I tried a Nuggetini and I liked it!

In my last post. I posted a video demonstrating how to make McNuggetini. I will be the first one to admit that when I saw this I was like oh hell to the no! But after reviewing the video I started to really consider having one.
That's where one my drinking partners in crime Amanda comes in. She saw the blog and said she would be willing to try it with me while I was in New Mexico last weekend. So on Saturday night Amanda and I headed out to Chik-Fil-A for our cocktail ingredients.
The original recipe calls for McDonald's shake and McNuggets. I don't eat at McDonald's and I prefer Chik-Fil-A's nuggets to McDonal's anyway. So we got our nuggets, shakes and bbq sauce head back to Amanda's to make the infamous cocktail.
You know what? It was GOOD!!! Now I will admit It was a little heavy on the vodka. But by the third drink you don't notice or care about the amount of vodka. It was rich creamy and yummy. The bbq sauce rim really helps cut the sweetness of the shake. The nugget at the end is the perfect amount of salty to balance the sweet cocktail.
This a fun drink, it made me want to get up and dance. That could just be the amount of vodka but it was nice to have something whimical and silly on Saturday night. I may even serve this as the signature cocktail at my wedding. ;)

Shout out to my homie Amanda for being brave enough to try this with me. Looking forward to some nose warmer punch at Thanksgiving!

Gifts for Foodies

It's November, a time when a foodies mind drifts to thoughts of holiday menus. Turkey preparations, and new recipes to update old classics. Also this is the time of year when we all start to think about Christmas and Christmas presents.

I have made no secret about my love for Cookbooks! Yes you can google a million and one recipes online. But there is something about holding a cookbook in my hand looking at the pictures hearing the authors stories that makes it much richer cooking experience then just reading a print out.

I know I am not alone in my love for Cookbooks and the New York Times knows this too! So in this weeks food section. They have compiled a list of some the latest cookbooks to hit bookstores this year. The list includes books from amazing gourmet chefs to a modern day pioneer woman living in Oklahoma. This list really does have something for every foodie in your life.

Below is a link to the story with a list and description of all the cookbooks. These are great gift ideas for the foodie in your life!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/dining/04book.html

Seriously?! I might have to try it.

This morning as I am catching up on my food blogs I came accross the video below for a McNuggetini. At first I thought this isn't serious noone is really drinking this are they?! But after a little search on Google. I found out this is a real cocktail that is served in bars and there are serveral video's on Youtube on how to make one.
I haven't eaten at McDonald's in years but I have to admit I am intrigued by this cocktail and may have to cross over to the very darkside and have one. This cocktail brings a whole new meaning to Happy Meal. Check it out





P.S. if your thinking about making it you have to totally invite me over!

Try this!

Summer is over! Fall is upon us and holiday season will be here tomorrow. I still have to tell you all about something I discovered this summer. It's a wonderful summer time sipping wine. Now if you live in SoCal like I do it's still warm enough to enjoy a nice chilled glass of white wine. Which is why I had to tell you all about it.

The wine is by Pine Ridge winery located in Napa Valley California. I had the extreme pleasure of visiting this winery this summer while on a business trip. Seriously the best business trip of my life. When we walked into Pine Ridge they greeted us with a glass of their Chenin Blanc - Viognier blend. This would be the wine I would drink while we toured the winery's vineyards and wine caves.

We tasted ALOT of wine that day and visited a few vineyards. For some reason this wine stuck with me long after I got home. I was in luck they sell it at BevMo for those of you who don't live in San Diego that's Beverages and More. This wine is just a little sweet and smells like ripe melons and peaches. It just tastes like summer! Crisps clean with a little sweetness. Perfect with chicken or bar-b-que.

Even though summer is over and we are a week away from Halloween I am still drinking this wine! Its the perfect for a night with my friends or a night of TV on the couch. It's easy drinking and will win over anybody who says they don't drink wine.

