Rice Krispy Treats

Or is it Krispie? Maybe it should be Krispies since you need many of them. Anyhow. I am baaaack! I didn't go anywhere but still. And it’s a rare recipe post. Hell, a rare post at all. I was always going to post some pictures of our South Pacific vacation but I didn’t even take any foodie pics. It would just be pics of sand, sky and water. I’ll probably get around to it.

This is one of our favorite simple desserts. Do you think it is too “white-trash”?

Crunchy Fudge Sandwiches

(1) 12 oz. package butterscotch chips
1 cup crunchy-style peanut butter
8 cups Rice Krispies
(1) 12 oz. package chocolate chips
1 cup powdered sugar
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons water

In a large saucepan, combine butterscotch chips and peanut butter; heat until chips melt and mixture is smooth. Add Rice Krispies; stir until well coated with butterscotch mixture.

Press half of the cereal mixture into greased 9 x 13 baking pan. Chill in refrigerator while preparing fudge mixture. Set remaining butterscotch mixture aside.

Combine in medium saucepan over low heat: chocolate chips, powdered sugar, butter and water. Stir until chips melt and mixture is smooth. Spread over refrigerated butterscotch mixture. Spread remaining butterscotch mixture evenly over top. Press gently. Chill in refrigerator until firm, about 1 hour. Cut into squares.


Sooooo….we’ve got a road trip coming up in June. I’m thinking I might blog from the road from an iPhone. Is it possible to do this without swearing? If I do it will be at a new website – of which I will provide my reader a link. (Hi, reader!) Hey, many new SD food stuffs blogs have popped (and probably pooped) up in the last year – one that I just noticed that looks really great is at http://5-ds.blogspot.com/ from a dude named Roger.

McFish McYum?

I’m lazy about this bloggin’ stuff. I’m not even eating all that good. Last week on Friday knowing that the McFishy Sammich was just $1.29 I thought I would swing thru the drive-thru and get one to bring home for a snacker mcsnack.

Yum? Does it look any better than the one last year? Anyhow it kicked off a short discussion with my wife:

“Oh, no, are you going to eat that?”

“Sure!”

“Why? It doesn’t look like anything.”

“It was just $1.29!”

“That still sounds like a rip-off”

And so it goes. Maybe she remembers Hardee’s doing them better back in the day. Hopefully everyone is eating good out there. And I'd think with the end of Lent that fish sandwhich will be back to normal price. And what does Jack in the Box do?

A.R. Valentien

I’m many weeks late and probably a couple of dollars short, but to recap the Sandy Eggo Restaurant Week I’ll start off with our first of two restaurants we tried out: AR Valentien at someplace called The Lodge at Torrey Pines. Someday I’ll get around to Arterra.


We sat down and I said bring all the food I can eat for forty bucks. Instead we got menus. WTF? Anyhow I thought I should probably play along. This is not my normal way of ordering food. I mean, at Carl’s Jr. I can ask for $40 of food and they WILL bring enough hamburglars and chicken nougats to stuff you up.

So we got glasses of water poured out by the water guy, bread served up by the bread server guy (with 3 choices including corny muffin) and we got a bowl of olives (I can’t remember if it was from the olive server-up guy or just one of the other guys) and a fancied-up deviled egg amuse-bouche.

I’ll lay out what we had as copied from the SDRW website on the internets:

Charcuterie Plate with House Made Pickles
Tuna Carpaccio, Crispy Capers, Parsley, Horseradish

Braised Beef Shortrib, Roasted Vegetables and Anson Mills Polenta
Swordfish with Manilla Clams, Toasted Orzo and Tapanade

Chocolate Pound Cake, Ice Cream
Chamomile Panna Cotta, Caramelized Pink Grapefruit

The charcuterie plate (try saying that 5 times fast) was the winner here that had three nice sized squares of meaty sausage, hammy something and a pate square along with some toasted bread and pickled veggies. (Have I warned about my run-on sentences yet?) The tuna carpaccio was sliced thinly across the plate, topped with herbs.

I had the beef shortrib - yum, on the bone, comfort food! The swordfish had tapanade spread on a small toasted bread slice along with an anchovy. In addition they served up a complimentary side dish of sautéed tiny turnips. Dessert was nicely done and delicious.

Then along with the bill just because we weren’t full enough, they set down a little plate with a couple of berries and 3 small cookies (one with a tiny section of citrus on it). We had also bumped up the bill by going for wine pairing at $25 extra a person - California wines, with an icewine for the dessert course. Service was professional – friendly and no stuffiness detected. In case you are wondering, no automatic gratuity added.


http://www.lodgetorreypines.com/

San Diego Restaurant Week - Yay or Nay?

This is the week in San Diego that if you are any kind of restaurant at all you participate in the annual Dancing With The Stars competition – no wait – that is something else entirely, this one is the $30 and $40 3-course meal "deal" we all call Restaurant Week 2008.

