids to get some ice cream. It is always by there request. On this particular day, as a reward for Tate's good behavior, I gave him the option to go anywhere to do anything he wanted. After I shot down going out to eat without the girls at 3:30 in the afternoon, he chose to go to John's. I actually tried to talk him out of it and go to a different place. I find that John's menu is too large and confusing to find what I want. The prices are also more expensive than driving farther away and going to a Dairy Queen. Although John's is only one of two

Airliner Pizza

Nearly every single Sunday for two and a half years, I went to the Airliner for their $1 slices of pizza. It was a staple of my college life. Each week, a group of my friends would meet here without fail and without calling each other first. One thing about going to the Airliner was that you never knew what

Produce #100 Fried Plantains

There is no botanical distinction between a plantain and the (cavendish) banana. Due to their high starch content, plantains are not usually eaten raw, but used for cooking. When I cut through the peel, I was surprised to see that

National Dishes #86 Falafel

Falafels are not a food that I am incredibly familiar with. Usually if I was at a place that served them, they usually opted for another food that they offered such as a gyro. When I was looking for good vegetarian meals, I kept coming across falafels. I had several revelations making this food myself. First,

Cereal Crusted French Toast

One day, the kids couldn't decide if they wanted to have French Toast or cereal for breakfast, so I decided to combine the two and it worked out even better than I had expected. First,

Quinoa and Soyrizo

Last year, during my vegan week, I tried quinoa for the first time. Since then I've made it several times, always stuffed inside a pepper. This was the first time that I reversed it and stuffed the pepper inside the quinoa. After the success of the Soyrizo Pizza,

Egg Salad Sandwich

If you are like a lot of people the day after Easter, you are looking for things to do with your dozens of hard boiled eggs. To me, the most logical thing besides deviled eggs is to make some egg salad sandwiches.

Cake Baked Inside An Eggshell

When I saw a picture of this on Pintrest, I knew that it would be the perfect activity to do right before Easter. Conveniently, eggs have become a much larger part of my diet once I became vegetarian. For about two weeks, a drill with a small bit has been sitting on our kitchen counter. Any time that I made something with eggs, I would carefully puncture the egg with the drill and pull away an opening to the egg.

Soyrizo Pizza

Since I've started this blog, I have found myself wandering around grocery stores and looking at packages that are unfamiliar to me. This is how I've been able to cross several things (Dolma, Chicken Tikka Masala, Pocky, SPAM, Wasabi Peas) off of my lists. This is also something that I've been doing to get ideas for vegetarian food. That is when I came across this:

Foods To Eat Before You Die #13 Biscuits And Gravy

I have always loved biscuits and gravy, but have had a difficult time making a good batch myself. It has never been an issue with the biscuit, but always the gravy. This was the first time that I was happy with how the gravy ended up, which is convenient because it was one of my last meals before my two months of vegetarianism. To learn how I made the gravy, click for more.

Dehydrated Fruit Snacks

One day, we went to my in-laws to pick through some of their stuff before they had a garage sale. When I saw the food dehydrator, I was immediately interested but hesitant. I was hesitant because if I took it, it would be another kitchen device that we might rarely use and need to find cupboard space for. For my first time using the machine, I decided to try a variety of foods, to test out which ones I liked.

Eat Before You Die #55 Macaroni and Cheese

I don't know a single kid that doesn't like macaroni and cheese. If, as a parent, you don't like it, there is no reason to make it from a box. Make it in a way that you will like it, too. Anybody can boil a noodle, but people get caught up on making the cheese sauce. Start with

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

This was my very last meal before I became a vegetarian for two months. When Leigha was looking in the freezer, she noticed that we still had the bones from the Turducken, so she made a stock from them. Even though we didn't have any chicken to put in the soup, we figured that the broth should be flavorful enough. So to compensate, I decided to make

Chicken Wings

In the days before my two months of vegetarianism, I had been loading up on my meats. These are sesame chicken wings with

Jimmy Jack's Barbecue

As a disclaimer, I would like to say that it annoys me when people say barbecue when they mean grilling. It is like the difference between champagne and sparkling white wine. To most, there is no difference, but there is. To qualify as barbecue, it must involve smoke and low (generally indirect) heat. I personally own a smoker and have created several of my own recipes for spice rubs. If I rotated between eating barbecue and pizza every day, everyday I would swear that I was eating my favorite food. One good thing about living in a college town is that there are 22 pizza places for a city of roughly 68k. One bad thing about living in Iowa is that my options are much more limited for barbecue (3). Even more so if I am looking for QUALITY barbecue. Jimmy Jack's makes good barbecue, regardless of where you live.

Dog Track Pancake

On this day, instead of her normal requests of Micky Mouse pancakes or a pancake letter "E", she wanted a dog's footprint. She was perfectly happy with the rare 3-toed variety that I delivered her.

101 Desserts #76 Dutch Letters

I had never thought of Dutch Letters as a regional food until I started to looking for some recipes to make it myself. As it turns out, they aren't regional; they are an Iowan food that has been imported from Holland. From those of you that have never had one of these, I am truly sorry. These are one of my top five foods of all time. I would rather have a bad Dutch Letter over nearly any other pastry.