The best part is every time I crack open a bottle of this wonderful wine I am transported back to that beautiful summer day in Napa. Sipping wine eating cheese and thanking God that I was chosen to go on this trip!

Cheers~

Bad day for Foodies

Conde` Naste Publishing just announced, they are shutting down publication of Gourmet Magazine! I could not believe my eyes as I read the news. Just last night I was reading my latest issue of the magazine. This Magazine has been a foodie bible since 1940.
Its a very, very, vey sad day. I can only hope that the finish the last three issues of the year. I can't imagine my holiday season without Gourmet recipes. I am still holding out hope that this isn't true and they will save the iconic magazine.

R.I.P Gourmet Magazine

When life gives you apples, make apple cake!

It's official summer is over and fall is here. With fall comes apple season. My favorite apples are champagne apples from Dixon's Apple farm in New Mexico. You know its fall in New Mexico when you can smell the green chile roasting, and Dixon's apples are for sale.
They are the only orchard that grows champagne apples. Which are green on the outside, but have a sweet crisps taste. I haven't had these apples since I moved away five years ago. But this year my mom sent me a bag full of them.
I LOVE these apples, but there are still too many apples for me and cory to eat by ourselves. So I decided to make apple cake. My grandmother makes awesome apple cake in the fall and it always reminds me of home.
I decided to make one for my friends and I was surprised how easy and tasty the recipe was. What I liked most about this cake is the smell of it while it cooks. It made the whole house smell like warm cinnamon and apples!
I served the cake with fresh made whipped cream and it was a hit with my friends and Cory. In fact Cory has demanded that I make another this week. Since we still have a lot of apples I will be baking another one tomorrow. So even though summer is over and the days are getting shorter. I can pull out some of my favorite fall comfort foods, like chile and apple cake!

Taste of San Diego

When I travel I like to experience cities through their food. So it would only make sense that when people come to visit me, I show them San Diego through food.

My longtime friend Amanda is coming to town this weekend with her husband and parents. Amanda and Mike have been to San Diego several times. They all ready know all the spots they want to eat at while they are here. Her parents have never really spent time here. So they are excited to taste for themselves all the great food Amanda has been talking about.

They will arrive tomorrow in time for lunch. The first place we are going to go is South Beach bar and grill in OB. Which some would say and I would agree, serve the best fish tacos in San Diego. South Beach is a total dive bar. When you walk in you wouldn't think they severed food, let alone really good food.

Don't let appearances fool you the tacos are outstanding. I took my mother there for the first time this summer and she has not stopped talking about it since. The fish in the tacos is really fresh and then they melt the cheese right on the tortilla, topped with crisp fresh cabbage and this magical yogurt sauce. These taco's are amazing! Paired with a nice cold beer or cocktail and you've got the recipe for a great afternoon and meal with friends.

I am really looking forward to their visit because, whenever they are in town I have a great excuse to eat at some of my favorite San Diego restaurants.

Food TV For the Soul

This week I have been a little under weather. I don't know if I am sick, getting sick or getting over being sick. But whatever is has me at less then an 100%. What makes it worse is I am 800 miles from my family. If I were home and not feeling well my grandfather would make me his famous potato soup with bacon.My mom would bring me dinner and sit with me on the couch.

So whenever I am not feeling well I get really homesick. This afternoon, I did the one thing I thought would make me feel better. I turned on the Food Network. I watched Giada make stuffed shells along with this wonderful looking baked chocolate pudding. Then my favorite show came on the Barefoot Contessa.

Something about Ina Garten's voice just makes me feel better. Watching her pour ingredients into her Kitchen Aide has a calming effect on me. I didn't want the half hour to end. Then Down home with the Neely's came on, Pat and Gina laughing and having fun in the kitchen helped get me out of my funk.

