A couple of weeks ago we stumbled upon a farmers market where we stumbled upon ‘Crepe on a Stick.’ I thought “how clever” and ordered myself a guava and cheese on a stick. At that moment I forgot how good that combination of flavors is. Which brings me to this recipe. I recently made these for dinner, but they would be just as good in the morning with a cup of coffee.
Pastelillos de Guayaba
Ingredients
1 package puff pastry (2 sheets)
1 egg
7 oz. guava paste, cut into 16 ( 1/4 inch) slices
6 oz. sliced emmentaler cheese (Swiss or gruyere if you need a substitute) cut into 1/4 inch slices
Directions
Thaw your puff pastry.
Once your pastry has thawed, line a 12-by-17-inch baking sheet with 2 pieces of parchment paper. (The double layer helps to protect your pan when you’re cutting the puff pastry.)
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
Prepare your egg wash by whisking your egg and a splash of water.
Lay one layer of puff pastry on top of your parchment paper lined baking sheet. Make a 4-by-4 grid (give or take, this isn’t math) and put a piece of guava stacked with cheese on each square…space evenly.
Leave about 1 inch of space in between and top with the second puff pastry sheet.
Using a pizza cutter, slice the puff pastry into pieces, touching the top lightly to determine where to slice.
Use a fork to crimp all four edges twice on each side, then arrange them evenly on the baking sheet, leaving space between each. Brush the tops and edges lightly with the prepared egg wash and place baking sheet in the center of the oven.
Bake for 25 minutes or until pastelillos are beautifully golden brown, flaky and puffy.
Let rest for a few minutes or you will be biting into lava.
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)
Twelve years ago I had a baby and that baby is now a tween.
Kaili, used to love milk, fruit, music and her mama….now she loves water, spicy chips, music and her mama! Some things never change.
She is in deep with BlackPink and a few other Kpop bands, so in true fashion she requested a BlackPink cake and Korean BBQ for her birthday dinner.
The cake was a red velvet and cream cheese frosting and a dark chocolate ganache drip on the top.
The whole family gathered at a popular Korean BBQ spot and it was a hot mess of a meal. Kaili has decided that she doesn’t need to go back and I am fully on board with that decision. Definitely don’t want to cook my own food with small utensils and noisy children, adding in that everyone wanted to eat something different was just chaos.
Even though it wasn’t a relaxing meal, it is always fun to have us all together. Lot’s of laughing and love!
Happy birthday my K bear, I can’t believe it’s been 12 years since we started this journey together. I love you!
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.
Has this recipe been taunting you on social media like it has us? Hello food porn. Boursin, good…crispy, good. hot honey, gooood…all together, sensational!
Super simple to throw together, this would be perfect for a quick appetizer, or for dinner. We had it with sliced French baguette, some toasted with evoo and some not. It was delicious.
Hot honey can be found on shelves anywhere these days, because it’s so good… on everything. But for this I just heated up some honey and red chili flakes so I could control how spicy I wanted it and I wanted it HOT!
Ingredients
Boursin cheese (garlic and herb)
2 Tbs flour
1 egg, beaten
1 cup panko breadcrumbs (seasoned with salt and pepper)
salt and pepper
TO SERVE-
Hot honey
Bread or crackers of your choosing
Directions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Place the flour, the beaten egg and seasoned panko breadcrumbs into three separate bowls.
Coat the Boursin first in the flour, and make sure that the cheese is completely coated. Dust off any excess flour and then dip in the egg, once again ensuring it’s well coated. Finally coat in the panko breadcrumbs.
Place the crumbed cheese on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Place in the preheated oven and allow to bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown and crisp.
While the cheese bakes, make your hot honey with honey and diced chilies, or honey and crushed red pepper or your favorite store bought hot honey. Whatever way you go, just heat it up in the microwave or a small sauce pan. Also, prepare your French bread for serving. Thinly slice the baguette and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and bake until crisp and golden on both sides.
Once the cheese has baked and looks golden brown, remove from the oven.
Serve on a plate, drizzle with the hot honey and toasted bread. Serve additional honey on the side because you will want more!
Our final day of the trip was spent on the beautiful streets of Ensenada.
Definitely not beautiful.
We didn’t get into town until noon or so, we were all watching the docking process from the decks above. Eagerly wanting off of the rocking ship.
This guy here was the best. Alvin was the assistant cruise director and he was a hoot!
We hopped on a bus that took us to the main drag of town. We just wanted lunch and drinks, nothing special on our minds.
Clever name huh?
We were heading to Hussong’s, apparently the oldest bar in Ensenada when we took a wrong turn and was coerced into a bar with free shots, blue shots.
It was a little iffy but the guy promised us that we would be ok and why would he lie to tourists? We really need a sarcasm font.
After our drinks we found our way to Hussong’s, imagine that.
I wanted to pop into this place when I learned that it was established in 1892. It’s also apparently where the margarita originated and it’s still standing. Did I order a margarita? No I did not, but Shawna did and it wasn’t great. Just a basic lime margarita.
I went with the timeless favorite….
The place was a tourist trap, it wasn’t as crowded as the other chain, Papa’s and Beer, that place was PACKED.
The bathrooms were interesting. The toilet paper was meant to be grabbed before going into the stall.
Very sanitary.
