To say that we have been taking advantage of our SeaWorld passes is an understatement. I think we have been about four times in the past two months and we have done it ALL. Food, shows, rides, drinks….you name it, we’ve done it. Averi has gone from afraid of rollercoasters to riding them on repeat. I knew that she had my thrill DNA somewhere inside of her. Now she is bummed because she isn’t tall enough for the scarier rides.
Averi’s favorite ride was the water ride.
Sound on.
However, once she braved Manta, the other roller coaster that she is tall enough for and it doesn’t have loopty loops, is now her favorite ride.
Between rides we take food breaks to watch a show.
The skyride is perfect for a cool down break.
Sometimes I say “yes” to games and face paint but in return they have to sit with me and listen to some music.
BUT….my most favorite thing to do at SeaWorld is riding Emperor. The front row is the best, shoes off is even better but it you want to feel like you are really flying through the air, eyes closed and hands up.
Here you go….
I have such a good time hanging out with my girls on those sunny, (okay so it hasn’t been sunny in weeks, sigh) Saturdays.
The week before mother’s day was teacher appreciation week, and boy did I feel the love. Between catered lunches, candy, flowers, wine and gift cards, I was spoiled.
For the holiday weekend; Shawna and I ran off to the desert for some sunning, soaking and reading, three of my favorite things well four!
We spent the entire day in the sun and then had a mediocre dinner. We woke up on Mother’s day, went back out to the pool for a couple of hours and then headed to Temecula for some food and wine.
We went to a new winery in town, it only opened a couple of months ago, however this was our second go around.
I am not mad at the wine. I really enjoy their Chardonnay, I think it’s one of my favorites from that area.
Also, we must acknowledge that pizza in the picture. The pizza maker is Carmine (an Italian > New Yorker > Californian) and he has a traveling wood-fired pizza truck. Handmade sourdough crust, homemade fresh mozzarella… you guys, this pizza was so delicious. The one few that we ordered had a name, but I am terrible at recalling names…They had a base of San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, slightly caramelized onions with fennel sausage, fresh basil and were finished with a drizzle of olive oil. (and maybe some hot honey at home)
The irony of my blogs name….Finding time to blog has become an art to say the least. It’s been 55 days since I last posted here, not that I’m counting. I will feel my guilt tug at me and consider sitting down to tell y’all about what we ate or how we are all getting older…. but then I start to feel more guilty and just don’t…I am sure there is a therapist reading this with BIG thoughts.
In reality, I am back in the classroom and just wrapped up DRDP (Desired Results Developmental Profile) to prepare for conferences.
And now that is done, and I am ready to catch you up. Even though it’s been some days since we last chatted, I do remember saying that I was going to make a few of Jet Tila’s recipes out of his cookbook….and I did.
Obviously it was delicious as we knew it would be.
Shawna turned the big 49 and we took ourselves to Vegas to celebrate. Casey and Aileen gifted us a stay at the Golden Nugget so that is just what we did. We LOVE Downtown Vegas. Sure the big hotels with the fancy shit and $25 buy-ins might look nice, but dammit it’s not worth it. (insert Ted Lasso’s voice) They are great for certain shows and concerts but I promise you, the fun and the food is just as good downtown. The end.
Fun story happened minutes after this picture was taken. We were sitting at a great table outside ready to watch a country (cover) band that we quite enjoy. A man approached our table and said “I’ll give you $300 for your table.” Shawna replied with a “fuck you.” I mean it’s Vegas you guys….Then he pulled out $300 and she said, “babe, grab your shit, we are moving!” And that is how I saw my first ever bubbly vending machine.
We took that money and ran….to a pool table and sipped some bubbly with someone who could have been Lil’ John, and didn’t do half bad on the Roulette table.
Oh, I almost forgot Dancing Chucky, you’re welcome.
We also saw the Padre’s play, they lost but the food and weather were winners.
The girls like to make TikTok videos…. but just for us (no they don’t have SM or post this shit..over my dead body.) Anyhow, they liked this one.
We spent Easter Sunday at SeaWorld, we have SoCal passes and can go back and back and back until Averi conquers a roller coaster, little scaredy cat…Definitely not my DNA.
The only plus is that she holds all our stuff while we ride the fun ones.
It’s a phase right?
I think that brings us up to April. I hope to see you guys sooner than 55 days…Cheers!