To finish my afternoon of comforting food TV Paula Dean show was on. Today she made chicken fried steak biscuits and gravy! When Paula cooks you can feel the love she puts into each dish and how much she truly loves cooking and eating. Biscuits and gravy are my grandfathers specialty so it was as close to him as I could get today. Food Network was just what the doctor ordered. I can't wait to feel better so I can get in my own kitchen and whip up some comfort food!

Cooking outside of the box

In an effort to eat healthier, I have been trying to avoid processed food. When it comes to baking I rarely use mixes or pre-made desserts. Last week a friend of mine was telling me how much she likes to make instant pudding for dessert.

It reminded me that I haven’t had chocolate pudding in years. Then this week I came across a recipe for chocolate pudding pie. It was like the universe was telling me I needed to make pudding.

I have never made or eaten pudding that wasn’t from a box or those little snack cups. I watched Martha Stewart make it from scratch once. In true Martha fashion it was complicated. The recipe for the pudding in the pie was pretty simple and funny thing is I had all but two ingredients all ready at home.

As a treat I cooked dinner and made homemade pudding from scratch. I was shocked at how simple pudding is make. The key is to keep whisking it while it’s on the stove until it thickens to make sure you do not get any lumps. I used a really good quality chocolate. The final result was so smooth and decadent. It was the best pudding I have ever had. It was richer and creamer then the stuff in the box. The chocolate flavor was intense. The best part is it only takes 15 minutes and you’ve got a wonderful dessert.

If you want to dress it up for company and you have time. Make some homemade whipped cream and layer in glass with the pudding. This is an easy weeknight dessert and a classic childhood treat. Now that I know how easy it is I will never make pudding from a box again!

Easy as Pie

What do you do when it is ninety degrees in your apartment, and your fiancé tells you we (as in me) are suppose to make dessert for a dinner party? Any other time I would be jumping at the chance to bake a wonderful dessert. I’ll use any excuse to turn on my kitchen aide.

But today, it was stifling hot in our apartment because we do not have air-conditioning and we were in the middle of a heat wave. So I had absolutely no desire to turn on the oven or stand in a hot kitchen for hours.

Just when I resolved myself to taking popsicles to the dinner party, my friend Amanda calls. I told her my predicament and she reminded me of a great recipe I gave to hear last year for peanut butter pie.

Not only is this pie delicious, it requires no baking and it’s served cold! Also you can whip this up in 20 minutes or less which means I would be out of the hot kitchen in no time. SCORE!

This is the perfect recipe for people who “don’t bake” or for the days when you have to whip up a dessert in a hurry! Try it out I guarantee you are going to love it!



Mrs. Slater’s Peanut Butter Pie:



Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 8 ounces cream cheese

• 1 cup crunchy peanut butter

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar

• 1 graham cracker crust, store-bought or premade

Directions

Whip cream with 1/4 cup sugar. Mix all other ingredients until smooth and fold in whipped cream until well blended. Pour mixture into a graham cracker crust and chill for several hours before serving.

I like to drizzle some melted chocolate on top.

Facing My Fears

Like most Foodies or pop-culture enthusiast I watched the movie Julie and Julia. The movie was excellent. Not just for Foodies, it's a great story of two people trying to find their place in the world. Even if you have no desire to make toast let alone boeuf bourguignon, you will enjoy this movie.
Because really who hasn't had that moment in their life when you ask yourself, "What am I doing with my life?".  This movie made me laugh and inspired me. More then that it made me really ask "what am I doing with my life?".
I love food, I love cooking and baking. I have shelves full of cookbooks that I could and do spend hours reading. I could blow an entire day reading food blogs. I always admire the people who make these recipes who aren't afraid to try something challenging.
I have a confession I haven't spent nearly enough time in my kitchen lately. Honestly it was making me sad. So the other day I was reading one of my favorite cooking blogs Smitten Kitchen when I came across a recipe for Chocolate Peanut butter cake .  Seriously what is not to love about a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing nothing thats what.
I wanted to bake this cake I had to taste it for my self. I had a party at friends house that weekend so I decided that would be the perfect place to take this cake. Once I committed to making it. The fear started sinking in.
What was I thinking? Three layer cake with two kinds of icing? Plus as I've mentioned before cake decorating is not one of my strengths. I wanted to back out of it. Call my friend and tell her I would bring brownies or something easy like that.
At that moment I realized I will never get good at layer cakes if I don't start making them. I can't keep running from challenges, I need to just do it. Even if it fails that's better then not trying. So I decided at that moment I going stop letting fear run my life. I was going to bake that cake!

