Cocktail Wars Des Moines

I hope you made it out to Cocktail Wars, hosted by Dishcrawl Des Moines at Iowa Distilling Company in Cumming on Tuesday!

What a fun event!  Four local Mixologists whipped up some yummy cocktails using Iowa Distilling Company's Iowa Shine Whiskey, Steel Drum Rum and Prairie fire Whiskey.  So fun!

There were two ticket options, The VIP which included early admission as well as a behind the scenes tour and goodie bag and General Admission.  Both were under $40 (with $10 coupon floating around) and both included 4 nice sized servings of the 4 cocktails.

Mixologists included Nick Eldrige form Americana, Dave Murrin-Von Ebers from Hessen Haus, Angel Cotten from Cattoors on Grand and Hailey Workman from the Lime Lounge.

Party-goers had the same idea as me when it came to judging!  I thought Angel Cotten's Burnin' Pink Lady was the most creative, Dave Murrin-Von Eber's Bumpin' Granny was the tastiest and the all-around favorite was the Hot Toby.

Emcee Ben Gran provided some comedy, Rogue Sweet provided some kick-butt cupcakes made with the Iowa Distilling Co.'s whiskey and other local vendors provided snacks, candles, jam and even jewelery for the gift bags.  Great event Dischcrawl Des Moines!

To the left are the recipes for the 4 cocktails sampled at the event!  Pick up some Iowa Shine or Prairie Fire at your local grocery store, or stop into The Iowa Distilling Company for some samples and a free tour!  The totally nice owners would love to show you around!  Then you can try some of these recipes out at home!  Read more info about The Iowa Distilling Company here.

Des Moines Holiday Events Extravaganza!

It just happened that my sister and my nephew were in town visiting this week from Boston, so what better time to fit in every Des Moines Holiday Event we could into the shortest amount of time possible.



The week started with the Ugly Sweater Run at Principal Park.  What a fun event!  Lots of gigantic Holiday inflatables for cool photo ops, candy canes and more.  Runner brought toys for Toys 4 Tots that went right to kids in our community.




If it wasn't -1 degree with the wind chill, it would have been a fabulous family friendly event.  There was a Groupon for it, so only $20 got you registration, a hat, hot chocolate along the 5k route and 2 beers or hard ciders at the end.  Fun event!  Looking forward to next year!



Next up, we hit the Jordan Creek Mall Santa and Build-a-Bear for their Holiday "Bears".  Nathan picked the Rudolph and of course we spent the ridiculous amount of money on the matching hat, scarf and sweater for Rudolph, you know, because it was too cute not to.



Our elf (Named Elephant) returned for the season which is fantastic because my kid always behaves a little bit better when he knows the creepy elf is watching him.




While at the mall, we also got to check out Live, Love, Bake which recently opened up near Banana Republic on the first floor of the mall.  They have a cupcake kiosk.  What a great idea and they have really great cupcakes!  I tried a gluten-free chocolate-chip and it was really fabulous.  It was a little more pricey than the competitors around town at $4, but it was huge!  It was moist and delicious though and worth every penny.





In the middle of all of this, we had time to meet my friend Carye for a painting class, via El Arte Uncorked, to make some festive Christmas ornament paintings.  We also got some matchy-matchy photos of the boys taken since they only see each other a couple times a year.




Continuing the fun, we had our Thanksgiving meal at Tally's in Beaverdale which was fantastic as always.  Robert's (the owner) wife has celiac disease, so there is always a ton at Tallly's that is gluten free for my family members to eat.



We don't discriminate around here and since we have all sorts of heritage going on in our family, we made time for Latkes and Hanukkah house building!  It was really for the kids, but they lost interest quickly and the grown-ups ended up doing the building...




What the kids did love was the chocolate we picked up at Beaverdale Confections! I just love this shop.  We picked up Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas themed chocolates along with fantastic gift baskets for only $10 each!  They'd make great teacher gifts!  (hint, hint...) A great stop to celebrate Small Business Saturday too.  



