Halloween Pumpkins 2011

Bert was hard at work yesterday making our Halloween pumpkins...

TC carved her own (Boo in the monster suit), while Bert did my True Blood and his favorite Avenger, the Vision...

Slash this! (Costumes 'n Food)

A few days ago we went to a Halloween costume party for TC's dance group. It wasn't as well attended as last year's party, but there was still a lot of good food (OMFG, rellenong alimasag!)...

and crazy cool costumes!

Let's take a look at the replay...

Getting ready for Halloween

We bought our candy late this year. Bert picked up some bags of the cheapy candy. Well, you know, the non-chocolate kind. Nerds, Laffy Taffy, SweetTarts, gum, lollipops and such.

We have a bag of the "goodstuff" too but that's for us in case we run out...

The fruits of child labor...

Ah yes...it's great to have a kid who wants to help make dinner...

It keeps my hands clean and she gets to say that she did it practically all by herself...

Crockpot time again...

I know some folks can't stand Rachel Ray but occasionally I will try some of her recipes.

Especially the easy ones for the crock pot, like this...

Return to Barnes BBQ

Sometime earlier this month we visited Lemon Grove's Barne's Bar-B-Que...

I love their pig mascot...

Northgate Market

Last weekend we stopped by the Northgate Market in Nestor to pick up a few things...

This used to be a Safeway back in the 80's, then it became El Tigre (I almost typed Le Tigre..."Hold that tiger!")...

Mr. Chick

After my little musubi meal at Chamorro Grill, I walked a few doors down to Mr. Chick.

I remember seeing before when TC and I went to Ra Ka De Ka Thai Kitchen since it's in the same strip mall.

Popcorn Fail

Ohhh yeah...back when Bobby Brown wasn't a wifebeatin' druggie...before Bell Biv Devoe!

I always liked Ralph Tresvant myself...Gotta love those 80's outfits too!

Colors

Colors of the Wind? Colour My World? Color Me Badd?

Ice T doesn't think so...

Musubi craving...

This weekend I was out and about thrift store shopping for candlestick holders (for future cake plate projects). Since I was in the area, I decided to stop by Chamorro Grill since I hadn't been here in awhile...

I really just wanted a small snack...

The Fish Bucket

This past weekend we had Bert's mom stay with us. Since I didn't want to cook Friday night, we went out to dinner instead.

It was a bit of a drive but the lure of trying something new was impossible to resist...

Tutti Frutti and snacks

[Update - This place is now closed as of 5/2012]

Sometime last week I had to run a few errands with TC. We rarely go out on a weeknight so this was a special treat...

We were also quite lucky the girl working at Tutti Frutti let us use this coupon...

Return to Lisa's

Our next stop was Lisa's Filipino Cuisine located in the Eastlake Vons shopping center.

Let's see what's for dinner...

Nestle Toll House Cafe - Halo Halo Fundraiser for AB Samahan

Dessert was calling us at the Nestle Toll House Cafe...

We headed to middle of the mall, excuse me Town Centre where the food court was...

Eight Days a Week...

Here's a playlist I'd like to make for my iPod:

Return to CPK

We headed over to CPK after our brief visit into the Halloween hell known as Party City, and TC's quick snack from Hot Dog on a Stick. Bert's mom was joining us for lunch and we waited for her to get dropped off by my Bro-in-Law.

It was a warm day so we sat outdoors in their patio...

Hue Cafe or Cafe Hue?

And now we resume our lunch coupon adventures once again...After our freakishly huge Japanese smorgasbord of takeout lunch from Nijiya, we went a few doors down to this place...

Now the coupon says Hue Cafe...

Macs again!

I'm totally out of order but you'd never know it unless I mentioned it, which I did...But does it really matter? I didn't think so. This post was supposed to be after Pho Fusion. We were too full to actually sit and have a full on dessert but we did stop by, don't laugh, Big Joy Bakery. It was under the "pretense" of buying macs for a friend of ours...

Behold, the Halloween colored macs. The black is raspberry flavor. The inside filling is red. The orange, believe it or not, is BLUEBERRY. The filling is blueberry and when you bite into it, the colors look so damn cool. The yellow is Squid, just kidding. It's actually lemon. It's not really a Halloween offering, but I thought the yellow would look good next to the black and orange...

Food in stick form...

Before having lunch, we went to Party City to get TC's ninja weapons but first, another variant of the Edward Cullen wig!

Remember we saw "Love at First Bite" and "Modern Vampire" in previous posts? Say hello to "Moonlight". I think these names are so funny. The guys that they put on there are trying to look all sultry and smouldering but they just look like something died on their heads...

