Snacks and gifts...

This is why it's awesome to have friends who are into food just as much as you are...

It's always lovely to receive gifts of food...

Two for two in Santee - Part 2: Mary's Donuts

Awww yeah man....

A visit to Mary's is not something to pass up when you're in Santee...

Two for two in Santee - Part 1: Sab e Lee

This is a classic scene:

Lunch with friends that are food bloggers...

Can you tell? Yes, we are food papparazzi!

This past weekend was spent with two awesome chicks...the two C's, CAB of CAB Cooks and Cathy of Mmm-Yoso. This time we were in Cathy's 'hood...

Three is a Magic Number - Swoon Dessert Bar

[Update - Closed as of Fall 2014 and reopened in August 2015 as Tostadas]

Three times...

Remember this song from "School House Rock"? Gen X'ers I'm talkin' to you!! This was the remake by Blind Melon. This is how we learned our times tables, ha ha!

The night was still young...

Asia Cafe for the bajillionth time...

Last Friday I had the pleasure of dining out with my friend and neighbor across the street. She wanted to take me out for a belated birthday dinner, my choice.

 Lucky for me, she is also willing to try new things, so this meant another long overdue visit to one of my favorite restaurants, Asia Cafe...

Return to Swoon Dessert Bar

[Update - Closed as of Fall 2014 and reopened in August 2015 as Tostadas]

And so this was my second time to Swoon...

this time with Bert...I thought it would be a nice end to our evening so far. Thank goodness my husband is always willing to try new foods and desserts with me (so yay for that!)...

Sage Turkey Patties

This was my flavor booster for this new recipe...

I thought I'd use about 4 or 5 cloves of the garlic TC roasted yesterday...

Today was Sunday which meant it was a cooking day which was a good time to  do a twist on a new recipe...

Eggplant and Zucchini Casserole

Earlier today, I got some vegetables on clearance from Fresh & Easy...

No, they weren't rotten or going bad. Three zucchini were .98 on sale! The tomatoes were .60 (in a plastic container), a medium eggplant was .34! Plus, I got some homegrown herbs from Cathy of Mmm-Yoso fame...

It was time to try a new recipe...

South Bay Liquor

After our pleasant experience tasting the beers from Mad Lab and also due to curiosity as well as the recommendation from a reader, we decided hands down to visit a liquor store we've passed by many times in the past whenever we've gone to Target.

Never really noticed this place until we read the reviews about their great selection of craft brews and such. It's in this strip mall, on the south west corner of Palomar and Broadway...

Return to K-Pasta

Last weekend was a pretty rare one since we went out two nights in a row!

The previous night was enjoyed in the company of Tatonka at Mad Lab Craft Brew and sushi afterwards.

The next day we had another game plan...with the return to what will be a new favorite on the corner of 13th and Donax in IB...

Mad Lab Craft Brewing

[Update - Closed as of Summer 2013. The owners closed the tasting room but still have their bottling production business]

Last month when TC and I were on break, we had a really great lunch at K-Pasta in IB. While there, I picked up one of their postcards and logged onto their website later on at home. I noticed that everything was either made in-house (like the pasta and meatballs) or was made locally, such as the sausages from Tarantino's, the greens from Suzie's Farm (which is a few minutes away from there), and the beer from Coronado Brewing Company as well as the curiously named Mad Lab Craft Brewing Co. When I looked up Mad Lab, I saw that their area code was 92154 (where I grew up) and that they were located in Otay Mesa near the DMV!

I read up on Mad Lab's story and their beer selections and was curious to visit the "Southernmost brewery in the U.S."....Along for the adventure was our good friend (and beer enthusiast), Tatonka...