Tag: bakery

star dust donuts and searching for sea shells in imperial beach
San Diego County, Mary, Imperial Beach

star dust donuts and searching for sea shells in imperial beach

Jake and I have driven by Star Dust Donuts probably 3 or 4 times now and every time it was closed.

They have crazy inconsistent hours:

But one magical day in early December, Star Dust was open!

Jake, the kids and I were heading down to Imperial Beach to collect sea shells for a present Jake was making for his mom for Christmas. Since we were going right by, Jake suggested we check and see if Star Dust was open and when I saw that it was, I did a little happy dance in the car. Finally, we could try it!

There wasn’t a whole lot of donuts left… so I just got one of each.

They had: Buttermilk Twist (.94 cents), Old Fashioned (.94 cents), Carmel Pecan Rolls ($1.59), Chocolate Iced with Nuts (.94 cents), Chocolate Raised (.94 cents) and Cinnamon Rolls (.94 cents).

They cost a little more than what you’d get at a regular donut shop, aren’t really fancy looking and pretty basic.

But man oh man, were they good! The buttermilk bar and the old fashioned were probably my favorite of the bunch – just simple, crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth donut goodness. The donuts tasted fresh and perfectly crisp. Very yummy.

I don’t have any other photos of the donuts since my camera died later! Probably from all of the photo taking I did at the beach.

We went as far south as you can go – all the way to the end near the Tijuana Estuary.

The sun was still up while we went to collect shells. The beach was pretty empty and it was pretty chilly that night – but the sky was beautiful. Continue reading “star dust donuts and searching for sea shells in imperial beach”

Encinitas, San Diego County, Mary

gluten free dining at 2Good2B bakery cafe / encinitas – san diego, ca

Let me just say right off the bat… I was skeptical. A gluten free restaurant with baked goods and regular food? Could this possibly be any good? As someone who doesn’t shun gluten at all and doesn’t have food allergies, I wasn’t sure how this whole experience would go down. But since I got invited to come in and check it out, I was willing to take the risk. And I have to say… I was pleasantly surprised.

[inside the cafe]

2Good2Be is a cute little cafe inside of one of the strip malls in Encinitas, CA. It’s a fast casual restaurant with lots of beverage options (coffees, teas), baked goods (cupcakes, brownies, cakes) as well as regular food – all gluten-free, corn free, corn syrup free and soy free.

[case of gluten free cupcakes]

The cupcakes that greet you when you walk in also very tempting looking – all pretty and decorated!

Jake and I ordered a few things from the menu to get an overall feel for their food and then, of course, saved room for cupcakes at the end.

[bottled sodas]

My initial beverage choice was rejected by Jake and he went up and got us some bottled sodas. I told him to surprise me and he got me this Cock ‘n Bull ginger beer which wasn’t too bad. I don’t normally drink full sugar sodas anymore but this one was decent with a good ginger flavor. Surprising to me, I actually liked the Cheerwine a little bit more. I thought it would be full on in-your-face-tastes-like-cough-syrup flavored cherry.. but it actually kind of reminded me of Dr. Pepper.

[cheese pizza]

We started off by sharing a cheese pizza. I really liked the HUGE dollops of ricotta on top. Ricotta makes me really happy, so this put a smile on my face.

This also had tomato sauce, mozzarella and just a touch of basil. I would have enjoyed a wee more bit of basil, but it was fine. The crust was a gluten free crust that was quite thin (like NY style thin) and quite a bit chewy. The outer edges of the pizza were kind of burnt which I did not like since it made the other edge too hard to eat. But overall the crust wasn’t bad – you could tell this wasn’t a normal crust, but it didn’t deter too much from the pizza (except for the burnt edges). Overall good flavor and good distribution of cheese.

[macaroni and cheese]

Our other shared item was the macaroni and cheese, something we’ve really taken a liking to order whenever we see it on a menu. Continue reading “gluten free dining at 2Good2B bakery cafe / encinitas – san diego, ca”

San Diego County, Mary, Bonita

hans & harry bakery / bonita – san diego, ca

Hans & Harry is a local bakery down in Bonita that I have heard about forever, but never went to. Which is silly, since Jake and I are usually in the area every other week to pick up his kids for a weekend. We finally went by to check it out afternoon when I was especially in the mood to try some sweet treats (which, FYI, is pretty much every afternoon, ever).

[a wall of strudels greets you upon entry]

This is what greets you when you first enter Hans and Harry.

Be still, my heart!

All of the pretty, delicious looking strudels are waiting to enter to your belly.

[fruit studels]

Such beautiful strudels!

[one case of baked goods at hans & harry]

And this is actually only ONE of the cases at the counter. I think I must have zoned out because I didn’t photograph the rest of the offerings. Just know that there is MORE.

[peanut butter bar]

Though the strudel looked seriously awesome, I wasn’t in a strudel kind of mood. Instead we shared a variety of treats, one of them being this peanut butter bar.

The peanut butter bar was sort of a cross between a cookie and a brownie. It had a softer, chewier middle (like a brownie) with the outer crust a little crisper (and cookie-like). Overall though it was a little dry and not super moist – I guess I was thinking it’d be more like a fudgy peanut butter version of a brownie. Too bad it wasn’t. Continue reading “hans & harry bakery / bonita – san diego, ca”

Mary, Products

gluten free baked goods from butterfly bakery

I was recently sent samples of gluten free baked goods from the Butterfly Bakery. No, no, I’m gluten free or anything. I had actually asked if I could try the sugar-free goods, but I guess that just wasn’t going to happen and a few weeks later I got these gluten free baked goods in the mail.

I’m very skeptical of gluten free products and if they’ll taste good or not. Since I’m perfectly okay with eating up glutens, I really tend to shy away from gluten free stuff since well, I don’t really need or want to eat them. But hey, I’ll still try things.

I was sent two products to try:

The sliced plain vanilla creme cake and…

banana walnut mini muffins.

[Vanilla Creme Cake Facts & Ingredients]

Both products are made with 100% teff flour – which is a very small grain, about the size of a poppy seed.

[Banana Nut Muffin Facts]

I’ll admit now that I know nothing about teff flour. Or about gluten free products. Let’s just consider this a taste test from a non-gluten person to you.

I had a furry little helper with me while I was taking photos and taste testing the products. I guess this was a sniff test. Sniff test was approved and I was able to move on to the next step.

Continue reading “gluten free baked goods from butterfly bakery”

Atwater Village, Los Angeles County, Mary

eating in la: the village bakery & cafe / atwater village – los angeles, ca

Time for another road trip! This time to hang out with my cohort, Alyssa.

I drove up on a Saturday morning to her house just outside of Downtown LA. I always go up Saturday morning because Friday afternoon traffic makes me very, very sad. There was a slight drizzle when I left and I encountered no traffic on my way up. I got to her house just under 2 hours. That’s the way to go!

After I got there, we got ready to head out for the day and went out for breakfast. We were taking a felting class in the early afternoon and gave ourselves enough time for breakfast and a little window shopping before our class started.

Our first stop of the day was to The Village Bakery and Cafe in Atwater Village.

This is what we looked at while we stood in line to order, trying to decide what we wanted to eat for breakfast. This case contained cupcakes, tarts, and various brownies.

We’ve only scratched the surface! There were also all kinds of muffins, cinnamon rolls, mini pies…

Cookies and cakes…

Continue reading “eating in la: the village bakery & cafe / atwater village – los angeles, ca”