Farfalle with Braised Squash and Greens

The other day I was looking at yahoo news and saw some article about having a different healthy meal a day and yes, would you like to see the recipes? So I clicked on it and out of the seven, I picked two that I wanted to try.

This is one of them, Farfalle with Braised Squash and Greens. The other is a chicken dish which I will eventually make and post about later. The original recipe called for penne pasta but penne is ugly and farfalle is prettier, so farfalle it was.

I must say that it came out beautifully...such a colorful dish! Plus, Mace Windu seems to like it!

Salads at Rubio's and CPK...

I'm totally going out of order...

Last week, we had two staff development days in one week. I personally felt that the meetings could have been combined into one day so we wouldn't be missing nearly the whole day of work. In any case, it was another opportunity to have lunch with the co-workers. 

The first day we all went to Rubio's. This is my food only, two original Fish Tacos and a side salad.
The fish tacos were hidden underneath all that cabbage. According to radio commercials, they've gone back to their "original" recipe. I don't recall the fish tacos tasting this way. It seemed there wasn't enough fish and that the batter was different. It also tasted too "hard" or "fried" if that makes any sense.

Our Lunch @ Nijiya with D

The day after our Pho Fusion lunch, TC and I (along with the ever awesome D) were once again in the Convoy/Kearny Mesa area. No coupon for lunch but for dessert (that will be a separate post).  I wasn't sure if the weather would be good since it rained superhard the day before. Lucky for us, it was nice and sunny. Here's just a sampling of what we got...

Why did the weather matter you may wonder? Well, if you are going to eat at Nijiya, there's only outside seating and if it's wet and rainy, have fun with wet pants and shit. So, yeah, sun and no rain equals takeout lunch @ Nijiya Market!

Pho Fusion

Returning back to my Fall Break posts, aka Coupon Adventures with TC...

We were once again back in the Convoy/Kearny Mesa area. This strip mall also has two other places I want to check out because I have a coupon, Aria Kabob Cafe and Mercury Grill.

That Burger's Stacked...ain't holding nothing back!

A few weeks ago we went to the new burger place in Fashion Valley. It's right next to a store I will never set foot in, Burberry. Their clothes and bags are ugly and they are fucking expensive.

TC and I were still on vacation and we had lunch with our neighbors and their two daughters (the neighbor girls)...

The name is just ripe with innuendoes.

Pancakes with Cajeta...

This past weekend Bert made chocolate chip pancakes. He also added cocoa powder in the pancake mix which he made from scratch.

Man, I need some new plates. We've had these since we got married and they are so very 90's! I cropped out the chipped edges...

Pasalubong

A few days ago, my dad dropped off a bag of candy from the Philippines. His sister's daughter had several bags put aside for me, my bro and sis. The bag is addressed to my dad ("Tito" means "Uncle").

S & M?

No, SM, which is a major supermarket in the Philippines.

She gave us Choco-Nut candy with nuts, a wrapped milk candy, and packets of hot chocolate mix.

Pangea yet again...

Am I tired of Pangea yet? Apparently not. After our lunch at Wa Dining Okan, we briefly perused the dismal choices at Sage French Cake, left, and and made a quick stop at the Fruit Shop, the Food Ho and I went to Pangea for dessert...

This looked lke a good special but one in which we did not partake...

Pancit Bihon again...

So fresh from the success of yesterday's mom-worthy pancit bihon, I made another batch. I wanted to use up the rest of the kamaboko, Chinese sausage, celery, shredded chicken breast and so on an so forth. I'd gone to Seafood City earlier today and bought a different package of bihon noodles, this time from UFC brand (UFC?). As you can see, they also include their recipe on the package...

Of course, I used my own. I didn't used "boiled meat", or a mere two cloves of garlic...

Soup's on...

Hot off the stove...

One of my favorite homestyle dishes which is so easy to make.

Float on...float on...

I'm just all over the place today...

It's so much easier doing "mini posts". Well, last night was another Chocolate Beer Float Night...

as decreed by Bert of course. Over the summer I bought all these different kinds of Chocolate beers. This was was Bison Chocolate Stout.

The Fruit Shop

[Closed as of December 2015 - It is now "Cafe Stems"]

Our original plan was to perhaps have dessert at Sage French bakery next door, but the choices were rather sparse. So I suggested either (don't laugh), Big Joy Bakery or Pangea...

As you might know, parking sucks royal monkey nutz on Convoy so the Food Ho and I parked in Jasmine's lot and made our way over to Pangea, making a quick stop at the Fruit Shop...

Pancit Bihon for the win!

It's been awhile since I made this...

Could it be as good as my (gasp) mom's?

Return to Wa Dining Okan with the Food Ho

The day we returned from our mini LA trip, the weather got all gloomy. That was unfortunate but despite the wet and gray skies, my lunch outing was still on with the Food Ho, authoress of the local SD foodblog, The Pork Porn Pages.