Winter is not my jam. Snow, cold, rain, wet, all of the above, I don’t love….you know? However, the girls are fond of the rain and especially the snow. So to get it out of their systems, we had a snow day.
We drove far enough East until we hit snow and we let them run free.
After some snow angels, little snowmen and a lot of exploring….
A couple of hours later, they had had enough.
Perfect little snowy escape.
I much prefer to sit in the sun with a book…cat sometimes included.
Oh and off topic, if you are looking for a new cookbook that you’ll want to cook your entire way through, this is it.
Another one that I am obsessed with right now is this.
The girls are on a Korean BBQ/Bulgogi/dumpling kick so this book has done the work for our weekly dinner plans.
I am making a few of Jet’s recipes this week, I will report back.
Consistency is not my strong suit when it comes to this blog, I’m sorry. I have excuses, are they good, probably not so I wont bother with the whys.
I went to an ECE (early childhood education) beach retreat and it was a really great experience. There is no end in learning how to create new and challenging learning environment.
I also had a birthday, sigh. Turns out I am older than I thought. 46 WTF?
I was spoiled with pressies, cake, balloons….and tacos!
We went out to dinner and had a nice meal, cake pop for the win!
Not about food:
The girls are new aunties to two pups. Let me introduce to you Tony and Frankie, brothers rescued from TJ who now live their best life in Coronado.
We took two days to soak up the desert heat and wade in water. Good times and tan lines. We have a favorite hotel in Palm Springs but it was booked for the dates we wanted so we decided to try out the Saguaro hotel. We thought about stopping in Temecula on the way out there for a wine tasting, but decided to just hightail it straight there to be poolside.
The Saguaro is a super trendy hotel that has a retro vibe, aesthetically eye pleasing with blocks of color everywhere. We asked for a pool view room so we could have an idea of how early people trickled down to the pool. Shade was sparse so we wanted to stake our claim on a proper poolside lounger.
Once we were checked in we swiftly changed into our suits and headed down to the crowded pool. See those loungers in the bottom of the photo? One of those opened up so we dropped our stuff and hot stepped literally into the pool. You guys, it was 110 degrees out and I’m pretty sure the pool water temp was 95 degrees. I honestly didn’t think I would make it there for two days, however I adapted. We brought our own adult beverages and our frost buddy cups which was a lifesaver. They have a poolside bar but it’s super pricey and the bartenders are green. Tip 1, bring drinks and a cup. Tip 2, get a poolside room. That was the biggest mistake we made. Each time we wanted to go to the room it was through walkways, key cards, stairs and around and through and down stairs and key cards etc. EVERY TIME….That got old fast. Meanwhile the smart ones were just hopping into their poolside rooms.
We learned that Palm Springs had a two day, two weekend musical festival called Splash House. The Saguaro hotel was a location, our favorite (sold out & now we know why) hotel was a location and one other hotel were all home base for this house music situation. Luckily we were checking out the day it started, phew. The pool wasn’t big enough or cool enough for 80 + drunk people and their floats or their urine.
We spent the entire afternoon in the pool talking and making new friends. We were deep in a conversation when I saw this in a friends sunglasses. I told him to stand tight so I could take this picture. Summer in a photo.
Eventually the sun set and it was finally only 100 degrees outside. Everyone trickled out of the pool putting a period on the day. We made our way to our room for dinner.
The next morning we claimed some pool chairs and went for breakfast. We weren’t impressed but we were fed. We hit the pool and read and sweated and read. I was almost done with my book and the pool was filling up, I told Shawna I needed to finish it before our friends showed up. I ended up crying in the pool, damn book…. but I did finish it.
We took advantage of the hotel restaurants happy hour, we slightly dried off and headed in for tacos and drinks.
Back in the pool we talked and talked until time slipped away and once again the sun went down, funny how that works. We ended the night, ordered a pizza and fell asleep watching the death channel.
The next morning we had a nice lie in, and then hit a recommended spot for lunch before heading home. We were told we MUST try El Patio.
So we did and it was delicious. Shawna got breakfast but me, not me. I ordered the Del Mar for us to start with. Fresh ceviche of crab, octopus and shrimp mixed with cucumber, tomato and the sweetest mango topped with avocado and pickled onions. SO GOOD!! I asked for the trio of salsa’s (I don’t think thats the right name) but it’s not on the menu so make sure that if you visit, ask for it! Finally, I had the fish tacos and they were perfect. We thanked our new friends for the suggestion and will most definitely be back.