Grilled Ham & Cheese

When Leigha first started to make this, I thought that it was like a Monte Cristo. That is, of course, until

Foods To Eat Before You Die #28 Chile Relleno

Chile Relleno translates to "Stuffed Chile" This dish came from the Mexican city of Puebla. The dish is made with a poblano pepper, (named after the city of the dish) stuffed with meat or cheese, covered with a batter and fried. The cheese variant is common during lent. I am not Catholic, but I did happen to try the dish during lent. When it came to the table, I

The Tavern South

The Tavern is one of those restaurants that I expect to see on shows like Restaurant: Impossible. It seems like it at one point, it was a successful restaurant. In fact, they are still operating three different locations. When I lived in Des Moines, I remember hearing about people talk about it with some fondness. As it was close to the zoo, where I was taking the kids, I figured that I would give it a try. When I walked in the door,

Bacon Pecan Maple Danish

Every day at the Java House, they offer a two-for one deal for products that weren't purchased the day before. As I was walking by, I glanced at this. When I came back later, it caught my eye again so I walked over to see what it was. Two danishes for $2 is a pretty good deal in itself, but when I saw the flavor, I knew that I had to buy it.

Panchero's Carnitas Burrito

As I've written before, I love Panchero's. For those of you that don't know, carnitas are made when you slow braise or slow roast a heavily marbled piece of pork such as the butt (shoulder). Once this is done, the meat should be tender and easily pulled apart. The the meat is placed in a shallow pan along with some of the rendered juices and roasted at a high heat. The beauty of Panchero's is that

Strawberry Raspberry Pie

The ER is the first place that I've ever worked where there are always people bringing in food to share. Whether it is for a potluck or donated baked goods that are too old to sell from the coffee shop or somebody has some extra food at home. As a given, if people leave foods out in specific areas,

Homemade Marinara and Noodles

The hardest part about making homemade marinara is purely the time that it takes to make. I made this with Tomatoes from my in-law's garden. Start off by grilling the tomatoes. Once they've cooled, peel off the skins. Add into a

Nanananachos

There is a place down the road from us, Hawkeye Food Distribution, where we buy some food in bulk occasionally. We don't go there often, but when we do, we usually buy things like 100 individually wrapped chips for $1 or a box of 250 tortillas for $1. Needless to say, we usually have these items on hand.

Cafeteria Brownie

Sometimes you crave food that isn't really that good. This explains why McDonald's makes tooooooooons of money. I work in an Emergency Room inside the state's largest hospital. There is always a cafeteria open, and the food is never really that good. This brownie was labeled as a

Drinks #48 Salted Lassi

Lassi is a popular drink from India. It is a yogurt-based drink that can be found all over the Indian Subcontinent. There are two variants to the drink. The sweet and the salted. Both are commonly sprinkled with a variety of spices like cinnamon, turmeric, cumin and allspice. While the sweet mango lassi sounded more appealing, I chose to have a regular lassi for the sake of the list.

Ras Malai (Indian Cheesecake)

Ras Malai generally consists of flattened balls of paneer laying in cream and flavored with cardamom. When I went to the India Cafe, this was labeled simply as "Indian Cheesecake". I had never had it before and didn't know how it was normally paired. After tasting it by itself I came to the conclusion that while it was sweet and creamy, it was too dry. So I

Scallops

Leigha made this one afternoon, swaying from the recipe as our ingredients allowed. She has always been especially fond of sea scallops, where I merely like them. It must be the years that she spend living in Florida. For this recipe, she cooked some garlic in olive oil and added tomatoes and snow peas. Then,

India Cafe

When Leigha and I were first dating, we took turns paying when we went out to eat. One day, when it was Leigha's turn to pay, we came to the Indian Cafe and hated it. As we were walking out the door I said, "I'm glad that I didn't have to pay for THAT meal." While she may have forgiven me for speaking so thoughtlessly, she has never forgotten. It has been nearly a decade since then and our food tastes have changed a lot. On a day that we were able to go on a lunch date, we decided to give the India Cafe another chance.

Grilling Fail

This is the perfect example at what can happen if you walk away from your grill. Whether it is to answer your phone or to start a DIY project or both.

Foods To Eat Before You Die #99 Turducken

30 Pounds of Poultry Goodness

A Turducken is a perfect example of the American mentality. It is large, extravagant and over the top. A Turducken is made by stuffing a TURkey with a DUCK and chickEN). This was actually the second time that I have made the meal. It is an incredibly time-consuming process that I go through once a year. After the successful first attempt at making the avian nightmare, I vowed that it would become a household tradition.

Foods To Eat Before You Die #36 Dolma

Dolma is the generic name for stuffed vegetable dishes. By this definition, the Quinois Stuffed Peppers that was my first post ever on here would qualify as a Dolma. The most popular is the grape leaf dolmas, which is what I got. When I saw this, I thought that it was just a vegan egg roll.