On Thursday, Michele's friend, Pam, came over and all of us went to Santa Monica Pier. Although I guess it's really the Promenade now. The street is blocked off to all but pedestrians and goes on for at least six blocks. A long walk for my Mom! We had lunch at the famous (or infamous) Barney's Beanery, which has been around since the 1920's. They seem to serve every type of food under the sun, but are famous for their chili. When the depression hit, people would come in for a bowl of chili, but couldn't always pay, so would leave their license plates as collateral. They could have their plates back when they brought in money to pay their bill. Some people didn't come back, so license plates are hanging up all over. It is said Marilyn Monroe, Steve McQueen, and many others ate there at Barneys. Kind of a cool place! We walked more after lunch and ended the day with a gelato and a "sit down" on the top flour of the food court, which (kind of) overlooks the waterfront. There were statues incorporating plants and steel statues all over, so I took some pictures, lol. Here are some of my pictures:
Friday we drove down to Escondido to check out Champagne Village, the retirement center Lawrence Welk started (you read correctly-Lawrence Welk, dead but not forgotten!). It's in a beautiful area and we wondered if my Mom would like it. It is about a 2-3 hour drive from Michele's house, so I'm not sure it would work out. It poured rain most of the day. haven't driven in such heavy rain since I moved out West from Chicago! We stopped at a couple of stores looking for a pie pop maker but couldn't find any. It was an adventure, to say the least!
Saturday, Janell and I left to come back to Reno. We did hit a little rain and snow on the way back but the roads were clear. Thank goodness! We made it back safe and sound. Jordan is still sick so I am trying to talk him into going to the doctor. We'll see if he does.
Today I wrote two articles for Examiner.com. Did you know that this month (April) is National Grilled Cheese month? And National Soy Foods month, National garlic month, National Florida Tomato month and National Soft Pretzel month?? Neither did I, til I looked it up, lol. There is literally a food holiday for every day of the year. Oh, and April is National Food month. Not sure about that one as every day/month seems to be a food holiday! Anyway, I wrote and published two articles, then tried my hand at pie pops.
I made two types of pies, Sweet Strawberry and Apple Chai. I used puff pastry, just to play around with the recipe a bit. I discovered several things... First, even when you roll out puff pastry, it still puffs up too much for pie pops (at least I think so). Second, your crust, whatever dough you use, puff, pie dough, etc, better taste good because there is a huge pie to filling ratio. Third, don't over fill your pie pop-it will burst open or run out. Fourth, the pie pops taste better either sprinkled with a little raw sugar or brushed with a little glaze to sweeten up all that crust. Fifth, dispite the fact that strawberries make a wicked good pie, the Apple Chai tasted the best. I am making pie pops as part of a job I have so I would rather practice before they are due than have all sorts of problems with them and not have the time to fix it! Here they are, all lined up:
I'll work on them again tomorrow using regular homemade pie crust. I'll see if that works better-it should. But now it's time to put together some dinner.....wonder what's in the fridge?
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