Food and Drink – Page 3 – branching out… on a limb

Oven Bacon, Fried Bacon- (I don’t care how the bacon is cooked, as long as it isn’t boiled bacon, I’m in!)

I had a couple pounds of bacon to make this morning for the extended family and thought I’d try cooking it in the oven like I’ve heard about… “Less Mess! Cooks more evenly!” the cooking sites all swear. I’m dubious.

So, here’s the set-up:

Half the bacon on the baking sheet, half in the cast iron skillet…

Here is all that bacon again, just because. Y’know. Bacon!

The Salt Ewok knows when you’ve overcooked the bacon. For shame.

About 15- 20 minutes later, and it’s looking good (as bacon always does).

All done! Looks pretty good… but when has bacon not looked good, amiright?

OK- seriously…

We did like the super ease of cooking the bacon in the oven- no turning, no hovering. But the clean up is just as bad- a messy baking pan and a rack to clean.

However (bottom line)-

It was great, either way. Because it’s BACON.

The oven baked bacon was less crisp than the pan fried. This would be great for BLT sandwiches, no?

If you prefer crispy, rendered strips, stick with the pan. Don’t have time to fuss with babysitting your fatty, smoky, favorite strips of yumminess? Use the oven.

Want the recipe? As per The All-Knowing Alton Brown, click here for his directions (start the pan in a cold oven, 400 for 15-20 minutes).

All this bacon did go into breakfast burritos… I did share it. Grudgingly.

Pan Dulce, Grande Style: Is It Really Better?

Earlier this week I went shopping at Pancho Villa’s Market with a friend who knew her way around the Mexican grocery store better than I did. She shared a great tip- if you like pan dulce, try the larger version sold as “Concha Grande,” that look like a monster Pan Dulce. Dee Dee says that she thinks that the larger loaves are more moist than the little rolls.

We tried our big loaf o’ Pan Dulce this morning at breakfast with our chorizo burritos. We all agreed with Dee Dee… Yum! It was great dipped in coffee and nice on its own. Down right delicious like the little rolls, but the smaller Pan Dulces are definitely a bit more dry.

Haven’t had Pan Dulce before? Try them for breakfast or a snack. Look for them in most Mexican grocery stores with bakeries.

Trader Joe’s Steak and Ale Pies

Want a pot pie but also a dinner that doesn’t taste like frozen convenience food? Get these: Trader Joe’s Steak and Ale Pies- two per box.

I was expecting just a beef flavored pot pie. Nope. Buttery crust and pieces of steak, as advertised on the box, and vegetables in a tasty sauce… only the potatoes were kind of meh. In their defense, potatoes are usually going to suffer if frozen, and… I kinda had these pies in my freezer for maybe six months. You know what? They come individually shrink-wrapped in plastic, so, no freezer burnt flavor!

This is good stuff, people, I’ll be buying these again. Especially when Im sick of cooking for the holidays!

From “Ew. Beer.” to “Mmm… Decisions, decisions… Nut Brown Ale or Stout?”

I swear I am not repeating my adventures, but we did go back to Alesmith Brewing Company last night with Al and Angie, two of our favorite people on the face of the earth.

These friends from our old parish in Indiana now have both of their kids off to college. If I can make this transition half as well as these two, I will consider my entry into Empty Nestdom wildly successful. Recently, Angie told us that on their visits to San Diego, she wants to try new and different pubs and restaurants- how convenient!

Alesmith was the answer, with the Tony Gwynn Gourmet Food Truck providing the eats.

Alesmith-NUT-BROWN1 — photo from the Alesmith website

Angie liked her Stout, and I really liked my Nut Brown Ale, one of the choices I wanted to try on our last visit here during San Diego Beer Week. This is a great brew! Don’t like hops like me? Try this beer- dark, but not sweet, English style bitter, but very low IBU (hops aren’t the only thing you taste… unlike most of San Diego’s famous beers). I have gone from “Ew. Beer.” to “Mmmm, what to have… Porter? Stout? Or an ESB? So many choices!” And none of these choices have to be a West Coast-style, quadruple-hopped, San Diego IPA.

And by the way- the fried wings of the food truck were some of the best wings I’ve ever had. I’m going to be hunting down the schedule for the Tony Gwynn Gourmet food truck, man they were GOOD! The foods all have baseball themed names, which make a lovely nostalgic pairing with Alesmith’s SD Pale Ale .394 (Padre’s fans understand the connection).

A lovely Nut Brown Ale

Gwynn’s Gourmet Food Truck’s Pulled Pork Fries- yummy, but the Fried Wings were even better!

Girls’ Day Out #2- Frutilandia and more!

In June I went exploring Liberty Station with one of my most favorite friends- two moms on the loose having a lot of fun!

Six months is way too long to wait. Time for another “field trip,” this time with Dee Dee and Suzanne, friends from our church’s Bunco Club. Incidentally, Bunco Club needs to be renamed to “Let’s Have a Blast Chatting about All Our Favorite Things, Then Finally Get Around to Throwing Those Dice” Club (at least on the day it was held at my house, oops). Well, we chit-chatted about so many different favorite products, foods, restaurants and other places that we promised to go on a field trip to a few of these spots the very next week.

Which brings us to today: Fruitilandia, Pancho Villa’s Farmer’s Market, and Penzey’s Spices. Two of our stops I was very familiar with, but Fruitilandia was my new venture for today. This place was really neato-burrito.

According to Dee Dee, Fruitilandia was once a dumpy-looking small shop across the street from it’s current location at 4328 University Avenue in San Diego. Now it is located in a bright spot, still offering smoothies and all kinds of fabulous Mexican drink specialties.

We asked about the different snack options and were all in for sharing a Tostilocos, and tried the Strawberries and Cream (unfreakingbelievably delish), Pico de Gallo Fruit Salad, Fruit Salad with cottage cheese, raisins and honey, and a Licuado.

Holy cow, where has a Licuado been all my life? It is kind of like a Mexican milkshake, only lighter, like a smoothie. And tastier. And more refreshing. Choose which of many fruits you want blended into your drink with the milk- I chose pineapple and mango. Wow. Delish.

IMG_9311 (1) — **Ermuhgersh!** Tostilocos!

The three of us split a snack that we decided was like a Walking Taco… on steroids. We barely made a dent in the Tostilocos- served in one opened small bag of Tostitos was cucumbers, jicama, fried peanuts, tamarind bits, spicy sauce and chicharron strips. I’m pretty sure there were 42 other things in there, we just couldn’t get down to the bottom of the bag.

Three forks-full of chicharron… not fried.

Imagine how sad I was to find that the chicharrones were not fried… boo hoo hoo! I definitely prefer my chicharrones fried. Pork skin cooked this way is like calamari, only a little more firm. Not bad, but not to my taste.

Fruit Salad Pico de Gallo- something I never had, but always meant to- chunks of fruit with chile. Definitely tasty, now all my So Cal and Mexican friends and family can get off my case. I think I liked the papaya and watermelon best.

Fruitilandia could take over the country’s smoothie market. I hope it does.

And I NEED to get out with the women more often!

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