She was up for anything. The choices were narrowed down to Wa Dining Okan or Chamorro Grill. Japanese won out...

L.A. Creamery - Glendale

Located near the Glendale Galleria was another mall complex called The Americana at Brand,

which was a sprawled out master planned community and high end soul-less shopping complex. This is where this boujie/artisanal ice cream place was located...

Dinner from JNC...

The other day I was feeling like Filipino food for dinner...

I'd like to take credit for this Adobong Pusit (Squid Adobo) but alas, that honor goes to JNC Pinoy Foodmart for their takeout...

Messin' around in the kitchen...

I felt like being Ms. Suzie Homemaker last week since I was on vacation. What better time to try a new recipe on my family...Or is it? Dun dun dun!

Believe it or not, I haven't roasted a chicken before.  Cornish game hen, yes, but not chicken...

 

 Was it worthy to be eaten or trashed?

KyoChon Chicken - Glendale Galleria

After our leisurely breakfast (leftovers) at the hotel and after Bert and TC madeuse of the pool, we headed over to the Glendale Galleria...

It's the second largest mall in L.A., which I didn't know until I looked it up. But yeah, it's pretty damn huge. We weren't there to shop though...

Random stuff...

Since it's Halloween, there is a plethora of crappy merchandise available...

Seen at a local Michael's, here's some monsters and a witch made "cute". Sorry but this just isn't right!

Johnny Rockets - Burbank

Not feeling too adventurous, we decided to use this coupon at the nearbyJohnny Rockets by the big AMC in Burbank.

Even though I have the San Diego coupon book, a few of the coupons had other non-San Diego locations...

La Brea Tar Pits

Feeling a bit wiped out by the Tim Burton overload, we wanted to check out the nearby La Brea Tar Pits...

TC recognized the La Brea Tar Pits as we passed by earlier in the car. No, we'd never gone here before or even mentioned it.

In true geek fashion she excitedly said, "Oooh, this was in The Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns makes Smithers go into the tar pits to retrieve a .39 popcorn that fell! And there was a submerged wooly mammoth and its baby too!"

Wut? 

LACMA - Tim Burton

Of course we experienced a bit of crappy traffic while en route from Royal/T to the LACMA. Our route led us to Wilshire Blvd in downtown L.A.

Murals on Washington and National

Down the street from Royal/T Cafe was an abandoned Hyundai dealership. Past that was another abandoned building with some striking murals. We saw them on our drive there and wanted to see them before we left...

Awww, look at TC and Bert. She's at that stage where she's wanting some independence and sometimes doesn't want us to be that close to her (like when she was younger, she wasn't embarassed to hold our hands, sniff).  But sometimes, she'll have that occasional show of affection...

Return to Royal T/Cafe

Ever since we went here a few months ago, I'd been wanting to go back again...

Royal T/Cafe changes up their exhibits every few months...you'll notice that the windows are now clear again. Last time they were completely painted over with funky designs.

Randy's Donuts - Inglewood

On our way up to the LACMA for Tim Burton, we made a slight detour in Inglewood...

This behemoth donut can be seen looming in the distance, right off the 405 freeway exit at West Manchester...

Chunky!

Even though summer's over, I still found a bargain with these black chunky wedges from amazon.com. I just recently started ordering some of my shoes from there which beats going to the stores in person. Especially if the shoe is no longer "in season", you can find some good deals...

This is the Michael Antonio Gabrielle Wedge Sandal.

Fee Tines a Mady...

"You're unce...tice...fee tines a mady..."

Unfortunately I had to delete the video link because it wouldn't play, but here's the video link that explains the reference above...(If you're an early Eddie Murphy fan, you'll get it)

Yes sirree. Three time's a charm.

How I wish there were a bakery as good as 85C back in San Diego...

La Crepe Fraiche

Welcome to Manila Mesa!

This is the corner of Scranton and Mira Mesa Blvd...otherwise known as traffic hell during rush hour! CAB, TC and I were headed over to the Sorrento Food Court for dessert...

Return to Nazca Grill

A few days ago, TC and I had the pleasure of having lunch with the awesome C from CAB Cooks.

Unfortunately, we learned the hard way with this coupon...

The Balcony

The night was still young and we were not in a hurry to get back to San Diego.

Here's the view from the second floor right above 85C. Bon Epi and Chae Banh are on the other side of this complex. 

Chae Banh Korean Cuisine

This was the next leg of our trip. Can you believe D and I spent nearly 14 hours together without strangling each other?

As much good friends that we are, we've never spent that much time together for anything!  Luckily the radio station we were listening to was playing all 80's that weekend. D's charger for her iPod was broken, so the radio it was.