First step baking the cakes this was easy

This is when things get tricky putting the layers together.

Crumb coat of icing so far so good.

Final icing before chocolate glaze

The finished product!

This cake is so good. I swear this cake is the cure for any bad day. Just thinking about it makes me smile.  I am so glad I baked this cake. Not only did my friends love it. I will never let fear stand between me and a good dessert again!

Happy Mothers Day!!!!!

Happy Mothers Day! To all the moms out. This year I was fortunate enough to actually spend mothers day with my mother and grandmother. I flew home to Albuquerque, NM on Thursday night for duel purpose of finding my wedding dress and spending mothers day with my mom!

It was a really wonderful weekend. On Friday I worked from home and on Friday night my mom and I went to her Salsa fitness dance class. We worked up a sweat and then went home and changed to go out for dinner and cocktails! Normally when I am home I try to hit up as many mexican places as my stomach could hold. This weekend was different, my mom wanted to show me that there was more to New mexico then just chile and enchiladas. So we had dinner at Nob Hill Bar and Grill.

I have to admit I was suprised at how good the drinks and the food was. The menu offers comfort food with an updated twist. My mom and I had the shrimp corn dogs, Tuna nachos and sweet potatoe fries. Those are appitizers on the menu so it was little plates that we shared. Also on the menu was a Kobe Chili Dog, Mac and cheese, Kobe chile frito pie (fredo pie on the menu). The best part of the meal was the cocktail.

I have had my share of good cocktails in my day but this one was AMAZING!!! It's called Berries and Bubbles. What it is, is blackberries and raspberries soaked in vodka. They mix the berries with blueberry vodka then top with champagne. Then they ad dry ice to make it bubble. It was so good. Too good if you ask me. The kind of cocktail you have three or four of without even thinking about it good. I only had one because I knew if I got two I would need two more. I have pictures of the food and the cocktails. I am currently sitting at the airport writing this post waiting to fly back to San Diego. I will share the photos when I get home and download them.

Besides the food. I had a wonderful time with my family and friends. I will tell you more. But they are startin to board my plane so. This will be continued. Have a wonderful mothers day!

I am Baaaccck!

I know, I know it's been a really long time since my last post like four months! I have a really good reason for not posting. Since you've last heard from me. I've moved into a new apartment. Gone to Europe and gotten engaged! Yes you read right I am engaged! Cory purposed to me while we were in Paris. So I hope you can understand why I have been so lax in my postings.

Also I have so much to share that I don't know where to start. So I am hoping that throughout the upcoming weeks I will catch up on my trip, life and last but never least the FOOD!

Everyday I was away I wrote in my journal to make sure I didn't forget at thing. Plus I took lots of pictures of all the delicious food I ate. I loved the food so much in Europe, that I had to buy and extra suitcase to bring home the cheese, chocolate wine that I picked up while I was there.

I promise to do a longer post on Europe when I am not currently under the influence of a sleeping pill. I can't wait to share all my food adventures and stories with you. I almost thought that I had been away so long that I didn't have anyone following my blog anymore. I was very wrong.

