Once upon a year...

I started a food blog.  The year has been incredibly filling and fulfilling.  I wasn't certain where it was going to take me, but the journey has been more thrilling and eye-opening than I could have ever imagined.  I've been to wonderful restaurants, where the dishes have made me study each bite in the hopes of recreating the same tastes at home.  I've made some delicious recipes, from folks all over the world and brought those flavors into my home.


But my favorite part about this year hasn't been the food; it's been about the people I've met.  The people I've dined with.  Friends, family, acquaintances; the couple sitting next to us at the bar.  To me it's been about the experience.  Food brings everyone together, from all parts of the world.  It is a common ground and a necessity we all share.  I encourage everyone to embrace this necessity and pursue the most enjoyment as possible through dining, through the experience, instead of simply just eating. 


I've learned that several people share this same passion.  Take Roger Ebert.  He can't eat anymore.  He can't drink anymore.  But worst of all, he can't speak anymore.  My first thought was the horror of not being able to taste a succulent shrimp or sink your mouth into a crisp apple, but I was wrong.  Roger brought me back to the root of it all in his comment "So that's what sad about not eating.  The loss of dining, not the loss of food. It may be personal, but for, unless I'm alone, it doesn't involve dinner if it doesn't involve talking. The food and drink I can do without easily. The jokes, gossip, laughs, arguments and shared memories I miss. Sentences beginning with the words, "Remember that time?"...So yes, it's sad. Maybe that's why I enjoy this blog. You don't realize it, but we're at dinner right now."  Roger Ebert. 


I too enjoy my blog and the people I interact with.  That's my favorite part. The individuals and communities that have embraced me, be it online or through our dining experiences.  I thank you all for your support, for without you, I wouldn't have learned how deep my passion runs.  Oh, and for those of you that wonder where the name "lick-a-plate" came from, you can read about it here on my first blog post.  For those that know already, you can see the name is still alive and well, courtesy of my son, Ryan.

Frozen Lemon Pie

People could argue that lemons are the most useful and versatile fruit when it comes to cooking.  I would have to agree with them.  Lemon juice in a marinade helps break down tough fibers in meat, yielding tender results.  Squirted on fruit, it slows down the oxidation process so they don't turn brown as quickly.  Drizzled over seafood, lemon juice turns fish into a succulent treasure from the sea.  

My parent's neighbors have a huge lemon tree in their yard that is literally dropping fruit on a daily basis.  Not wanting this bounty to go to waste, I was graciously given a large bag to explore all of the talents of the lemon.  

So what have I made?  Interestingly, not lemonade.  I guess that would have been an obvious choice, (our lemon harvest is not over yet so it may be in our future), but I was intrigued with other recipes.  Limoncello, for example.  I actually don't like limoncello, so I'm not sure why I thought my tastes would change just because I was using freshly picked lemons and making it at home with love.  I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, just not the end product.  If you do like Limoncello, definitely give it a go (here's a recipe) since the transformation over the course of 3 weeks is enjoyable.  

For this post, I'll focus on a Frozen Lemon Pie.  I love lemon meringue pie, but wanted something a bit different from the norm.  This recipe includes cream cheese and condensed milk, lending this pie to be tart and creamy.

In my opinion, traditional pie crusts can tend to be soggy, wet ,and all around not that tasty.  Create a base with a cracker crust, and you've just transformed your pie with each and every bite - a smooth, creamy interior with the light crunch of an exterior crust.  To save time, I did buy a pre-made graham cracker crust, but took it to another dimension by basting the crust with egg and baking it to a golden brown before adding the filling.

I basically followed this recipe for Lemon Icebox Pie, but decided to freeze the pie in the end.  After whipping the cream cheese and condensed milk with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest, it's as simple as popping it in the freezer for a few hours.  The recipe calls for refrigerating the pie, so we tried it that way first, but it felt too heavy and creamy.  The flavor was spot on, but it wasn't as refreshing as we had hoped.  The freezer is where it's at for this pie. 

Picnic in the Park

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than with good friends in a beautiful park, complete with a lunch feast!  My college girlfriends and I got together with our kids for a full day of eating and playing.  Instead of buying your typical macaroni salad or potato salad in the grocery store, I wanted to make a few items and figured my friends could be the guinea pigs. My contribution to our feast was a rice salad, a pasta salad and goat cheese rounds with honey. 

The salads had an added benefit in that I could make them the night before.  I love that most salads get better as they sit, so making them ahead is sometimes the best way to go  I started with the Rice Salad.  The title is deceiving since there are many other components that go into this dish.  Peas, celery, onion, pimentos, and protein from hard boiled eggs and a can of tuna.  The dressing is made with mayo, mustard, sweet pickle relish, lemon juice, and dill.  It's moist, filling, and hearty.  The slightly sweet pickle relish is balanced by the pimentos, onion, and dill.

