A compilation of various photos (some Christmas related) and recipes...

Have any of you heard about this?

The Sriracha shortage? Better start buying them up...

We're good with our one bottle since Bert is the only one who really uses it...

December is more than halfway done and I'd been meaning to put up these pics earlier but now here they are, a hodge podge of stuff to unload...

Bert has been sick for about a week now. Last weekend (and also a few days ago), I made a batch of one of my favorite Filipino comfort foods, Chicken Arroz Caldo.

One of the grandmas from the dance company brought her delicious arroz caldo to the annual Christmas party. That kind of spurred me to make this soup, a childhood favorite, for my husband. I used wings and drummettes for the first batch. Later that week, I used chicken legs. For both recipes, I used lots and lots of ginger because it helps soothe the throat.

Below, accompaniements to the arroz caldo - sliced green onions, fried garlic, and sliced boiled eggs.

Here is a link to my recipe, where I made arroz caldo for New Year's Eve (a traditional dish for that occasion).

In addition to the Chicken Arroz Caldo, I made another favorite childhood dish to help with Bert's cold, Chicken Tinola. I used yellow chard (instead of spinach or pepper leaves) and chayote. No pix of that,but here is a link to my Chicken Tinola recipe posted earlier this year.

Speaking of that Christmas party (the food pix have yet to be posted), there was a white elephant gift exchange in which I won a 15 lb. bag of Calrose rice (which was great because we were running out!), a Starbucks giftcard....and another nice little surprise (as detailed on the card)...

a "Tinapa" (smoked fish, in this case, a pompano). This was made by my cousin's wife. "Sarap" is short for "masarap" which means "delicious" in Tagalog.

Here is the fish which we enjoyed for breakfast the next day with fried garlic rice.

Flayed with surgical precision...Not.

Fish and rice. A classic Filipino breakfast. One that we normally don't eat, but enjoyed just the same.

As seen at the Wal-Mart in Eastlake which has a good selection of Mexican products. This is a corn-based drink called "atole", a breakfast drink. They had different flavors there. If it's chocolate flavored, then it is called champurrado, a drink we had for the first time a few weekends ago. I didn't buy any since I wasn't too keen about drinking powdered corn.

Although I've never tried this, I'm curious to try the canned guavas.

While driving through National City near the corner of 16th and Highland, I noticed that the signage for the defunct George's Wonderful World of Cakes was now gone! WTH!

It is now going to be a new restaurant called "Hot Papas" (referring potatoes or men, heh?)

While the top sign was new...

the red and blue striped awnings were still a holdover from the old bakery's decor. Below, an older photo of George's taken not too long ago. I seem to recall that the signage was there about a month ago, so this "Hot Papa's" is pretty recent.

(photo from my "A&D Hawaiian BBQ" post, November 2011)

For a nostalgic look at the old facade, please see Mary's post on "George's Wonderful World of Cakes" from July 2010.

A cool classic yellow Chevy near the Carnation J Street gas station...

Maybe this was a Pussy Wagon back in the 40's?

Here's the one from "Kill Bill, Part 1" (the Chevy Silverado):

Heather Graham not included.

The old Henry's sign was finally removed and replaced by "Sprouts" (this is the corner of 3rd and J in Chula Vista). It originally had the bubble green background with the outline for Henry's, then Sprouts replaced it even though the outline didn't match. Now the whole green background is gone. You can see where the adhesive once was.

One of the batches of red velvet chocolate chip cookies I made for the secretarial and custodial staff.

The star shaped cookies are from Trader Joe's. I like interspersing them with the cookies I made. Looks pretty and festive, eh. Last year I waited too long to try to buy the cookies and they didn't have them by mid December. I got three boxes this year, obtained before Thanksgiving.

Here is my post with pix and the recipe for the Red Velvet Chip Cookies (which links Kiribie's blog from where I first saw the recipe)

In downtown Chula Vista, the old Tacos El Poblano (Kirk's post from 2009), which became Tacos Toro Bravo, then Mariscos Los Cabos is now a nondescript banquet hall.

That mariscos place sure didn't last that long. This is right across the street from Chico's Bakery.

And just a few days ago, I used up one of my hoarded batches of puff pastry squares. Vine Ripe in La Mesa raised their price from $3.99 to $4.99 for a pack of 10 puff pastry squares.

I love the smell of sauteed mushrooms...

