Allison Cafe

There is a famous story in my family that when I was  a little girl I told my Mom that I couldn’t help her in the garden because “I don’t do dirt work.” Well look at me now Mom! I not only tore apart our whole flower bed, I even planted flowers today.

Today was a perfect 60 degree SoCal day for planting some spring flowers. Yes it is February and the rest of the country is still in a deep freeze. But that’s why I live here! We moved into our new home last April and life has been too busy for any work in the front flower bed. Until today!

Beautiful ranunculus

One of my favorite flowers is a ranunculus. And they are in season from now until May. I was so excited to plant them on our front yard, but when we moved to Carlsbad last April it was the end of the season for this flower. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw them for $2.90 a gallon container at Evergreen nursery in Vista! We loaded up the trunk with at least 8 containers!

Our front flower bed was a boring sight to see. It just had some flax plants and beach grass of some sort. Which is very low maintenance, but not very colorful. We spent some time last weekend ripping out the old plants and putting down some compost just in time for a week of SoCal rain! So the ground was nice and soft today for planting. I also had to add some amendment to the soil, nothing like clay to stunt flowers without some help!

The before.....

I’m not done yet though. Stay tuned for the next wave of planting, a rock border and some mulch for the complete transformation! I guess I do dirt work now!

Almost done......

Our new Felt Cafe Cruisers along San Diego Bay

When it came time to treat ourselves to new bikes, we fell in love with Felt’s cafe cruisers. We found a great deal on new bikes at Holland Bicycles in Coronado, CA. It was love at first sight when I first saw these bikes years ago in a bike shop in La Jolla. A perfect mix of beach cruiser and street bike. What’s not to love about a bike with a coffee cup holder?

Bikes ride free on the Coaster!

So with our new bikes in tow, we jumped on the San Diego Coaster and took a scenic ride on the double decker train from North County to downtown San Diego’s Sante Fe Depot train station. We took our bikes for a biking tour of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s exhibit of Viva La Revolucion: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape. Various buildings and locations around downtown had been used to display graffiti art, it was walking or driving tour of various art exhibits and it was a fun addition to our biking adventure. The show had a cool interactive element in that you could call the exhibit’s phone number and enter a specific code for each artist and listen to a recording describing that artist’s work. A cool use of art and telecom!

Sunset on Coronado at the Hotel Del

Hungry for more adventure we hopped on the ferry from the end of the Broadway pier to Coronado. It was quick ride and once we arrived it was a short bike ride to downtown Coronado and the Hotel Del, where we relaxed and watched the sunset.

Sunset at the Hotel Del Coronado

As we rode the ferry back to downtown San Diego to catch the train home to North County, we took in an amazing view of the San Diego nighttime skyline.

San Diego city lights

One of the fun things about living in San Diego is taking what would otherwise be an ordinary day and making it extra special by just enjoying the simple joys of living in southern California.

Have any good SoCal bike adventures or must-do trails? Do share!!!

Greek yogurt adds additional flavor

Whether you just need a bowl of warm soup on a cold day, or the healing powers of chicken soup to fight that cold, nothing beats homemade. Sure it’s faster to open a can of soup but I challenge you to find any canned soup that can beat the taste of soup from scratch. And the best part is that soup can be the easiest menu item to make. Here are some tips to help your soup making.

Make your own stock.

One of the keys to good soup flavor is starting with its foundation, stock or broth. Now, I must be honest and admit that I often cheat and buy canned, low sodium chicken stock. But I also have to tell you that making your own stock is super easy and you can freeze it for future use. Whenever we make a whole chicken, we simply place the carcass into a large pot, cover the chicken with water and add celery, carrots, onions and perhaps a few herbs. Let it simmer for an hour or so and then strain and store in an air-tight container. It’s that easy. And I promise its just as easy for beef or fish stock too. The flavors from your own stock will make a big difference when used as your base of a soup. Especially any seafood stew.

Plan ahead when soaking beans.

The easiest soup recipes to make are the ones that either don’t call for soaking beans or you can substitute canned beans. I say easiest because you don’t have that extra time component for soaking beans. But that being said, bean soups are some of my favorite soups of all time. White bean soup with bacon reminds me of my Grandmother’s house. And that makes the planning worth it. Just be sure to budget in the time to soak beans overnight. Or sacrifice a little flavor and cheat and buy the canned kind, problem solved!

Don’t throw away the seeds!

Nature's mysterious shapes and beautiful colors

Another fun little soup trick I learned when making soups with winter squash is to save the seeds and use them as a tasty garnish. I like to top our butternut squash soup with toasted seeds just like you would add oyster crackers to chowder. They make all the difference in the world. Plus they give a toasty flavor and contrast the sweetness of a pumpkin or butternut squash soup. Just rinse them in cold water and dry them on a paper towel after scooping them out of the squash. Then toss them in a little olive oil and sea salt and roast them in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 10-15 minutes or until just golden brown. Sprinkle them on your bowl of soup or enjoy them later as a healthy snack!

Plan ahead and make weeknight soup even easier!

Soup is one of the easiest recipes because you mostly just throw everything into one pot and let it simmer. It really is that simple. That’s not to say that there are not more complicated recipes out there, or that even the most simple soups don’t require adding things in a sequence. But it really is a simple recipe. The problem is that for some soups, especially those with a lot of veggies is that you spend so much time chopping and prepping. The actual cooking part is easier than the prep work.

To save on time or to be able to make a quick weeknight soup, I suggest chopping things like butternut squash, carrots, celery, onions, bell peppers etc ahead of time and freezing them in air tight containers in pre-measured quantities, i.e. a cup of chopped onion. That way you just have to thaw what you need that day, not a whole large chunk of frozen onions. And keep your pantry stocked with a couple of cans of chicken stock, dried herbs like thyme, basil and oregano and salt and pepper. I’m not a huge fan of buying the already chopped veggies though for two reasons. One: you pay more for them. Two: they don’t taste the same as fresh veggies you chop yourself. But that being said, they are a double time saver. The bottom line: save yourself time by chopping ahead of time.

Soup definitely falls into that category of “What would Julia Child do?”. Yes, that’s right she would make her own! So I challenge you to try a new soup recipe this winter. Ever tried butternut squash soup? Go for it! Read some tips from my previous post here or try out this easy recipe here: (more…)