The second salad is called Spiral Pasta Salad.  If you are like me, you're probably bored of the basic pasta salad with Italian dressing.  Not that I would turn it down, but I was ready for something with a twist.  This dressing is made with oil and vinegar (I know, the starting point for Italian dressing) but then taken to a new level with the addition of ketchup, onion, sugar, salt, ground mustard, paprika, garlic powder, and oregano.  As with the rice salad, this pasta salad was sweet, but with a tang from the onion, vinegar, and mustard.  The base is pasta, celery, tomato, green pepper, and shredded carrots (another slightly sweet item).   The kids loved this one.  Both of these salads have a slightly sweet element, but when feeding children, that is never a bad thing. 


The simplicity and distinct flavors of the Creamy Goat Cheese with Honey won over my heart and stomach.  I actually did make a portion of this the night before, but waited to drizzle the honey on the day of.  I chopped up some left-over pecans I had in the freezer (freezing nuts extends their freshness), and combined them with cinnamon in a small bowl.  Then cut a goat cheese round 12 portions, roll them into a ball, and coat them with the pecan and cinnamon mixture.  After pressing down gently to form a disc shape, this is where I left these goat cheese morsels to rest overnight in the refrigerator.

The day of the picnic, I chopped up fresh rosemary, sprinkled it over the rounds, and brought the honey with me in the jar that contained the pimentos from the rice salad.  Those little glass jars are quite handy!  When we were ready to feast, I drizzled the goat cheese with honey and severed them with a fresh baguette.  These cheese gems were both crunchy and creamy and when smeared on a torn piece of baguette, were divine.  The food was fun, but the company was the best.  My college friends and I had a blast laughing about old times while our kids made new memories together. 

You may have noticed that all the recipes on this post came from a website called Allrecipes.com (ha ha). But seriously, a feature of theirs that I love, is the ability to put in ingredients you have on hand and search for recipes containing those ingredients. You can even exclude ingredients you don't want. I know there are several other websites that have this ability, but I tend to find a lot of interesting recipes on this website. It's a great way to use up what you have in your fridge and pantry!

Strawberry Cardamom Bread

 'Tis the season...for luscious, and cheap, strawberries!  I was looking for something new to do with strawberries and this recipe grabbed me due to the addition of cardamom.  A spice used mainly in Indian cuisine, I had only used this spice one other time before in a cookie recipe.  Marie posted this Strawberry Cardamom Bread to her wonderful blog, The English Kitchen. 

The ingredients seem at first to be a pretty typical of a quick bread, but then there is the addition of creamy sour cream and fragrant cardamom.  Marie used actual cardamom pods, removed the seeds, and ground them up.  Trying to use up the cardamom I already had, I passed on the pods and stuck with the jarred spice.  I'm sure it wasn't nearly as fragrant, but the wonderful aroma and flavor did come through.  A unique twist on strawberry bread and delightful to enjoy at any time of day.

Ballpark Food at PETCO Park!

We love our Padres so we try to make it to as many games as we can.  Since my parents are half-season ticket holders, we've been fortunate to attend a fair amount of games which has allowed us the wonderful opportunity to try some of PETCO's finest food attractions.  Some are winners and some are losers.  I'm going to do my best to give you our personal take on what we've tried so far and how we liked it.  I welcome your thoughts too, since we haven't tried everything! 

Two carts that I find most intriguing are FriarFit and Gluten Free.  FriarFit seems like a great idea - I always come to the ballpark to find healthy foods.  Okay, but seriously, there were people in line, so someone had the right idea.  But Gluten Free?  I know some people need to exclude gluten from their diet, but I also partially think some people are doing it as a fad right now.  We'll see if the Gluten Free cart is around next year.

Moving into the Western Metal Supply building, there are several good food stations.  However, the first thing that catches my eye, is the beautiful blue glow from the bar. 

This is a unique space.  The original brick building is structurally impressive and they converted this floor into quite the social scene.  There is an outdoor sitting area that is open to all; to regulate the crowd, they rotate people every 3 innings, I believe. 

Some of the best food stations are here inside the Western Metal Supply - carved brisket sandwiches, nachos with all the toppings in the world, sausages of all types (including the Sonora, which is a spicy sausage wrapped in bacon).  It's all pricey, but what isn't at the ballpark.  For what you get at these stations, it seems to be worth it, compared to the basic hot-dog and nacho stands. 

The brisket is pretty darn good, as long as you dress it up.  The meat on it's own is bland, but it comes with bbq sauce and coleslaw.  The trick is to put this all together, including the coleslaw on top, and then you have an extremely messy, but very tasty sandwich!  The portions are huge, which does not necessarily equate to good in my book, but you do get your monies worth. 

Another bar within Petco Park is on the Field level in the "Mercado".  It's towards the back and has some great views of the convention center and railroad tracks. 

This is also a full bar, with slushy drinks (never tired them), and some decent beer on tap.  Lately, I've been enjoying a refreshing Widmer with a lemon wedge. 

The "Mercado" is a food court.  They have your basics, but then they also have Rubio's and Anthony's Fish Grotto.  I've eaten the fish and chips from Anthony's a few times (like once per season) and keep thinking I like it and then after I get it, realize I was mistaken...or else they've gone down hill in the last couple of years.  The must for the fish and chips, is to top them both with the malt vinegar and lemon.



