Counterpoint- Golden Hills

830 25th St
(between F St & E St)
San Diego, CA 92102

(619) 564-6722

www.counterpointsd.com

I was supposed to come here once before but my plans had changed.  Since a friend of mine is good friends with one of the bartenders, it was inevitable that I would venture onto this place again though.  Location wise easy to find.  Parking is street only.  Neighborhood is kinda rough but also lots of beautiful older 1920s style Victorian and Craftsman style home too.  The interior is kinda cool decorwise as well.  We sat in the cool kids booth by the bar with a colored glass chandelier ball thing hanging high above.  Check it out:

Sorry for the yellowy pic.  Iphone does not have the best camera despite raving online blog reviews on the iphone 4 prior to my decision to take the plunge.  Large selection of beer and wines- no hard liquor guys.  Bar food with a twist menu.  We went on a Saturday night so no happy hour deals here.  

Pork sausage and asiago cheese pizza $14.  Very cheesy.  Good size portion.  I could have used a bit more sauce on the pizza myself but I love tomato sauce.  

Grilled cheese $10.  The bread apparently is baked locally at bread & cie.  Menu says almost a 1/4 lb of Cahills-Porter cheese, a dark Irish cheese.  The cheese has such an intense flavor and a large portion as well for the sammy.  It is served with cole slaw thing on the side.  It will definitely fill your grilled cheese craving.  

Pain Frites $6.  Basically, toasted "fries" of french bread, topped with melty blue cheese.  You dip it into this crazy concoction of champagne, honey and jalepenos.  Sweet and spicy basically.  Its definitely worth a try.  

The food is definitely guilty pleasure inducing.  Cheese galore, thick breads, and libations to boot.  =)

Guess who took a little hiatus...

I have a few semi-acceptable reasons why I have been MIA.  I thought we were on a break.  Its not you its me. I have been sick with what they call bronchopneumonia aka walking pneumonia.  Plus it was my bday.... Is that good enough?  Can we move forward?

I couldnt decide which mediterranean food place to eat after my thrift store shopping ventures failed today.  All I found was a lousy $4 wine rack.  Im not gonna lie, the cheap price signs drew me in like a moth to a flame.  Its basically a small middle eastern foods mom and pop supermarket with a few hot foods in their deli. Due to severe language incompatibilities, it took for-e-ver to order anything.  I just ended up going for a few of their beef kebabs.  Whopping total: $2.07 for three decent size kebabs and cucumbers and tomatoes on the side.  Plus I picked up some canned hummus for a special someone who loves getting my packages.

The verdict: I would come here again.  The meat tasted kind of gamey, was nicely cooked and the veggies were very fresh.  For basically 2 bucks.  Best deal in town.  

Athena Foods 

435 W. Main Street, El Cajon CA 92020

619-442-2300

Corner Bakery- Mission Valley area

In a desperate search for free wifi last week, I found myself at Corner Bakery on the same block as the Mission Valley Mall.  Here was my experience in a few nutshells:

1. Free Wifi in case you missed it in the intro; very strong signal I might say
2. Plentiful parking but the inside can get crowded depending on the meal time
3. Sandwich size was large but the bread felt dry. Booo since it looked so dang scrumptious when it came to the table.  The roast beef was tender but I could have used some more inside (this is saying alot since I usually complain that there is too much sandwich meat).  
4. Their tomato soup is NOT the business although it is one of their daily specialty soups.  Twice now I got this soup and twice I was not happy. The focaccia bread on the side is nice and chewy though.  
5. Their store brand tater ships are very good...crunchy and salty! 
6. They didnt give us evil death ray looks when we studied for a few hours
7. Their chocolate chip cookies on the other hand ARE the business.  Deee-lish.  

