Missing in Action

I have been missing in action from my blog and I am sorry, but I would like to explain.  Did you notice at all that my last post was on December 24th?  Well, on December 25th I received one of these:

An Apple iPad!!

Oh how I love this thing!  I can lay on the couch or in bed and browse the internet, check my facebook and play games (Angry Birds and Words with Friends are my favs).  But the one downside, it isn't very good for blogging.  You see, it isn't very easy to lay on the couch and write a blog post with it, and I haven't quite figured out how to load pictures on to it yet, I haven't even hooked my e-mail up to it yet...it is really just like my grown up toy....a toy that I haven't gotten tired of yet!  So since I have been so wrapped up in playing with my new toy, my laptop has been very neglected, which has resulted in my blog being neglected.  I have done a lot of cooking over the past couple of months, so I have plenty to share, I just haven't been able to tear myself away from the iPad, but that is changing as of now!  I do love sharing my adventures, so I need to put down the iPad every now and then and fire up the laptop!  I am not saying I will get to it everyday, but I am going to make a renewed effort....so thanks for hanging in there with me....and if I disappear again, send me a message and tell me to put down the iPad and get back to blogging!

San Francisco Treats!

My sister and I took a long weekend trip to San Francisco to visit a college friend and attend an ASU football game at Cal.  We had a great time hanging out, shopping, doing some touristy stuff and eating! While we didn't have any Rice-A-Roni, the supposed San Francisco Treat, we did enjoy lots of good eating during our visit to the Bay Area!  Our friend Sarah that we visited, loves to follow my blog, so everywhere we went, she would remind me to take a picture, take a picture!  So here is a rundown of our San Francisco Treats!

The first night we went to my friend Sarah's In-Laws Mexican Restaurant in San Carlos.  It is called La Hacienda and is celebrating their 30 year anniversary this year!  I have always been so jealous that she married into a family that owned a Mexican restaurant, so I was excited to try it out, and it did not disappoint!  The food was all fresh and delicious!

The appetizer speciality on the menu is jalapenos stuffed with chorizo and jack cheese and then deep fried!  They are then drizzled with the "family secret" sauce!  These were good, and this batch was pretty spicy.

All of the dinners are served with Albondigas Soup, which is basically a vegetable soup with little meatballs.  I have seen this on many menus, but have never ordered it, so this was a great opportunity to give it a try, and yummy, it was delicious!  It was very mild and the meatballs had a wonderful flavor, I will definitely have to try this at some other places now.

My sister got the two taco dinner, with one chicken taco and one shredded beef taco, which was served with rice and beans.  She loved the filling in both of the tacos, both were nicely seasoned and the meat was really tender.  She also scraped her plate clean of the beans and rice, so I a guessing she liked those too ;)!

I just didn't know what I wanted to order, there were so many delicious sounding choices, but I finally settled on the Flauta dinner with shredded beef.  The flautas were bursting with the tasty beef and covered in sour cream and guacamole, they were delicious!  The beans were good as well, and they don't use any lard in them, so getting tasty beans with no lard is a major accomplishment!

Cris, whose family's restaurant it is, ordered a steak burrito, which I am not sure is really listed on the menu, but since he has an in with the owner's he can get what he wants!  He dumped some really hot salsa all over the top of it and chowed down, I didn't get a chance to get a good look at the inside, but I do think that it too was bursting with beef!

Sarah was having a hard time deciding what she wanted too, she said that she usually goes for the Nachos or a Chimichanga, but that night she decided to get a Chicken Tostada.  It was topped with shredded lettuce, salsa and sour cream.  She cleaned her plate, so I am thinking she like it too!

So if you ever are in the San Carlos area, check out La Hacienda, it isn't big on the inside, but it is big on flavor!

La Hacienda
1377 Laurel St.
San Carlos, CA 94070

The next day Laura and I went into downtown San Francisco to shop while Sarah and Cris went to work. Our first stop was my favorite place on earth....Macy*s at Union Square! We were hungry when we got there so we headed down to the basement where they have a food court....but it is no ordinary food court, it has Boudin Bakery, Wolfgang Puck Express and Fresco by Rick Bayless to name a few...this was a high class food court!

