New Year's Eve dinner - Arroz Caldo

Ahh yeah...relaxing in Bert's DC pajamas...

So what if my socks don't match? I was up making our traditional New Year's Eve dinner as well as dessert...

A few more gifts...

Just a few more holiday posts til the year is done...

2013 is only six hours away...

Neveria Tocumbo - Chollas View

After our lunch at Asia Cafe, we headed across the street at this strip mall:

Ooh, they had a KD's Donuts here. Their sign isn't as, uh "distinctive" as the vandalized "D's Nuts" sign in Chula Vista though....

Even though we could have walked it, we drove, like the lazy asses we were, but also because it was fkg cold!

Lunch with friends at Asia Cafe

Yesterday,  a planned lunch with N & L was cancelled so we decided to have lunch where we originally planned, Asia Cafe...

This time, we'd have some company...

Po & Pho

[Update - This business closed in 2013 and is now something else]

After our unorthodox "dessert before lunch" we wanted to have lunch (still!)...

But first, some random photos of stuff I saw recently. Below, a lipgloss with a title that Prince himself would appreciate, "Sexy Motherpucker"!

And a product that I SO wish was sold in San Diego, but dammit all to hell, it isn't - the elusive Chocolate (Tsokolate) flavor of SkyFlakes crackers! TC brought the wrapper home from a friend who shared some recently. C from Canada had the Cheese flavor too!

I would love to try this cracker sandwich!

Anyhow, because we didn't want to drive all the way over to Pho Cow Calli (formerly known as Pho Hoa Calli several years ago, WTF is with that name change) we decided to try the new Vietnamese joint right next door to H Mart...

H Mart & Paris Baguette

Yesterday our plans were waylaid by several factors. A lunch originally planned with friends was postponed. We meant to go up North and intended to do so when we saw the terrible traffic on the H off ramp to the 805. Unbeknownst to us, there was a suicidal jumper on the 43rd St. bridge in National City, which backed up traffic for miles, from as far south to Palm Avenue, up to the 54 freeway where traffic was diverted. The 805 was closed from 8 am up to 2 pm when the suicidal man was eventually talked down and taken to County Mental Health. I seriously hope that he gets the help that he needs.

(view of the Good Year blimp as we traveled on the 125)


It was a really odd day yesterday because there were actually THREE suicidal jumpers. The 43rd St. bridge, then later on, someone on the Laurel Street bridge near Balboa (he was saved), and the third and only fatality, a person who jumped off the Coronado Bridge. So sad.

Cathy of Mmm-yoso was invaluable to us as we were contemplating where to go. We thought we'd cut across H Street to the 5, but even H  was crawling at a snail's pace. We made a U-turn at the CV mall and decided to head east by taking the 125 to the 8. Cathy gave me text updates as I tried to figure out our plans...


It was nice not to see cars jammed up on the freeway! We thought we'd give H Mart a shot so up north we went...

Recent gifts...

One of the gifts I received from Kirbie yesterday lay in this bag...

My heart started racing when I peeked into the Christmas bag...could it be?

Ogawashi

Yesterday was another sunny winter day in San Diego. Even though it rained the night before, skies were clear!

My vantage point from Horton Plaza of the folks ice skating near the NBC Studios. I parked on Cherry 6 and was on my way to meet up with friend and fellow foodblogger Kirbie of Kirbie's Cravings. Our lunch destination was only a few blocks away...

Located diagonally from the House of Blues...

Lunch/Dinner and a movie!

As per usual, lunch was at my parents' house...

where the whole clan was and then some...

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas!!!

And now a little something from Mr. Billy Idol:

Talk about preserved, but not in a good way????

WTH....

THIS classic song that's more suited to Burl Ives or Brenda  Lee is given the "holiday treatment" from the guy that did "Rebel Yell" and "White Wedding?".  Oh Billy, what happened to you?

The Mayans couldn't have prevented this Christmas song disaster!

Christmas Partay @ Thor's

Looks like Thor broke out with the "willage"!

Very nice, complete with "snow" on the trees and rooftops.

His house was festive as he proved to be the "Host with the Most!" this year...

Nut Brittle (resurrected)

The following is a post from 2006 from my defunct recipe blog. I made this recipe for Christmas gifts back in 2006. I've made it several times since then but not in the past couple of years.

The nut brittle (made by the original teacher who has since retired) made an appearance this year at Xmas shindig at Thor's. He actually came back to give our department his "famous" nut brittle!

I was the lucky one who got to bring home the leftovers (there was still a lot left)...

Jordan's Crazy Burgers & Hot Dogs

Every Christmas tree needs one of these:

"Red Five Standing By...."

So, after our coffee break, we did stopped by Fresh & Easy to get a few "gifts" (i.e. food items), dropped them off at home, then headed out to lunch at a place that FINALLY opened after seeing the sign for more than a year...

Caffe Tazza

Talk about desperation gifts...I hope Bert likes these!

I got him the leopard print ones too.

