Asian Hot Wings

I received a Pioneer Woman cookbook for Christmas, and I've said it before in some of my posts, Ree Drummond is my favorite food blogger. I watch her Food Network show and whenever I'm looking for a recipe I look at her recipes and Alton Brown's recipes first. I was flipping through her cookbook, and saw the Asian Hot Wing recipe. We keep party wing packs in the freezer, whenever they go on sale. So I adapted the recipe quite a bit, but it was still delicious, and incredibly spicy. I love spicy foods, the more my nose runs and my eyes water the better I always say! But if you don't like spicy you may want to keep away from this recipe, or adapt it to your spice tolerance.

The original recipe calls for frying the wings, but it makes such a mess and requires constant attention. I've found you can oven fry them with much less mess, and no attention required except a timer.

*Note: The original recipe also calls for 2 Tbsp of minced red onion. I skipped this mostly because I was feeling lazy, but if you wanted a less spicy version of this you could leave the onions in, and skip some or all of the jalapeños and red pepper flakes.

Frozen Sweet Potato Fries with Spicy Fry Sauce

I may not have mentioned this before, but I really love dips and sauces. I love making them, I love eating them, and I love swirling my food around in them. Wait, what? Anyways, I especially love dips for my fries. I've recently acquired a love for sweet potato fries, used to hate them, but now I love them. Funny how that works. So, I got some of these frozen ones because lets' face it, fries take too much time and effort to make from scratch. Screw that. These are the Alexia brand, which if you've had any of their products, you know you're in for a treat. They were delicious, you pop them in the oven, stir half way through the cooking time, and they come out crispy and crunchy just like sweet potato fries are meant to be.

Of course I had to make a sauce for these wonderful fries. Something spicy is what always comes to mind when it comes to making fry sauces at home. One of my favorites is just ketchup with some sriracha, but I wanted to up the ante on these. So I mixed, are you ready for it?, equal parts ketchup and mayonnaise, along with a little sriracha and chipotle chile powder which we had in the spice drawer. To be more exact, it was 2 Tbsp ketchup and 2 Tbsp mayonnaise, 1/2 - 1 Tbsp sriracha, and 1/2 tsp of the chile powder. Top it off with a sprinkling of some Kosher salt. That's it! This sauce would be great with regular fries also.

Ike's Lair, Cafe La Tartine, and Roam Burgers

On a visit to see the bf, we did a small little food tour throughout the bay. Our first stop was Ike's Lair. It took me a little while to figure out that Ike's Lair is the same as the famous Ike's Place sandwich shop. They may have different menu items, but they have the same secret menu, so you can order your favorite secret menu sandwich at any of their many locations. (Why they have different names, I have no idea, but trust me they have the same great sandwiches.)

I don't remember the exact sandwich I got, but I remember it had something to do with Halal chicken, ranch, mozzarella sticks, red pesto, everything on it, and Dutch Crunch bread. It was pretty good, but since then I've had better sandwiches from Ike's. 

Krush Burger

SactoMofo had a little food truck event going on right by my work, where the Krush Burger truck was going to be. So, on my lunch break, I took a little trip over there and ordered some mini burgers! I got 2 sliders, including the Cowbell and the Ninja, and some of their Krush Fries.

These are the fries, they were really good. Just the right amount of salt and crispiness.

Artichoke Dip

We had a big Costco bag of seasoned waffle fries in the freezer and since there's nothing I love more than a good dip or sauce, I wanted to make a really good one for these waffle fries. I don't really remember exactly what I threw into the food processor, but here's a rough idea:

Drained can of artichoke hearts, along with some cream cheese, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, dash of Sriracha for heat, salt and pepper.

Sienna Restaurant

I've been to Sienna Restaurant before for my birthday, and it was good! Overall, I liked it, so B and I decided to grab lunch here to try some of their other menu items.

We ordered the Toasted Ravioli as an appetizer. These were really good, and the sauce was perfect. A delicious marinara to dip them into.

My 2nd SactoMoFo

You may remember a past post about Sacto MoFo explaining that it's a food truck get-together in Downtown Sacramento that they put on during the summer. Well, I went to a second one, and finally got to bring B. We tried some delicious food and here is what we tried. We tried foods from Volkswaffle, Red Truck, Star Ginger, and Chairman Bao.

First, was a waffle from Volkswaffle. We got strawberries and whipped cream on ours, and it was a delicious sweet treat to start off our food truck testing.