Once our Thankgivukkah celebrations were over (and my brief dabble in Black Friday Shopping in which I stood in line for an hour and a half for an iPad deal...not worth it),we headed to the Festival of Trees and Lights at Hy-vee Hall.  This is one of my most favorite events of the season and is for such a great cause that is very near to my heart.  Every year this events gets bigger and better is lots of kids crafts, train rides, beautiful trees including a scavenger hunt, snacks, silent auction and entertainment.  Definitely an event not to miss.


Luckily we still had time to take our annual drive through the Jolly Holiday Lights at Waterworks park where you can drive through thousands of holiday lights throughout the park for $10 (more for limos and busses and only $5 on Monday nights) to benefit Make-a-Wish foundation.  We love turning up the Christmas music, drinking hot cocoa and enjoying the lights.  They had 3D glasses available a few years ago and Nathan loves to wear them every year, they don't offer them anymore though, but that's what he's wearing in the photo.


That takes us to our road trip to The Scenic Valley Railroad and Museum in Boone for the Santa Express train ride!  This is always a hot with the kids.  You ride the train out to "The North Pole", read the Santa Express book, drink hot chocolate and eat cookies and there is of course a visit from Santa.  It was my 2 year old nephew's first train ride and he was enthralled for every minute of the hour and a half excursion.



We fit in a trip to the Science Center, which I highly recommend during the holiday to catch the Polar Express in the IMAX theater and check out the current traveling exhibit which is very cool.



Today, we end our very busy visit with family with DIsney on Ice at Wells Fargo Arena.  Many Iowans have made this a Thanksgiving week tradition every year.



Are there any Holiday events that you love to do in Des Moines (or close-by)?  We'd love to hear about them!



For me, it's back Ugly Sweater Party planning!  Our annual Contest/Party is being held soon and we can't wait!  Here's a photo of some of our friend's from last year's event!  I'm getting the fruit cakes and leg lamps ready!

PS...I almost forgot!  A new find (for me) this year is the Lincoln Place Lights this very cool house at 129 Lincoln Place Drive in Des Moines (not far from DMU).  They have a fantastic holiday lights display, that if you set your radio to 94.3, their light show is in sync with the music!  Check it out!

Win a free Milkshake contest!

Chick-fil-a has Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshakes again!! Yum! Who wants a free one courtesy of Chick-fil-A Paradise Pointe?! Just "like" our status on Facebook about the contest and head over to https://www.facebook.com/cfaparadisepointe and "like" their page. That's it! I'll announce FIVE winners at the end of the day 11/20/13!

Interview with Chef Mike from Dos Rios

We got a sneak peak at what Chef Mike Holman, Executive Chef at Dos Rios is going to be serving up for competition during BattleDish on October 5th!  We are already fans of their regular menu, lunch specials and happy hour appetizer and drink specials, but Chef Mike is cooking up something new for the Battle.  Read our review of the lunch menu here.

Chef Holman has been cooking professionally for over 17 years.  After figuring out early on that he wouldn't be using his degree in Finance, he went back to school at The Iowa Culinary Institute to pursue his real passion.  After working at a cafe in Ames for 7 years, he's had much success in his culinary endeavors such as being the Executive Chef at Americana at it's opening and also at Tartine.  He's now had the opportunity to be the Executive Chef for Dos Rios and Big City Burger and Greens.  Look out for some big news coming soon this fall too!

For the competition he's featuring an Argentinian beef tenderloin with fire roasted peppers, pickled onions, boiled eggs, mango vinaigrette and arugula served on homemade French rolls.  YUM!  It will be paired with a South American sangria cocktail with cachaca, absinthe, orange liquor, Mexican brandy, fresh fruit and topped with pino, wow!  This is going to be some fierce competition.

We are totally impressed with the lineup in this competition.  They are featuring the Executive Chefs from BOS, Liberty's, Alba, Tacopocalypse, Proof and Gusto!  Here is more info about Battledish and how to purchase tickets.