Official website: http://www.cornerbakerycafe.com/home.aspx

Louisiana FriedChicken- Spring Valley

Quickie cuz thats the mood I am in currently:

I had a mean craving for fried and battered __________ with hot sauce so I gave this joint another chance.  I rarely eat fried chicken and I havent always been happy with the caliber of the food here on previous occasions. They offer the usual suspects i.e. fried chicken/ shrimp/ fish/ gizzards and sides like mashed taters, collard greens, gumbo, rolls, mac salad, etc.  Now they offer mac and cheese! And yams and potato salad but that doesnt excite me much.  For optimal fried skin real estate, I went with the 4 chicken nuggets with a side of mac and cheese and side of mashed potatoes.  See here:

Okay so here is the down low on this meal.  The mashed taters were the biggest disappointment.  Looks like a deep intense gravy...it wasnt.  Potatoes tasted too instant-y and gravy was very bland.  The mac and cheese was decent...Not enough on the cheese, too much on the sauce.  The chicken nuggets were 2 bucks for four and they didnt make me happy either.  Portion was small and the batter didnt have the same taste/ texture as I remember their actual fried chicken pieces having.  It was made of white meat however so I could feel a little righteous about that I suppose.  Bottom line?  It will probably be awhile before I go back here.  

Corporate website: http://www.louisianafriedchicken.com/

San Diego Desserts *update only*

I went there recently for a study sesh and found out some new things I want you guys to know about.  You can always go back to my archives for my previous posts on this place.

1. They have free wifi
2. They do party bus trips to a winery in Temecula every so often along with the stay-cation days at the store with themed food nights
3. Its a dog-friendly atmosphere if you eat in their decent size patio area
4. They take mac and cheese up a notch in chicness.  They make theirs in a white cheese sauce, dont use shells or regular elbow pasta (my guess is a rigatoni pasta), and they....use duck.  Duck Confit Macaroni and Cheese to be exact.  Its rich, not oily, the duck was a good balance of fat and meat, and  a perfect size portion.  It goes very well with #6 FYI.

1. They have happy hour deals for food and alcohol.  
2. They have awesome truffle and parmesan cheese fries.  Shavings of salty parm.  Truffle oil.  Shoestring fries perfectly fried and balanced.  

Just because...

This will be short and sweet.  Filipino style roast pig, which is like special big party event food. This was taken in line at Tita's on Plaza Blvd.  Its super good especially with the sweet sauce, but I cant eat any of the extremities or head parts.  Only the main body section b/c I'm a weanie and cant stand to be reminded of where my food really comes from.  Tip: I have also seen them sell the head as it is for $15 which is a good deal since its at least 10 times that expensive for the whole pig.  Happy eating =)

Bonnie Jeans's Soul Food- San Diego

You have probably driven by here a dozen times and not bothered to go it, didnt really notice it, etc.  I know since I was in the first category...until today.  The other day, one of those restaurant coupon sites had a special with this place and I finally had a reason to try it.  My co-worker egged me on with her praises of this place so I caved.  Their website is on hiatus currently but just google it in a few days.  Off the bat, it had one strike- it didnt open on time.   They dont open till lunchtime on the weekdays so I timed that shizz.  The wait for the food took about half hour but I can tolerate some of that since I had skype, an iphone 4 and not too big of an appetite.  Plus I had visions of delicious soul food running through my head.  

This is the interior.  A random collection of tables.  I should have taken a picture of the one I was sitting on since it was red, white and blue with yellow cushions in the form of a picnic table.  I was a fan of the chandellier in the back of the restaurant myself.  They also sell a few hallmark-ish novelty items in the front area i.e. bookmarks, tshirts, frames, etc.  

Fried chicken basket.  It came with a thigh and a drumstick.  Freshly fried with a very light interesting skin.  Not as thin as panko but way less dense than like KFC/ Popeyes style.  I was tempted into eating the skin, which i never do.  I liked it with my hot sauce alot.  

