The Birthdaying Begins

One of the things Thatboy and I have in common is terrible birthdays. Both because of timing. My birthday happens to fall during finals, or summer vacation. There was even a year when my entire family was on vacation without me. For Thatboy the problem is Thanksgiving. His family never really celebrated his birthday because they were too busy celebrating his brother's birthday 2 weeks earlier, or Thankgiving itself. During our dating years, I never got to celebrate his birthday with him because he went home to his family. My family would throw him a little party when he returned - but it wasn't the same. As soon as we were married, Thatboy began spending Thanksgiving with my family and the birthday celebrations began.

I've done everything in my power to make a big deal out of Thatboy's birthday, and this year is no exception. The celebration starts tonight when we'll head out to celebrate with Thatboy's birthday twin, H. And then I'm whisking him away for a surprise weekend - shhhh he doesn't know. The celebration will continue alll the way till DH's actual birthday next week. So stay tuned for lots of birthday fun.

Pound (cup)Cakes with Strawberry Filling

12 oz strawberries, hulled
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp water
1/2 lbs butter
1 2/3 cup sugar
5 eggs
2 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

1. Combine the strawberries, sugar, and water in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir until sugar dissolves.
2. Stir in cornstarch until smooth. Boil 3 minutes or until thick.
3. Preheat oven to 325. Cream the butter, slowly add sugar and beat until light.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating each in well.
5. Stir in the flour, salt, and vanilla and combine well.
6. Spoon into cupcake liners in muffin pan and bake for 25 - 35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before moving onto a rack.
8. When cupcakes are cool, cut a cone shape out of the top, being careful not to create a hole clean through the bottom of the cupcake.
9. Fill this cone shaped hole with strawberry sauce and replace the cake cone you cut out. (You may need to trim the bottom of the cone so it doesn't force out all your filling. This is a good time to call your husband into the kitchen to eat all the cone cuttings. He will love you forever)

Just a bit late

As usual, my blogging is a bit backed up, so these recipes are actually back from Halloween-ish. I already wrote about our experience going out and finding the perfect pumpkins, but we held off on carving until right before Halloween.

Pumpkin carving is a HUGE deal in Thathouse. We make an entire evening out of it and it's the one time of year I let Thatboy rent whatever gorey scary movie he wants without complaint. I hate scary movies. I get nightmares. My dreams are usually strange and vivid to begin with, but after a scary movie I can't sleep at all. We each sketch out our pumpkin designs on paper before getting to serious work.

For dinner, I like to make something that can cook as we work, so I don't have to be in the kitchen. Besides, carving works up quite the appetite. This year I went with enchiladas. And Thatboy has decided this is his new favorite enchilada recipe. Know how I know? He told me that it reminded him of Taco Bell - which is only his all time favorite fast food ever. He loves my girls night outs because it means Taco Bell for dinner for him.

But since Taco Bell isn't my idea of good Mexican food, I harken back to my days at El Torito Grill and the sweet corn cake that came with all the meals. I thought AVM's corn pudding would serve as a nice substitute. And the corn pudding was good - although Thatboy didn't think it went as well with the enchiladas as I did. I liked it smothered in the enchilada sauce.

Corn Pudding a 9 year old can make (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com)

Chicken Enchiladas
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup Picante Sauce
2 tsp chili powder
2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1/2 cup monterey jack cheese, shredded
4 whole wheat tortillas
1 tomato, chopped
1 green onion, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350. Mix together sour cream, picante sauce and chili powder.
2. Take one cup of this mixture and combine with chicken and cheese. Reserve the rest of the sour cream mixture.
3. Divide the chicken mixture between tortillas. Roll up tortillas and place seam side up in baking dish. Pour reserved sour cream mixture over the filled tortillas.
4. Cover dish and make for 40 minutes.
5. Top with chopped tomatoes and green onion.


Frieda Kahlo's Pan de Muerto (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com)
November 1 is traditionally Dia de los Muertos, which is celebrated in many areas of San Diego. Not surprising given that we're a mere moments from Mexico. It's a celebration of ancestors and frequently characterized by those crazy skeletons. Whether they're dancing, or playing in a mariachi band. My "pan de muerto" came out looking a little Edward Munch-ian but they were delicious. So delicous in fact, that Thatdog ate almost this entire basket you're looking at right now. Yeah....he can be sneaky.

Nobody Walks in LA

Every year around this time the fabulous Weezermonkey hosts her kareokefest. Normally, I drive up, stopping on the way to pick up K1 on the way. This year with the amount of weekend driving Thatboy and I have been doing, I decided it was going to be WAY too much to drive up to LA and back in a single evening. Instead Thatboy and I decided to make a weekend of it and act like real LA tourists.

