Flashing Back to Spring Break: Iced Tea with Popping Boba

Soooooooo it's been a while.  Which is not to say there wasn't anything going on over here.  There was...a lot.... More than I could handle really.  And it didn't really put me in the mood for writing, or sharing, or doing much of anything.

But let's back up a bit, to where we left off.  Which would be spring break - back in April.

As usual, we used the opportunity of Thatkid's school break to visit ToxicEsq in Scottsdale.

We stayed at a new hotel that Thatboy was not thrilled with, as it was basically an homage to the influencer lifestyle which he considers the lowest common denominator.  

I, however, used the opportunity to capture some fun shots.

While in Scottsdale we took advantage of some of our old favorites.  Like the train park.  We've really gotten into the routine of letting the kids sit inside the boxcars while the adults enjoyed the kid-free open air cars.

And of course, there was daily swimming.  (It's not really a vacation without pool time, is it?)

And a stop at the Sugar Bowl for ice cream.

But one of my absolute favorite parts of our trips to Scottsdale, is that ToxicEsq always takes the reigns on the planning, finding the absolute perfect activities for us.  I mean, she's the one who introduced to the train park AND Sugar Bowl after all.  This trip she suggested visiting CrackerJax, a "family fun and sports park."  It was a surefire hit.

We played a couple of rounds of mini-golf, although Thatbaby decided it was not his favorite part.

Go-carts for the big and little guys.

But their favorite were the bumper boats.

We also tried out some new restaurants this time around.  One of the more...interesting was Hash Kitchen.  It was one of those places that you probably don't need to go to more than once, but was certainly fun.  

The breakfast offerings were those oversized plates no one can finish.  I had the Huevos Rancheros Hash, with carne asada, black beans, potatoes, and eggs. 

Thatboy had their avocado toast.  Which definitely had more than avocado.  It also had braised pork, bacon jam, and eggs.

Thatkid had smores pancakes, while his brother stuck with regular chocolate chip.

We also started with some really fun drinks.  Like  Thatboy's coffee in a cone.

And the boys continued their smores themed breakfast with smores hot chocolate.

And I had strawberry mimosa with strawberry popping boba.

The boys and I are suckers for popping boba.  It's one of those things we always get on top of our frozen yogurt.  So of course, they were all over trying to share mine, from the drink, with me.

Which made me realize it would be just as easy to make boba-filled drinks at home.  They're easy enough to order online as we discovered during Thatkid's Shrek birthday party.  And they work really well for a lot of summer drinks.  Add them to your lemonades, or fruit punches, or in my case - ice tea!

I always have a pitcher of iced tea in the fridge during the summer, because it's easy enough to make and for me it's the perfect summery drink, cold and refreshing.  As a quick note - I have made the mistake of trying to pour the boiling water into a plastic container.  It was, to put it simply, not a good idea.  Make sure you use glass, metal, or some heatproof material I'm not aware of.  I like to use growlers we pick up from breweries.  You can transfer it to something prettier once it cools.

Iced Tea with Popping Boba

1 gallon water

sugar

6 tea bags

popping boba

1. In a kettle or pot, bring one gallon of water to a boil over high heat.  Pour the boiling water into a heatproof container (one that won't melt).
2. At this point, add your sugar if you wish.  This is one of those "to taste" things.  Sometimes I add no sugar at all.  Sometimes I make sweet tea, by adding 1/4 cup of sugar.  If you like it lightly sweetened, somewhere in between would be your best bet.  Remember, you can always add more sugar later, but you can't add less. 
3. Place the tea bags in the hot water.  Personally, I wrap the tea bag strings around a wooden spoon to make them easier to remove, but this isn't necessary.  Let tea bags steep for about 5 minutes, until the tea looks nice and dark.
4.  Remove tea bags and let cool to room temperature.  Refrigerate for 4-6 hours.
5. When ready to drink, grab a spoonful of boba and place in the bottom of a glass.  Pour ice tea over.  You shouldn't need any ice since your tea is already cold!