As for the Saguaro hotel, I’m not sure if we will be back. One thing that I didn’t mention was the music at the pool was terrible, really bad IMHO. Maybe it was the music of the DJ’s that were going to be playing at the festival, either way it was not good. You guys, that’s all that played for two days, the same playlist over and over…I wanted to go find someone and pay them to change it. Other than a handful of negatives (working ice machines were limited) it’s not a bad hotel, we did have a great time.
A few months before our trip to Greece I landed a gig to teach a summer cooking class to kids. The days, times and location worked out brilliantly with our schedules. I was given all of the recipes for the cooking session, then I went shopping for the ingredients on the Sunday before class or that Monday morning. There is a Pavilion’s right near the school, that was so handy! The company dropped off bins full of the cooking utensils and tools I should need beforehand, so all I had to do was unpack the groceries and prep for the class.The plan was to teach two separate sessions, three weeks each. The first session was a cooking class the second was a baking class.
My cooking group consisted of 3 boys and 3 girls, ages 6-11 and they were awesome!
Each day we made two dishes/recipes. I would get to the site early and prep all of the ingredients (mis en place), the cooking equipment we would be using, and presented it on a table for easy accessibility. I wrote on each recipe card who was going to do what. Little Billy (names have been changed) will cut onions, Rose will grate cheese and so on and so forth. That way I knew that everyone was participating throughout the entire class. After a quick demo of what we were going to make and asking them about some of the ingredients, we dove in. I didn’t do any of the cooking, they did it all. I guided them, I handled the hot oven, any boiling water and the washing of knives, but other than that, they did it all. And man, they kicked ass!
The first week we made.
Gumbo, flapjacks, carrot casserole, porridge bites, egg casserole, spinach mac n cheese, Spaghetti with meatballs, and omelettes.
They were pretty good eaters. I will say that by the second week, one girl was begging to stop using onions, HAHAHA! I feel like every recipe called for onions.
When we were done with both dishes of the day, we sat down and ate together. I would bring in juice mix and they would take turns making a pitcher of lemonade or fruit punch, yes, of course it was sugar free, not my first rodeo lunatics. Then, if we had any free time before the class ended, we would play heads up or trivia or maybe just draw Whatever they wanted to do as long as it wasn’t swinging from the rafters or playing chase, boys, I am looking at you.
The second week we made;
Mash and gravy, meatball stroganoff, brussels sprout and parmesan salad, hot dogs with a veggie chili, Naan personal pizzas, macaroni and cheese and a fruit salad.
This pasta recipe, you guys, was soooooo good. I know it doesn’t look great and honestly when I read the recipe I wasn’t sold. But it’s good, guilty pleasure BBQ side dish good.
I will share the recipe.
The final week we made said pasta salad, pizza pockets, veggie sushi rolls and eggs with pico de gallo.
We celebrated both mine and my brothers birthday with the family adults last week. STAKE on Coronado is a chophouse that features aged American and Japanese Wagyu along with other prime cuts. That is kind of redundant because I think wagyu means simply, Japanese cow. But don’t hold me to that.
If I am being transparent, the price range is up there. I was worried that it would be hard to enjoy knowing how much everything cost. That was until I had my first bite of Japanese Wagyu, and then it all made sense.
We managed to get to the restaurant early and have a drink at the bar. I was getting cabin fever so It felt so good to get out.
The family trickled in and we were seated. Ordering a bunch of stuff to share, ahi poke, crab cakes, wedge salad, potatoes, duck and the Wagyu.
We each chose our preferred knife. I went with one made in Japan.
We chowed down while sipping local Syrah.
And then, we were introduced to the best bite of steak in the world.
That piece on the right my friends, was the most incredible bite of steak I have ever had. It was like butter. Rich, umami and intense steak flavor, with melt in your mouth marbling. I am now forever ruined because I know that the rib eye in the fridge will never compare to that bite of meat.
With barely any room for dessert, we persevered with some carrot cake and a lemon tort.
Then we toasted to another year around the sun.
Definitely a dinner to remember.
Speaking of things to remember. This book was so good.
I am not a huge Stephen King fan. I think I’ve liked one or two of his books, same with his movies.
This one however, is so good. We started by listening to the audiobook, but I couldn’t wait for the next road trip to finish it. So I picked it up at the library and finished reading it. I fell in love. I hope that they do it justice if they turn it into a series or a movie. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a new book.