First things first, we pricelined a hotel and got a dirt cheap deal at the Marriott. The location was fabulous since it put us within walking distance to one of our destinations, more on that later. And Thatboy and I have a tendency to stumble upon celebrity - which would impress probably anyone but us. Some rockstar was staying at the hotel with us, be we only knew because some guy ran up to him with a stack of records (kids - this is what people listened to before cds) and had him sign them all. Then I got to ride up the elevator with one of his band mates. I don't think I was in reverent awe enough for whoever it was because he made a big show of pushing the penthouse button by walking across the elevator and in front of me, instead of the panel in front of him.

The second plan of events was to figure out where we were going to eat. And of course, I contacted my LA food expert - Weemo again. Even though Thatboy and I lived in LA for a combined total of 6 years, we rarely ventured to the downtown area. That's the scary part of LA! But it's Weemo's playground and no one knows it better. With her help we were able to plan a weekend of culinary delights.

Saturday morning we dropped Thatdog off at "camp" and headed up to Los Angeles. The original plan was to arrive before noon so we could have a nice leisurely lunch at Bottega Louie.

Unfortunately, Thatboy and I had a late Friday night which became Saturday morning before we knew it. So we slept in a bit later than we were planning. We didn't get up to LA until 1, and that gave us only a little over an hour before the reason we came up so early. Luckily, Weemo is a genius and her suggestion of Bottega Louie was perfect. In addition to a sit down restaurant, Bottega Louie also houses a gourmet market!

Thatboy and I grabbed some fresh sandwiches, sodas, and macarons and headed to the hotel to check in. We had a picnic in the room, before heading out. Thatboy and I had big LA plans for this weekend. This summer, I had noticed that one of my all time favorite shows was coming to LA - Parade! And it was starring T.R. Knight! (Yes friends, George is NOT dead...although he does die every night...and twice a day on weekends.) I didn't expect to make it up to LA to be able to see it, but once we decided to make a weekend of it, I booked us tickets immediately. And was able to get them for over 50% off - because I hate paying full price.

Parking (and driving) in LA is such a pain, I've actually gotten panic attacks on the freeway. So Thatboy and I decided, since we were less than a mile from the show, we would hoof it. As we left the hotel they tried to get the car for us, and when we told them we were walking, every head turned to stare at us.

But after a couple of blocks, we reached our destination:

Parade is a musical with the book written by Alfred Uhry (of Driving Miss Daisy fame) and Jason Robert Brown (who is my all time favorite composer). It opened on Broadway in 1998 and won the Tony award in 1999 - just a few months after it closed. I never got a chance to see it on Broadway, but fell in love with it during the award show and ran out to buy the cd which I listened to over and over and over again. It's based on the true story of Leo Frank - a superintendent of a pencil factory in Atlanta who was tried and convicted of the murder of a 13 year old girl because he was a northerner and a Jew. It's not a warm and fuzzy musical, but it is beautiful and poignant. This version of the show was reworked by Uhry and Brown. The venue was perfectly intimate and the cast was phenomenal. I was definitely impressed by the fact that T.R. Knight can sing - something I was not expecting.

After the show we headed to dinner - another one of Weemo's recommendations: Rivera.

As usual, Thatboy and I made friends with the bartender (or as Weemo says "mixologist" and she's usually right). When they didn't have his usual brand of scotch, the bartender/mixologist made him a little taster menu of their scotches so he could try them all and pick his favorite. After that we were in her hands as she made him fascinating drink after fascinating drink.

We began with the tortillas - corn tortillas baked with the restaurant's signature edible flowers. These things were on everything.

The tortillas are served with Indian butter, which we decided must just be avocado. Thatboy said he hoped it wasn't butter because he put so much on his tortillas he would guarantee himself a heart attack.



Next came a chile relleno stuffed with burrata. Did you see the magic word there? Yup. Burrata. I'm a sucker for it. That beautiful design at the top of the plate? Spices and completely edible.


There were too many interesting choices on the menu, so Thatboy and I decided to order two and split them so we each got half.

I preferred this duck confit with goat cheese and blue corn tortilla - kind of a deconstructed enchilada. It has 4 magic words! "duck confit" and "goat cheese."

Thatboy liked to go back and forth between this pork which he deemed delicious and rich. Somehow he came up with the theory that the goat cheese and duck cut the richness of this dish...yeahhhhhhh - he'd had a lot to drink by this point in the night. Meanwhile, how fabulous is the presentation at Rivera?

For dessert, it was recommened we try the olive oil cake - even though it wasn't on the menu. This is why it always pays to be sweet to your server. After raving about how it was her favorite dessert, she went and checked with the kitchen to see if they had any, even though it wasn't on the menu and soon enough, a plate of it showed up in front of us.