More Homemade Pizza

Went over to a friends house, and we wanted to cook something together. Pizza seemed like a good option, since I've been making so much of it recently. It turned out really great because her oven seemed to get extra hot. Almost burned it, but pulled it out of the oven just in time. It was absolutely delicious! Just used some store bought pizza dough, covered with some jarred tomato sauce, added some spices like oregano and some salt, tossed on some store bought roasted garlic (I know, this was news to me that you can find roasted garlic in a store, and it was amazing. Perfect for pizza), fresh mozzarella cheese slices, some fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil.

We cooked it for 8-12 minutes in a 500 degree oven. If your oven gets super hot like this one did, make sure to check on it every few minutes. Slice up and enjoy!

Off the Grid and Super Duper Burger

B and I decided to go get some lunch at Off the Grid food trucks, then go hiking at Mt. Tamalpais. I decided on one of my favorites, Koja Kitchen, and got the Kamikaze Combo which consists of your choice of Koja, and the Kamikaze Fries. I chose BBQ Short Rib Koja with added pineapple. Sorry the lighting is so bad on these photos, I was in a tent that made all the light orange. 

Almost Famous Garden Salad

One of my favorite salads to make, it's a copycat recipe of Olive Garden's Garden Salad. You can add pretty much any veggies you want, but I'll post here the original recipe. It's great with these baby peppers we usually have in the fridge, and pepperoncini's are also good in the salad. The dressing is easy to make, you can just mix all the ingredients in a blender.

Oat Peach-Nectarine Muffins and Chipotle Marinated Pork with Fruit Salsa

I had some time to bake, and since we had a few leftover frozen peaches and some ripe nectarines, I wanted to make some muffins. I found this recipe, and improvised a little. They turned out ok, not quite as flavorful as I had hoped. Maybe if the fruit had macerated in some sugar for a bit, then added to the batter it would have been better.

Guacamole!

Guacamole is one of my go-to favorite easy snacks to make. If I don't want to cook something, and we happen to have avocados and tortilla chips laying around, odds are we have the rest of the ingredients! Super easy the way I make it, and very tasty! Sometimes I mix it up and make some pico de gallo to add to the mashed avocados, other times I take the simple route (which is my go-to recipe) and just use some pre-made salsa, and jarred jalapeño slices.

Ike's Lair and Off the Grid (again!)

B and I had heard about this sandwich shop in Redwood City that had amazing sandwiches. I was a little hesitant, but after finally learning that Ike's Lair is a part of the famous Ike's Place sandwiches that's so popular in San Francisco, I couldn't resist! We went with his brother, and once we finally decided on sandwiches, we sat and waited for them to be made. I ordered this sandwich: 

4th of July: Macaroni Salad and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was able to go visit the boyfriend for 4th of July, so him, his brother, and a friend got started on making some pulled pork for pulled pork sandwiches ahead of time. I wouldn't be able to get there until late, but I made some macaroni salad and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies ahead of time. I love this macaroni salad recipe, it's so good! For the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, I just took my normal chocolate chip cookie recipe, and added about 2 cups of oats. Turned out great, and 4th of July was a lot of fun!

Pineapple Sausages with Coleslaw and Pineapple Chunks

This was a surprisingly delicious dinner! We had these pineapple sausages in the fridge, and I found some pineapple chunks in the pantry. I decided on making a simple coleslaw to top the sausages with. I just split the sausages through the middle almost all the way though, but not enough to get two halves. Then I pan fry them on both sides, serve on Hawaiian hot dog buns, top with coleslaw and pineapple chunks. 

Wild Bill's Cheesesteaks

I have been looking at these photos for a while, and debating whether or not I wanted to post this, but I finally decided to. The photos aren't pretty, and *spoiler alert* I didn't really like what I ordered, and with other restaurants in this same shopping center that I like much more, I don't really see a reason to go back to Wild Bill's Cheesesteaks. 

Anyways, I had heard from co-workers that this place was pretty good, and so I felt the need to go try it out. I ordered the Jalapeño Poppers, because I had a giant craving for them. They were ok, they were just the same brand you can find in the freezer section of any grocery store. They weren't anything special.

Father's Day Dinner: Steak, Fries and Veggie Salad

My dad is a classic steak and potatoes kind of guy, so for Father's Day, I already knew what his answer would be to "What do you want for dinner?" So I set out to do a variation on this theme, which included fries! The steak was marinaded in a mixture of chipotle peppers and cocoa powder (yes, you read that right, cocoa powder).

