Category: Food and Drink

Thyme for Lunch in Miramar -&- Duck Foot Brewery

IMG_9268How lucky can you get? The people on Kenamar Drive- a little side street packed with industrial worksites- get not only Duck Foot Brewing, but a fabulous lunch spot, too. Thyme for Lunch has a menu board featuring breakfast and lunch offerings that can keep me coming back for months, I think, everything looked delicious. With design warehouses, a heating and cooling business and solar company nearby, the brewery and café must be cleaning up.

 

IMG_9269We picked up a Prosciutto and Goat Cheese Panini with Fig Jam, and California Burritos bursting with both French Fries (a must in your CA burrito) and really good quality Carne Asada.

I tried a different beer on this visit- the Choco Porter with Coffee… yum. Like most porters I’ve had, this was also lighter than the stouts but full and rich. Yum. We also brought home a growler of the Double White IPA for Thanksgiving… you’re welcome, family who will be drinking this with us next week!

I’m glad The Husband spotted Thyme for Lunch last week while we came to Duck Foot, and we both had time to meet up in Miramar to bring our lunches into the brewery. That is one of the great things we learned During San Diego Beer Week 2015- if the brewery doesn’t serve food, there is either a food truck for the crowd, or you can bring food into the establishments. So we did! And it was a great lunch, complete with Vanessa from his work, too. Hi, Vanessa! Great seeing you today!

 

Thanksgiving Traditions- Don’t Mess with ‘Em

Green Bean Casserole

The above phrase can strike terror or warm, fuzzy, family memories. I always liked the basic, read off the back-of-the-soup can recipe. My grandmother would make this casserole and bring it to our home on Thanksgiving. Her son was the master turkey chef- if you kept the faith in the Atkins Diet as long as my father has, you’d be able to whip out a 20 pound turkey, too.

I felt like changing up the usual recipe but did it in a super-smart way: ten days ahead of time, experimenting on my favorite subject… the men in my household.

IMG_9251This is an All-Trader Joe’s version of the Green Bean Casserole, recipe available on the back of the canister of TJ’s Crispy Fried Onions.

Of course I didn’t follow their recipe.

I kind of wanted to stick to the ease of the original, so I used the frozen bag of haricots verts green beans, the carton of portobello mushroom soup, grated Swiss cheese, fried onion pieces, and mixed them all together, and baked it at 375 for about 20 minutes.

Meh.

The Husband liked it a  lot, The Boy had to be threatened to eat it, and although I liked it- it was as easy to throw together as the original recipe concocted back in the 1950’s for the Campbell’s Soup company, but I do like the original best.

I’ve learned to carve the turkey from my father, and between my mother and me messing with the classic Green Bean Casserole recipe over the years, I’ve also learned to stick to the original green bean recipe. I’m sure glad I tried this well in advance, it might go over about as well and some of my mom’s concoctions she’s tried to sneak in as a replacement. Actually… I’m the only one who hasn’t liked some of her attempts. Everyone else loves them. But everyone also has great memories of Grandma’s recipe.

Trader Joe’s Taste Testing- Fall Holiday Sides!

Ever walk down the aisles at the store and wonder… “Wouldn’t it be easier and taste just as good to use the pre-cooked side dishes from my favorite grocery store?”

Don’t. Make your own. Unless, you don’t mind settling for sides that are less than okay.

Case in point:

IMG_9134Cauliflower Au Gratin with Gruyere Sauce and Parmesan Breadcrumbs

IMG_9135Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Cranberries and Pecans

IMG_9155Trader Joe’s Ready to Use Turkey Gravy

 

Again, don’t. Just… no. In very little time, you to peel, cube, and roast a couple of sweet potatoes, drizzle with your own maple syrup or sprinkle on brown sugar, and this will taste WORLDS better, the texture will be FAR superior, and you will spend maybe a third of the price. As for the cauliflower– well, it didn’t taste bad (neither did it taste good), but the vegetable was buried under about three times as much crumb topping as needed. Oddly enough, both packages of sides seemed under cooked, even though I followed the directions for time and temperature.

The gravy. Ummm… what to say. Not much turkey flavor, not horrible, but I wouldn’t buy it again or use it again. Ever. This product simply does not taste good. I’d rather mix up the McCormick’s envelope from the seasoning section of the supermarket. I would drink up a pot full of gravy from a straw, and I will not touch the Trader Joe’s gravy with a ten foot pole.

I love my Trader Joe’s stores, and rarely find something I dislike, or dislike this much. I’m glad I gave these a try, it was worth the price to try something new, and gratifying to know that a simple home made recipe is so much better. Save yourself the scratch. Make simple sides from scratch.

Got a Little Time to Cook? Simple Recipe Suggestions:

AllRecipes.com Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Thyme and Maple Syrup

Roasted Garlic Cauliflower

Got a Little More Time to Cook: Still Somewhat Simple Suggestion:

Make Ahead Turkey Gravy

 

Easier (and lighter) Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

I love seeing the short recipe videos that friends share on Facebook and other sites. You know, the 15 second or one minute clips showing how to put together quick side dishes or appetizers?

I saw this two minute video tonight and wondered if it would be better than my simple baked sweet potato that I serve with a pat of butter and a sprinkle of brown sugar…

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Click photo to link to the original AllRecipes.com video “Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes with Browned Butter”

Here’s what I did:

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Oven at 400… (Six o’clock already… dinner’s gonna be late tonight!
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…Sweet Potatoes, cleaned and poked with knife, in for 50-60 minutes…
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…2 Tbsp. Butter, pinch of salt, fresh ground pepper, 1 tsp. brown sugar…
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When tender, cut potatoes in half, scoop potato from skins, mush up potato with ingredients in bowl, and put back into the potato skins. Top with small marshmallows and bake for 10 more minutes until marshmallows get toasty.
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10 minutes later, Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes!

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The Husband approved, The Boy is a stinker- he doesn’t like toasted marshmallows, and I thought they were too sweet. I’ll stick to a ridiculously simple baked, pat of butter, sprinkle of brown sugar version. BUT- if you like a nice, sweet, holiday-style Sweet Potato, these definitely fit the bill! Simple, quick, and quite good. If you like sweet. Is it just me? I think that sweet potatoes are rich and sweet enough, that they don’t need very much butter or sugar to make them delicious.

By the way, if you look at the recipe video that caught my attention originally, you see that it calls for cream cheese. I think that would be really nice in this dish, and will give it another try with that extra ingredient. Also- my potatoes were kind of small, which made scooping out and stuffing them a little tricky. I’d use a bigger sweet potato next time.