So thank you Charese and Amanda for reminding me that I do have an audience and stories that need to be shared. I promise to never let this much time lapse again between postings. :) 

Bonsoir 

Foodie Girl

Cupcake vs. Cake

I am going to a dinner party this weekend and was asked to bring dessert. After racking my brain on what to bring I settled on carrot cake. My only issue is this. I am not a very good cake decorator. I can ice a cake, however it never has that really pretty polished look to it you know. Instead my cakes look very, how do I put it, rustic. Mind you they always taste great but leave a little to be desired in the appearance department.
I was thinking that I could make cupcakes instead of one big cake. I am much better at decorating cupcakes. I just don't know if that is acceptable for a dinner party? I have visions of walking in with a beautiful carrot cake in my hand. Having slices with coffee after dinner. Handing out cupcakes doesn't really fit with my vision.
I am asking you readers, okay who am I kidding reader (hi mom). What should I do should I make one big cake or make cupcakes instead?

I ask and the universe answers!

I am sure must of your are familiar or at least heard of "The Secret". The secret is all about the laws of attraction. The basic idea is you ask the universe for something and the universe will provide it for you.

Last Sunday, Cory and I finished breakfast and I said lets drive around and see if we can find places for rent. I've been thinking that it was time to find a new place, one with more space and a bigger kitchen. Keep in mind I wasn't really thinking about moving any time soon. I just wanted to see what was out there and start the process.

I should learn not to ask for things I don't want to get. This morning I get an e-mail from Cory. Subject line : They are kicking us out! I didn't think anything of it, I thought he was talking about moving to a new office or something. Then, to my surprise I read that our condo owners are back from France and they want to move back in! They have given us 60 days to vacate the property! I had to read the e-mail five times to make sure I was seeing this correctly! I call Cory and I am like WTF!!!!

He told my you brought this on yourself with all that lets look at places to rent talk this weekend. You put it out into the universe and now the universe is making us move! That's not the worst of it. The worst of it is 60 days from now is my birthday. For my birthday I will be in Paris! A trip I planned 6 months ago! So not only do I have to find a new place to live I have to do it all before my big vacation.

Instead of focusing on the negative I am going to look at this from the positive side. I really did want to find a new place. And sometimes we need life to push us to make a change. Also as I mentioned previous post I wanted to get rid of clutter and be more organized. What better way to do that then to move. It gives me a perfect opportunity to go throw out all the stuff I've been dying to get rid of.

Plus I can move into the new place and set up a new functioning organizational system. I am hoping to enlist the help of my favorite OCD friend Sarah (there will be some brownies in it for you) . So it's a new year and it looks like a new place to live for me! I guess the universe did answer my plea, I now have the exact motivation I need to be organized and find another space to live!

The moral here is, be careful what you ask for you just might get it!


P.S. If any of you know of a great place for rent with a big kitchen and 2 bedrooms, washer/dryer in the SD area. Give me a ring ! ;)

New Year, new pantry

Happy New Year EVERYONE!!!

We are seven days into 2009, and I've made a couple of resolutions. I wont bore you with all the details. One of them is to be more organized and eliminate clutter. One place I really want to focus on getting organized is my kitchen!

This morning I was reading the NYTimes food section like I do every Wednesday and came across this great article on stocking your kitchen for the new year. It outlines the items you should throw out and what you should replace them with.

Some of the items like getting rid of bottled lemon juice and using fresh lemons I all ready knew. But, things like how do buy fresh vanilla beans online instead of using extract were tips I could really use. Another one for example is throwing out all spices that you have had for a year or longer. I am going to purge my spice rack and go out and buy fresh new spices for the new year.

I've notice that Cory and I have the really bad habit of buying groceries we've all ready have. Which leads to a lot of food being thrown out or not eaten. So I want to clean out my cabinets freezer and fridge. That way we know what we have and what we need. I also want to actually write a grocery list.

We go shop for food every week but mostly we shop from memory, bad idea! So once the kitchen is cleaned out we can go in every week and take an accurate inventory of what we need. Plus it will inspire me to cook with what we have so I don't waste it.

Plus this article gives really good points on how to eat real whole foods instead for processed imitation food. If you have a minute read the article, link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/dining/07mini.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink