Tag: food

Pho for Me

On our quest to try some new eats! This time we tried a restaurant that many people have been telling us to try, a chain called Pho Ca Dao. According to one of my kid’s teachers, if you aren’t swearing, you aren’t pronouncing it correctly… I hope she wasn’t pulling my leg.

The daughter’s boyfriend helped us order and he picked some winners. We loved the soups, the pork with rice noodles were meh. Egg rolls- fabulous, spring rolls- less so. I think I am spoiled by having friends make home made spring rolls on many occasions, though.

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Yum! Beef with rice, pork with rice noodles and egg rolls, spring rolls, beef pho and chicken pho with all the condiments- love the sprouts, basil and cilantro!

I’m really glad I finally tried some of the dishes from Pho Ca Dao, and am sure that we will hit it again- great dishes at a surprisingly low price. Here’s the menu, via allmenus.com:

http://www.allmenus.com/ca/san-diego/32447-ca-dao/menu/

New Menu Monday- Carnitas… from Heaven!!

Pulled pork is fabulous in the crock pot; sprinkle a lot of onion and garlic powder, salt and pepper on a pork shoulder butt and 4-8 hours later you have a magnificent meal. With BBQ sauce for the meat, we round it out with a baked sweet potato and maybe green beans. We all love it.

Tonight we are making carnitas with the same cut of pork and swapping out the sweet potato and green beans for a boat load of cilantro, chopped onions, pinto beans and tortillas.

I love me some Pinterest- that’s where I dug around for the carnitas recipe. This is what I found:  http://www.afamilyfeast.com/carnitas/#_a5y_p=1366830

I changed up the recipe only a bit- freshly made mini corn tortillas instead of the suggested flour, and I tossed everything together on the baking sheet- the onions, garlic and I squeezed the citrus juices and 1/3 cup of bacon grease over everything. I only used oregano, salt and pepper, too, and skipped the other spices. I don’t think we missed the one pound of lard to cook the meat in, either… the bacon grease and pork fat from the meat was puh-lenty. But read the original recipe, it looks great as-is.

It was FABULOUS!! Seriously, try the recipe, and if someone really does cook it in the lard, I’d love to know how it turned out.

This was so good, I’m going to serve it to my mother-in-law. Yep. That good.

Change of Plans and Tuna Salad Needs Jalapeños

I love helping drive the field trip carpools for my kid’s school- I love these kids! The morning trip to the courthouse and afternoon doctor appointment left me with having to change today’s plans… but as one of the teachers who trained me used to say, “Tomorrow is another day!”

Instead of my go-to favorite sandwich I tried something different today- a Tuna Salad on Whole Wheat with Jalapeños.

The jalapeños made me suspicious… I like chilis, but don’t like food that hurts! I went ahead and tried the tuna instead of my favorite ham and cheese on a croissant… Tuna Salad Needs Jalapeños!!! The blackberry iced tea was nice, too, freshly brewed and not fake fountain tea. This was a huge sandwich and I was so glad to find that one of my friends was happy to take the other half off of my hands.

Tuna Salad with Jalepeños from Pannikin Coffee and Tea
Tuna Salad with Jalapeños from Pannikin Coffee and Tea

http://www.pannikincoffeeandtea.com/

Pannikin Coffee and Tea has two locations- Encinitas and La Jolla, and a third if you count San Diego Int’l Airport…

New Menu Monday- Herbed Salmon with Artichokes

In trying to stick with the goal of serving up our favorite meals in different ways, today I made the family switch from this:

Baked Salmon with Dill Sauce, Buttered Spinach, Brown Basmati Rice
Baked Salmon with Dill Sauce, Buttered Spinach, Brown Basmati Rice

and try this instead:

Salmon Baked with Olive Oil and French Herbs, Steamed Artichokes, Green Salad, and Whole Wheat Rolls
Salmon Baked with Olive Oil and French Herbs, Steamed Artichokes, Green Salad, and Whole Wheat Rolls

The family LOVES brown basmati rice, and somewhat willingly chokes down the spinach, but we always serve these same sides with our salmon. So, I decided to up the torture for my son- I made the kid eat an artichoke. He complained so little that I suspect he secretly liked it. My daughter and I not only really like artichokes, but think that they make a great excuse to get more butter into our faces, yeah!

Three out of five of us think that we need to eat artichokes more often- the spare 5th person was the boyfriend… he redeemed himself because even though he can’t stand the artichokes, at least he’s a salmon lover… so he can stay.

Brownies for the Church Office

We have been members at our church for just over five years since we moved back to our home state. We love these people, they do a great job at running the joint- from the pastors to the receptionists.

On my way to a meeting this morning I wanted to say thanks to everyone in the parish office and brought them by a batch of brownies. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a while-, and I love these brownies. I hope that by cutting them into little squares it will be less intimidating to everyone who made New Year’s resolutions to try and eat better…

Chocolate Chip Mocha Brownies
Chocolate Chip Mocha Brownies

Chocolate Chip Peppermint Mocha Brownies- (TIP: Did you know, if you cut your brownies with a PLASTIC knife, they wont shred, or get gummed up on the knife? For real! I didn’t believe it until I tried it, side by side with a metal knife.)

To one box (or home made batch) of your favorite brownie mix, add these extra ingredients: 1 Tablespoon of instant coffee dissolved in the water that your recipe calls for; 1 Tablespoon of Vanilla; 1 cup chocolate chips… or more. Go to town if you are a chocoholic.

Mix these ingredients into the brownie batter, then pour into your baking dish.

Before placing into oven and baking as directed, smash up about 10-15 starlight mints or 4 big candy canes, sprinkle crushed peppermint candy over batter in pan.

Bake and enjoy!! The peppermints melt into a glaze on top and are delicious! This tastes a lot like a Starbucks Peppermint Mocha to me.