Category: Food and Drink

Jazz Bar Again… Only Took about 30 Years

About 30 years ago my family went on a Caribbean cruise to celebrate my brother’s recuperation from being utterly creamed by a drunk driver. I’m not too sure of the details, but essentially, my brother’s insurance settlement paid for a lot of that trip. I never asked about the details, I was just glad that at 17 I didn’t lose my brother and one year later he was off crutches and healing. PSA- Don’t drink and drive, people.

There was a jazz bar on that cruise ship. Did you know that 18 is the legal drinking age at sea? And what did I do when I saw the opportunity to sit in with the Big People, enjoy their adult beverages, and appreciate good music?  I ordered myself a gin and tonic- (something I thought my martini-loving gramma would have suggested) and went to that bar almost every evening, that’s what I did! Note- one gin and tonic each night… I obviously had issues with excessive drinking, driving or not.

We had a great trip, but what I remember most was how anxious I was to get back home… ten days earlier I had met the most fabulous guy. He was so handsome, funny, smart, attentive and most surprising of all, interested in ME! Jackpot!

Twenty-nine years, five months and a couple dozen days later, he’s taking me to dinner where we can listen to jazz. The music of Gilbert and Lorraine Castellanos is featured at Croce’s Park West in San Diego tonight. I can’t recommend this venue enough- Croce’s Park West on Banker’s Hill is one of the nicest, most comfortable places we’ve spent time at in a long time. The food- excellent, the atmosphere- tops. And the music? Perfect. I think Jim would be proud, Ingrid.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Cocktails at Croce's
Cocktails at Croce’s
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Gilbert and Lorraine Castellanos click to link to Lorraine’s site- besosdecoco.com
Live jazz... doesn't get any better!
Live jazz… doesn’t get any better! Click photo to link to Gilbert Castellanos’s site- gilbertcastellanosjazz.com
Croce's Park West, Banker's Hill in San Diego
Photo links to croces.com Loved it!

Croce’s Portal | Portal to all things Croce’s | Jim Croce, Ingrid Croce, A.J. Croce and Croces Park West.

New Restaurant- Bruski in Mira Mesa (Look, Table!)

We had a lot of fun when we first moved here, playing with literal translations of some of the Spanish names. Both of my kids had Spanish classes in their Hoosier school, and I tried teaching them as much as they would let me. Flash back to The Girl, two years old, putting her hand over my mouth after a day of hearing nothing but French, saying, “No more words, mommy.” Needless to say, foreign language lessons chez nous didn’t get too far.

Tonight we hit a new-ish restaurant in Mira Mesa (“Look! Table!”). There are several newer joints tucked into the same shopping center here, and all had a wait of at least 30 minutes. Except Bruski’s. Even though that doesn’t bode well, we went with it. One of us should have pointed at Bruski’s seating availabilities and said “Look! A Table!” I hate it when I miss a good bad joke.

Great beer selections, good chicken wings, The Boy approved of his standard Meat-Cheese-Bun Only burger, and we were happy enough to say we’d come back to try the mac and cheese. I had a Cobb salad that at a half order could have fed four people, and the bacon on it was dee-lish. The Husband was disappointed with the dry chicken on his Caesar salad. His Honey Chipotle wings tasted mainly of honey and were all right, but I think my naked wings were better.

Two tastes of beers from Brewski's- Belching Beaver HORCHATA Imperial Stout and Epic BRAINLESS ON PEACHES Belgian Ale. Both were too sweet for me.
Two tastes of beers from Bruski’s- Belching Beaver HORCHATA Imperial Stout and Epic BRAINLESS ON PEACHES Belgian Ale. Both were too sweet for me.

Next time it will be Epic Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout, because of the name, seriously. And Onion Rings, baby. Mama needs her fried food.

New Menu Monday- Chayote Squash = Steak Gets a New Side

Chayote squash. I’ve seen it in stores my whole life but never knew what to do with it. A couple of weeks ago The Mom-in-law decided that we should pick up some when we hit Pancho Villa Market, mentioning that she hadn’t made it in a long time, but wanted to give it a try again.

Really, for the amusement factor alone, this was easily worth it- pick up a new vegetable and give it a go. Even if everyone hates it, you get the fun of watching the people you lovingly serve it to make all sorts of faces, either politely trying to hide their distaste or the outright look of disgust at the thought of trying something new.

Chayote squash, sliced, ready to sauté with onions.
Chayote squash, sliced, ready to sauté with onions.

It’s good to be the cook!

I finally gave mine a go tonight (it is a harder squash and kept well in the fridge for two weeks), preparing the squash the way she served hers-
simply sautéed until tender with onions in butter and olive oil.

