Year: 2012

San Diego County, Mary, Multiple Locations, Liberty Station

slater’s 50/50 / liberty station – san diego, ca

It was high time for me to visit Slater’s 50/50. Jake and I had heard kind of mixed things about the place – some people really liked it and some didn’t and some just thought it was okay. I had to decide for myself though and after a few failed attempts at visiting, Jake, T and I went on that hella hot weekend we had a few weeks ago – when it was in triple digit temperatures. We went next door to Ace Hardware just for the A/C while waiting for our table. I do like their notification system – which sends you a text message to let you know when your table’s ready. Very neat!

We were seated in a corner table. Pretty much my thoughts were, “Gee, do they have enough TV’s in this place?” Must be an ADD person’s heaven. Me? I thought it was distracting. But maybe I’m the only one (or maybe that’s the point).

[combination plate – onion strings, french fries and panko fried mac n’ cheese – $6.95]

We decided to get the combo plate for appetizers. Jake and I both thought we were getting regular mac n’ cheese, since it was further below on the menu – we both didn’t notice it was fried mac n’ cheese. Oops.

We each got one mac n cheese ball. It was very crispy on the outer, with a melted, cheesy middle. A little on the bland side. Not as great as I thought it would be, especially since I was expecting just mac n cheese… but that was my fault for not reading the menu properly. These were okay.

The onion strings/rings things were good, I dug those. French fries are french fries. I will say though that we were hoping for fries on our plates, but when we realized we didn’t get more fries, we ordered 2 more orders. One order tasted like they dropped a salt shaker on it, it was so salty that it was inedible. We had that one taken off our order after we told the waitress though but did not get another order – wasn’t necessary. Besides, the fries weren’t that awesome.

[build your own burger – starting at $8.95]

All three of us did the “Make Your Own” sandwich thing. This is T’s creation – which had fried chicken instead of a hamburger patty.

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San Diego County, Poway, Multiple Locations

the original pancake house / poway – san diego, ca

Jake, T and I were in my ‘hood one Saturday afternoon and I decided I wanted to try this Filipino place. But then when we got to the Filipino place, I remember that the Original Pancake House was right next door and I suddenly wanted pancakes instead! Sometimes I just don’t know where my stomach is going to take me.

I haven’t been to this location in forever, but it’s pretty much the same as the one in Clairemont.

Here are some sides that our waitress brought out first – the lingonberries for T’s pancakes, some applesauce and sour cream and some butter.

These are T’s Swedish Pancakes – which look like crepes! These are very thin and kind of holey (they say “lacy” on the menu), resulting in a thin and delicious pancake. I had a couple of bites and it was really tasty – excellent with the lingonberries. I’m pretty sure the only other place I’ve had lingonberries is at IKEA!

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Recipes, Mary

caramel cracker cookies (make your own candy, put it in a cookie, woohoo)

I’ve made these chocolate caramel cracker things a lot – usually around Christmas time when I decorate them all up and give them away as desserts. Then one day I day a thought… what if I put that crazy candy inside of a cookie? So I did it. And then I immediately gave away a bunch of the cookies because it was too much to have that deliciousness just sitting in my house. If you need some deliciousness in your house though, might I suggest making these? You might want to give some away, too. Or hey, keep ’em for yourself. I won’t tell.

First things first! We gotta make the candy. It’s easy, I swear. Don’t be frightened of the word “candy”. We won’t even use those scary candy thermometers or anything! Promise.

Brown sugar, butter, and condensed milk is what you need for the caramel goo. The chocolate chips are for later.

Get a tray and put your fancy silpat mat on it – or just aluminum foil. You’ll want this – it’ll make it easier to remove the candy and you’ll thank your stars you did that step.

For the goo, you just melt the butter and sugar with about half a can of sweetened condensed milk. Sit around and watch this on the stove and stir it every so often. You want to cook it until it starts to bubble and thicken up. From there, you’ll want it cook it for another 2 minutes. It’ll look all frothy and lovely, like below:

Pour the goo over your saltines.

Mmm, goo.

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Miscellaneous, San Diego County, Mary, Downtown

taste of downtown ticket giveaway

The 13th Annual Taste of Downtown is almost upon us once again! I’m going to be headed down to check it out for the first time this year – and you can, too! Check out this post for more details on how you can score a pair of tickets to the Taste of Downtown for yourself!

