San Diego County, Mary, La Jolla, Multiple Locations, College

the secret cookie service / san diego, ca

A brief knock on the door. I peek outside and see a well dressed guy in sunglasses, black slacks, white shirt and a tie holding a briefcase. I quickly usher him inside. Agent Snickerdoodle has arrived with my special delivery and I’ve been waiting all night for it to arrive. What’s in the briefcase that could be so important?

Why, cookies, of course!

[hand delivered brown paper bag contains the goods]

The Secret Cookie Service has been in operation since September 2011, delivering late night cookie treats to the students at UCSD. The service has recently expanded to deliver to nearby neighborhoods and has recently set up shop so the students at SDSU don’t miss out on any of the cookie service goodness.

While they are mainly an at-night service, placing an order 24 hours in advance can net you a daytime delivery if you don’t live the vampire — or student — lifestyle.

Agent Snickerdoodle, after passing a screening from my dog, Maya, handed me this seemingly plain brown paper bag that contained what I’d been jonesing for all night. I couldn’t wait to dig in and try out this stash!

[mysterious white envelopes holds the cookies together during transport]

These random looking white bags are not really random at all.

For they contain delicious treats.

COOKIES!

[reese’s pieces cookies]

These aren’t peanut butter cookies per se, but they are loaded with Reese’s Pieces, one of my very favorite candies. There’s a sweet peanut butter flavor from the candy but the cookie itself is just a base for holding the pieces. There’s a good candy to cookie ratio here – I got a Reese’s Pieces in nearly every bite. The cookies are very soft and chewy. My second favorite of the bunch.

[mint chocolate chip cookies]

The mint chocolate chips were still kind of melty and sticking to the white envelope. The nice thing about that is that it let me know the cookies were baked fresh very, very recently and I love when chips are partially melted still. That’s the best part of warm cookies! These were quite soft and had a good minty-chocolate flavor.

Agent Snickerdoodle informed me that this is one of their best selling cookies and I could definitely see why.

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Recipes, Mary

strawberry delight for a hot summer’s day

The first time I ever had a dessert like this I was in the Midwest and it was made with blueberries instead. It was referred to as “Blueberry Delight” and I remember being a bit blown away by such a simple dessert. This is a layered dessert, something very well known in the South but I had never had it out here in California before… It’s got a cookie-like crust, a sweet cream cheese layer, your fruit, and then whipped cream or whipped topping and nuts to top it all off. It’s simple, easy to make, and deliciously creamy.

I had picked up a fresh basket of locally grown strawberries and I thought, “Well, I bet I can turn Blueberry Delight into Strawberry Delight!”. Any mixture of berries will do for this dessert, really, and I think fresher is better for this one. The dessert starts to look kind of droopy after a day or two, so it’s best to try and gobble this one up quick and all leftovers need to go into the fridge.

[beautiful, ripe strawberries]

I picked up these beautiful strawberries at The Fruit Stand off Morena Blvd. They had some fine looking fruits and I could not resist getting this basket.

To prep, I just washed the strawberries and sliced them. I added about two tablespoons of sugar to macerate the strawberries.

[pecan shortbread-like crust]

After finishing the berries, I prepped the crust. It’s a very simple mixture of flour, sugar, pecans and softened butter. The mixture comes together quickly and spreads out easily in the pan. I pushed it with my fingers to spread the crust out evenly. This is the only thing you’ve got the bake! 15 minutes and you’re done. This is also something you should do ahead since a cooled crust is necessary.

This crust seriously tastes like those pecan sandies cookies they sell in the store.

[trying to quickly defrost my whipped topping]

I forgotten to tell Jake to leave the whipped topping out for me on the counter, so when I realized that my topping was still frozen I grimaced a little and then figured I’d try this.

The crust had just come out of the oven so I put the two tubs on top of the crust.

Hey, it sort of worked! It did at least speed up the process a little bit so I was able to work with it to make my sweet cream cheese layer.