After dinner I dropped Thatboy off at the hotel and headed to Kareokefest - and I'll let Weemo cover that since she will do a much better job that I could. Around 1pm I stumbled back to the hotel and crashed.

We slept in till 9 - which is a HUGE deal for Thatboy and I. After leisurely getting ready and packing up the room, we headed to our last Weemo rec- the Nickle Diner.

The gourmet doughnut phase has not hit San Diego yet, but apparently it's hit Los Angeles. Shortly after we sat down, an amuse bouche of doughnut holes were brought to us.

I LOVED the strawberry crumb doughnut on the left, and Thatboy was impressed with the "Clockwork Orange" on the right.

Weemo sent me a warning earlier this week telling me to stay away from the Huevos Rancheros - so I did. She recommended the scramble and I listen to experts.

Mine had the goat cheese, bacon, and spinach. And I had the polenta with it - OH MY this is fabulous polenta. Some of the best I've ever had.

Weemo had mentioned that next time she went to the Nickel Diner, she wanted to try the pork hash, so Thatboy figured he'd try it for her. He liked my breakfast better. He didn't think there was enough egg, and wanted a saltier pork instead of a carnitas style pork they used in the hash.

Once we were all good and full, we headed back home to San Diego so Thatboy could get some weekend surf. It was fun to have a weekend away - even just going someplace close. Even when that someplace is LA.

We brought a little treat home with us - a red velvet doughnut and maple glazed bacon doughnut. Thatboy thought the maple glazed bacon doughnut was much better than he thought, but I wasn't all that impressed. I did like the red velvet though - mmmmmmmm.

You say potato...

Just in time for summer - a plethora of potato salads! Oh wait, it's not summer anymore? I know friends, I was just as skeptical as you when I saw that AVM had all these potato salad recipes in their October chapter. But, I made them anyway. Because I'm crazy like that. And I found that "potato salad" is a misnomer for half these recipes. Roasted potatoes and veggies are the perfect side for autumn. And they go so well with the mountains of chutney we have!

Unlike most of the recipes in AVM, I can tell you these are fantastic. Thatboy and I enjoyed each one.

"Fall" - roasted red potatoes with roasted veggies. (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com) Served with satay skewers and chutney. Thatboy loved the satay skewers, loved the potato "salad" and loved that I served the chutney on the side so he could ignore it.

"Summer" (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com) - fairly traditional German-style egg salad...which could be why Thatboy and I loved it so much. It was the egg. The combo egg/potato salad would be PERFECT for summer barbecues and picnics. This will probably be my go-to potato salad recipe from here out. Served with pork chops covered in chutney.



"Winter" - roasted fingerling potatoes with roasted veggies. (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com) I have to say, this was pretty similar to the fall recipe. Which was fine, we liked that just fine. The difference would obviously be the vegetables that are seasonal. Served with turkey tenderloin cooked in chutney....can you see why Thatboy might be tiring a bit of the chutney?



"Spring" - boiled new potatoes with peas and mint. (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com) This was similar to the summer recipe, but we preferred the summer one. Although I like the fresh peas in this, and liked that I could boil them together. Made it very easy.



Pumpkin Soup (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com)

While the potatoes might not have screamed "October" the pumpkin soup definitely did! Thatboy was so impressed by the presentation. Which is really the only reason to serve it in a pumpkin shell. Because it sure as hell doesn't cook better in there. Even though I followed the precautions, I still managed to scoop out the bottom of the shell - leaving me with a giant hole...just like the author got when she made it. Luckily the roasting pan kept everything inside the shell. I do love my roasting pan. I wasn't expecting much from this since the pumpkin inside kept scraping off really stringy. Even after pureeing it. But both Thatboy and I were pleasantly surprised by the flavor of this soup. It'd be a great, impressive starter to your Thanksgiving.

Straight from the bird

Why hello out there! Some of you may recall that this blog used to feature food and recipes. And then life got busy and I stopped being home to cook. Then I was home to cook, but didn't have the time to blog about it.

Well I can't say that life has slowed down at all, but I actually have some food and recipes that are back-piling up, just waiting for me to share with you. I know. It's exciting.

I don't know where the saying came from that "real men don't eat quiche." It's simply not true. Not only is Thatboy more than happy to eat quiche, but he'll even eat frittata and strata. And he almost knows the difference. What makes me even more sure that real men eat quiche is that Thatboy will even eat it for dinner. Well, frittata - but remember, he can't tell the difference.

