Kouign Aman

Flan! I love 99cent stores. I like yours better than mine

We like Ole Madrid because its light, fun and easy. We'll be there Friday night before Figaro. You are forewarned. Cafe Sevilla is also an option, as is La Gran Tapas (which Im not too fond of). If you like seafood, Osetra was good, if a tad pricey. The US Grant is re-opened for business, and thats as close to the Civic Theater as one can get. I havent been but friends enjoyed it. Chive I've heard good things about but its a bit of a walk in heels. Asti is a standby - an italian restaurant that opened when 70% of the restaurants downtown were italian, but this one survived. In Horton Plaza is Napa Valley Grille. If you find a different place, and its a gem, please post it. We walk to pre-opera dinner also, and are always looking for someplace worth a visit. (We have a fairly limited walking range and price range due to various members of our dinner group).

One thing that has changed over the years is the density of the I-15 corridor. 20 years ago, Escondido / Rancho Bernardo / Poway / Mira Mesa / San Diego was non-contiguous. Now they all touch. It seems that this encourages people to travel between them more. Escondido just isnt as far away as it used to be. Temecula is trying to touch Rancho California as well as reaching south. I agree that the eastern freeway cities are less 'glamorous' than those along I-5. Temecula isnt glamorous. Its cute.

True, the drive to RSFe is pretty, the drive up I-15 is not. Marketing will be very important. Temecula is also the touch-down point for folks coming over the mountain from Palm Desert. I dont know if they'd stop for dinner tho, an hour short of their destination (San Diego).

My goodness! With all these terrific photos, it must be taking you forever to keep up the blog. They make it especially fascinating to follow.Thank you for taking the time and effort. I too admire the milk carton cutting boards. So easy to clean up, and so versatile. Cute kids you have, who are making all those milk cartons available to you. The building you show is so beautiful. All that height and space and lovely wood. :happy sigh: Thank you also for the lessons in table setting etc. My 2.5 yr old is fascinated by 'tsopsicks', and is trying to learn how to use them. At what age did your kids become competent with them? I hope the fourleaf clover works as it is reputed to, and brings you all the best of luck.

And then there's jousting with peeps. Carefully disconnect a pair of peeps (a sharp knife works well). Give them a toothpick lance apiece. Array them in the microwave, facing one another. Start the microwave. First one to melt loses the joust.

And if you really want feedback, it helps if you post the ones you are considering. Then we have a target to shoot at. There is just so very much out there, its hard to start from a clean slate. You might look at a couple of the kitchen remodel threads to see what I mean - some of them tossed out a "what do you think of this one?" and got a lot of interesting feedback. It sounds like fun, making a clean lovely new kitchen. I should figure out what my piece of dreck stove is and post a dire warning against it!

Japan sounds like fun, right now. Thank you for blogging. I hope the blogging turns out fun and not too much of a hassle for everyone. Best hopes and wishes for you and your wife and your children.

It might be that people driving past Temecula will make it a stop, if there is a place to stop for a good meal. For example, we drive from San Diego to Orange County (and back) 6-10x per year. We'd probably plan the timing around dinner or lunch in a particularly fine restaurant, for one or two of those trips. Since we already plan Temecula around breakfast, it would be a nice change for us. But, we wouldnt detour 15 min away from the freeway, in this situation. OldTown Temecula may have more of the feel you want, and its conveniently close to the freeway, tourist hotels, etc. As for driving to Temecula for dinner - as noted above: Mille Fleurs is 45 minutes from San Diego, and is apparently doing well lo these many years. Temecula is an hour (except at rush hour) from San Diego. Not a big difference. Good luck.

And yet another happy camper: Frog Princesse's report on Modus I really have to get this on my to-do list. The Tenor loves red cabbage, but the BL closed before we met. I hope that Modus has something up to that standard.

We have loads of bees in the area - the neighbor's yard is covered with tall spiky blue and purple flowers and her yard is audible when one walks past it. The bees are just dissing, for the second spring, my yellow tomato flowers. (you can see my whining, upthread). This year I started with them very close to the rosemary, but it doesnt seem to be sufficient. I wonder if touches of violet scent on the flowers would help? Our weather was very unusual.

My poor virginal tomatoes - covered with yellow flowers and no bees to dally with. They are getting moved closer to the rosemary soon. The quince is just beginning to leaf out, and the peach has fruit already ripening. I didnt realize how different were the 'microclimates' in our yard. Herbs have been seeded and fingers are crossed they dont dry out mid-germination. Its been weirdly windy here. Spring is good.