I ordered the cole slaw with it.  Another interesting variation.  They added tomatoes and red onions to the slaw mix.  I am going to copy the tomato idea for sure.  It was mayo based for sure but the tomato definitely helped cut the creaminess of the slaw.  The only mark against it?  The cabbage was browning a bit...even the mayo cant hide that.  

The other item we got was the hot links platter.  I have to preface this with strike 2.  They didnt have ribs!  Apparently they were getting ribs in later today from the market....that was the one thing I was craving when I planned to come to this place.  So I opted for hot links since its still pork.  Decent flavor.  Sadly, it just made me crave ribs more since the bbq sauce was pretty freakin tasty.  The collard greens are damn good...not bitter or too vinegary.  Strike three you ask?  They gave me the wrong sides.  I asked for mac and cheese, not the greens.  But since I ended up liking the greens, I'll stay quiet.  The red beans and rice in the corner?  Decent.  Not the best.

Overall, I would come back sometime.  I already know what I want too.  Ribs plate with collard greens, mac and cheese, and either fried pickles or green tomatoes to start. Who's coming???? 

Daily Grind Cafe- College area

Having a friend who went to SDSU comes in handy at times.  She stayed at my bed and breakfast this weekend and instead, we went to eat bfast at this little gem called Daily Grind.  She swears by it.  At first glance, I was skeptical.  FROM THE OUTSIDE, it looks small and quaintish (in a bad way).  Inside, the atmosphere is more like the old Craftsman house with their own unique traits and it was pretty full when we got there.  No wait though at 1030 Saturday, but my friend attributed that to SDSU being out for the summer.  They dont have an official web page that I could find but here are some of their particulars:


6695 El Cajon Blvd
(between 67th St & Montezuma Rd) San Diego, CA 92115

619-697-0750

See what I mean?  It just looks like one of those older businesses that are around that neighborhood.  But take a trip inside, you will probably be happy you did.  

My friend got the eggs, pancake and 4 bacon combo but she only wanted them to give her 2 of them! Blasphemy! The eggs were very creamy tasting, bacon chewy and pancakes were of decent diameter.  Overall a very decent rendition of the classic eggs and pancake duo.  

As for me, I went with one of their 10 versions of eggs benny.  Mine was with corned beef hash and eggs with no runny yolk.  If memory serves me right, they also have a version with a sausage  patty, meatless, avocado, etc.  It comes with house potatoes (cooked to nice doneness but a bit bland in taste).  The bread could have been a bit heartier since it got mushy pretty quickly.  The hollandaise sauce was good (the best sauce I ever had was from this place in Virginia Beach).  The corn beef was probably the canned kind but I like that sometimes.  We ordered a side of fruit to break up the grease pockets in our food.  The fruit was very fresh and ripe.  

Overall, I'd definitely come back.  Maybe try another benny dish or maybe french toast.  Its pretty cheap overall.  On the board when you walk in, they list specials for the day.  That day, it was a 7oz steak with eggs for around 7 bucks.  Not bad these days my friend.  

Denny's 2468 menu

Let me preface this by saying I LOVE A GREAT DEAL. I know Denny's is...well Dennys.  Kinda like that old pair of tennis shoes in your closet that still serves a function so you cant bear to part ways with it and gosh darn it, its still comfortable too!  So when they came out with their new promo of menu items for 2, 4, 6, 8 dollars, I have been trying to find time to get over to there and see if it lived up to the hype.  

Here is a link to their special promo menu:

http://www.dennys.com/en/page.aspx?ID=253&title=$2+$4+$6+$8+Value+Menu

I wasnt too hungry so I just got 2 items off the menu, the cheese fries and the red white and blue poppers. See below.  

 

Our wavy-cut French fries smothered in cheese sauce and shredded Cheddar cheese.  For 2 bucks, an equal portion size.  I dont really like the new shape of their fries...what was wrong with the old straight fries?  Cheese sauce was pleasant.  I cant imagine eating a whole plate of these fries b/c they are kind of heavy but nice mild flavor to the cheese sauce.

(Couldnt find it on their online menu)I wasnt sure that I would like these but the white chocolate chips drew me in.  Plus it was fried and in tiny portions.  Basically had no choice in the matter.  They were fresh out the fryer when they arrived on the table.  Nice crunch on the outside, soft and cake-donutey on the inside.  There were probably about 5-6 in the cup.  The brown stuff on the side?  pancake syrup.

I'd go back and try the biscuit and gravy with eggs or hash brown for $2.  Seriously, 2 bucks???  What else were you gonna do with that pocket change?  

Fairouz Cafe- Point Loma

Fairouz Cafe Website
3166 Midway Drive #102 
San Diego, California 92110
Phone: 619.225.0308

A friend and I went here for lunch one Friday afternoon after she had eaten here once for their lunch buffet.  Who am I to disagree on a great review of lunch buffet for 8.99? Its on Midway in a small plaza on the east side of the street.  Its a relatively small place and has cool art work for sale and display on the walls.  The buffet looks like a pretty small selection but surprisingly, we were surprised by the variety as well as how stuffed we got.  Also, the manager was super nice and just so welcoming that it made you feel like you were old friends coming by for some QT.  On to the food...

Okay so I know the pictures are not swell and they certainly dont do the food any justice.  However, I only took pictures of the buffet items I or my lunch mate enjoyed.  The potatoes were flavorful, properly cooked but not mushy and had a tomatoey savory base.  The cabbage was a surprise with a nice lemony flavor.  The soup reminded me of asian porridge with the lemon incorporated in the soup base.  Would be great comfort food.  I went back for seconds on the potatoes and my friend went for seconds on the cabbage.  

The gyros meat was juicy and flavorful--only gripe was that the meat was shaved on the smaller side (not as pretty).  The chicken was lemony and fall off the fork cooked.  The tomato with eggplant has a KICK! If you cant handle spicy, stay away.  I liked it alot but I'm a pepper fiend.  Its served room temp I believe.

Last item: Bas Bas is a wheat, honey and yogurt dessert.  Intense honey taste, with a texture similar to cake/ muffin hybrid.  My friend loved it, but I have a love hate honey relationship.  They also have fruit and yogurt in the dessert area.  Generic desserts.  I was hoping for more of a nice dessert variety.



My only quibble about this place was that they let the bins get too low so you would sometimes end up with the bits and pieces on the more popular items.  To be fair, it was lunch time so maybe thats why it was harder to keep things replenished.  They had a fair assortment of teas as well.  If I had more money I seriously would have walked away with a piece of art from the walls.  They also sell simple made jewelery on site as well.

Old Venice- Point Loma

Old Venice Restaurant- Point Loma

2910 Canon Street
Point Loma, California 92106
(619) 222-5888




Truth be told, this is my third time here.  Some friends of friends frequent this eatery often and even work there.  I will still be as objective as the next person however.  We were only here to eat a few appetizers this time but I will add some commentary about other items we tried in the past.  They have a decent menu size with pasta, pizza, sandwiches, seafood, salads and other meat dishes.  I notice an Italian fusion kind of theme based on my limited experience.  We went on a Friday night around 730 and sat in the main dining area--they also have a bar area as well as an outside garden area.  On this friday, they had a great dj playing nineties hip hop which was random as the crowd was not a typical hip hoppy crowd.  By the time we were leaving around 10-1030, there was a live musician preparing to play on his keyboard.  The crowd is...random.  I hear its known for cougars and for may december romances.  Again, just what MY observations were.  If you know the area, it seems very plausible given the Point Loma money and the boating community down the street.  Beautiful houses in the area by the way. Now on to the food already! 

Steamed mussel, dinner portion.  Comes with a sesame garlic toast loaf.  Here is the menu description: STEAMED MUSSELS . . . . . $12.75

New Zealand green lip mussels steamed in a garlic, tomato,
basil, and Madeira wine sauce

Here is the lowdown.  Delicious.  Probably about 8-10 per order.  Not overcooked and very refreshing.  Tastes fresh and you can definitely pick up the wine undertones.  We halfway contemplated asking for a spoon to finish the sauce, but we exercised a modicum of self control this time.  This time.  

FOCCACIA . . . . . small $11.50, large $13.50
Italian herb bread baked with pesto, mozzarella and
parmesan cheeses, fresh roma tomatoes, basil, and feta cheese

This is fan-freakin-tastic by the way.  The crust is thin with crunchy on the outside edges and soft on the main part of the triangle.  Sorry the picture has a weird glow.  Apparently we were too hungry to wait for a untouched picture of the food to be taken before digging in.  Large chunks of feta, thin slices of tomato and large ribbons of fresh basil.  Im normally not a pesto girl, but this dish works.  We ordered the small size and I want to say it yielded 6 slices but I could be wrong.  Get it (I noticed on their website that their lunch menu has a lunch version for about 3 bucks cheaper).  

 HOMEMADE COOKIE . . . . . $3.25
A giant 6 ounce chocolate chip, walnut, oatmeal cookie topped with
more chips and covered with pecans....heavenly when heated and topped
with any flavor of gelato

The cookie was chewy in a perfect way.  Cookie was warm, vanilla gelato was perfectly sweet and creamy and toasted pecans a nice touch.  See the vanilla beans speckles?  If we werent so full, we would have licked this plate clean too.  

I have also had in the past the following items:

1. Roasted Garlic Bulb: roasted garlic and brie cheese with house bread.  Thumbs up
2. Walnut Gorgonzola Salad: Tomato, caramelized onion, red potato, caramelized walnuts and
   imported gorgonzola on gourmet greens with blue cheese vinaigrette.  The potato makes it.  
3. Proscuitto Penne: garlic, onions, peas and proscuitto sautéed in a roasted tomato sauce
   over penne pasta.  I only had a bite of this but I know that my friends who go here frequently have this almost every time.
4. This last item, I dont see on the menu.  My other friend swears by it.  Its a squid ink pasta dish with linguini noodles.  Ask the waitress and see what they say.  

Okay, so thats it folks.  Parking can be limited sometimes depending on the time of day.  There is a back parking lot which is where we parked although Im not sure if you were supposed to.  Its not super cheap here but doesnt break the bank either.  If I lived closer, I might stop by a bit more.  

Some BBQ food porn

Im sure that many of us had a grilling experience on the 4th.  Good times with good friends.  Even if there was one person sorely missed in my long weekend celebrations, we made the best of it.  The spread: mac and cheese, pineapples, ribs, burgers, chicken, corn, rice, lemon pound cake and brats.  Enjoy! 

Hash House a Go Go- Hillcrest

3628 5th Ave San Diego, CA 92103

(619) 298-4646

Official Menu

Hello folks! I have been overly consumed by a little bugger of a problem for the past few weeks.  Which cell phone am I going to get?  The Iphone 4g by ATT or HTC Evo by Sprint ?  They are the two current heavyweights in the newest baddest sleaziest phones around and if I have to sign a contract and commit myself for 2 years to a greedy corporation, then I better get the best phone for my buck.  I have been slowly going crazy between internet research, friend polling,making pros and cons lists, taking advantage of the companies' 30 day trial period, etc.  Basically it came down to what can I live with and what irks me the most.  If you want to know more specific findings, feel free to comment and I can impart the completely non-scientific results of my research and tears.  

I finally crawled out of my she-cave for brunch with a gal pal.  Yes I just said gal pal and I kicked myself in retaliation.  We met at 830 for brunch at the Hash House, oftly reviewed I'm sure.  It was between this and the Omelette House in La Mesa....looking back, I shoulda went with Omelette House.  My thinking was, I want ALOT of food so I can have yummy leftovers.  However that theory only works if you like your dish to begin with.  I was very disappointed that I didnt enjoy my food! Its not that cheap there as you might know and now it just kind of whet my appetite for a brunch craving that will probably not get filled for awhile...

