Summer.

{When every moment will be as it will be.}

Last summer our family took a grand adventure. We rented a mini van and left Long Beach to trek out way through little towns, over the mountains, along the rivers to Tennessee. It was perfect. Completely perfect.

This summer our grand adventure is simple togetherness.

I made a little Summer Adventures list for each family member to fill out and post up. My vision is that we will wake up, and decide what list item to conquer.

To download, just right click the image. What's on your list?

Skyline.

{Sweet & Spicy Sorta' Soupy Heaven}

I am proud to say I was born in and grew up in the grand Queen City: Cincinnati Ohio. It's a wonderful place.

I grew up with a lot of wonderies in Cincinnati. Indian Mounds, the Cincinnati Zoo, the field of Daffodils at the Krohn Conservatory, Kings Island... well those are the major players in my memory. There's actually a lot of really wonderful history in Cincinnati. But kids don't pay much attention to that stuff.

One thing the kid me did pay attention to was food. Enter: Skyline Chili. Skyline is the name of the restaurant which made Cincinnati-style Chili famous. (There's also Gold Star, but this cousin of the chili world doesn't get as much love. I don't know who came first, do you?) Named for the beautiful Skyline that befalls the city, it's a staple of Cincinnati culture. One of my first dates with Mark was eating ice cream across the Ohio River in Kentucky, admiring the lights, bridges, and architecture.

We love and miss Skyline.

Being across the country and being vegetarian poses two obstacles for us.  I've concurred them.

Originally our family would bring or send packets of "Cincinnati-Style Chili Mix". It tasted good but the corn syrup solids and BHT ended up leaving a salty coating in our mouths.

I decided to tackle it. Make it From Scratch. I'm not a big From Scratch cook. I mean, I cook a lot, and love to, but the term From Scratch conjures up images of long-simmered beefy stews, or croissants, or other things that require a lot of time, measuring, and planning. But this seemed do-able to me. I found a recipe and dove in.

Look at all the spice jars I had open! Allspice! Cinnamon! Paprika! Chili Powder!

It was so good. We used veggie-dogs to make a Coney.

It wasn't quite the same - at Skyline the hot dogs are miniature, as are the buns. But still great. Something about that finely shredded mild cheddar cheese + spicy sweet chili soaked into white spongy bread. Oh yum! My favorite is still the classic 3-Way. Spaghetti with chili and lots of cheese. And a side of oyster crackers.

And then... there's the Dip. This is how we usually introduce newbies to Skyline. It's portable, sits in your tummy like a flat tire, and is addictive.

Cream Cheese + Chili + Cheese

I'm not going to post the recipe I used, because It's not quite right. I need to experiment. There are lots out there, though. Here is one that looks reputable.

For the meat-eaters who want to try it in it's original glory, you can get it on Amazon.














Also, it should be noted, the last meat I did ever eat was a Chili Sandwich with my friend Brittany sometime in 1991. It was my last cheat. And totally worth it.

Yielding.

{story in pictures: The Farmers Market.}

One of my goals is to learn about eating in season. And to actually do it. I figured a sure-fire way to learn about what is in season is to go to a Farmer's Market. We are lucky enough to have quite a few great Famer's Markets in Long Beach, but I decided to take the troops up to Redondo Beach for a fun day out.

And what a fun day out it was!  The kids had so much fun tasting fruits and veggies, helping me choose our "harvest".

we were mesmerized by the colors in this fresh broccoli. So different than the shrink-wrapped shrunken head at the mega-mart, no?

 admiring some exotic blooms,

photo courtesy Elliette, age 4 1/2.

and then a trip to the play-ground to round out the excursion.

I gave Emmett the camera for awhile. These were the first results.

Then after some coaching from his big sister, he cranked out some good images. Kind of artsy-fartsy, but that fits in around here.

we don't know this guy.

 Then we had a real treat. Whales! There was water spouting up from the sea and it was from real-life Humpback Whales migrating!!! And then to top it off, I saw a whale come out of the water, I'm not even kidding. I was elated. So excited. I'm still pretty happy about it. The kids, however, didn't get to see, because it's really hard to spot the small spout of water rising out of the sea that is just standing before you, endless, with no referance point. 

 

The best we got was Emmett's photo of my shadow, pointing to where the whales were. 

 

At least it's documented.

Well, we also got a good bounty of fresh fruit, honey and vegetables. Which included the very sweetest and most adorable strawberries I have ever experienced, short of my back yard in Ohio at the age of 7. I love being at the open-air market, and I love involving the kids. When we shop at the Super Market they just chatter their teeth through the frigid produce section. This really is a much better way to go.