Just kidding...

This weekend is the last stretch for many last minute shoppers....

Canada Day 5 - Ottawa, Part 1

We'd arrived in Ottawa in the wee early hours of the morning and were fortunate enough to stay at the lovely home of C's best friend from high school. The next morning we were up and raring to go...

Here we were in Ottawa, the capitol city of Canada, the second largest city in Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the world...

Armed with several tips on where to go, we headed out in search of food and adventure...

You don't have to be a star, baby...

A few weeks ago we went to the PASACAT Parol Festival, held once again at the Jacobs Center at Market Street Plaza.  Many colorful star lanters were on display as well as for sale. This multicolored one made with capiz shell was going for a couple hundred dollars!

The festival also had a parol contest which had many interesting and worthy entries this year...

Panko Crusted Honey Mustard Salmon

Earlier tonight while I was at the gym, I entrusted Bert to make dinner...

Careful instructions were given and he ensured that dinner would be taken care of by the time I got home...

Lemon cake mix experiment

The past few days have been busy baking my new favorite cookie, the red velvet chocolate chip. I also made another type of cookie this afternoon using boxed lemon cake mix.

[A "parol" - Philippine star lantern, made by TC as a craft in her Filipino language class]

While I'm all for making things from scratch, sometimes I like to fall back on the boxed stuff to make quick and easy desserts like this...

Chillin' with some Chili

Awww, doesn't Yoda look cute in his little outfit?

Actually his eyes are kinda creepy. I think they move! The batteries need to be replaced so we can hear his Yoda-speak again.

Along with red velvet chocolate chip cookies and the mushroom-spinach baked eggs, I also tried another new recipe...

Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies

All right, which one doesn't belong?

"Say, it's great to be here....in your room!"

Tonight I made two batches of a new cookie recipe wondering if they would pass muster...

Mushroom-Spinach Baked Eggs

Hmmmm,

"Mmm, take you to him I will. Yes, yes. But now we must eat. Come. Good food. Come."

I wanted to test out a new recipe, one that Yoda would probably enjoy...

Soup for you!

The weather's been wacky lately...in the 70's one day, the next day, a storm. Winter in San Diego isn't really typical. Snow isn't that common here in Chula Vista. It hardly gets cold, but when does (and by cold, I mean anything below 65F, ha ha), it's time for soup...

Fortunately, our household isn't like this:

"Hoo wah!"

This show was so classic, but enough about Seinfeld...on with the soup!

Christmas Potluck 2012

Another year went by so quickly...

It was time for the annual Christmas postluck by TC's dance troupe.

It's always a fun occasion with excellent food and gift exchanges for the kids (the young ones, the tweens, and the teenagers/young adults) and the parents (us, the adults)...

Even more pan dulce...

For the past few weeks, I've been coming into La Concha and slowly working my way through their repertoire...below, a "guzano" ("worm") pastry filled with pineapple...

I thought Bert would enjoy this with his coffee...

This lonely worm had a few friends as well...

Fessenjan

Man, I was Suzie Homemaker/Mrs. Cleaver tonight! Busy busy busy with this secret ingredient...

Yes, pomegranate molasses which can be found at your local Middle Eastern market (Vine Ripe or North Park Produce)!

Now this is a recipe I haven't done in a few years...

More fun with puff pastry...

Recently I was experimenting with savory fillings for my puff pastry turnovers...

In this case, sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions! My daughter said this also would have tasted awesome with bacon, but that goes without saying...

Return to Thai Fresh & Melt

After D and I watched the last Twilight Saga movie, we drove the short distance to get lunch at a new takeout spot near Rubio's...

What I like about this theatre, other than it's close to my house, is that you can buy your tickets at kiosk instead of waiting in line. And you don't have to pre-order your tickets online. You can buy them on the spot with no extra online fee!

About the movie, it was so funny how both D and I were so calm at the so-called "shocker ending". We were so unfazed by it and ended up dissecting the movie afterwards while waiting for our takeout...

Funny shirts...

I was recently at a Filipino event and saw these shirts at the LagulaBeach table. Joe Lagula, a local Pinoy, who owns the t-shirt company can be found selling the shirts at the Seafood City parking lot and various Filipino events all over California. I thought this was pretty funny, but vulgar!

For those of you that don't know Tagalog, "dalawang itlog" means "two eggs".  Longanisa are pork sausages.

Yeahhh...

#$%@!

Lost my camera today.

What a crap way to end the day.

Will need to replace it soon!

Update - Yay! Found it! Whew! (breathes huge sigh of relief)

Return to Viking Soul

Although we'd been to the Good Food Here pod a few days ago with KD,

we wanted to try a savory lefse wrap rather than the sweet ones...

Two Brothers Cafe & Grill

During our Portland trip earlier this spring, we ended up spending a lot of time in KDB's hood, the SE. He used to live in the Woodstock area (but is now in NoPo). This happened to be in the Belmont neighborhood...

We'd passed by this restaurant many times and I was automatically attracted to the word "Balkan"...

Oak's Amusement Park

After our little break at Wunderland, we headed south near the Sellwood Bridge to check out one of the oldest amusement parks in the United States...

We originally wanted to watch a roller derby game, but...

Movie round up

This past year we watched several movies on the big screen, a few of them pretty good and few quite shiteous...

"War Horse" was the first movie of the year that we watched and I don't care that Steven Spielberg directed it. It was a total snoozefest and two+ hours of my life that I'll never get back.

On the other hand, there were a few other movies we saw that made up for that big timesuck...

United Portuguese S.E.S. Market

I'm cheating using an older picture (below) from the day we went to the Elegant Truffle. This is on Avenida de Portugal, a small side street off Scott. What you see below is the United Portuguese S.E.S. Hall...

We parked in their private lot and headed to the back...

Date night in Old Town

[Update - Closed as of June 2013]

Our original plan was to go to the Pearl but I was PO'd because I'd misplaced the coupon (which of course I found later when we got home). Not to worry because I had Plan B in mind and it was a place that Bert and I enjoyed from past visits, 25 Forty Bistro.

Our favorite parking spot in a hidden area in Old Town was taken but we got lucky with other open spaces near Congress St. It also helped that we went super early (5:30 pm)...

Shopping at Pata Negra

Since we're on the subject of ethnic markets, my neighbor and I recently visited Pata Negra, a Spanish market in PB. We wanted to make this again:

Our epic paella from several weeks ago....She also ended up going to Seafood City to buy some giant squid. Now she knows what disgust I went through cleaning those things! Anyhow, we needed to pick up a few items for future paella dinners...

Santos Farms Market

Back to that market that Cathy and I passed by on our way to Caffe Calabria. It's on a small side street off Lincoln Street nestled between some newer condos and a pawn shop and laundromat.

We could not help but look at the arrow and signs...

Random food + gifts

These past few weeks, we received a few food gifts such as pomegranates from TORC's backyard...

This was only half of them. TC had fun breaking these apart and picking out the seeds...

Another interesting fruit I received was one from Cathy's yard...

Caffe Calabria

After our really fab lunch at 30th Street Cafe in which our husbands (and in my case, child) got to enjoy the leftovers, we got back into the car and drove north up 30th.  We saw this cool vintage Corvette parked on Lincoln St.

We also saw this market with many signs advertising their products (Oaxaca cheese, fresh salsa, and more)...

We made a mental note to stop by after our coffee break...

Plan B - 30th Street Cafe

A few days ago, I met up with Cathy of Mmm-Yoso. Our original lunch destination was this place:

which unfortunately (and I failed to read the hours correctly on their website) is CLOSED on Mondays and Tuesdays!  This is a small eatery and catering place on Adams Ave that I'd read good things about. One thing that attracted me was their  focus on one international cuisine a week. This week was supposed to be German food! Alas, it was not meant to be this day....

So instead, Plan B was to consult my GPS to see what else was nearby...

Return to La Concha Bakery

Last week I decided to give La Concha Bakery another shot.

My first visit last month didn't leave me that impressed with some of their offerings. This time, I happened to go in the early morning and was greeted with the lovely smells of freshly baked bread...

Cafe Barbera

While all the bloodthirsty materialistic consumers were out clawing each other's eyeballs out over discounted Furbies, iPads, and plasma TV's, I went out to the movies with D (yes, TSBD part 2!!!!! Again!). Afterwards we enjoyed a Thai lunch with her as well as Bert and TC, who saw a movie as well, the reboot of "Red Dawn" (with North Koreans as the commie bad guys instead of Russkies). As of this afternoon, our Christmas tree is up and the cards went out Wednesday so folks should be getting it TODAY. Yes, I am anal organized!

Anyways, since I'm not shopping for anything I've got time to catch up and crank out some posts.

After our lunch at Napizzawe headed out of Little Italy and headed uptown...

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

From this...

to this!

I have to say that my dad outdid himself this year with the turkey...

Turkey day prequel - desserts and one side

Yesterday TC and I made a few things ahead of time for Thanksgiving lunch.

This was originally going to be pecan pie in an actual pie pan but the dough wasn't fully thawed out.

It cracked as I unwrapped the plastic. It was my fault for not reading the thaw time correctly. I was a bit disappointed in myself, but thought I could still salvage the recipe...

Foodblogger potluck

A few weekends ago, I hosted a small potluck with several friends, all of whom happen to be foodbloggers. I thought it would be cool to use these plates and utensils I've always seen sold at Costco during the holidays. There was a coupon in our Costco mailer so Bert picked up one set of each...

The dinner and salad plates come in a box of 50 (25 of each size). It faked out several guests who were expecting a "real" china plate and were surprised by how "light" it was because it was really plastic!

Below are the fake silver cutlery, also plastic.

I don't think I'd use this for every gathering or dinner part but it was fun to give it a try...

Well, enough about this nonsense. On with the food!