Date: Thursday, October 11, 2012 in Downtown San Diego
Time: 5:00PM – 9:00PM
Price: $30 in advance / $35 day of

Last year, this event took place on the night of the infamous San Diego Blackout and had to be rescheduled. I didn’t go that time, but I do remember it was probably about as hot as it is now (can someone please turn the heater off already) and I spend the evening reading by candlelight. Hopefully there will be no more crazy blackouts – instead just lots of food and lots of walking!

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Lemon Grove, San Diego County, Mary

chef john’s fish and chips / lemon grove – san diego, ca

Chef John’s Fish and Chips is  tucked in on the other side of Broadway in Lemon Grove, a little bit away from the main drag and the famous giant lemon. It kind of looks like it’s in an old Arby’s or Long John Silvers, but I don’t know for sure if that’s what it was – my days of venturing into Lemon Grove are a bit sparse these days.

Jake and I opted to share a few items to get a feel for the food here. Our order was taken by a very nice Asian lady and was passed onto an Asian chef – I assume Chef John – to make. We could see him making our food to order while we waited in one of the booths.

[squeezy sauce bottles]

We were brought these squeezy bottles full of sauce along with our food. I was amused that they were labeled. I think of lot of places would just make you guess and probably not even bring you ranch unless you asked for it.

[fish and chicken strips combo – $7.99]

We got the fish and chicken basket. Jake is normally not a seafood eater, but he does like fish and chips… go figure. Fried fish though generally doesn’t taste super fishy though, so I get that train of thought at least.

The chicken strips were pretty good for what they were. Nice strips of white meat, not too overly greasy. Lightly seasoned and tasty.

[fried fish inside]

The fried fish was made with cod. It was hand battered and fried to a nice crisp – not super greasy, either. The fish was very tender and came apart pretty easily. I especially liked the crispness of it – nice and crunchy but still retaining the fish flavor. Jake thought this was one of the best pieces of fried fish he’s had.

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Mission Valley, San Diego County, Mary, Multiple Locations

beach bowls, kona pies and girly drinks at islands restaurant

I’ve been to Islands quite a few times. Those skin-on french fries they are are highly addicting. But they’ve got other stuff, too! You know burgers, whatever. And sandwiches! And tacos! And also new things, like paradise mai tai’s and chicken beach bowls.

I’ve sure you’ve been here before, too. Let’s keep this short and sweet, yes? (See emphasis on the sweet at the end…)

[Maker’s Wedge and Paradise’s Mai Tai]

Jake and I both opted to try one of their new drinks – I chose the Maker’s Wedge (right – maker’s mark, ginger liqueur, pine juice, lime and agave nectar) and he went for the Paradise’s Mai Tai (which had Bacardi rum, Myer’s Rum, lime juice with a tropical mix). There was also a drink with Jagermeister… but yeah, no, thanks. Not going there.

Someone other than our server took our orders, so the most amusing part was when our server put the mai tai in front of me and the whiskey drink in from of him.

Heh heh heh.

I teased him about his girlier drink while we waited on food to arrive.

[Islands Beach Bowl with grilled chicken]

Island’s newest Beach Bowl is chock full of veggies with your choice of either grilled chicken or mahi mahi and includes fresh grilled pineapple, red bell peppers, snow peas, water chestnuts, red onion, broccoli & diced scallions in a hoisin sauce and all of that served over brown rice. This bowl screams “I’m good for you and low in calories” (just under 576 calories) and you might just want to opt for this one after viewing the calorie intake of the burgers on their menu.

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Mary, Recipes

grilled hot wings and homemade ranch dressing

The only thing I find interesting about football is football food. The  sport doesn’t hold my interest at all, while thoughts of delicious appetizers make me excited.

Jake wanted to watch a Chargers game and asked if I would make hot wings. Pfft, you barely have to ask me to do such things. “Make something delicious!” he says. “Okay!” I say. That might be the basis for our relationship.

Maybe.

[butter and hot sauce mixture]

I made a hot sauce mixture from scratch and took it to Jake’s house to pour over the wings.

This is the hot sauce mixture inside of butter. Looks kind of gloopy and weird, doesn’t it? It also seems like a hefty amount of butter, but I did prepare four pounds of chicken wings…

Also, it’s only a half a stick of butter. I’m not Paula Deen, y’all.

[pouring the hot sauce]

I want you to know that in retrospect, I would not have not poured the sauce over the wings first. I should have put this sauce on after the grilling since the sauce pretty much evaporated into thin air while cooking.

