snackin' around: july edition
a round up of all my favorite things in the month of july
hey hey hello!
July was a doozy and spent a large majority of it working while also starting to pack for a move next month. Nothing crazy, staying in San Diego—for now. The workload is heavy right now and through the middle of September gearing up for 2 weeks in Europe for my best friend’s wedding!! Trying my best to get ahead and stay ahead on the work front. I have some fun interviews coming up for you guys, some recipe riffs, a couple more eau du gateau videos, and a few other things I’m pretty pumped about. Now I enter a month of preparing for the wedding + the trip. I’ve been deeply wishing for a few extra hours in the day to get everything done. With all of that piled high on my plate, I didn’t get to spend much time out and trying new spots or revisiting old faves. So July’s round up is shorter than usual. Let’s jump right into it xx
Starting off with the songs I played on repeat this month :)
SAN DIEGO
For the first time in a long time I spent almost the entire month in San Diego- with a little day and a half jaunt up to LA for some bachelorette prep shopping (-; So this month’s round up is San Diego focused 🤗
I’m a girl who love love loves hot pot. While I’m usually an AYCE fanatic, Yin Tang in Convoy has become a bit of a go to spot for me and my friends. You fill up a bowl with meats, veg, and noodles from the bar, take it to the counter and get charged by weight. 13.99/pound and I usually get out of there for $15 with enough left over for a midnight snack. I’m a lover of mala broth, but ahahah since turning 30 my intestines are not 🥲. So, I’ve had to tone it down on the spice. The OG broth is my go to here, it’s rich and flavorful and I’ll get it with a spicy dipping sauce (sesame, garlic, chili pepper, cilantro, onion, cilantro + a splash of soy sauce- my sauce bar concoction) to feed the need for spice in my life.
While I was prepping for the Fronterizo Friends bake sale earlier this month sweet angel baby Holly came through with goat’ milk for me (because shocker of course I did my math wrong and miscalculated how much I’d need). She also came through with this fucking insane triple strawberry sorbet. Maybe quadruple strawb? Roasted strawbs, fresh!! strawberry powder?? and the Fragola Fabbri candied strawberries. Okay, yeah quadruple. She came with a deli of freshly spun sorbet. Y’all I’ve never had a strawberry sorbet this intensely flavored. lucky for you guys she has the recipe posted to Patreon!
Speaking of the Fronterizo Friends bake sale- thank you so much to everyone who came out!!! Collectively we were able to raise $18,395, San Diego- you showed up and showed out ily so much. But, from set up to sell out, it was non stop unloading, setting up, selling. I had a plan to get everything I wanted to try from other bakers before doors opened and suddenly it’s noon and the only things I were able to snag (thanks to my friends going out to fare the lines for me) were Helena’s picadillo empanadas (which, I would have lost my goddamn mind if I missed out on these) and Jackie’s arroz con leche creme brulee pie. Y’all know how much I love everything Helena makes and if you haven’t found yourself at one of her pop-up s yet, you’re doing YOURSELF and incredible disservice. They’re always stuffed with filling and more so flavor. Normally, I am not an olive girl in my picadillo, but the filling had the perfect amount chopped just small enough for me to not get overwhelmed by them which = perfect picadillo in my book.
Now, technically that was the only thing they were able to get for me RIPppp, but, after things settled a bit and most of us had sold out, Katia was kind enough to share a couple of bites of Jackie’s arroz con leche creme brulee pie with me. Now, I don’t like arroz con leche like that (at all- it’s a texture thing for me) But, this pie was the perfect texture, with a little jam hidden under the arroz and the brulee’d top was the perfect crunchy contrast.
I gotta speak my truth. I love Outback Steakhouse. They have god tier level ranch. Ya pair that ranch with their kookaburra wings. Y’all. When I found out my friends had NEVER HAD A KOOKABURRA WING? ? … ??!.. !! - The way we were at the Outback within 10 minutes. Dead ass some of the best wings I’ve ever had in my life. The spice blend they use on those baddies??? out of this frickin’ world. It had been a while since I had a kookburra wing- and I’ve done nothing but think about them since.
The “saw this on TikTok” to getting to the restaurant pipeline has never been as quick as getting me to Wise Ox in North Park. Time from TikTok to Wise Ox? Approx 25 minutes. Their philly cheesesteak is like fucked up. The meat is sooo tender and the cheese is like saucey ooey gooey perfection. The beef fat fries were also delish- crispy exteriors that give way to a fluffy interior, my ideal fry. The seasoning on them isn’t my fave, I think there’s a lil rosemary on ‘em which kinda threw me at first. But, a solid meal for sure and I cannot wait to go back for the smoked bologna sandwich!!