Chef Mike enjoys his job because it is never the same two days in a row.  He's excited about Battledish because he loves a good competition. He knows his food can stand up to the best, and on October 5th we'll see where he stands!

If you can't make it on October 5th or just can't get enough awesome food, check out Chef Mike's Tequila dinner on October 17th! A 5 course meal paired with hand-crafted tequila cocktails.  There will be giveaways, guest speakers from Silvercoin Tequila and more.  Don't miss it!

Liberty's-An Iowa Grill

I'm proud to present the next BattleDish competitor, Executive Chef from Liberty's-An Iowa Grill, Jeff Deets!  Liberty's is located in the Embassy Suites in the East Village area in downtown Des Moines.  Even though this restaurant is hidden inside the hotel, this restaurant is a hidden gem.

During our interview I got to have lunch a lovely lunch of roasted corn chowder, which was superb.  Thick and creamy with chunks of thick bacon, soft potatoes and lots of roasted sweet corn.  I ate the whole bowl and that would have been a satisfying lunch in itself.

We also had the Liberty's best burger.  Because well, if it said Liberty's best, it seemed like the item to try to get a taste for the place.  We weren't disappointed.  At first glance it looked heavy on the cole slaw and light on the pulled pork, but the creamy slaw was really the highlight of the burger with the slightly sweet and soft bun.  It was really good.  And I loved the sweet potato/regular potato fry mix that came in the cute paper bag.  Extra points for presentation.

Our server was friendly and attentive and our meal arrived very quickly but hot and fresh.


Chef Deets was fun to get to know.  He grew up and graduated from high school in Johnston and attended Le Cordon Bleu and Iowa Culinary Institute.  He began his career at Hyperion Country Club in Johnston before working as Sous Chef under Chef John Andres from BOS for 3 years. As you can see this BattleDish will be some heated competition!!  

Chef Deets later joined the John Q. Hammons hotel family at the Sheraton of West Des Moines as Executive Sous Chef before just a month ago receiving the honor of Executive Chef here at Liberty's at the Embassy Suites.

Chef Deets lives to work in the kitchen.  He has a passion for working long hours and having a hand in everything.  He's most excited about BattleDish to showcase one of his new menu items!  A brand new, Chef-inspired menu of his own creation, will be released on October 1st and BattleDish guests will be some of the first to get to try it.

Come out and try lunch or dinner here at Liberty's, you won't be disappointed.  And if you want to witness the battle between mentor, Chef Andres and former Student, Chef Deets, come to BattleDish on October 5th!  More info here.

The Italian Heritage Festival

We always have a great time at the Italian Heritage Festival in Des Moines.  2013 was a great year for the event.  In it's fourth year, this was the biggest one yet.  The festival was July 26th and 27th in Downtown's Western Gateway Park. Lots of great food vendors, free inflatables, crafts, face painting and balloon animals for the kids, live music and lots of fun contests like pasta-eating and bocce ball tournaments.  The festival is free from opening until 5pm when there is a $5 cover charge to get in.  Children 12 and under are always free to get in.

Of course we sampled everything from pizzelles to meatballs to Italian Nachos (which I highly recommend) to gelato and fresh squeezed lemonade.

The highlight (food-wise) was the Italian Nachos that were topped with beef and sausage, tomato sauce and mozzarella.  There was a topping bar of peppers as well.  So good!  My sons favorite was the Italian cookies.

While kids spent most of the time bouncing on the inflatables (I also really appreciated that they had boxes full of socks available for kids since in the middle of July a lot of kids wear sandals and sock are required for the bounce houses.) and doing crafts, they seemed to really enjoy the entertainment that we caught that day too which included a bagpipe player and dancers.

If you missed this year's event, mark your calendar for next year!  A great, free (during the day) family outing or a great inexpensive date-night!  Alway wonderful to be able to learn a little about Italian heritage, have some great food and have some fun.