So basically, don’t do this. I’m showing you an image of what not to do. Just sprinkle some salt and pepper over those wings and don’t do what I did. Or you can try it if you want. I won’t judge you and the recipe police aren’t going to take you way or anything.

You know why? Because they don’t exist! Woo hoo!

My idea was that I was marinading the wings, so I put the wings back into the bag they came and ported these over for grilling at my house. No sense in dirtying up another bag of plastic, right?

I decided that grilled was the best option. It was hella hot that weekend (like, triple digit record breaking hot) and turning on the oven was out of the question. My dad already had the grill on for some ribs he was making, so we just threw my wings on.

Best idea ever!

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Travel, Mary, Orange County, Orange

civil war in huntington beach + johnny reb’s bbq in orange, ca

It’s no longer a secret that I like Civil War stuff.

Well, it was never really a secret to begin with. But it’s kind of one of those things I’m shy to share about myself – seems like kind of a nerdy, geeky thing to like. I’m a nerdy, geeky kind of girl though. History is neat.

[signs to camps]

The Civil War Reenactment in Huntington Beach, CA is a very impressive event to attend. There’s two separate camps, a small town called Reedsberg and an impressive battle filled with troops and lots of canon fire. There’s also tons of people to talk to who are more than happy to share a little bit of history and knowledge with you.

I just love walking around the camps, seeing the uniforms and getting a feel for the place.

[the confederate camp tents]

There were people set up and cooking and people just doing their “day to day” thing within the camps.

[the undertaker was in]

We also visited the undertaker.

[my poor baby, ready for viewing]

Jake stuffed himself in a coffin and I photographed it. I refused to get in myself. But I’ll happily take photos of others in the coffin.

[more tents in the confederate camp]
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Mary, Multiple Locations, Chula Vista, Cheap Eats, Otay, San Diego County

tacos el gordo de tijuana / chula vista, ca

You like Mexican food? Of course you do! What’s not to like about delicious tacos piled with meats and cheeses? Tacos El Gordo de Tijuana is one place that really does it right. This little taco shop is originally from Tijuana and they have ported themselves over the border to San Diego with three locations in town, plus one in Vegas.

[menu at tacos el gordo in chula vista]

As soon as you walk in, you can tell this place is just a little bit different from the other taco shops in town. The menu is well lit above you and there are stations. Each station specializes in a particular kind of meat. There’s a carne asada guy, an adobada guy and a guy who kind of serves up “everything else” (tripe, cabeza, legnua, etc.)

You pick the kind of meat you want and order from that station. Jake and I always go to the adobada station for the spicy pork that’s turned on a spit.

[adobada slowly turning on the spit]

Mmm, meat on a spit.

[slicing pieces of adobada]

I always make Jake order because he does know enough conversational Spanish to get by. I’d rather not break out my rusty old high school Spanish.

God, I’m such an American.

I’m sure they’ll understand you even if you speak English, but I still make Jake do all of the ordering. What a good boyfriend.

The guy starts slicing meat off for our assortment of treats and prepares our tortillas by dipping them in the drippings from the pork and then grilling them. Holy heart attack on a plate! Probably why it tastes so darn good…

They’re fast and efficient and get your order ready in no time. There’s a line behind you, they gotta be quick with this stuff. Once you have all of your treats you go over to pay then try to find a seat so you can devour your meal.

[juicy, freshly made adobada taco – $2.00]

Jake usually gets the tacos with everything – salsa, onions and cilantro and some avocado looking dressing tucked on top of two corn tortillas.

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Recipes, Products, Mary

banana cream pie with caramelized walnuts and grow bananas

I have a weird aversion to bananas. I think their texture is kind of weird. But I like them when they’re in stuff, so I’m not opposed to things like banana bread, or banana muffins or things like that. When I was contacted recently by a rep who offered me bananas, I thought, “Huh? Really? Bananas?”

I accepted the offer though and was able to learn more about the company behind Organics Unlimited and their program called GROW (Giving Resources and Opportunities to Workers). GROW helps fund programs for farm workers and their families in the areas where Organics Unlimited bananas are grown (in Mexico and Ecuador). These programs include scholarships, study groups, dental programs and vision exams. A portion of each purchased GROW box is donated to the GROW fund to help support these programs to bring educational and health care programs to these underdeveloped banana growing regions.