The family’s comments and observations included the following:

Chayote and onions in the cast iron skillet... the only way to cook.
Chayote and onions in the cast iron skillet… the only way to cook.

-Chayote’s texture is different from other squash, like zucchini, yellow or crookneck… it is more firm, like that of a sautéed apple, maybe?

-If you don’t care for the softer texture of summer squash varieties, chayote is a good squash to try as it is much firmer and not seeded.

-Its flavor is very much like zucchini, only more strong. And a bit sweeter.

-This would pair well with a squeeze of lemon and maybe some chopped, fresh dill.

Steak and mushrooms with baked potato and chayote. Good stuff!
Steak and mushrooms with baked potato and chayote. Good stuff!

One chayote was enough for the four of us to enjoy a taste testing, but I would need two for a proper side dish, for sure. The chayote was an overall hit, and we will definitely be cooking it up again.

Recreating the Best Garlic Cheese Bread Ever!

Oh, MAN! I am so excited that I figured out this recipe!!
(See? Food and recipes and out come the exclamation points.)

One of the restaurant jobs I had in college was working at a pizza parlor with The World’s Best Garlic Cheese Bread. Everyone should work in the food industry at some point in their life, I swear, you learn how to serve others and work your butt off for patrons who rarely notice your effort, unless you make an error. Over tip your servers, people, especially lunch and breakfast.

End of P.S.A.

Back to the garlic bread and  the New Thing O’ The Day-

I used to help opening the restaurant and prep all the ingredients and food for the day, and one of the menu items was the chain’s garlic cheese bread. I forgot all about how easy this recipe is, and over the years would order something like it from pizza joints across the country as we moved about. All along I was looking for something as good as the bread that I used to help make every day. I finally remembered all of the simple ingredients to make my favorite spaghetti side!

This is all there is to it, adjust your quantities as needed, the recipe is as delicious as it is easy-

In a microwave safe bowl, place equal quantities of the following ingredients: butter, sour cream, cream cheese, and shredded cheddar. For every two tablespoons of each ingredient, add 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic. If you want to serve four slices of bread to serve four, the recipe would look like this:

2T. butter
2T. sour cream
2T. cream cheese
2T. shredded cheddar cheese
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

Let all the ingredients come to room temperature, or microwave for 5-10 seconds a couple times, stirring well and until everything is mixed together with the consistency of soft butter. The cheese won’t be melted entirely, but that is just fine.

Spread the cheesy mixture onto thick sub sandwich style rolls, split in half. Sandwich bread will be way too thin, as would any other sliced bread. Skip them all and go for the thick hoagie, sub, or Mexican bolillo rolls.

Just see the photos, yeah?

Heat wrapped in foil in a 350 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until the cheesy spread has melted and the bread is a bit crispy. I opened the foil for five more minutes and cranked the temp up to 400 to get the right crispy bread but soft cheesy top.
It. Was. GREAT!!!

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Cookie Quest for Marianne

You would think that a nice Christmas tip would make the World’s Best Stylist happy, but nnoooooo. She wants cookies. Not the Chocolate Chip Cookies that I have sold upwards of dozens upon dozens and bake by the gross in under two hours (when The Husband eats cookies for breakfast, you can go through 144 cookies really fast). Nope, she wants really light, delicate snowball-angel-Mexican/Italian wedding style cookies, which I’ve never made. So, today I crammed in two new things. I was able to try a new recipe and finally get around to doing something nice for Marianne, who takes great care of me- she makes me feel purty and for that the lady deserves a key to the reserves of Fort Knox, honestly.

Fortunately for me, I have eaten what has to be THE BEST version of these cookies every year when I raid the gift cookies received by my in-laws. Thanks to their neighbor, Linda, I know what a great angel cookie tastes like. Like my mom, Linda is one of the few people (in my opinion) who really knows cookies. After a little on-line searching and ingredient tinkering, I think I have a recipe that comes really close! And nobody gets to knock my excessive use of exclamation points, I love baking and developing a great new recipes make my day!!

The cookies I promised Marianne for my January haircut are a couple of weeks late but I think she will still love them. I’ll let The Mom-in-law at the cookies this weekend- she will be the best judge of how close I came to Linda’s recipe. Can’t wait to hear her verdict, but I am so happy with the way these turned out!

Here’s the original recipe that I tweaked a bit (changes included the following- 3/4 c. powdered sugar, 3/4 t. baking soda, 1/2 t. salt, almond meal from Trader Joe’s instead of finely chopped)–
http://www.food.com/recipe/angel-almond-balls-182410