Sunday Runday: Beach and Bay Half Marathon

At the beginning of the year, after I decided my new motto was "run more half marathons" I started looking at halfs that would be fun and cheap.  Because it's not like half marathons are inexpensive, so if I was going to do a bunch of them, then I wanted to make sure they would be affordable.

Which is how I signed up for the Beach and Bay Half Marathon.

I wrestled with this one a lot.  Running around Mission Bay isn't my favorite, because for a lot of it, there's no designated course.  And 13 miles of that sounds...not so fun.

But spoiler alert - I really enjoyed this race.  It was flat, easy, and a very pleasant way to spend a morning with beautiful views.

I got there early enough to secure the closest parking - which was still about half a mile a way from the start.

Their definition of "joggers" is very different than mine.  But I jumped in there anyway.  

As I mentioned before, the course was really pretty.  It ran the opposite way that most of the Mission Bay races start out, which meant we didn't begin with Fiesta Island.  We headed out over the bay and into Mission Beach.

It was really nice to run along Mission Beach.  I've done that with friends before and the flat beachside path is lovely.  I was a little worried about cross traffic, since it's not like it was closed to the public, but we all managed to work together.  

And then we were heading back to Mission Bay.  I was feeling pretty good for most of the run and enjoying a faster pace than my last two back-to-back halfs. 

The last 3 miles were the hardest for me, because I started feeling a little PTSD as we ran the same path I had done earlier in the month at Sharon's Ride - where I was running at top speed trying to keep up with Thatkid's scooter.  So I let myself slow it down a bit.  But this is also where the race really pulled through.  All of a sudden there was a water stop every half mile.  As if they knew!  At mile 11 there was also a cold wet washcloth for every runner.  The weather was perfect for the race, but it's still hot when you run!  

I ended up reaching the very first goal in my half marathon plan - I finished in less than 2.5 hours!

Flower Fields: Strawberry Rolls

I love that spring is so full of flowers.  And we take complete advantage of it.  Trips to the desert to see the super bloom, and of course, the flowers a little closer to home.

I look forward to our yearly trips to the Flower Fields.  Who wouldn't?  There's something about the bright colors and beautiful flowers that just puts you in a good mood.

How can you not be happy when you're looking out over fields of flowers?

This year, because of the rain, it seemed as though the ranunculus were even more full and even more bright.

It's also a really easy family field trip.  One of these days these boys are not going to be up visiting a field of flowers.  So I'm soaking in these moments they still get excited about.

Of course, it helps that the Flower Fields has a lot that is interesting to these kids.  Like ice cream.

And playgrounds.

And gem mining.

And when it's all over, we grab a flat of strawberries to take home.  Or eat in the car.  A lot were eaten in the car.  But enough were left to fold into strawberry rolls.  And begin our foray into San Diego's strawberry season - always early, always delicious.

These strawberry rolls are a twist on cinnamon rolls.  I actually made these before Passover, but didn't want to share them, because the last thing I want to think about during Passover is doughy rolls, covered in cream cheese icing.  But we're back to eating bread in this house, so it only seemed fair to share with you.  Hurry - they go fast!

 Strawberry Rolls

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp instant yeast

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar, divided

7 Tbsp butter, divided

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup strawberries

1 cup strawberry jam

1/2 cup cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1. Sprinkle yeast over milk and let it sit for 5 minutes.
2. Combine egg, 1/4 cup sugar, 4 Tbsp butter, flour, and salt in an electric mixer. Mix until the mixture resembles small peas.
3. Add in the milk/yeast and mix for an additional 5 minutes.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until the dough has doubled in size.
4.  Combine the strawberries with remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and let sit for 20 minutes while you prepare the rolls.
5. Spray a pie pan with baking spray.  Roll out the dough on a floured surface into a 12 x 18 rectangle.
6. Spread the jam over the rolled out dough, leaving about 1/4 inch border. 
7. Scatter the strawberries over the jam.
8. Roll up the dough like a carpet, starting with the side farthest away from you.  Press the seam into the dough roll to seal.
9. Slice the roll into 8 pieces and place each piece into the pie plate.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size. Preheat oven to 350.
10. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown.  Let cool.
11. While the rolls are cooling, combine the remaining butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and confectioners sugar in an electric mixer.  Mix until the desired frosting consistency is achieved.  Spread the frosting over the cooled rolls.

