Photo Courtesy of www.fongspizza.com

Aside from stuffing myself silly with green bean casserole, I spent my Thanksgiving break visiting friends and family. After one fun night on the town, one of my friends mentioned through slightly slurred words that she wanted Chinese food and pizza. Even better: Chinese pizza.

Too bad we weren’t in Des Moines, because I would have rushed her right on over to Fong’s Pizza, where Chinese pizza isn’t some drunk girl’s fantasy. Instead, it’s always on the menu.

Fong’s Pizza sits where Des Moines’ oldest Chinese restaurant used to be. The Asian-inspired menu is a nod to the building’s past. For an appetizer, I recommend the egg rolls. The family recipe is the best I’ve ever tasted, hands down.

For your meal, you can always order one of Fong’s salads or sandwiches, but I recommend the pizza. And instead of making your own, try one of the headliners. As you have probably figured out, I’m a sucker for crab rangoons. That’s why I love the crab rangoon pizza. It has a crab rangoon base with surimi, green onion, asiago, and mozzarella. My favorite part is the crispy egg roll strip topping. Here are some other Asian-inspired pizza creations on the menu: Moo Shu Pork, Kung Pao Chicken, Happy Family, Thai Chicken, and Fongolian Beef.

The restaurant is just as fun as its food. You’ll love sitting in the Chinese, Oriental, Polynesian, and Italian-inspired 40s and 50s décor. And just imagine how all of that starts to look after a few of their tasty tiki drinks, which are big enough to have you feeling happy after just one.

The prices are reasonable, but if you want to curb the spending, stop in for happy hour Monday-Friday from 2pm-6pm. You get free slices from 4-6. But really, it’s worth stopping in any day of the week for a bite to eat.

Fong’s Pizza has some pretty crazy food combos. Would you try any? Do you have any food combos you like to eat that other people think are gross, but you insist are delicious?

Finals. Sick. I’m already starting to feel the pressure created from a combination of looming deadlines and serious procrastination.

But instead of thinking about the negatives surrounding this time of year, I try to stick to the positives. I don’t crack open my books; I crack open the catalogues for a head start on my Christmas list. I think about getting ahead on my work by putting up my Christmas tree. And I don’t grab a quick snack between study sessions at the library. I prefer to cook up some of my favorite holiday foods.

Screw Thanksgiving, I go straight for the homemade Christmas candy. Nothing dulls my end-of-semester migraines like a healthy dose of chocolate. Mmmmmmmmmm. Chocolate.

Here’s the recipe for one of my favorite Christmas candies. I’ve known a lot of people who call it reindeer poop. I’ve even heard it called snowman poop when it’s covered in white chocolate. Clever, but gross. I call them cookies and cream truffles. I switched the recipe up just a tad: milk chocolate instead of white, and just a dash of vanilla.

Photo Courtesy of Kraft Foods

Amazing! There really aren’t even words. You just can’t beat Oreo filling, cream cheese, and chocolate. I’m starting to sense a theme here—crab rangoons, cream cheese frosting, and now this. By the way, the photo above doesn’t show my homemade goodies because they were gone before I could snap a picture. But they looked and tasted just as delicious.

What are your favorite holiday foods? If you just can’t resist the craving, make something a little early. Tell me how it turns out.

I promised you guys cupcakes, so here they are. The recipe: Paula Deen’s Red Velvet Cupcakes. Every year for my birthday, my grandma always made me a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. When she died, my parents made it—for a while. We’ve gotten lazy. We can’t find the recipe, and each year my red velvet cake sits on a plastic tray from the bakery. So here’s my attempt to make my own.

I tried my hand at baking. But baking is complicated. It involves math. Every measurement needs to be exact to come out right. Cooking, on the other hand, requires throwing things into a big pot or pan until it tastes good. Cooking is what I’m really good at.

Maybe that’s why the cupcakes didn’t turn out so well. They weren’t an epic fail, but they were still pretty much a fail. Seriously, they felt super greasy! How in the world do cupcakes get greasy? My saving grace was the cream cheese frosting. It was absolutely, 100%, lick-it-off-the-electric beater fantastic. Butter, cream cheese, and sugar. How could I possibly screw that combo up? Thanks Paula!

I’m not giving up. I found an awesome cupcake blog, and I’m going to try every recipe that looks good until I get one right. By the time I’m done, I’ll be the cupcake queen.

Have any of you guys ever completely screwed up a recipe? Dish out your baking disasters! Also, if you have any good cupcake recipes, send them my way! They might just end up on the blog.

There’s something about fall weather that makes me crave comfort food. When the temperature drops, I want food that sticks to my ribs and warms me up from head to toe. My mom has one of the best recipes when it comes to comfort food.  

When I was younger, there was nothing better than coming home on a cold day to one of her big pots of soup on the stove for dinner.  But I’m in college now. For most people, that means coming home to a bowl of Ramen Noodles. Not me. I whip up one of my favorite comfort food recipes. My mom calls it Poor Man’s Stew—fitting for a college student. It’s easy, cheap and scrumdiddlyumptious.

Ingredients:

There are two. If you mess it up, seriously, get out of the kitchen, find the phone, & order take-out.

            12 breakfast sausage links

            48 oz. jar of Northern Beans

1. Brown the sausage links, and cut them up into bite-size pieces. My mom uses rosemary sage sausage. I’m not that fancy. Do not, I repeat, do not drain the grease. It gives the soup amazing flavor.
2. Pour the entire jar of beans into the pot along with the sausage.
3. (Optional) Add water. How much is up to you.
4. Let  simmer for about 30 min.

It’s not very pretty, but don’t knock it till you try it. My family likes to add salt, pepper and Tabasco. I like soaking it up with buttered bread.

Have any favorite comfort foods for a chilly day? Tell me about them. Post some recipes.  If you don’t have any, here are some great fall soups to try. Also, check out Dana McCauley’s food blog for a great recipe for my second favorite comfort food. Mac & Cheese!

The farmers’ market has plenty of pastries and tarts to satisfy anyone’s morning cravings. As for me, I like my breakfast to be a bit heartier. When I say hearty, I’m talking deep fried dough stuffed with delicious cream cheese filling. That’s right, my complete and balanced breakfast consists of crab rangoons. My goal last Saturday: Find the vendor with the best crab rangoons and eat them. Lots of them. Here were the contestants.

Hmong’s Egg Rolls; $1 each

These were deeeeeelicious. They were nice and sweet with just the right amount of crab so as not to be overpowering. Let’s just say I ate a few. The first go-around anyway.

Mao’s; $.75 each

Meh. These were just okay. They were a little bit chewy, and you could taste a lot of cream cheese. It was hard to tell if there was even any crab in there. But I guess it didn’t stop me from eating them.

Steve Chef Kabob; 5 for $4.00

Pretty good. Honestly, the worst thing about these was the awkward shape. Every time I took a bite I felt like I was getting stabbed in the mouth. Not fun. But the pain wasn’t enough to keep me away. They tasted pretty good, so I ate a few.

And the winner is…

Hmong’s! After I had tried all of the above, I went back to this one for seconds. How many? You’ll never know. A girl doesn’t scarf and tell.