I didn't have any white wine to deglaze the pan, so I didn't add more liquid. In my haste, I forgot to add the shredded Gruyere cheese for these puff pastry turnovers. It would have been better, but it was still just as tasty without the cheese.

The smell was so heavenly taking these bad boys out of the oven. Last year, I made these with bacon and I also garnished to tops with a cilantro leaf. Not this time. Too lazy.

Here's the link to my previous puff pastry post which features the recipe.

Trader Joe's November newsletter "The Fearless Flyer" mentioned Pecan Pie ice cream. The night I went to get some they were all out out it...

A few weeks later, they finally restocked the pecan pie ice cream, so yay for that.

The flavor is seasonal but they should have this every day of the damn year!

As seen at Target....HOBBIT PEZ!!! Need I say more?

Man, that Orc looks scary! This would go well with my Lord of the Rings set!

They also had other Pez gift sets - crystal head Sanrio characters (I really like My Melody), and even Kiss! I'm not surprised by the Kiss pez. They even have Kiss branded coffins for cripe's sake.

I already bought the new Christmas pez designs (to be seen in a future post)...

One of the ladies in the office brought a couple of boxes of these toroid delights for the student aides...

The one in the upper left corner was red velvet, of which I had a tiny slice. Not bad...

These were inhaled and gone by lunch time. Kids....


Who says leaves don't change color in San Diego?

This was the other day. Because it was rainy and windy today, our grass is now completely covered.

If TC wants to earn some extra money, she better start raking those things up! The yard doesn't get clean on its own, haha!

The lazy Filipino breakfast, a can of Vienna sausage fried in a pan...

and eaten with rice and furikake. Mmm, salty.

A random lunch with the co-workers at Panda Express.This was the Surf and Turf combo (steak with shrimp and noodles).

Some roasted garlic - I like using the prepeeled cloves. I roast about 30 of 'em or so. Topped with olive oil and s grinding of sea salt.

It's like buttah....

Experimenting with sauteed dandelion greens.

These were kind of bitter and I did not like the stems at all.

Another time I made some clam pasta topped with fresh Italian parsley.

Here's the link to my previous recipe post, "Angelhair pasta with clams".

In the Eastlake Village Walk, there will be a new Nothing Bundt Cakes, enxt to Bamboo Bistro (a Mongolian wok place) and O's Kitchen (formerly Pat and Oscar's).

I took these photos in early November. It is now mid-December and the bundt place is still not open yet.

I was hoping they'd open before Christmas. Oh well. Once they do, I hope to utilize their grand opening "free" bundt cake coupon. I remember getting one for Fashion Valley's store a few years ago.

Bert's mom was over earlier this month and I baked some lemon pepper cod from Costco.

Served with rice, peas, steamed broccoli, romaine lettuce and sauteed mushrooms.

Horton Plaza is finally back to using it's free parking for three hours with validation. At least you don't have to actually buy something. The validation machine I like to use is near the Ann Taylor Loft store. I was at HP earlier last month to exchange a dress at Banana Republic. I peeked over the edge of the rails and saw a new store...

Jimbo's, a health food market which took over the space of the old Mervyn's.

I did a quick walk through. They are quite pricy. I didn't buy anything, but did look longingly at their sweets department.

La Ley's aunt brought back some candy from Mexico...not TJ but from the interior...

This was a "nut roll" made with cajeta, caramelized milk.

It was so good I ate it in one sitting. The piece wasn't as big as it looked either, so dont' judge, heh heh.

Damn, I want more! Another coworker is currently on the "sunny beaches of Mexico" with her family and will also travel to the interior to her inlaw's ranch. I asked her if she could bring me back some Mexican candy...

As seen at Target, these cute donut ornaments...

which were not on sale yet.

I like the one that looks like a pretzel! The salt looks so real!

The Chinese takeout box is also cute.

There are Christmas themed everything at the stores. The music is driving me nuts too. Aaaagh! These cookies look pretty. I like the regular Milano cookies but I don't know if I'd eat them with peppermint pieces though.

Our mini tree at home...My dining table has a lot of crap on it. You can see one of the Trader Joe's star cookie boxes on it.

The mini toys encircling the mini tree were bought on sale years ago at Cost Plus. When you press your thumb on the wooden panel underneath, the figure's limbs bend and twist.

TC's parol which was decorated with garland. She won $50 for this a few year's ago for the kids' division of the Parol Festival parol contest.

I hope everyone's week is going well so far!