Iowa State Fair

The Fair is here!! The Iowa State Fair funs August 8th to 18th in 2013.  From cows made from butter to everything you ever wanted that you didn't know you'd ever want on-a-stick, it's fair time!

Some people like to avoid the craziness, but I like to dive right in.  Have you ever seen so many mullets in one place before?

Kids love it too.  There are the over-priced carnival-rides of course.  But, if you can keep your kid occupied with the plethora of animals, the free give-aways (mostly fake tattoos that they want to be covered with from head to toe) in the varied industries building from hundreds of vendors and the little hands on the farm exhibit which is one of our favorites, you can possibly avoid spending too long in line for a $4 ride that they may or may not puke on. The hands on the farm exhibit is where kids go through the motions of being a farmer and milking a (fake) cow to earn (fake) money to buy something in the store at the end.  I'd say kids at least up to age 9 or 10 would like this.

And then there is the food....ahhhh the glorious food.  Three things I never miss are 1. A pork chop on a stick.  That hard to find french cut of goodness smothered with BBQ sauce. 2. A frozen apple cider slush.  Overly sweet, yet tart and perfect for the hot days at the fair.  They sell them in the same building where you find the butter cow and get your egg on a stick.  3. those darn buckets of chocolate chips cookies that you can't resist.  Why are they so good!? With so many choices, why would we pick cookies?  Because they are that good!  We finally came to our senses that we don't have to eat the whole darn bucket in the few days following the fair, they actually freeze really well and pulling out a Ziploc bag of cookies 3 months after the fair and popping them in the microwave for 20 seconds is like re-living the fair all over again.  Do it I tell you.

Well, that's all you are going to get about the fair from me....I am far from a fair expert, but I know there are some of you out there with tried and true tips, like "make sure to come on Eat Side night" so, please share with the rest of us what YOUR favorite parts/foods of the fair are.  Thanks!

Eat, Play, Love Des Moines Night @ Sully's Irish Pub!

Eat, Play, Love Des Moines Night @ 515 Brewery

We were SO excited to host our first free public event on Friday, July 26th at 515 Brewery in Clive.  Thanks to all of you who came and made it awesome!

It was a beautiful night and we had a fantastic turnout with upwards of 200 people that came out!  It was so busy we lost track!


We gave away lots of mail openers =)  We raffled off (in our free raffle) tons of t-shirts, food items from local restaurants, Tastefully Simple products, ICubs tickets and more.  Over 50 prizes!!

Local Yocals was there serving up his fantastic farm burgers made with all local ingredients along with Iowa sweet corn and Iowa fries.  After keeping him busy cooking for 3 hours, he sold out!

Tamales Industry was also there selling their famous delicious tamales, they too sold out after a few hours!  If you want more, you can visit their restaurant on 2nd Ave in Des Moines!

Rogue Sweets made chocolate chai cupcakes with 515's own Numb Nuts beer and caramel apple cupcakes from Sutliff Cider (also available at 515).  They were awesome!  Everyone enjoyed them!

Dishcrawl Des Moines brought their bacon photo booth to get everyone excited for the Bacon Battle event that was to he held the following Sunday. Fun!

We deemed the event a success and we hope you did too!  We hope you had a great time and are looking forward to the next event as much as we are!  Next time I will totally find a microphone so we don't have to find you individually in a crowd of 200!

We are open to suggestions to make our events even better! And if you own a local business and you'd like us to host an event (big or small), just shoot us an email @ EatplayloveDSM@aol.com and we'll see if we can set something up!

Our next event will be August 9th, 2013 at Sully's Irish Pub in West Des Moines.  Look for details to follow and hope to see you there!

Don't Fight it..Eat a Burrito

Fairly new to Downtown at 309 13th street (just) off of Locust street is the Ames-originated Fighting Burrito.  The concept is the same as Qdoba, Chipotle or Pancheros where you pick a burrito, bowl, salad or tacos and then pick your toppings.  They have a few pre-constructed ideas for you too if you'd rather not think that hard.

We started off with some chips and queso that were tasty and similar to other quesos you'd find at local joints.

We both ordered bowls and picked our own toppings.  White rice, no beans, chicken, grilled veggies, spicy corn salsa and lettuce for him.  Wild rice, black beans, beef, cheese, sour cream and Jalapeno peach salsa for me.  I have to note that the portion sizes were significantly smaller than than the other concept-similar restaurants.

Hubby said his was tasty and the spicy corn salsa was the highlight.  I really enjoyed the marinated shredded beef with the peach salsa combination.  It was unique and probably could have eaten 3 times the portion size.

So all-in-all, a great choice for a quick, downtown lunch with a lot of taste.  Order a large/extra topping if you have a big appetite.  The staff was friendly the restaurant was clean and family-friendly.  If you're a burrito-lover, check it out and see what you think!