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San Diego County, Mary, Lemon Grove

lemon grove deli / lemon grove – san diego, ca

The Lemon Grove Deli is a little restaurant that’s nestled in the heart of Lemon Grove. It’s in amongst the many little shops and businesses in Downtown Lemon Grove, near the trolley station. The Lemon Grove Deli serves up some mean breakfast and then also does sandwiches in the afternoons. You can stop by on Sunday and get breakfast until 2PM – which is what Jake and I did on a recent weekend.

This is one of my “adventures in groupons!” posts – I had a coupon for 2 breakfast and 2 drinks for one price. It was just the two of us for breakfast that morning and we sat outside on the patio to enjoy the beautiful summer day. There was a slight wait in getting someone to see to us, but we were in no kind of rush. When our waitress did come by we asked for some coffee while we continued to look over the menu.

coffee - lemon grove deli

[coffee & creamers – $1.95]

The coffee was pretty good for a standard cup. Not too strong but strong enough to have a nice, distinct flavor. I also enjoyed that they had a little bowl of different flavored creamers. They had vanilla, hazelnut and plain and I chose to dump a couple of hazelnuts in mine.

Hazelnut + coffee = a match made in heaven to me.

lemon grove deli menu

[breakfast menu at the lemon grove deli]

Here’s a peek at their breakfast menu. There’s a really good amount of options and you get a TON of food for the price.

[our breakfast, from above]

See that plate of biscuits and gravy? And the pancakes? Both side dishes for each meal.

So. Much. Food!

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San Diego County, Mary, Downtown

cafe 21 / downtown – san diego, ca

Cafe 21 is a cute little restaurant with two locations in San Diego – one in University Heights off Adams Ave and one Downtown in the Gaslamp Quarter. My cohort, Liz, came along with me to try out the stellar offerings at the Downtown Cafe 21.

After I finally arrived, Liz and I went inside and were seated quite promptly to begin our meal.

[purse stand]

One of the first things our host did was to bring us this little stand. It looked like a mini (very short) coat rack. He explained to us that it was for our purses and I might have let out a small giggle of delight.

How awesome is this?! It’s at the perfect height so you’re able to reach your purse comfortably and it’s always within sight.

Sigh. Love!

[sangria flight in a little tasting basket]

First thing Liz and I both ordered?

Sangria flights. Awww yeah.

You get a little sampling of all of their sangrias – six in all. The flavors: fruit punch, pineapple strawberry, strawberry balsamic, apple cherry, traditional and rosemary lemon. Liz and I both really liked the pineapple strawberry and I liked the rosemary lemon just because it was a little something different. Liz ended up getting my dark red sangrias since I don’t really dig the red wines, but I loved the lighter colored ones. Fun flavors and a great way to try all of their sangrias! It’s a lot of sangria, too, and you could easily share this flight with another person.

[baklava crumble salad – apple, blue cheese, baklava crumbles, honey balsamic dressing]

This salad had me at “baklava”.

It’s a fun mix of leafy greens with apple, blue cheese, baklava crumbles and a sweet dressing drizzled all over the top. The fruit adds a nice natural sweetness and the blue cheese plays a part in giving another texture and flavor to the salad. The blue cheese is creamy but not too overpowering – a very nice compliment. The baklava was not quite what I was expecting – I was thinking of chopped up bits of the sweet, crunchy honey dessert, but the baklava here was much softer in texture – it was a nutty, sweet taste, sort of like having a candied nut sprinkled in with your salad. I really liked it anyway and got my “crunch” from the crisp apples instead.

[mushroom flatbread with organic mixed greens / cremini mushrooms, organic heirloom tomatoes, rosemary, romano and mozzarella cheese]

I love it when people let me do the ordering when we’re sharing dishes. For our other appetizer, I picked this mushroom flatbread for sharing. Though… you can’t really see the mushrooms, can you? It was more like a “heirloom tomato and mushroom flatbread”, a little more emphasis on the tomatoes. Not that I minded – they did make the dish very pretty! It also came with mixed greens so we had some nice leafy treats to start out with.

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Mary, Recipes

all you need is (mango) love – mango granita

It’s been hot. The heat has made me thankful for tank tops, ice cold water, air conditioned movie theaters, and delicious frozen treats. And while it is super fun to go out and get some ice cream at a shop, sometimes it’s nice to try making it yourself at home, too.