Now onto our favorite item at the ballpark - Rubio's shrimp burrito.  A mildly spicy burrito that is packed with pinto beans, rice, salsa fresca, cheese, chipotle sauce, and shrimp that pop in your mouth. 

It's the same shrimp burrito you would get at a Rubio's restaurant, but I am impressed with how fresh it tastes.  The shrimp aren't rubbery, there are actual jalepeno peppers in there, and freshly diced tomatoes.  Reasonably priced and big enough to split, you definitely get a bang for your buck.  Nice job, Rubio's.

If you want something more basic, outside of hot-dogs, they also have Ruby's for burgers and Oggi's for pizza.  I give kudos to Oggi's for trying something a little unique at the ballpark, their Padres slice - tomatoes (2 slices), spinach, and a few specks of feta - but it just isn't that good.  I must preface this with also saying that I've never liked Oggi's pizza to begin with, so I'm not surprised that I didn't care for this one.  Funny thing, though, is that I've ordered this a few times.  I'll have that craving for pizza and always think it may be better than the last time.  It's not, but it's pizza.

I haven't touched on Randy Jones BBQ.  When the Padres were at Qualcomm, I pretty much saturated myself in Randy Jones items, so I hardly get it anymore since we've moved to the new ballpark.  It may be time, though.  I can't live on shrimp burritos alone. 

You may have noticed I didn't mention anything sweet.  I don't do sweets at the ballpark.  It's probably because I'm normally drinking beer, and the ballpark doesn't have a beer that would pair nicely with ice cream.  So instead, here are some of the beautiful sights at the ballpark.

But of course what surpasses all of this, is the game and the people watching.  Depending on the game, sometimes people watching wins out! 

When we were taking the scenery photos on the upper deck level, we noticed a lady walking towards us that appeared to have some OCD tendencies. She made it her mission to touch the flowers as she strolled the length of the walkway.  We were in her way, but stood our ground since we were curious to see what would happen.  She went around us, but didn't break her pattern, and continued until the end of the flower bed. 

We do enjoy the games and have been lucky enough to be in attendance for 2 grand slams this year!  To Mark's dismay, we only saw one of the grand slams since he agreed to accompany me on my photo scenery tour, so therefore missed one of them.  We heard the crowd, caught the end of it on the tv screen, but Mark may hold it against me for a little while longer. 

I urge all locals to visit PETCO Park and support our #1 San Diego Padres!

Dressed up Brownie Bites!

I was in a pinch and needed a quick treat to take to Ryan's school for his birthday celebration.  For the kids whose birthdays are in the summer, they set aside a special day to celebrate them during school.  I thought about bringing cookies or cupcakes, but then I would have to buy 2 containers to ensure one for each child (pricey!). My eyes wandered to the brownie bites, most likely since I personally love them, but it was also the perfect amount in one package.  The only problem is that they looked a bit boring, for kids at least.

I thought about what I had at home - sprinkles.  What child doesn't love sprinkles?  I made my way over to the baking goods aisle and picked up an "easy cheese" bottle of priced-to-sell yellow frosting.  Ryan probably would have preferred red frosting, but for some reason the yellow was reduced to move stock.  Don't worry, I checked for an expiration date, but couldn't find one - that must mean it's still safe.

I was also tempted to look in the snack aisle for a true bottle of sharp cheddar easy cheese.  I may be a foodie, but there are some strange processed foods that I enjoy!  The great thing about these containers of frosting is that they come with 4 tips to create some fun shapes and patterns.  If I was talented, I may have used more than one tip, but alas, that didn't happen.  Ryan helped me squirt the frosting, shake the sprinkles, and then handed them out proudly to his friends at school today.  It was a success and an easy one at that!

Fish Tacos

There are so many ways to make fish tacos, from grilled to fried, with white sauce or salsa, and from shredded cabbage to pickled vegetables.  I must say, I honestly have no preference.  I guess it is more my mood that determines what I want, versus not liking it one way or the other.  Living in San Diego, it is quite simple to find an excellent fish taco in practically any part town, which is why I've never made them at home until now.

This recipe for healthy Fish Tacos peaked my interest due to the marinated fish, the pickled vegetables, and the avocado & mango salsa.  I'm not even a fan of mangoes, but thought I would give it a try.  The ingredients may look lengthy, but the steps are broken up into 3 easy segments, beginning with pickling radishes and red onion in red wine vinegar, sugar, and chili powder.

Once they have boiled on the stove, the pickled pink vegetables rest until the other ingredients are ready.  The next step in the process is to marinate the fish.  I used halibut since we had that on hand.  The fish sits in a simple mixture of lime juice, chili powder, and garlic.  The recipe calls for a 10 minute marinade, which is probably just about right.  Unfortunately, I completely misjudged when Mark was going to be home, so my poor halibut bathed in the acidic marinade for too long.

The remaining step is to make the salsa.  In this preparation, the avocado & mango are mixed with chili powder, lime juice, and cilantro.  What intrigued me most about this recipe is the uniqueness, yet consistency, of the ingredients.  The chili powder is used in each of the three components.  The lime juice is used in both marinating the fish, and in the salsa.  And even after letting all the components sit for a bit, this turned out to be a very bright-tasting and refreshing fish taco.