I’ve had a week long hiatus from classes, so now I am doing my best to catch up on life’s moments. However, I have been struggling with MO-MEN-TIA {MO’men(t)SH(ē)A}. “A persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by one or more children marked by memory disorders, personality changes and impaired reasoning.” In other words, losing my memory, madness due to said loss of memory and slight insanity. The worst part, I can’t blame it all on the the kids, I am doing it all on my own. Age I suppose? Too many balls in the air, I am not the best at compartmentalizing. I’m not even sure what I was going to write today, I had an idea, sat down at my computer, and then I was asked what 9 x 30 was. So obviously, I had to stop and ask Siri. The next thing I knew, I was up and preparing tomorrow’s lunches, then I put the girls stuff in the wrong backpacks. Luckily they caught me before they were stuck in class with the wrong lunch. I find myself having to go upstairs multiple times because I forgot what I went up there for in the first place. And, last weekend, I even forgot to feed the girls breakfast. I just went ahead with my morning workout and then Kaili comes in and asks me when she could have breakfast, uh crap, breakfast… So just in case I forget, I have ribs in the oven and cookies to bake.
Before our cruise, we all {sans kids}went out to dinner to celebrate my mom and uncle Brian’s birthday.
I’d like to tell you what we had but I’m not sure anymore, I know there was dessert.
I also took two of the girls out for a lunch date in Bay Park. Kaili ordered fish and chips, which were so good, Averi ordered….wait for it….mac and cheese, which she didn’t like because she is an animal and doesn’t like anything. I had poke, always the poke.
I found this picture on my phone later that day.
I think my original plan was to tell you guys about a recipe. This is an old Cooking Light recipe that I couldn’t even find on their site anymore. I have the recipe printed out, old school style.
I’ll tell you what, I had this dish prepped and in the oven in about 20 minutes. The fact that it can feed a handful of people and/or make for leftovers, it’s a perfect weeknight meal.
Obviously over the years my culinary talent has improved and I have become one with the kitchen. Since this is an old recipe, I made changes to suit our palates. Originally the recipe called for reduced fat cheese…um no thanks. Instead I used half shredded pepper jack and half Mexican blend. I changed the type of beans, the cheese, the oil and even the tortillas. You do you! Let this recipe be a starting point and then go for it. It’s a casserole, it will be so good in the end, no matter what cheese or sour cream you prefer.
The chicken is the most time consuming part of this recipe. If you can grab a rotisserie, you’ll save yourself an hour.
Cooking Light’s Chicken Enchilada Casserole
1 tablespoon canola oil (or olive oil)
1 cup chopped fresh onion
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
Pepper to taste
1 (15 ounce) can white Cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (black beans are just as good)
1 (16-ounce) jar salsa verde ( I used a medium spice level)
10 tablespoon sour cream, you can use light sour cream.
Cilantro sprigs, for garnish
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°
Grab your 13 x 9 inch baking dish and spray with cooking spray.
Heat your oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onion; cook 3 minutes or until tender. Stir in cumin, chili powder, garlic salt, and pepper; cook a couple more minutes. Stir in the strained beans; cook 2 minutes. Add chicken, green onions and half of the olives, stir well, and then remove from heat.
Layer 6 tortillas on bottom Spread 2 cups chicken mixture over tortillas; sprinkle with 3/4 cup cheese. Repeat layers once. Top with remaining 6 tortillas.
*Note, these measurements are completely at your discretion.
Combine the milk, chopped cilantro, and salsa in a blender, and process until smooth. Pour over top of tortillas. Cover and bake at 350° for 35 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining cheese, remaining cup green onions, and the remaining olives.
Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and you can’t wait any longer.
Serve with sour cream. Garnish with cilantro sprigs and your favorite hot sauce.
Way back when I when I was in high school, my brother was in elementary and we lived in Nor Cal, my family spent a week at a beach house in south OC. We loved it. Then we moved there and we still loved it, but nothing is the same as living on the actual beach. The waves crash and you can feel the spray on your legs while you’re sitting on the porch.
My brother decided to recreate that beach house moment from our childhood and rented a house on the same beach, but this house was much fancier.
We couldn’t stay too long because the kids where in camp and school was starting, but it was a great way to end the summer. We played, bathed, swam, sunned, met a curious sea lion and in the end, no one wanted to leave.
The morning that we left the girls went down to the COLD water in their pjs, same thing I would do if I lived on the beach.
The Art of Thyming 