I was at Jake’s again for the weekend and Jake has been wanting me to try making a mango sorbet for quite some time. We had it at Khan’s Cave for my Dad’s birthday back in April and liked it so much that we wanted to try making it at home. We finally got our hands on some ripe mangoes so I could experiment and try making this frozen treat.

Just about every sorbet recipe I read talked about using an ice cream maker to chill the sorbet. I didn’t have one of those on hand so I decided to try making a granita instead, which is sort of a cross between a sorbet and an Italian ice. You don’t need much to make this! Just a few ingredients, a long pan, a fork, a freezer and some time to kill.

[the cast of characters]

You need three things: ripe mangoes, lime juice, and sugar. That’s it!

[cubed mango]

Jake and I were able to pick up a couple of ripe mangoes for fairly cheap at the Farmer’s Market in Lemon Grove. Mangoes are kind of a bitch to cube. They’ve got that crazy, fibery pit in the middle making them hard to cut through. I managed to just slice around it in pieces and cut off the peel as I went. I used both mangoes for this.

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Normal Heights, Products, San Diego County, Mary

viva pops / normal heights – san diego, ca

Hot summer days demand cool and refreshing treats. The frozen treats made at Viva Pops in Normal Heights is definitely a good option for any warm day with their mix of creative flavors. I don’t know of any other place that puts goat cheese into a frozen treat. That right there is reason enough to swing by and check this place out.

Here’s their menu from the day that we visited. The menu changes and rotates and frequently, considering everything is made fresh at the store and depends on local produce to create their frozen treats. Some of the flavors that really caught my eye were the Lavender Lemonade, the Tri-Color Melon (which is made with three different types of melon) and the Key Lime Pie bars.

I was also impressed to see that they make dog pops so your pup can also have a treat! The dog pops are sold by donations, which are donated to Second Chance Dog Rescue. Tugged at my heart strings a little to hear that. Sadly I didn’t have Maya with me that afternoon, otherwise she would gotten a dog viva pop!

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Mary, Downtown, San Diego County

kelvin at the w hotel / downtown – san diego, ca

Writing this post is making me hungry just reliving this dinner! I brought Stacey in tow with me to experience the food here, having no idea what a treat we were in for that evening. I had been invited to sample the menu at one of the new restaurants Downtown – Kelvin, which is situated inside of the newly renovated W Hotel. This new restaurant is headed by executive chef Kevin Harry. Chef Harry took the time to talk with us and present each dish to us to explain the dish which was a really nice personal touch. He pretty much fed us until we cried uncle – and it tempting to keep going, but there’s only so much room in your stomach… unless we’re talking about dessert. There’s also room for dessert!

[Dining room at the Kelvin in the W Hotel]

[Crazy pretty light fixtures]

One thing I can say about the Kelvin is that is pretty. And it’s cozy. And I love the light fixtures! I love the use of colors here.

[Complimentary bread and Pomegranate Mojitos]

Stacey and I started the night off with some tasty complimentary bread and some very minty pomegranate mojitos – that had pomegranate seeds floating through the drink. It was a nice fruity and minty way to start a meal.

After getting our drinks, we were introduced to chef Kevin Harry who asked about any allergies or diet restrictions. I told him of Stacey’s aversion to seafood but assured him that he could still bring seafood for to me.

Mmm, get the seafood into my belly!

And with that, we let Chef Harry take the reigns and bring us whatever he felt like putting before us to stuff into our faces.

[compressed watermelon with point reyes blue cheese, cilantro and saba drizzle]

The first thing Chef Harry brought out was this dish with these bright, colorful cubes. The cubes are compressed watermelon – the air is taken out of the watermelon to intensify the flavor of the watermelon. It’s paired with a rich, creamy, salty blue cheese and drizzled with saba, which is made from grape must (yeah, I had to Google it).

The sweet, refreshing watermelon paired so well with the blue cheese that I was really taken by surprise. It’s a unique twist on a salty-sweet combination that I found to be so original and refreshing.

[polano corn soup with spiced popcorn]

Our next dish was one of my favorites – a corn soup with popcorn! There’s a little drizzle of a spicy oil in for a nice kick and the creamy soup was simply delicious. The popcorn kernels adorning the top of the soup gave a little crispy element to the soup. The bottom started to soak up the flavor of the soup but was still crisp and crunchy enough to give that fun texture. Chunky pieces of potatoes and corn are in the soup contrasting with the creamy, rich broth.

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Miscellaneous, Mary, Recipes, Baking

snowcone cupcakes + lemon bars

The best thing about these cupcakes is that my co-workers all thought they were really snow cones.

How awesome is that?!

I saw the idea for this on justJENN’s blog and just tweaked it a little for my liking! I only used two colors and I didn’t add the straws – the spoons were good enough! The trickiest part of these cupcakes were trying to find the little styrofoam containers – I ended up getting them at Smart & Final for less than $2! You need the 4oz food container size – the cupcakes will fit in there perfectly after you bake them. The wooden spoons I just bought on Etsy from the Lemon Drop Shop.

Recipes I used: white chocolate strawberry mousse (skipping the last two steps) and these vanilla cupcakes.

Okay, onto decorating!

I used the same “cut a hole in it” technique that I used for the caramel cupcakes. Nothing fancy. Just use a knife to cut out a good sized hole.

Then stick the filling in! These were vanilla cupcakes with white chocolate strawberry mousse.

Yes. It is as delicious as it sounds.

Stuff the tops back on and then place the cupcakes in the styrofoam cups.

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San Diego County, Mary, City Heights

el salvador pupuseria y restaurante / city heights – san diego, ca

The day we decided to go here we had originally planned on going to Slater’s 50/50. But we looked at the long line outside and I said, “Never mind. Let’s do something else.” Jake and I decided it was high time to finally go to one of the places we’ve driven by tons of times and this place popped into mind – El Salvado Pupuseria Y Restaurante. It’s a pretty nondescript building – kind of looks like it used to be a pizza hut back in the day. Not very pretty to look at, but oftentimes little hole in the wall places will really surprise you.

[peek at one of the pages of their menu]

They had a pretty large menu – this is just one of the pages. On the other side of the menu they have more familiar sounding items, such as tacos, burritos, tortas, tostadas and the like. I was here to try the pupusas and with their nice pricing point (just $1.99 for one pupusa) I decided to splurge a little and try a few of them.

[pickled cabbage, salsa and chips]

We were given chips and salsa for start off with. It’s a tiny bowl though and we managed to polish those chips off lickity split.

The other bowl was a condiment to use with your food – I read on Yelp it’s a pickled cabbage slaw to be used as a condiment for your pupusas and other food. I had a tiny taste of it – very vinegary with a slight sweetness. Not my bag at all – I don’t like cabbage or pickled anything so I didn’t use this again.

[this is what’s to come!]

I’ve been doing this “above the table shot” thing lately. I think it looks kind of neat.

[beef enchiladas plate – with beans, rice and salad – $6.99]

Jake went with a safer bet and got the beef enchiladas to try. The red sauce they use is a little different from what you’d get at a Mexican restaurant. I think it’s a little bit more sour tasting than what I’m used to – I only had a bite or two before I retreated back to my own pupusas.

This plate also came with some homemade tortillas – you had the choice between the homemade or “the other kind” (aka, Mission flour tortillas) and Jake wisely choice to get the homemade ones. They taste like like the pupusa does if it doesn’t have any “stuff” in it – and quite a bit thicker than a normal tortilla. Very tasty!

[pollo asado plate with rice and beans – $6.99]

For Jake’s son, S., we got him the pollo asado plate. The pollo asado was very nicely grilled with a wonderful flavor and seasoning on it. The chicken was very moist and juicy with a nice char from the grill on the outside of the meat. I kept eating a few pieces time and time again. I kind of wished they put this kind of chicken in the pupusas instead…

[stack of pupusas – all pupusas are $1.99 each]

Since I had never had a pupusa before this trip, I didn’t know what I’d like the best. So I ordered three kinds. It’s an experiment to try new things! Pupusas are sort of like calzones – but with a flatter surface like a tortilla or a stuffed quesadilla – but fully enclosed.