Drinks: Blood orange sparkling beverage from a bottle and their Asti mimosa of the day (I forgot the actual name or other ingredients).  I dont know why I broke my either ice water with lemon or alcohol drink rule today--it was alright but I could have done without. 

My order: Griddled French Toast (on their website as a spotlight dish).  "Our signature Amish style bread dipped in a banana cinnamon cream with pecan maple syrup...a breakfast legend".  It was huge of course with three toast pieces and a whole griddled banana on top.  Way too sweet.  I should have asked to have the syrup on the side.  The bread was not as crunchy as it looked...disappointing.  The pecans were yummy and candied.  They also threw some strawberries on there for extra measure.  Overall I ate 1/3 of one slice and not because I wasnt hungry.  My friend's little bro will be eating that for dinner tonight I'm told.  Maybe part of it is that I dont have the biggest sweet tooth, but still even I can appreciate a sinful french toast.  This one, just didnt do anything for me.

My friend ordered herself the BBQ griddled flank steak with 2 eggs, potatoes, fruit and a biscuit. The mashed potatoes were fantastic, which is saying alot since I'm not a great fan of them.  I like my taters roasted, fried, grilled, baked or crunchy somehow and its one of my worst cravings.  The flank steak was supposed to be medium rare and I know from my Food Network education that cooked properly, this can be a flavorful cut of meat.  Why did that sound dirty?  However it tasted overdone, bland, and rubbery.  Another fail.  The portion was huge of course and my friend enjoyed her fried eggs enormously.  

We also ordered a side of biscuit and gravy.  Decent gravy of sausage base.  The sausage chunks were good in my opinion but sparse--I didnt expect there to be any since the sausage was a part of the gravy base.  The biscuit was huge and I only made it through half of one.  The gravy was alright tasting but it was off mark.  Tasted artificial.  Maybe I was spoiled after eating biscuits and gravy in my vacation on the east coast?  I sure hope not.  

Overall, 25 bucks later I ate1/3 a slice of french toast and 1/2 a biscuit with gravy...oh yeah and 1/4 glass of organic orange sparkle drink.  At least the wait wasnt bad.  It will probably be awhile before I choose to come back here....damn you!!!!!  ****To be fair, I dont recall having a bad experience on my previous visit here last year so maybe today was just an off day.  Still there are too many brunch places to stick to one, especially if you werent in love with the food.  

What would you do?

The other day, I made a new friend.  In the same day, I lost my new friend.  I was on my way to a client's house in the middle of a not so nice area and saw a little black furball trotting along the sidewalk.  It looked obviously homeless and downtrodden.  I couldnt resist so I pulled over to try to look for a tag on its neck or something.  The dog gave me chase and ran down the street.  I jumped in my car and followed it around the corner, where it ran under a car.  If you know me, you know I like to always be prepared.  So this should come as no surprise that I had a bottle of water, dog bowl and dog food in my trunk.  The only thing I lacked was a dog leash.  I began by throwing pieces of kibble at the dog to lure her to me.  Eventually she let me come close enough to sit about 3 feet away from her.  Poor thing was mangy, either pregnant or been massively overbred, half blind with a funky ear infection.  Saddest little face ever.  I called animal control to ask them to come pick up the dog in case it had a little microchip under her skin.  They told me that they wouldnt have anyone out there for at least an hour...I did not have an hour since I was running late!  So I took the little pupperoni with me on my first visit with a client...ha.  She only wanted to stay wrapped up in this fleece blanket I keep in my car and only wanted to stay on my lap.  After the meeting I took the dog to the Bonita shelter...where I was promptly told that this dog was "out of the jurisdiction".  Since when is a dog out of someone's jurisdiction??? What is the world coming to?  They advised me to call National City's animal officer...who then informed me that there was no available officer until the following morning.  I was advised to drop the dog off at the Chula Vista shelter before they closed.  Another couple hours later, the dog was safely turned over to the shelter personnel...but not without an almost tear from old softie over here....