Veggie Frittata (recipe available from animalvegetablemiracle.com)

Egg dishes are fabulous for two things - using up veggies you have in the fridge, and getting a non-veggie eater to eat veggies. And even AVM can't mess up a frittata too badly. It helps that the ingredients are eggs, cheese, and veggies and I love all three.

Spicy Turkey Sausage (recipe available from animalvegetablemiracle.com)

And to go with the eggs, I made the turkey sausage from AVM. These you could go wrong with. Even though they were nice and spicy, they were surprisingly bland - like a lot of the other recipes. I can't understand how a recipe can have so many herbs and spices and still be bland.

Hope your not sick of changing leaves

I know most of you get to see this stuff every year...but I don't. So I take a lot of pictures of it. And then I share them with you. Lucky readers.

Our last day in Atlanta we arose shortly after the crack of dawn to drive Thatfamily back to the airport. Thatboy and I had scheduled a later flight so we could do more exploring. After we dropped them off, we headed to breakfast, another one of Josie's recommendations, Ria's Bluebird Cafe.

Once again, because of our early arrival, parking was easy and we were able to secure a seat without waiting. We were offered a giant table, but since it was the last open table, and there were only two of us, we felt too guilty to take it. So we plopped ourselves up on the counter. Which was perfect, because Thatboy had been dying for a counter service restaurant.

Thatboy instantly fell in love with the place. The music, the decor, the coffee...

Check out the beans!

On the menu, we noticed that the pancakes were declared the world's best pancakes by the NY Times. It was a challenge Thatboy was happy to take. Especially when he saw he could get a side of real bacon - made from real pork! Now here's the thing that gets me every time. These pancakes were light and fluffy and perfect. I love light, fluffy pancakes. Thatboy claims to hate them. He never lets me make them. Instead he only will eat gooey thin pancakes. So I was all ready for him to hate these. Nope. He loves them. He just lives to make my life difficult.

I ordered the omelet special of the day. It came with enough food to feed a small family. The bacon - which I gave to Thatboy, the biscuit - which was fabulous topped with their homemade raspberry preserves, and a sweet potato cake.

The problem with it being early on a Sunday morning is that nothing was open. Which was okay by us, because it gave us hours to spend in the Oakland Cemetery. I'd been dying to visit, but I wasn't sure we'd make it over there. Lucky for us, Ria's was located directly across the street.



The Oakland Cemetery is one of those cemeteries that traces the history of America. It has graves dating back before the civil war, through modern day. It's gorgeous and the day was perfect for meandering through. Cool, and slightly overcast, and the week of Halloween.

It's fascinating to walk and read through the tombstones, many of them bringing a tear to my eye as it described short lives, and people who were obviously loved.

For me, the most famous resident of the Oakland Cemetery was Margaret Mitchell Marsh. I mean, everything I know about Atlanta comes from Gone with the Wind. (I know, it's not much - but really I grew up in Pennsylvania, so our civil war history focused a lot on Gettysburg.

There's something so romantic about this tree which covers two graves. It reminds me of the tree that was supposed to have grown up over Tristan and Iseult's graves.

The thing I LOVE about old southern cemeteries is that they used to be a place of celebration in addition to a place of sorrow. It was a place the families would go on Sundays after church for Sunday supper. I can just picture a family sitting on a spring day under this gazebo which would probably be covered in flowers.

There is an entire section dedicated to the Confederate soldiers who lost their lives in Atlanta.

This gorgeous statute represents all the soldiers who got somehow disconnected from their friends, family, and any identification. So sad when you think about the age of most of the soldiers in the Civil War.

It's not hard to believe that the section for Confederate graves stretches past the eyeline. If you saw Gone with the Wind, you'd know that Atlanta, and its inhabitants were devastated by the Civil War.


After the cemetery, we headed over to Virginia Highlands which had a cute little collection of stores, and some gorgeous houses. We seriously considered visiting an open house, but then thought that we'd each have to take another Bar exam had us just walk by and admire instead.

We made friends with the people in the gourmet food store (surprise surprise) and they recommended we check out Piedmont Park. We did, and I am SO glad we took them up on their suggestion.

Piedmont Park is Atlanta's version of Central Park. The weather was beautiful, so there were so many other people (and dogs) out enjoying the day with us.

Thatboy aptly named the bridge "The Fairytale Bridge." I'm sure it has a real name, but frankly, I kind of like "Fairytale Bridge."

The view from Fairytale Bridge. Gorgeous, right?

More of those leaves I was telling you about. We're seriously going to have to take a trip to the East Coast every fall.

Anyone know what kind of waterfowl this is? It was so unusual I had to snap a picture. One of those birds that was so ugly it was beautiful. (*Super duper thanks to Jen who has identified this duck as a "Muscovy duck")

Our last view of Atlanta before heading to the airport and back to San Diego.