It might not be as exciting or as much of a deal anymore but it gets people out in the rain – including me! So heads up. This doesn’t happen often! Yes. Plan on seeing a couple of new blog entries this week! And this year, we get a double dose as they repeat the whole thing in June. I have a few restaurants in mind for summer – it will be a good opportunity to get a summer menu versus a winter menu at some of these places.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! I have posts I could be getting up but they are only in my mind so far and that is a problem if you want to blog publish! Anyhow, I wish everyone, especially the San Diego foodie bloggers, the happiest of all holidays! I lurk and get around to most of the blogs at least weekly.

A couple of random things: went to Brett's BBQ for a second time - I didn't think it was as good as the first time there. And I see Joey's Smokin' BBQ has opened up (with little fanfare) up in Carmel Mountain Ranch, near the Rubio's, near Sears, across the street from Trader Joe's.

Heads up if you work in Sorrento Valley (or drive by on the 805, or hell, in Carlsbad or La Jolla) you might have been to the newish Croutons already - it's a good quality soup, salad and panini shop that's got a few San Diego locations. Most people at work have been pretty impressed with the quality and the interesting salads and soups.

Next time I'll get around to the 1500 Ocean meal or maybe even finally share pictures of our island trip.

Turkey Weekend Is Over

Back to work. Thanksgiving is over – on to Christmas dammit all.

Just a short post today. We had our turkey dinner in Poway at House On The Hill. They had a fixed price menu: $24.95 per person with a choice of three entrees. Turkey! Ham! Or Salmon!

The price included a serving of cheese spread (homemade, they said) and a few crackers to start you off, a choice of corn chowder or house salad (it was really good!) and then on to the main that was served up with a small little pile of sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce along with bigger piles of green beans (traditionally my least favorite, but they were really good) along with stuffing and garlic mashed. Oh yeah, a bunch of slices of turkey too.

Dessert was a choice of pumpkin or apple pie. Both were served cold. And then in a cool little move, when they bring the check you get leftovers. Yes, extra leftovers of turkey sammich to go, as they said, “so everyone has traditional leftovers!” Overall, a nice restaurant and good service – they look to have a decent American menu of fish and steak. They have a large patio which would be pretty nice on warmer nights or hell, most lunches through the year.

Big Bear!

A recent weekend was the perfect time to check out Big Bear. Well, maybe not completely since a fire was still burning in the Lake Arrowhead area to the west and one of the three highways into town was closed but why let that stop us?

Yes, but how was the food?

If you’ve been there you’ve probably driven by The Log Cabin advertising THE BEST BREAKFAST! We stopped in since we could eat with the dog on the patio. If you get the German Breakfast it winds up being the wurst breakfast! Ach ya! Yes, you get eggs however you want them plus knackwurst, kielbasa AND bratwurst plus 2 potato pancakes and applesauce. Nice place, it’s been there since Hector was a pup (that means a long time) and they have a friendly staff. Another doggie option for breakfast or lunch, I’ve read, could be the North Shore Cafe. And I think there is a Grizzly something that apparently does the biggest lumberjack breakfast but it is in a tiny little place.

There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of BBQ restaurants – I picked Outlaw BBQ for take out one night. I was attracted (or maybe just intrigued) by a beer battered rib option. Now, I’m not that big on deep friend food though once I had a deep friend hard-boiled egg that had been wrapped in bacon and all those deep-fried cheese curds I’ve had so I should know what I am talking about. I got a half and half order – half normal and half deep fried. I would compare the breading to what is on a corndog. Honestly, I wouldn’t get them this way again but the regular ribs were really good.

Another evening meal was at the Mandoline Bistro in “The Village”. I had a delicious Pork Tenderloin with (as copied from their website) a guava BBQ sauce, apple and chili chutney, vegetables and tamale. Wow. This was good! And The L had the Cedar Plank Salmon, served up with mushroom risotto and a lemon sauce. We didn’t take the dog, but if you are wondering, I’m pretty sure they allow dogs on the large outdoor seating on warmer days. This place probably winds up being one of the better restaurants in the Big Bear area – and they have music upstairs on weekends.

Lodging was found going through vrbo.org – ended up being cheaper since we booked with the owner and not through the property management company though we did pick up our keys from them.

Wine and Food Fest

This was the “Grand Tasting” at a park behind Seaport Village. If you saw a guy there with food slopped on his shirt – that was me. I had a couple of mishaps. Jeez. It was a little hectic and rushed – though it doesn’t really need to be. The food was good and plentiful. Even more so for the wine. So much wine. We sampled all the food and got the heck out of there before the drunkards completely took over. It was fairly crowded – I think they could space out the booths a little. They have booths on both sides of the 8 or 10 foot wide sidewalk that circles the park. It’s not until you get to a large grassy knoll that you really have room.