Ps. Kids under 10 eat FREE all day on Sundays!

Cozy Cafe

You may have noticed that the West End Diner @ The Valley West Inn is now a Cozy Cafe.  These cafes seems to be popping up in former restaurant locations all around the metro.  Cozy Cafe now has spots in Clive, Urbandale, Merle Hay in Des Moines, Valley West in West Des Moines and SE 14th street in Des Moines.

While they are starting to get a little "chain-ish", they still have some great qualities.  Generous portion-sizes, good service and a menu to please the whole family.

Thursdays offer free kids meals for lunch or dinner when an adult meal is purchased

Sunday evenings are 2 for 1 cavatelli dinners.

The expansive menu offers breakfast favorites like biscuits & gravy, pancakes, omelets and more.  I got the Cozy Mess on my last visit and overall I enjoyed it.  I got the half-size and as you can see, it's pretty big.  It boasted some local ingredients, and expected Graziano sausage when it was listed in another dish, but the sausage in the mess was reheated breakfast sausage chunks that I didn't like.  But the thick bacon pieces and ham chunks made up for it.

For lunch they have soups, salads, pizza, sandwiches, pasta and more.  They really do have a good selection and a good kids menu.

For dinner, they have blue plates specials too.   I've tried their Turkey Blue Plate Special and these meals are a good deal for under $10.  It was good, but not incredible.  I think that's the trade-off with having so many menu items.  You can't possible do all of them incredibly well.  But, I think Cozy Cafe does a good job of doing a lot of menu items pretty well and makes for a great restaurant to take the whole family because everyone is sure to find something that they like.

You are going to get a good meal at a good price here.  Try it out for your next family meal out and make sure to try a dessert.  They offer shakes, floats and ice cream sundaes along with fresh baked goods.  Yum.

Ragbrai fun! Even if you aren't a biker!

Today's guest post is by my fabulous friend Christie who loves to get out and do fun things with her two adorable boys!  Today's adventure helped to prove that you can have fun during RAGBRAI even without the wheels!

What’s this RAGBRAI thing people keep talking about?  It’s just a bunch of crazy people riding bicycles across the state of IA in 100 degree heat, right?  Wrong!  It’s a week long, state wide (literally) celebration!

My oldest son loves riding his bike so I thought he’d get a kick out of seeing some of the bicyclists as they neared Des Moines.  Little did I know that the bikes are just the excuse for many communities to come together to have some fun! 

Dallas Center was the closest stop in the time we had available to go.  I did some research and found all kinds of fun things going on as the bikers rode through.

We arrived around 10:30 and walked the main stretch to see what we could find.  We found lots and lots and lots of bikes along with a lot of yummy smelling food stands.  If I hadn’t had two small kids in tow, I would have started eating my way through Dallas Center.

Biking not your thing?  What about BINGO where the winning number is selected by a chicken or cow dropping their load on a giant BINGO card?  I was hoping to see the action but it was going to be a while before they let the cow loose to do her business so we moved on.

The kids had seen the bounce houses when we arrived so it was time to let them play a bit.   Next to the inflatables was a small gazebo where a band was playing. 

The whole RAGBRAI atmosphere was so upbeat and fun.  We talked to several riders and everyone was so friendly despite having been on a bike for two and half days.  I overheard several riders talking about how welcoming everyone had been to them as well. 

If you get a chance, check out RAGBRAI at any of the upcoming stops this week (they’re in Des Moines!)  The atmosphere can’t be beat.  For more information, you can check out the RAGBRAI website: http://ragbrai.com/ 

Work at a vineyard for a day!

I was so excited to see this e-mail in my inbox!  2 years ago, some friends and I signed up at Two Saints Winery for their annual grape harvest and we had a BLAST!  We did it again in August of this year.  Two Saints does not charge for their day of picking and provides you with all of the supplies needed.  Their next picking date is September 7th, 2013. at 8:00am.  Call Christine at 641-369-2102 to sign up.  You get lunch, a bottle of wine and a t-shirt for helping.

Summerset Winery also taking reservations for their harvest.  They charge for their harvest though. These spots fill up fast so if you want to get in on it, here are all of the details..

Summerset Winery is Now Taking Reservations their 16th Annual FALL HARVEST!
August 24, 31, September 7, 14, 21 and 28, 2013

You may now reserve your spot for our 2013 Fall Harvest!   As a harvester, you will experience the ambiance of the vineyard as you cut the grapes off the vine, feel them crush beneath your feet during the celebratory stomp and indulge your palate in the flavors of our delicious award winning wines throughout the day.  Harvesters receive breakfast, lunch, commemorative t-shirt, wine and the grape stomp celebration.

Reservations are required and the cost is $25/pp. Payment is due at time of reservation and is non-refundable. The grapes need picked even when it rains so come ready, rain or shine.