Also, have you tried the Honey Crisp apple? Have you tried one from a local grower, freshly picked and warm from the sun? Delightful.

Trucked.

{Long Beach Street Food Festival}
























This past weekend the family headed downtown for the first festival in Long Beach devoted to the burgeoning gourmet food truck.

I have been intrigued by this culture for awhile. When I worked at Harveys the lunch truck would come around (and yes, we did call it the Roach Coach) and it was really just what you might think of in a lunch truck. Fast. Cheap. Greasy. Unhealthy. Accessible. It was a novelty and a convenience, but not much more.

Since then, Los Angeles has had a few gem gourmet food trucks. There's the cool factor of many of these Haute Coach's availability. They alert followers via online social networks of their where-abouts, so only those "on the list" know about them. It's titillating because you can't just go on a whim, and you have be in on the secret. It's very Hollywood.

Sceneadvisor.com does a good job describing the trend:
"The recession's effect on the North American dining scene has been well-documented. In the past few years, some of the continent's finest restaurants have either made the move towards "casual gourmet" or shut their doors altogether. But there has also been a move in the opposite direction; rather than running for the nearest McDonald's, many diners have sought solace in "gourmet" versions of downscale standards, and some savvy entrepreneurs, recognizing the new demand, aim to deliver. Literally."

Well, hip or not. I love it. We have three little kids, so being seated for a meal can be daunting. But walking up to a truck, keeping Emmett enthralled by the big tires while ordering, and then just planting ourselves on a curb or even in our car... so nice. And normally, we'd have to hit Taco Bell for such a comfort, which brings it down about 37 notches. Being able to have a potato taco with pickled onions from world-famous Border Grill, kids chowing on truly healthy and delicious beans n' rice all while playing duck duck goose in the grass! A dream!

The Fest was super-fantastic because we got to try lots of stuff all at once. Because some lines were long, our food would settle, making room for the next round and allowing us to munch all afternoon. (Oh, I love munching all afternoon.) We were with friends, so standing in line was a great chance to chit-chat and play with all of the kids.

A band of police officers, Blue Steel, played popular-among-30-something-hits, which was fun. I danced to Modern English with the kids and crooned some Rod Stewart while waiting for Mark to return with the grub.

Okay, onto the food. We enjoyed - thoroughly:

-=-Calbi tofu tacos. I love tacos. and I love tofu. These were really tasty, and priced well.

This is a photo of 1 tofu, 1 shrimp taco

-=-Border Grill (I was so excited! This is one of my favorite places ever.) We had the sweet corn tamale cone, potato tacos and rice n' beans. It was one of those embarrassing moments when I kept murmuring "mmm... this... is.. soo ...oooo. gooood..." to myself. It. Was. Awesome.

-=-The Place LA, we had a mediocre veggie burger and soggy fries, but the service was very good.

-=-World Fare, we had the truffle mac n' cheese balls, which probably taste great right out of the frier, and taste pretty good as we had them. They are rich enough that the side of 3 balls was enough for four of us. The goocher was their drinks: Strawberry Basil Lemonade and Orange Lavender Iced Tea. Both drinks were out of control yummy. They also have an upper-deck dining area, which is really cool.

-=-For dessert we checked out the Sweets Truck but couldn't really figure out what they had, the signage wasn't so hot. We wanted to get some ice cream sandwiches from Cool Haus but at the end of our stint there, the line was just too long. (readers who waited for Cool Haus - was it worth it??) So we went back to World Fare, where they were smart enough to have a separate table set up selling quick-grab desserts. We had the Cheesecake Red Velvet Cupcake (Elliette's choice) and a Brownie (Emmett's choice) and both were marvelous. The brownie, especially, was lip-smacking, nice crackly top crust, and very moist and perfectly dense center.

The admission price of $8 might have deterred us, honestly, if Border Grill hadn't been there (I am a super fan, seriously) but the good news it went to the Adopt-A-Teacher and LB City College Student Scholarships programs. (Kids were free, and you could pre-purchase for $6) Being married to a teacher myself I kind of felt the solidarity in the moment. The parking fee of $10 was steep, but I blame that on the convention center. Next time we'll definitely take the free Passport there.

The Grilled Cheese Truck was also there, but we didn't partake. This is why:

That long line goes allllll the waaaaay to that orange truck. I'll try and catch in LA soon, though, the menu looked yummy and very fun!

All in all, we are excited for it to come again. The location at Rainbow Lagoon was really cool, the layout was great, and the selection was fun. I also loved the live music.

Did any of you go? What did you think?

See you there next time!