It’s the last day of the year already?! And look at San Diego, having *REAL* winter weather. Awww!
I didn’t prep a real post today since I’m on mini vacation from work, so here’s a super cute photo of Maya ready for New Year’s Eve.

I picked up these rad glasses at the Dollar Tree yesterday and decided Maya needed to model them. Doesn’t she look thrilled?

 After a few model shots, she dumped them right off her head.
“No more, please.”
We’re ready for …

We left for Portland on a Wednesday and we still needed a little bit of lunch for our bellies. Jake and I had both received a buy one get one free coupon for a sandwich at Coop’s West Texas BBQ for our “unbirthday” from iBirthdayClub.com. We misread it and thought it was for a free sandwich, not a BOGO, but either way it turned out fine. 

Our lunch! It had been awhile since we’d been back to Coops and we hadn’t …

QT Pot opened in Mira Mesa earlier this year. I went for my first visit with my co-workers back in September and finally remembered to make a revisit last week to try some of their other items.

On one side of their menu it’s all hot pots! They all vary a little.

And the other side has appetizers and more “regular” Chinese food plus grilled meats on a stick! I like food on a stick.

[house special pot / $9.50 – lunch price]
On …

This weekend I did a ton of baking! I made cracker candy again (this year with a new flavor: white Chocolate with lime zest and salt!), lemon ricotta cookies and these babies: peanut butter cup cookies.

They might be my new favorite cookie. They have peanut butter cookies WITH a Reese’s mini peanut butter cup INSIDE. This is magic, I tell you.

I like these more than peanut butter blossoms and plain old peanut butter cookies. Having that extra bit of chocolate/peanut …

Jake’s mom worked at December Nights this year so of course we wanted to go down and see what’s she’s been working on these past few months! She helped organize the vendors in certain areas of Balboa Park and we were able to check out the area she organized, grab some food, and walk around Balboa Park. She also managed to snag us a parking pass in one of the lots near the Aerospace Museum so we didn’t have to …

A little while ago we went back to a place that Jake and I visited for our anniversary earlier this year: Isabella Artisan Pizzeria. It’s a very dog friendly place with a big patio in the back, though this visit it was on the chilly side (and we had no Maya) so we sat indoors.

It’s kind of a big open space! The table we sat at had chairs that pushed right in under the table, so it just looks like …

This year was my first year participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! I don’t get to do a ton of cookie swaps but I sure do love giving away cookies. I was able to “practice” on a potential Christmas cookie this year. I really wanted to make a shaped cookie – but NOT do sugar cookies – and finally decided on doing some shortbread.

More specifically: Lemon Ginger Shortbread!

The cookies have a ground up pecans mixed into the flour …

By the time this post is up, I’ll be in PORTLAND eating whatever it is Portlanders eat. So, here’s a semi lazy post about some recent food finds.

For my birthday, Alyssa got me this box of Sugarfina Caramels. I loved, loved, loved the box plus the goodies instead of it! It was a taster box and had a bunch of fun caramel flavors! The flavors were Dark Chocolate Seat Salt, English Toffee, Fuji Apple, Matcha Green Tea, Mint Chip, Pumpkin …