Schedule:

• 7:30 A.M. arrive at the winery for breakfast and brief tutorial on how to pick the grapes.
• After breakfast head into the vineyard and begin picking an acre of selected grapes.
• Once the grapes have been harvested, bottles of last year’s vintages will be opened andpoured and the vineyard party begins!
• Chow time! You'll be hungry after a long morning of grape picking and cavorting in the vineyard.
• After lunch climb into the barrel and stomp grapes, purchase a bottle of wine for some afternoon libations, place your footprint on the back of your commemorative t-shirt.
• Festivities should conclude around 1:00 - 2:00 P.M.
   

Harvesters should:

• Wear old clothes (grapes may stain)
• Dress in layers (it may be chilly in the morning and warm up in the afternoon)
• Bring pruning shears
• Bring bug spray
• Bring sun screen
• Bring gardening gloves
• Remember, the grapes need to be picked rain or shine!  Bring a rain poncho, if necessary.
   

CALL THE WINERY AT 515-961-3545 TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT TODAY!

Notes: We did this 2 years ago and we were able to bring a child along to help as you can see in the photo.  It is tough work to pick all morning, so please check with the winery for questions about age restrictions and make sure that your child would be able to handle working for 5 hours, etc. 

National Balloon Classic - Indianola

One of my very favorite festivals of the summer is the National Balloon Classic in Indianola.  The 2013 festival runs July 26th to August 3rd.  Activities for the week include a 5k walk/run, morning balloon flights that are free, evening balloons flights that are $3 per person admission (or $10 per car load). Entrance includes the nightly entertainment, the ability to watch the night glows, which are really cool where you can go right onto the field, all of the balloons light up in the dark and it's fun to watch. And there are food vendors and kids games there nightly as well.  You can even camp at the field for $5 per night.

On Saturday the 27th at 11:00am there will be the annual Balloon Classic Parade that starts at Irving Elementary School.  You can schedule a Balloon ride in advance by contacting the official balloon ride operation for the event "On the Fly" at 1-800-690-1287.

The weekday evenings are usually less busy, plan some time to get there as there is often a line to get in to park.

Here is the 2013 Schedule on the National Balloon Classic Website.

New World Cafe

There are few restaurants around that can boast that every menu item is mostly organic, vegan and gluten-free.  New World Cafe in the East Village boasts just that.

The small cafe offers a changing menu of  all local, fresh menu items that are innovative and delicious, even for non-vegans!  They are quite busy for lunch and dinner and also offer fresh juices and smoothies.  Prices are quite reasonable and the environment is clean and casual.

I tried the "The New Mac & Cheese" with gluten-free pasta, kale and "cheese" sauce which has no actual cheese at all, but rather a cashew/pumpkin base which was delicious! And for $6 for a small and $8 for a large it is really a bargain.  I'm pretty sure a lot of you could get your kids to eat this mac & cheese and they'd have no idea they were eating something much more healthy.

I also tried the ginger lemonade which was sweetened with agave and so good!  On another visit I also tried the cucumber lemonade, which was good too, but obviously more "green tasting".

The menu for with week I visited is on the left, but the weekly menu can be found on their website here.

Whether you are a vegan, have celiac disease or are gluten-intolerant or just like great healthy food.  Stop in to New World cafe for lunch or dinner to try something new.

The Little Gym

Today's guest post is by my awesome friend Lisa.  Lisa had a great experience at the little gym that she wants to share.  Thanks Lisa!

We had a party for our 5 year old last year at the Little Gym in West Des Moines and it was awesome!!!  All the kids had a great time.  Parties are 90 minutes long and you can invite up to 15 kids.  Parents can stay and watch or go out and run a few quick errands while the staff at The Little Gym tires out their kiddos.  This is a great package and includes lots of extras like invitations mailed for you, paper goods and drinks for the cake portion of your party, clean up and a very enthusiastic staff member to lead your party. Really, they do almost all of the work!  Show up with a cake and you are good to go!  I notice that on the website, there are party packages that now include a theme-very cool idea and I’m sure well executed.  

The Little Gym is a great place for a big birthday party because there is lots of room for the kids to run around, be loud, experience some fun gym equipment and don’t forget the kids favorite part-the blow up trampoline!  The staff at The Little Gym really seem to enjoy the birthday parties, did a great job explaining the rules to the kids, and leading the kids in games, songs, and taking turns on the equipment. Parties start at $200 for non-members of the gym and $175 for members.

 A great place for kids parties of all ages as they tailor the activities to the age group of your party.  Call 515-225-4443 or go online to the Little Gym's Website to schedule a party.

The Little Gym also has year round classes for kids starting at just 4 months old!  They hvae camps and specials events periodically as well!  Check it out.