Of course being in San Francisco we had to eat some sourdough bread, and there is just no better way to eat it than with some creamy clam chowder!  Boudin is famous for their sourdough, and they do a great job on the chowder too, so it is the perfect way to enjoy this....especially on a cold, drizzly day like many of them are in San Francisco!

http://www.boudinbakery.com/

 We also decided to try something from Fresco, which is a new fast casual concept by famous Chef Rick Bayless.  He is the master of Mexican cooking (but not the kind we are used to down in the Arizona desert) and has numerous restaurants in Chicago that are very pricey, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out his food!  We got a Huarache, which is like a Mexican flatbread on a masa crust.  It was topped with chicken chorizo, black beans, roasted peppers and cheese, and then topped with fresh lettuce.  It was really tasty, and the crust was quite dense, so we had to eat it with a fork.  We also got some chips and guacamole on the side, and it may sound weird, but these chips were amazing!  They were thick, but light and crisp and salted perfectly, paired with the guacamole, they made for some excellent eating!

http://www.fronterafresco.com/

After our day in the city, we met back up with Sarah and Cris and two of their friends.  They took us to dinner at this little place in Pacifica called La Playa Taqueria.  They have a big menu of Mexican standards, but they are also surprisingly known for their cheeseburgers...go figure?  Usually, when you go to a Mexican restaurant you are supposed to avoid the Gringo menu, or you stick out like a sore thumb, but not here!  The place was packed as it was a Friday night, but you order your food a counter then get a number.  The only thing that I found to be a bit odd was that you couldn't order drinks at the counter too, you had to go to the bar, but at least they have a full bar!

My sister wasn't feeling anymore Mexican food for the day, so she went with the burger, and since we were with some regulars, they told her she had to order it on the sourdough instead of the bun, because they bake the bread there daily.  How weird is this, a Mexican restaurant known for burgers and fresh baked sourdough???  I realized we weren't in Arizona anymore!  My sister told me the burger was awesome and that the bread rivaled that from Boudin....so it must have been some good bread!

Being the Arizona girl and Mexican food lover that I am, I was more than happy to eat more Mexican food!  I ordered the Bean Dip and a Super Fish Taco.  The bean dip was HUGE!!!  I was grinning from ear to ear when they set it in front of me....mmmm beans!  Even though the group that I was with are regulars, no one had ever ordered the bean dip, and after one bite, they were mad at themselves for wasting so many trips to La Playa with no bean dip!  The beans were creamy, salty and had just enough cheese mixed in to really amp it up; this was some of the best bean dip I had ever had!  I was happy to share with the table, and even then, our group of 6 couldn't finish it!  My fish taco was also really delicious, the fish had been battered and fried, but there was something so light about it, and it retained its crispness even after being covered in guacamole, sour cream and cheese!  They didn't skip on the toppings with it, and cheese is a close second to my love for beans, so I was one happy girl!

La Playa Taqueria

1560 Coast Highway

Pacifica, CA 94044

You know how when you are on vacation you eat a little bit too much???  Well, we definitely did, but at least we got in a lot of walking and burned off some calories!  Our other indulgences included a bowl of Lobster Bisque that we bought after walking around Fisherman's Wharf; we were a bit disappointed with this one, it didn't have great flavor, and I don't think we got a single chunk of lobster!

My sister always wants hot chocolate when it gets cold and rainy, but she hates the hot chocolate at Starbucks, so Sarah took us to her favorite coffee shack, Caffino!  It is a little kiosk in a parking lot that you drive-up to, but Laura said the hot chocolate was excellent and my caramel latte hit the spot....so good things do come in small packages!  (See how dark and dreary it was in the background?  Perfect hot beverage weather!)

 



Crepes A Go Go
2334 Telegraph Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94704



Before the football game up in Berkeley we needed to grab something to eat, Sarah and Cris were not really familiar with the area, so we didn't have a plan.  I saw a crepe place and told them that is where I was going, Sarah joined me, but Cris and Laura opted to go to the bagel shop next door.  Well, Cris and Laura were very jealous when Sarah and I came back with crepes filled with turkey, jack cheese, avocado and tomato....these were AMAZING!  The crepe had a touch of crisp to it and a touch of sweet, which went really well with the savory fillings.  Sarah and I were nice enough to share, and Laura and Cris were very thankful....I really need to find a place here where I can get a crepe....they are soooo gooood!







Teacake Bake Shop

1309 Burlingame Ave.

Burlingame, CA 94010

http://www.teacakebakeshop.com/



After ASU's embarrassing loss, we needed something to cheer us up, and stumbled upon this new bakery that had just opened called Teacake Bake Shop in Burlingame.  They had all kinds of cupcakes with fun flavors, but we were drawn to the cookies and brownie cups....and for good reason....BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE EVER!!!  We all couldn't believe how delicious these were, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.  We had taken them home to eat, and Cris was very tempted to go back and get another one after he finished his....yes, they were that good!  The brownie cups were also decadent as well....it is good that I don't live near here....or I would be in trouble!





We ate a few other things too, but these were the highlights, but the real highlight was just spending time with friends, enjoying the scenery and getting a break from the real world. Until next time San Francisco....