This only qualifies under cheep eats - its not hidden, its not in a strip mall, etc. Ole Madrid, in the GasLamp, has a Sunday prime rib special. If you order one other item (such as a $3 side of veggies, or a glass of wine), you can get a large slice of very well prepared prime rib for just under $10. Its a good thing, for the carnivore on a budget.

Sadly, Aqua Blu didnt live up to our happy experience of the year before. This time it was a very mixed bag. 'nuf said.

Too tasty a topic not to bump. von Euw's chocolates.

I just had the pleasure of tasting von Euw Chocolatier chocolates. I am now trying to figure out where to buy them. Black current and passionfruit flavors are calling me.

Chicken, potato chips, bake. No deep frying to sputter around the kitchen. No info on the site about how they freeze. For a babysitter, I'm thinking toaster oven. Make enough for the sitter to have dinner too http://wondertime.go.com/life-at-home/arti...icky-picky.html The original page 1 recipe/post was deleted due to inadvertent rule-breaking on my part, and the moderator asked if I could repost the link and was most helpful in enabling to fulfill that request.

Has there been any follow-up recipe optimization yet? Our kid was just barely talking, and anytime we entered a drivethru driveway, would announce "Tsicken!" with a delighted smile. I'm wondering how long before "hangaburgers" become the new favorite.

I dont drink soda at all, my husband doesnt like Pepsi. For those magnets, I would buy the soda and donate it. Those are muy spiffy.

Jack-in-the-Box serves a regular menu at all hours - I've had many a bacon cheeseburger at 6 am, with fries. (or spicy chicken sandwich) I still like what I believe to be the original fastfood breakfast sandwich, the Breakfast Jack - limp tho it be. (I think it predates all of McD's offerings) I also favor the sausage egg mcmuffin. McD's has good breakfast sausage. Wish I could buy it uncooked, retail. I used to be very fond of their sausage biscuit, but that ended. They just didnt seem as good one day. Carls Jr is a washout in the am. Bleah. Absolute fav is a sausage egg everything bagel, from a bagel shop. Not as many of those around as there were 10 years ago (my fav was Max Bialystock - their sausage was almost as good as McD's). And never did I find one with drivethru service. <editted - I will learn to proofread!>

When I went out on a day-fishing trip, most of the anglers threw back the mackerel they caught, as too strong flavored. My friend saved it for our janitress at work - south american not sure which country - who loves it. So maybe there is a cultural bias in play - I cant be sure, as this was only one person.

Strawberries are in process - one is a lovely red, but not yet picking ready. Same tomato thing as last year - lots of blooms, ignored by bees. These are not self-pollinating varieties apparently. The plants are going for a walk soon, to be close to the bee-magnets in my neighbor's yard. I seeded basil, cilantro, oregano. Fingers crossed. The gophers are astonishing, so its pots again this year. The little boogers are pulling entire plants under ground. I about to turf out the bird of paradise to make room for the lemon grass. I havent bought any trees yet this year.

Brown the chops & some onions, cover with chopped cabbage and just a little stock and bake? The meat ends up almost falling off the bones. Its a rif on a recipe I have from TimeLife (provincial france), but the original uses heavy cream which makes it cardiac on a plate.

Chino Farms and a few others are known locally for their interesting produce, and might be willing to work with you to grow what you want. Temecula is a 2 parter - old town is cute, touristy, smallllllll, and then on the other side of the freeway is suburbia which is expanding rapidly in 3 directions. Sadly, its accompanied by a several miles long strip mall. Its not a bad drive from either Orange Country or the environs of San Diego - say an hour from either. Not 'drop in' close, but not awful for a destination. We'd have to drive nearly as long to get to Milles Fleurs in Rancho Santa Fe. I can envision people making a day of it wine tasting and then a very nice dinner afterward. There really is no place currently in Temecula that draws us for dinner, even after a full day. We're more likely to head to Valley Center for ribs, or stop on our way past Escondido. Good luck if you decide to open operations there.

The one or two winners on the menu - oh yes. We used to live across the street from Fung Lin - they'd been in business for decades. They had one shrimp dish that was outstanding - crisp & tender shrimp, perfect broccoli and spicy thick tomatoey sauce. I have no idea if it was authentic. It was delicious and consistent. Everything else on the menu was 'ok'. After a few meals to test out a fair portion of the menu, we settled on that one winning dish and stuck with it. If that's not what we wanted, we went to a different restaurant.