Lost Photos from SD

Mr X had a few photos on his phone from when he came out to visit me one weekend in San Diego last month. The pictures were really nice so I felt it would be a shame not to post them.

A Mouth-Watering Memory

I took this photo last time I was in SD back in July. I've been meaning to post it here. It makes my mouth water just looking at this delicious mess. Jumbo Prawn tacos from the Blue Water Market & Grill in San Diego. I make it a point to eat here every time I go. If you're in SD, EAT HERE. So yummy...

Citrus Addict

Those of you who know me or have followed my blog for a while know that I love citrus. I love to cook with lemons in particular. When I lived in CA it seemed like there were lemon trees on every other property, all going to waste because nobody really uses them much. So I ran around the neighborhood scooping up the lemons to bring home so that they weren't shamefully wasted.

So a couple weeks ago I was out in San Diego for work again and a coworker with one of these lemon trees in his yard brought in a garbage bag full of lemons and left them in my office. This coworker knows I'm a lemon freak and he always seems more than happy to send a bunch my way during citrus season. I had to buy another bag just to get them home because there was no way they would fit in my regular checked bag. Plus they would have put me way over the weight limit.

So this is what I've been up to since I got home from that trip:

I made 8 batches of lemon curd and froze them for future use.

An opinion on citrus-y desserts: While I love the rich decadance of chocolate-themed desserts, I actually think citrus treats are more interesting on the palate and often overshadowed.

I combined some of the lemons with some blood oranges to make a Blood Orange Tart.

I made a classic Lemon Tart.

I made Avgolemono soup. (Greek lemony-chicken soup for those that may not know.)



I made Paella on Valentine's Day for Mr X.



The excess of lemons required a batch of good ole' lemonade.



A nice lemon roasted chicken.



About a gallon of Lemon Gelato.

After all of this I still had lemons left over so I juiced them and froze the juice for future food endeavors. Needless to say, we won't be having issues with scurvy any time soon in this house.

A Recent Work Getaway

A couple weeks ago I had to go to San Diego for work. I convinced Mr X to use some of his use-or-lose vacation days and come with me. I had to work the entire week but we stayed over the weekend so I could play at the beach a little bit too. During the days Mr X stand-up-paddle boarded with some of his buddies that live there. I think it was a much needed break for Mr X.

In the evenings, when I wasn't working, Mr X and I feasted on fantastic San Diego food. I love Colorado but sometimes I really, really miss the food scene from Southern California. I think we had some sort of tacos each day and most of those tacos were of the seafood variety. We found a new place to eat that is new to SD since we moved away. It's now our favorite restaurant. It's called Fish 101. If you're ever in San Diego it would be well worth your time to go to this place. It's incredibly delicious.

A Change of Scenery

I was in San Diego for work last week. Most of the time I was there the weather was perfect: Clear skies, sunny, light warm breeze and about 73 degrees. It was a welcome change from the Colorado winter (even though I love the winter here). But the best part of the whole trip was that I managed to bring back over 50 lemons with me. Good thing I had plenty of room in my luggage, right? I had to check my backpack as well so that I could split up the lemons to ensure my luggage wouldn't be over the weight limit. I made Mr X some lemon bars and some lemonade this weekend.

Good Old San Diego

This year I've been making rather frequent trips to San Diego for work. Going back to SD always seems both nice and strange. The nice part, of course is the weather. When it was freezing and snowing here it was always perfectly warm there. When it was a little on the hot side here it was always perfectly cool there. The strange part was - well I don't live there anymore so it's strange to go back as a visitor to a place that you once called home. Plus I was surprised how much I really missing Colorado when I went there, despite the lovely weather.

Anyway, Mr X decided to take a couple of days off from work and meet me out there in July. I extended my stay through the weekend and we were able to enjoy the weather and the beach together. It was nice. While I was busy working Mr X surfed, paddleboarded and took some photos.

Sequoia National Forest Trip - Part 3

The last night we were in Sequoia there was a huge snowstorm that dumped all night long. The next morning we went out to the parking lot and you couldn't hardly see the cars.


The picture below is our car. Do you recognize it? It took us a while to recognize it and even longer to dig it out.

We decided to go out for one last snowshoe hike before we left the lodge to go home. We wanted to try out snowshoeing in nearly 4 feet of fresh powder. It was SO exhausting, but incredibly beautiful. Below is the walkway from our lodge - so much snow was piled on either side of all of the walkways that we felt a bit like rats in a maze.

My first fall while snowshoeing is captured below. It's hard to get back up on your feet in all that powder.

Mr X took a rest by a bridge, which he nearly fell off from while trying to sit down.

This is what would happen if one went walking around without snowshoes - you pretty much wouldn't get anywhere because you'd have to dig yourself out after each step.

I am SO glad Mr X and I had the opportunity to visit this great national park before leaving California a month later. It was an incredibly experience and sight.

Sequoia National Forest Trip - Part 2

The sad part about these Sequoia posts is that these pictures don't even come close to capturing the grandeur of these trees. Regardless, here's me sub-par photos of the forest:

This is actually two tress that had grown together and the bottom center got sort of burned up a bit in a fire at some point in history. Jeff and I are so tiny standing at the bottom of the tree.

I loved the really HUGE trees like General Sherman and General Grant, but I found the actual clusters or groves even more impressive, even though they were made up of smaller trees, comparatively speaking of course.

I did a vertical 'panorama' here, above, in an attempt to capture an entire single tree. It doesn't really work unless you can see the photo in it's original large state.

We snowshoed all the way from our lodge down to the Giant Forest and then some other areas of the forest.

The center tree in this photo is General Sherman.

This one is just another random giant Sequoia.

Green Valley Lake Cabin

Last weekend we stayed in a cabin at Green Valley Lake. It's up near Big Bear in CA. The cabin was called "WHALEROCK" and it was everything we were hoping it would be. Here are some pictures from our weekend:

This was the sign at the front of the drive way.

This was the front of the cabin. I loved it.

The kitchen and entryway.

The living room and the adorable fireplace.

The bedroom came complete with a patchwork quilt. Very appropriate.

It was a couple minute walk to the lake. This is what it looked like. It's stocked regularly with fish and it seemed like it would have been nearly impossibly NOT to catch a fish. We didn't fish because we don't have our CA fishing licenses.

Instead we rented a rowboat and paddled around the lake for a good long while. It was really nice.