We found these really cute lion hats, but figured we wouldn't really need them in the desert!



Out of Order

My laptop at home got infected with a nasty virus and decided to not work anymore.  I had my IT friend come over to look at it and he informed me that it had to go home with him for an in depth analysis...which didn't sound good.  So because of this, I haven't been able to post anything new lately, even though I do have some restaurants and recipes to share with you all.  Well, let me take that back, I could post them, but they wouldn't have any pictures since all the pictures are on my laptop; and let's face it, a post about food with no pictures just doesn't quite cut it....and I don't want my reputation tarnished!  I am hoping to get my computer back tomorrow (fingers crossed) and I am also hoping that when I get it back it is in working condition so that I can get back into posting more consistently.


So please bear with me while I deal with having no computer at home (which, by the way really sucks on the weekends....I feel so out of the loop!).  I hope to be back in action soon, especially since with Memorial Day being this weekend there is sure to be food to be made!

Bloggaversary

So I just realized that I missed my one year bloggaversary.....I am a bit bummed about it....but in all honesty it didn't even cross my mind.  My anniversary is April 2, which was last Friday, and well, last Friday I spent the day celebrating the life of my Grandmother who passed away on March 30.  Grandma Ruth, my mom's mom, was 93 years young and fighter until the end.  She was not ill, but she had been slowly declining in health over the past few weeks, becoming very weak and bed bound in the end.  I was planning to go and visit her on my lunch break the day that she passed, but I got a phone call from my mom around 8:15 am saying that she might not make it until then.....10 minutes later, just as I was trying to scurry out of the house to go see her, I got the call that she was gone.  It was hard, I had many emotions, but ultimately I was happy to know that she was now in peace and no longer in any pain.

My grandmother was an intelligent and caring person, who overcame so much in her life and was very independent....she lived by herself and drove a car until she was 88!  One of her very favorite things was an Arby's Roast Beef sandwich and curly fries, my sister and I would sometimes pick it up and take it to her for lunch; she always had the biggest smile spread across her face at first bite.  I always will think of her everytime I go to Arby's.

After the ceremony for her Celebration of Life, we had people back to my parent's to celebrate and eat.  In her honor, my sister made chocolate covered strawberries, because she always loved chocolate (I think I inherited that trait from her) and we had sandwiches and fruit.  It was a lovely day, and we had so many dear friends and family there to support us, including my other grandmother who came in from California for the occasion.

So while I didn't get to make something special for my Bloggaversary......I was able to spend the day celebrating someone special in my life....someone who made the best pie and whose eyes got wide when a hot fudge sundae was set in front of her.

I Will Miss You Grandma!

I Love You!

Football & Dishes

I am a huge football fan; college football and NFL, I watch it all.  And I usually start to get pretty sad around the time the season ends, which as of today, is only 3 weeks away :(  It is a long time between the Super Bowl in early February until pre-season starts in August.  But during the season, I live for the weekends!  I tailgate with my friends at all the ASU home games, travel to a few away games (going to Wisconsin this year!) and organize my Sundays around what time the Cardinals will be playing.  Three years ago, some people at my office were organizing a Fantasy Football League and asked if I wanted to join, I had never played before but figured I would give it a shot....well get this...I won the league!  From that point on I was hooked, last year I took second place and this year I took first place again!  Who says a girl doesn't know anything about football?!?!

Each year along with the title, I have earned a nice cash prize, and well, even though it is nice to have some spare cash, I like to treat myself to something just for me.  This year I decided that I would get myself some new dishes.  The dishes that I had were the ones when I first moved out on my own after college; I moved into my house with a bed, a tv and an old recliner....I had nothing.  I also was still working as an intern at the time and made very little money, so I needed the essentials, but on the cheap.  I bought an 8 piece set of dishes, with dinner plates, salad plates, bowls and mugs for $15!  Now don't get me wrong, they have been good dishes, but I had been wanting to upgrade, so this was my opportunity!

I found a great deal on these dishes at Macy's....when I saw them on-line I knew they were the ones that I had to have.  Plus, they were on sale, and with all my coupons, I didn't even spend all my winnings, so now I do have a little spare cash!  I did end up having to go to three different Macy's in order to get all the pieces that I wanted....but it was worth it!

Here is my new dinner plate (white with black rim), salad plate (floral print) and bowl (white with black rim).  Oh yeah, and that is my little kitchen helper!

I also got some cute serving dishes in the floral print to go with the new set. 

(I actually got 6 of the little dishes, prefect for sauces, etc.)

While I was at Macy's getting my dishes, I spied this cute cupcake tower that was on sale; I just couldn't resist!  Looks like I need to make some cupcakes soon!