The bananas I received were from this GROW box – you can tell by the sticker placed on the bananas! GROW bananas are available at Jimbo’s Naturally stores and can sometimes be found in Sprouts, Ralphs, and OB People’s Food Store.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the bananas. So many ideas ran through my head; I got suggestions on Twitter and Facebook. Bread? Cookies? Pie? What?

I decided on making a pie. A banana cream pie. With caramelized walnuts.

Want a make a pie, too? Follow my instructions below.

Take photos of bananas in the yard.

Hope no one else is watching you take photos of bananas in the yard.

Proceed to bake a pie shell without properly tucking it into the pan.

Lament about how ugly your pie is going to look.

Sigh dramatically. Notice that no one else is around to hear you sigh dramatically. Repeat.

Make delicious vanilla custard stuff from scratch and feel slightly better about the ugly pie crust.

Slice the bananas. Think to yourself, “Organic bananas look just like regular bananas!” Laugh at self.

Decide to cut the bananas on a bias. Decide you should use the word “bias” more often.

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Cheap Eats, Huntington Beach, Mary, Orange County

kelly’s donuts and burgers / huntington beach – orange county, ca

Over Labor Day weekend this year, Jake, the kids and I headed up to Huntington Beach for the Civil War Reenactment that weekend. I got really interested in Civil War history after taking a few history classes in college at Boston University – I started liking history so much that it was my concentration (I was a little too lazy to actually minor in it though).

For the past two years, Jake and I have gone up to Calico for their Civil War weekend over President’s Day. I want to go to another one a little closer to home and this one was the winner.

Before we headed over to the camps though, we needed a little something to fill our bellies. We made a quick pit stop not too far from the Huntington Beach library to check out Kelly’s Donuts and Burgers.

[kind of empty looking donut case]

I started getting a little worried when we walked in and this was their donut selection.

All of the donuts mixed together just on a few trays. Say what? This was a donut shop wasn’t it?

[partial menu at kelly’s donuts and burgers]

Yes, it is definitely a donut shop but they also have other offerings for breakfast and lunch – including deli sandwiches and of course, burgers.

I put my skepticism aside as best I could after seeing the sad donut case. The kids and I each got a donut and Jake and I shared a breakfast burrito.

[polish sausage, egg, hash browns and cheese breakfast burrito – $3.75]

The burritos normally come with salsa, but I asked for it without since I don’t really like salsa inside of my food all that much.

[burrito closeup]

This was a fairly simple burrito. The polish sausage gave the burrito a good overall taste and the eggs were done well (maybe slightly overcooked but still solid). The hash browns were nice and crisp, too. I didn’t really taste a whole lot of cheese in it, so that could have been improved a little. Jake got a cup of salsa on the side and liked it better with some salsa. All in all it was a pretty decent breakfast burrito. Jake liked it a lot more than I did. The price sure is right though.

[donuts]

The kids were luckily able to easily pick out donuts for themselves, S. choosing the jelly donut and A. picking the chocolate and peanut cake donut. Jake skipped out on donuts while I got a blueberry donut.

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San Diego County, Mary, Linda Vista

la gran terraza / linda vista – san diego, ca

San Diego Restaurant Week is upon us yet again from September 16th-21st. It’s a great time to try out many of the wonderful restaurants in San Diego for either lunch or dinner at a reduced cost to help you get delicious food in your belly without making your wallet cry.

For preview week this year, I was invited to dine at La Gran Terraza, located on campus at the University of San Diego.

I have to admit, I had no idea they had a restaurant open to the public on campus.

The La Gran Terraza is nestled in the back of one of the buildings on campus, not far from the student lounge. Connected to it is a bar type restaurant called O’Toole’s. La Gran Terraza is in the back with the pretty, pretty view of the canyon.

Heather, my hot date for the evening, said she could see all of the way down to the ocean while I got mostly the canyon view. You can definitely hear what’s going on in the adjoined bar, but it’s still quiet and private enough to feel separated from that atmosphere.

[bread tray]

After placing our orders, we had someone come by to offer us their breads. They had a wheat looking one, a cheese bread, and a cranberry nut bread. I opted for cheesy and cranberry nut bread. The cheesy one was my favorite of the two.

[imprinted butters]

The USD imprinted butters amused me. The servers were quite good about asking if we wanted more bread throughout the evening, but without being overbearing about it. I like that.

[lobster martini / lemon soju, shaved fennel, blood orange-vanilla sorbet]

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