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San Diego County, Mary, Little Italy, Downtown

isola pizza bar / little italy – san diego, ca

Isola Pizza Bar is a new joint that’s joined the little community of Little Italy. Chef Massimo Tenino is the owner, the restaurant named after his grandmother. His heart and soul has been put into this place as he told us about how he build and designed the place from the ground up.

[hanging lights]

These kick ass lights hanging above us was one of the first things I noticed when we entered and sat down in the restaurant. Chef Tenino told us that they were asparagus canning jars that he turned into lights for the restaurant. It felt so much more personal to know he had a hand in all aspects of the restaurant – it really is his baby.

[wood fire oven]

The restaurant also only featuring one cooking device – the wood fire oven. Everything is cooked in that oven, from appetizers and pizzas, and it serves as the heart and cornerstone of the restaurant.

Jake and I were also very impressed with our service and with our waiter, Alex. Alex was so on top of everything and very good at recommending dishes to us. He really sold us a lot of the dishes and was so passionate about the restaurant and it’s food – it was so refreshing to see! Attention to detail and service really makes your visit feel so much more welcoming and enjoyable.

Here’s a smiling Jake starting to enjoy one of our appetizers.

[focaccia with spicy olive oil]

This is the dish you get started off with – some simple focaccia bread with a flavored olive oil. The olive oil is flavored and seeped with chilies – they constantly are making new bottles and storing them away week after week to ensure they have a batch for their patrons. This olive oil had been working it’s magic for about 8 weeks. The spiciness of it kind of snuck up and hit me. I didn’t taste it at first, but after a few moments the rush of heat and flavor came through – surprising but very tasty.

[prosciutto wrapped tuscan melon]

Jake is in love with Tuscan Cantelope. He spotted this on the menu and just had to order it. The prosciutto was thin and draped over the melon instead of wrapped. Taking one bite gives you the sweetness from the perfectly ripe melon with the slight saltiness from the prosciutto. A perfect bite!

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San Diego County, Mary, El Cajon

hammurabi family restaurant / el cajon – san diego, ca

Welcome to another installment of “Adventures in Groupons” (dun dun dun).

This week, we’ll be visiting the Hammurabi Family Restaurant in El Cajon, CA. Hammurabi offers a number of Mediterranean foods. They have a pretty massive menu with a little bit of everything. On the back of the menu, they have a number of “Feast” meals depending on the number of people in your party.

Well, let me tell you – I think the numbers are off! You’ll see what I mean…

[Feast Menu]

Jake and T were with me for this outing, so we figured we’d just get the Feast for Three People to share between the three of us.

[Hummus]

The hummus was the first thing to come out to us. Very smooth with a good creamy consistency with a daub of olive oil on top and (I think) a large sprinkle of paprika. It was a little bit bland. There wasn’t a lot of seasoning or other flavors added – just a plain hummus.

[Lavash Flat Bread]

We got a big basket of lavash bread to go with the hummus. Pita bread is what I’m used to getting at other restaurants but the lavash bread was okay. Just a basic bread.

[Side Salad]

Salad came out to us next looking very fresh and green. Lots of tomatoes and cucumbers mixed in with some leafy greens. The dressing on this salad was extremely tart though – way too much of the acidic element was put into the dressing. And since the whole salad was coated with the dressing, after a few bites we gave up eating it. Luckily the “Feast” was coming up next after a few disappointing starters.

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Miscellaneous, Mary, Products

honest tea

I got the opportunity to try a handful of Honest Tea flavors this summer.

Honest Tea makes its products with all organic products – focusing on the tea and the flavor.

Among the flavors I got to try (from left to right): (Not Too) Sweet Tea, Half & Half, Pomegranate Blue , Orange Mango and Cranberry Lemonade.

Regular sweet tea has always been too much for me – to me, it just tastes like really sweet sugar water. Honest Tea’s version of “sweet tea” is much better. It’s sweet without being overbearing. It’s sweet but still drinkable. Sweet, but you can still taste the tea!

The Half & Half is organic tea with lemonade. This was one of my favorite flavors of the five I tried since I love the lemonade and tea combination. The lemonade adds just the right amount of lemon and sweetness to this flavor of tea. It’s not quite as strongly flavored as other teas, so this one is much better if the bottle is cold, rather than pouring it over ice.

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