Why you don’t mess with farm dogs.

I’ve been slacking lately, but I already mentioned that in my last post. So here is the eggplant curry I made a while back. Baigan bhartha I believe its called though my spelling is probably wrong. Anyway, it was delicious.

And on to what the title of this post alludes to. So today, my mom and I took my little munchkin, Scruffy, to the vet. We thought why not try to take my brother’s dog too. Max doesn’t have any of his shots and well, thats illegal as well as ill-advised. Max is a lovable, if not powerful and rambunctious, black lab-blue heller mix. He’s always been my buddy, but that didn’t matter today. Because I was trying to get him into the cab of the truck, the last place on Earth he wanted to be. Max has a fear of vehicles that results in injury quite often for the person trying to get him into it. 

 

Long story short, coaxing wasn’t working so I tried to fashion a muzzle. But that clearly didn’t work since as soon as I tried to pick him up he reeled back and clamped onto my arm. Thats how I ended up with this beauty.

The picture really doesn’t do it justice. The purple is much more vivid. The purple (which is my blood mind you) has now reached the edge of my tattoo so it looks rather interesting. This will make for some interesting stories tomorrow at work.

World Food Festival

This weekend is the annual World Food Festival in the east village here in Des Moines. I always look forward to this. Its a chance to showcase the many immigrant populations in the metro. Plus there is some damn good food. This year I made the rounds with my mom. They had a lot of Asian stands; Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai, and Filipino. Other stands were Indian, Bosnian, Greek, Ecuadorian, Salvadorian, and obviously Mexican. Plus some American stands serving bbq and cajun. 

 

For the not so adventurous there was even an Iowa Machine Shed booth. 

 

But the pinnacle of amazing food was the Ethiopian stand. Central Iowa needs an Ethiopian restaurant! I had a meal of atkilt. Its like a curry of cabbage, green beans, onions, and other unidentifiable of delicious veggies. But oh, the injera. Its what makes Ethiopian the number one cuisine in my book. Indian is great, but Ethiopian is like Indian, but with better bread. And thats saying a lot because Indian bread is amazing.

Enough chatter. Here’s some pictures.

Atkilt and injera

Bubble tea! Mango green tea, bubble tea to be exact. Chewy tapioca mango awesome to be precise.

Each stand had a $1 tasting sample. So I had to try the lentil soup from Saloo India’s stand. Terrible picture, good soup.

And finally here is a picture of Iowans enjoying some delicious food in view of the state capital building.

If you are in Des Moines this weekend try to check it out. Help support local businesses!

Dirty Dirty Cookies

I’ve always been a slightly asexual person. So I’m not entirely sure why I decided to make the Garrick’s “vagina variation” sugar cookie testers. Especially since I’m taking them to a potluck of people I don’t know! What the hell was I thinking. Oh well, it will break the ice and they are damn good. I’m also bringing other stuff but pictures later.

Creepy, aren’t they? The one on the left is tinted with cocoa, and the right one is just vanilla. Instead of stuffing them with marzipan like the recipe calls for I just tinted some of the dough pink. You can even sort of see the alien bits underneath the cocoa and vanilla cookies, because hot pink isn’t a color seen in nature.

 

These are actually a lot of fun to make. Probably because I couldn’t stop giggling. I’m sorry, sometimes you just have to giggle like a kid. Though next time I go to a feminist gathering (or a pure romance party god forbid) I’ll make these. And keep a straight face.

I also made the gingerbread apple pie from Vegan With a Vengeance. Well I used the crust and the baking directions. The filling was the stuff my mom and I canned a few weeks ago.

And this Indian spiced rice salad is the bane of my existence right now. This is what happens when I start trying to make my own recipes. I like it, but it seems like its missing something. I added a lot of different spices so maybe its a matter of not adding enough of each. Or maybe I’m just overanalyzing because I’ll be feeding it to other people tomorrow. It basically had Jasmine rice, roasted potatoes, squash, and carrots, onions, mushrooms, coconut milk, tomatoes, fava beans, and too many spices to name.

Dusting off the old cookbooks.

There’s a bit of a challenge on the PPK going on right now where for a week you use a cookbook that for some reason has fallen by the wayside. This week is Vegan Planet, which was actually my first vegan cookbook. But I was so overwhelmed I made a handful of recipes before putting it away. I’m really liking it now though so I doubt it’ll get shoved to the back of the shelf again. 

The first thing I made was the adzuki bean and winter squash saute. The nice thing about this book is there is something for whatever ingredients you have on hand at the time. And this is what I had on hand. I fiddled with the spices a bit, because I always do that. Spices shouldn’t be listed in measurements, just ideas. 

Tonight I made the Indian spiced quinoa with raisins and pinenuts. A few months ago I got some red quinoa from Paul’s Grains. Probably the cutest farming family ever. The dad once told my friend and I “A day without cornbread is like a day without sunshine.” They have all sorts of grains and cereals, all organic. But back to the food. Delicious. The raisins make it awesome. I also added split green peas, leftover adzuki beans, and some carrots. 

And here’s the taco salad I made last night. I was lazy and this was easy, perfect combination. Just a pile up of lettuce, beans, red peppers, onions, salsa, and chunks of FYH Monterey Jack. This is from the first package of vegan cheese I got. I really liked it in sandwiches and salads. I want to try other brands now.