Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Pounded into a chicken breast, sauteed and topped on pasta with artichoke, caper, lemon and butter sauce.

Butter pecan cookies:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/butter_pecan_cookies/

Holy crap these are good.

Zeno's in Marshalltown is excellent, though almost prohibitively expensive. Family-owned joint that's been around forever; they offer thin crust and only thin crust. It's delicious, though I wish it weren't so expensive (~$25 for a supreme pie).

Turkey and unholy amounts of pecan pie.

Steak 'n Shake. Delicious! Reminds me of my college days.

I was really excited when one of these opened up near my home. Unfortunately, I didn't like it as much as the author did. The burger was excessively, unpalatably salty and overpowered everything else. It was disappointing.

The fries, with garlic and rosemary, were good, but were also dealt a heavy hand of salt.

Maple-walnut corn bread.

Maple-walnut cornbread sounds awesome.

1. My Shun chef's knife
2. Big cutting board
3. microplane
4. tongs
5. collection of bamboo spoons...better than wood?
6. eight-quart cuisinart stock pot

ribeye

sharp cheddar, a little dijon, lettuce tomato and red onion.

chocolate covered cherries

When I was a kid, the smell of the kitchen on Saturday morning when my mom would make breakfast - pancakes or french toast with glorious, glorious bacon.