I used to think the great BBQ couldn’t be found in San Diego (sorry to my phil’s and cali comfort lovers). I pretty much still stand by that but, Grand Ole BBQ in North Park hits the mark for pretty dang good BBQ for me. The brisket is solid and so are the sauces. But, what I’m actually going back for is the mac and cheese. SO good, I’m a sauced over baked girl. And their’s is perfect sauced up and cheesey- I do think there is a thing as TOO much cheese in mac and cheese. Aside from that I’m interested to try their Texas Cheesesteak (!!! cheesesteak made with brisket !!!) and the Austin, California Brisket Burrito- a classic cali subbing carne asada for brisket (!!!) I’m a big brisket gal.
Aside from a yogurt + chia pudding bowl, I’m not really a sweets for breakfast kinda gal. But sometimes you absolutely crave a pancake. When I do, it’s from Original Pancake house in Convoy. The fresh strawberry pancake (‘tis the season!!) with an exxxtra side of fresh whipped cream is the perfect sweet treat post Costco trip. Light and fluffy pancakes, with lightly macerated strawberries and swaths of whipped cream- I mean come ON.
OTHER FOODS + TREATS
Speaking of yogurt bowls for breakfast- I’ve been on a bit of yogurt bowl kick, admittedly because Icelandic Provisions was kind enough to gift me some of their yogurts. They had reached out offering samples of their new Banana Caramel flavor and then sent like one of every flavor (!!!). It wasn’t my favorite flavor- the flavors were too subtle for my liking. hennyways! loving yogurt bowls with chia pudding mixed in, a sprinkle of hemp hearts and tons of fruit-- mostly strawberries, cherries, and kiwi. ya know, gotta prioritize getting that mix of soluble and insoluble fibers.
Glossier & Magnolia Bakery collabed on a lip balm earlier this month and whoop I landed on their PR list. The package came with their lip balm, which I love because I’m a big old freak who loves that artificial banana flavor!!! But, also, 2 pints of Magnolias signature dessert, which I had never had before. YEEeah, hate myself for that because its soooo good. I MEAN, it’s truly my ideal dessert, mostly cream, a little cakey action from the nilla wafers and banana. So I really don’t know what I’ve been doing with my life to have only had it for the first time this month.
I went up to LA for two days to do some bachelorette shopping with Casey. We ended up with the sweet treat munchies in a home with very little baking ingredients or tools. But, using what we found on hand we free balled a batch of cookies with some coconut sugar, marshmallows, graham crackers and the baking soda that they use to deodorize the fridge with (desperate times = desperate measures). With the s’moresy vibes going on, I DEMANDED chocolate. So, after we mixed the first batch, we headed to Home Goods + Trader' Joe’s to pick up not only a pound plus bar from TJ’s but to peruse the HG gourmet food aisles for more inspo. They had these Samoa Girl Scout cookie balls? And Tres Leches caramel. Thus, the best cookie I’ve had in a while was born. No recipe. No scale. Just cups and a vibe. We added the chocolate and GSC balls to the dough then schtuffed with the caramels. YOU GUYS. Ugh whatever, you can watch our shennanys over on Casey’s TikTok
MISC
TikTok got me into The Summer I Turned Pretty with the clips of the dinner scene from the third season. Right now I’m finishing up season two and those clips did slightly spoil what’s to come. I’m very much Team Conrad- but not for Belly. Oh no. I want Belly to stay 100 miles away from Conrad at all times, he deserves the world! A part of me find the show really cheesy, but I can’t help but cheer and get giddy as certain characters couple up. I’ve even found myself crying on occasion while watching.
I picked up this digital pomodoro timer to help with my focus/get into a productive groove while working. It’s really helped me get out of a functional freeze state when it comes to tackling my daily to-dos. I’ll put it on the 5 min timer and that snaps me out of the freeze in a way. When the 5 minutes is up and I’m in the middle of a task I usually choose to keep going until i’m done- starting is usually the hardest part. I prefer this timer over using the one on my phone because when I go to stop the timer on my phone, I’ll usually convince myself “a 3 minute scroll on IG won’t kill ya” then 2 hours later I’m still scrolling. This tiny little timer has changed the way I’m able to work, I love it!!
INSPIRATION STATION!!
Just some of the things I found inspiring this month- cake related or otherwise ♡
kk chat soon bake chat baddies <33
Kookaburra wingsss yummm
I feel the exact same way about The Summer I Turned Pretty. One minute I'm gagging and rolling my eyes then the next I am gripping my blanket about to scream, cry and throw up.
Also cannottt stop thinking about that strawberry sorbet. I'm an east coast girly through and through, but knowing you and Holly are friends and share treats is *almost* reason enough to switch coasts for me.