One drink and we were out. Then I found out that there is a Hussong’s in Vegas, WTF. We could have found a way dingier dive bar had we known that, sigh.
Time for lunch. We chose El Corralito for no particular reason than it was there and some people eating, that’s always a safe bet.
(One time long ago I got really sick after a day in Ensenada and I have some major PTSD).
You guys, the food was INCREDIBLE. Probably the best meal of the trip, aside from my Indian dishes. The sad thing is, we ordered what we normally do at our local Mexican places at home, ha. Cheese enchiladas, crispy chicken tacos, rice and beans. Can’t go wrong with those..Oh and mango margaritas…Why are they so good?
After lunch we hit the 7-11 for M&M’s because one can only try so many bad desserts in a row. Then went back to the ship.
Last dinner, last late night of mediocre entertainment.
I don’t think we ate dinner that night, but I could be wrong. I know that we went back to the martini bar for two last espresso martini’s.
We listened to some music and said goodbye to new friends and the best server in the lounge.
Then we played Roulette and probably ordered room service one last time because we didn’t eat dinner.
And that’s it, that’s the end. Well almost. We kept our luggage in our room so Saturday morning we just woke up, got dressed, grabbed our shit and walked off the ship. Our car was waiting for us and we were home by 9:30.
Reflecting on our trip, I don’t think there is any need to sail with Norwegian again. Next time we want to try Princess or Celebrity, advice welcomed. I would also like to hit the Panama Canal or Western Caribbean.
We woke up Tuesday morning to a Royal Caribbean ship docking right next to us in Puerto Vallarta.
Our plan for the day was to get to Los Muertos beach, eat lunch and lay in the sun.
We walked around until we found a place that had some open chairs on the sand and that place ended up being Burros Bar.
We ordered margaritas, I had a Cadillac and my babe got the mango, and apparently it was two for one.
For food we ordered the shrimp aguachile to share, a shrimp quesadilla and a shrimp burrito. Her burrito was the best and I really wish had ordered the snapper, food regrets are the worst.
After lunch we walked down to the beach and laid out for awhile.
After a couple of hours we found ourselves ready to head back to the ship where we could lay by the pool and the drinks were already paid for.
We stopped for some ice cream at one of the ports shops, dropped our stuff in our cabin and situated ourselves by the pool.
Before heading back to our room we watched the Royal Caribbean ship depart port.
After dinner we decided to watch a show called “Rock you Tonight” It was bad, if we were watching a high school performance then it would have been pretty good, but for cruise ship entertainment it was really not good. The entertainment in general was poor. I ended the night not feeling very hot so we went back to the room and said goodnight to Tuesday.
Wednesday was Mazatlan and sadly we were only there from 7:00 to 2:00. We got off the ship around 9:00, took a cab to a beach somewhere, and then we just walked until we found a man who offered us a couple of lounge chairs for a small fee.
As we were lounging in the sun wishing for a drink, a man with a menu appeared. He claimed that him and his mom were from Cabo and that they are making drinks in the alley. Shawna and I glanced at each other questionably and then said “ok, why not?”. My babe was braver than me and she ordered a very large mango margarita…..I ordered a Tecaté, playing it like a wuss. Her drink was really good and once again I had a drink regret because the nice man never came back, sigh.
We had an alarm set to make sure we allowed time for lunch.
We walked back down the beach until we hit Joe’s Oyster bar and popped in there.
Once again we ordered ceviche and shrimp tacos.
The shrimp in the tacos were fried, and they were SO DELICIOUS!
Our time was up so we went back to the ship and to the pool which was already crowded. We spent the afternoon swimming, drinking and meeting new people.
We took that night off, brought dinner down to our room and just watched a couple of movies. Oh, I forgot to mention the food at the buffet. It was set up by different stations, salad, pizza, entrees, desserts etc. But every day one side of the entree station had four or five Indian dishes, plus condiments such as chutney and raita. You guys, it was the best thing on the ship. Every dish, each day was phenomenal. Anyhow, that is what I had dinner that night.
And just like that it was Thursday which was our last day at sea. When we woke up we were rocking and rolling, we peeked out our window and this is what we saw….
Obviously, we wouldn’t be outside so we looked at the daily schedule of events to try and plan an inside day. Norwegian didn’t have as many fun ‘at sea’ activities as Holland America did. I am not sure if it was the actual games, the cruise staff or the guests, maybe all of the above, but it was all just blah.
We wandered around, popping into the bridge.
Played a little basketball in the arcade.
We watched a dance class from the safety of the back of the lounge while sipping Dirty Shirley’s.
Then we saw the sun really making an effort so we bundled up, grabbed our books and went to the pool deck.
But we couldn’t hang. The wind was ICE. So we took that as a sign to just go read in the room until dinner. We had reservations at Le Bistro that evening. I opened last years birthday gift to enjoy while getting ready.
It was DELICIOUS!
We both ordered the Escargot Bourguignonne, I got the Coq au Vin and my babe got the Duck de Canard. I guess I only took one photo and it was of the escargot, so voila!
The dinner was pretty good and after we headed to Bliss lounge to watch Karaoke and that was a lot more entertaining than the rock show, that’s for sure. The next day was our final day and we spent it in Ensenada.
The Art of Thyming 