Sunday Runday: Sharon's Ride 2019

Welcome once again to my Sharon's Ride race recap.  We've been taking part in this race for years now, and so there's not as much of a need to recap the same thing over and over again.  As usual, Thatbaby was all about getting his face painted.

The new experience for me this year was running with Thatkid.  Which, in itself, wasn't such a new experience.  We've been doing this race together almost since we first started doing it.  But this year, he really got into gear.  He always either rides his bike, or scooters, but ends up complaining after a short while and being dragged on his scooter by me.  I typically think of this as a walk more than a run.

But this year, the kid took off on his scooter and basically disappeared from sight.  I had to run at top speed and I still couldn't keep up with him.  This picture?  It's him passing me on his way back before I even got to the turnaround.  And then he was gone again.  Luckily I found him waiting for me beside the finish line when I finished.   And after all that running, I was only too happy to sit beside him and wait for Thatboy and Thatbaby to finish. 

After the race we stopped off for some free shaved ice.

There's always some treat after the race  (and before the race) but shaved ice is definitely my favorite!

Face paint - check

Fast race - check

shaved ice - check

Another successful race!

Play Ball!: Individual Lime Sherbet Punch

One of my least favorite days of baseball is the day when all the Pony League teams across San Diego go to the ballpark together.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good day at the ballpark as much as the next guy, but all those kids?  It's so overwhelming. 

Plus, it's a pretty long day as we have to get there hours early in order for the kids to line up, to march around the field before the game starts.  A march in which you inevitably can't even see your kids, because they don't bring them where the parents are allowed to stand and watch.

So why do we go every year?

Because look how happy it makes my kid:

He just loves it.  He loves going on the field.  He loves watching the game with his friends.  He loves every minute.

The good parts?  Every year Pony League day seems to coincide with Military Appreciation Day, so we get to see some really cool preshow stuff.  This is the second year in a row that we've had Navy Seals parachute into the stadium.

Thatbaby was also very into cheering - whenever the bigger boys cheered.

One of the best parts of Petco Park is how kid friendly it is.  The last couple of innings we brought the kids over to "Park at the Park" and let them run around a bit until the end of the game.

I always take advantage of the fun drinks while we're there.  One of our local breweries opened up a distillery and they always have a presence there with a bunch of fun themed drinks.  Since this game we were playing the Giants, I got my hands around the "Giant Crusher."

I am all about fun drinks for the summer, even better when I can make something easily translated from alcoholic to non-alcoholic, depending on the occasion.   The idea of an individual ice cream punch was mine - because sometimes you don't want to make a huge thing of punch, you just want something for you to enjoy.  The flavor was picked by Thatkid, who wanted something green and REALLY limey.  We talked about using lime sherbet and strawberry lemonade, or watermelon cooler, but in the end, his vote for "lime, lime, and more lime" won out.

And the best part of the drink is that to "adultify" it, all you need to do is add a shot (or two) of gin.  It then becomes a really fun take on the classic lime rickey.

Individual Lime Sherbet Punch

1 cup lime sherbet, softened

1 1/2 cups limeaid

2 cups lemon-lime soda

*optional - gin

1.  Place 1 scoop of sherbet into 4 glasses.
2.  Top sherbet with 3/4 cup of limeaid per glass.
3. Add 1/2 cup of lemon lime soda to each glass.
4. If you wish to make this a grown up drink, add a shot of gin to each glass.