The veggie salad was a combination of tomatoes, peppers (sort of like bell peppers, but we had these tiny ones in various colors that are also sweet), cucumber, red onion, fresh dill, fresh parsley, olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

The sauce I served with the fries was called "Fry Sauce" and is just equal parts mayonnaise and ketchup, with a little Sriracha thrown in for fun.

Pizza Rolls (or Pinwheels)

We had some frozen puff pastry lying around in the freezer and I was trying to come up with something to do with it, while also craving pizza, and reading a recipe on the back that could easily be converted to pizza pinwheels. So that's what I did! These were really simple, I just added some of the ingredients we had leftover from making homemade pizza, and rolled it all up in some puff pastry, cut it, and baked it.

I'm just going to describe the process I used to make these, because I just loosely based my recipe on the recipe that was on the back of the puff pastry box. 

Thaw the puff pastry for about 30 minutes on a cookie sheet topped with parchment paper. Roll out so it's laying flat on the cookie sheet. Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce, tomato sauce or other sauce you wish to use. Sprinkle some garlic powder over the sauce. Add whatever "toppings" you want, in my case I used some prosciutto. Sprinkle with shredded cheese, I used parmesan and monterey jack, but you could use mozzarella, or another cheese. Top with fresh basil. Now tightly roll the puff pastry creation from the longer side. Cut into half inch slices. Place on your parchment covered cookie sheet and coat with a water/egg mixture, and then more cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or so. Then, enjoy!

Monterey Trip - Day 3

It was the final day of our trip, so we grabbed a few things to eat on our way out of town, went hiking in Point Lobos and then headed home. We had heard about a donut place in downtown Monterey, called Red's Donuts, and it happened to be National Donut Day, so we had to go check them out. They had a few left, so we tried a glazed, chocolate glazed cake, banana glazed, and a blueberry donut. The blueberry ended up being the unexpected hit, but they were all very good. 

One the way back home, we stopped at Phat Burger in Seaside, CA. I ordered the special of the day, the Buffalo Chicken Burger with Curly Fries. They have a cool toppings bar, where you can add all the veggies, sauces, and toppings you want to your burger. I opted for red onion, lettuce, tomato, ranch, and pepperoncinis. It turned out really good! The ranch was absolutely necessary, and the other toppings were fresh and were great complements to the sandwich. Their curly fries were also very good. I recommend this burger joint to anyone passing through Seaside. 

Monterey Trip with Mom - Day 1

My mom had some time off, and we haven't done a vacation together in a while. We decided to go to our family favorite, Monterey, CA and spend a couple days hiking and eating! We stayed at the Sunset Inn in Pacific Grove. We'd never stayed here before, but it was very nice and a reasonable price. We like staying in Pacific Grove because it's cheaper than Monterey, and most hotels there are close enough to the beach to walk there, and there's a nice trail to walk along the ocean. We were doing this whole vacation on a budget of $500 for the 2 of us, for 3 days and 2 nights. That included gas, food, things to do, and hotel. We ended up making it just under budget.


We got into town, and started looking for a place for lunch. I had gotten some restaurant recommendations from a friend who lives there, so we had lunch at one of the recommendations; Vivolo's Chowder House.


I decided I had to order some type of seafood, since it is Monterey. I finally decided on the fish and chips, which was an excellent choice! The fish was perfectly fried, and the tartar sauce that came with it was delicious and tangy, and went great with the fish and even the fries. 

My mom ordered their famous clam chowder bowl, and she said it was good, but not the best she'd ever had.

After going to the hotel to check in, we went out to dinner at another recommendation I had, which was Peter B's Brewpub. We had a heck of a time trying to find this place, but if you go through the hotel lobby that's there, it's behind that tucked away behind some trees. You can't see it from the street. We were told about their famous Fried Artichoke Hearts, which we knew we had to order. We also got a Raspberry Wheat beer, which was very good. As we're ordering, we find out they ran out of the artichoke hearts, and they had only been open an hour or two. We couldn't believe they hadn't thought this through and gotten more artichoke hearts for the night, as they were in season. 

So we decided on all appetizers, since it was happy hour and appetizers were cheap. We got the fried calamari...

The nachos...

And the buffalo wings...

Honestly, this meal wasn't that memorable. I don't care too much for calamari, and that was mostly for my mom. The nachos weren't that great either. The wings were my favorite of all the things we ordered. Maybe, we should have stuck with entrees instead of appetizers, because these were mostly just ordinary and kind of boring. I was worried that my favorite meal would be the fish and chips by the end of the trip, but luckily we went to a delicious restaurant the next day...