Does anyone else have crazy dog love?  What is the silliest thing you found yourself crying over?

Still no pictures but if you can use your imagination...

Dear hubby still hasnt uploaded my food adventures pictures from his camera so I cant share my vacation eating with you quite yet.  Phoooey.  Eating vacation style is fun for a few days but then I start to miss my own favorite comfort foods.  Since I've returned from my vacay, I have been cooking up quite a storm.  My camera situation is going to be improved a few notches next week when my IPHONE comes in! I am so excited I cant stand it.  I've fought every impulse to get this phone, using every excuse in the book such as too expensive, dumb plan, better deal in the future, dont need it, cant afford it, its just a phase, etc.  Ever since ATT announced their plan to get rid of the unlimited data plan, I was forced to essentially poop or get off the pot.  So I did it. And with some careful application store picks, my monthly cell phone bill should actually drop by 5-10 bucks from my tmobile plan.  I will also get a way better camera and faster phone in the process.  

So back from my tangent.  If you are hungry, my next few sentences wont help one bit.  The last week's cooking adventures shaped up to be like this: korean seaweed soup, super egg scramble with spicy turkey sausage, tomatoes and potatoes, seaweed salad with krab, korean soy sauce eggs with beef brisket, soy milk and berry blend smoothies,etc.  This offset by leftover grill foods courtesy of some good friends and some takeout Filipino food of sisig and kare kare.  Those are two of my favorite items from that cuisine, tied only with the dish that I suddenly cant recall the name of (taro leaves in coconut milk and a little bit spicy) and pancit palabok.  Those are the Filipino dishes I look for when I get takeout at the bakery near my house every 3 months or so.  Even if the aunty in charge there is not nice at all!

Today, I cooked up a storm too.  Partly to save money for the coming week eats as life was too costly for me in the past few weeks what with the iphone and paying for study related items.  Mostly because I am procrastinating my studies for part two of my licensure exam.  Dammit....why is it so hard to make yourself want to study????  So my cooking today consisted of blueberry and blackberry chocolate chip muffins, potatoes and green beans in curry sauce, tomato soup with triple cheese raviolis, vietnamese egg meatloaf as well as prepping fruits and veggies for the upcoming week.  Most of the items have healthy substitutions inside i.e. low fat sour cream in place of heavy cream for the soup, no meat in the curry dish, muffin mix base was Fiber One brand, used only 1/3 of the recommended meat in the meatloaf and added extra vegetables in lieu of, etc.  However, my meatloaf didnt come out exactly as hoped as I had the wrong kind of fish sauce and didnt put enough salt in the egg mix.  It will still taste good with some hoisin sauce and rice though....

Happy weekend ya'll.  Remember to reduce your water usage and recycle recycle recycle.  The planet is showing signs of wear and frankly, we have had enough bad news/ devastation/ loss in the world lately....

Its been awhile....

since my last blog but it was for good reason.  Finally got to see my husband as he is in the service and on isolated deployment.  Two weeks with him was me going back to normal, back to my baseline, back to basics.  It wasnt a euphoric hyper romantic getaway but it just felt like I could forget that he hasnt been here for the past 6 months.  Coming back to reality also meant coming back with a slightly renewed and altered vigor.  Back to crunching down on the spending, my bipolar food intake, and working on the second part of my career goals.  Part of that will be to expand the focus of my blog from time to time.  Im going to now include items on cool new technological items, random blippets, and also will be trying to expand my cooking repertoire.  I am trying to grow as a Korean cook, learn some other new dishes and one day buy a better camera than my handy dandy G1.  

Are you along for the ride?  Give me a minute and I'll be right back.