I wanted to make a salad with our breakfast so I just decided to make our breakfast a salad. I looked for ideas on the interwebs and found one with cinnamon toast croutons, sold.

Cut up some bread and toss with some melted butter, sugar and cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees until crunchy. Make a simple vinaigrette using 1 T. apple cider vinegar, 1 T. real maple syrup and a few T. olive oil and you’re pretty much set. Add some crispy bacon, walnuts and whatever you like and top it off with a soft boiled egg.

This was my first attempt at soft boiled eggs and they were awesome. Bring water to a boil, carefully add eggs and boil for about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove and cool or eat right away. I’m addicted.

When we have visitors like Z’s Grandma Mitzi, we like to take them out to Red Rock to show them that Vegas isn’t just a bunch of casinos and clubs. That there are actually awesome things to do outdoors. When your in Red Rock you forget your in Vegas even though it’s literally just a few minutes outside of town.

We invited our good friend Fred to meet up with us and we were super glad we did. He has been on every trail on the map and led us to a trail we had never heard of and would probably never would have without him bringing it to our attention. It was called Pine Creek Canyon and it was AWESOME. We were going to hit the kids discovery trail but Fred said it was flat and boring and that this other trail was his absolute favorite because it had lots of different things to experience. Mountains, river, pine trees, big boulders, you name it.

Walking into the canyon I yelled out something that I forget now but wow, the echo was amazing. Like six repeats/echos. Entering the canyon and looking up Fred saw some rock climbers hanging on the sheer cliff near the top of the mountain. I yelled up “Hello” wondering if the light blue specs on the mountainside were actually people to which they replied with a “Hello” back, so cool.

Juniper trees where everywhere.

This rock has a face.

This balancing boulder was the final destination, the last leg of our journey. We entailed a little bit of actual rock climbing to get to it where it sits on a ledge overlooking the the whole trail from about 100 feet up. The spot is very peaceful and serene but there was no time to hangout long as it was getting colder, darker and we had to hike all the way back right. On that way back I found a rock that looked like an owls head so I stacked it on another rock along the trail giving her a body. I have to say Z did an amazing job making this 3 mile hike with an easy-moderate rating. Here’s how the Red Rock web site describes Pine Creek Canyon. “Pine Creek Canyon offers some of the best of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area–beautiful and diverse plant communities nestled at the bottom of monolithic canyon walls. The ponderosa pine forest at the mouth of the canyon is a remnant from the last Ice Age, but it survives here thanks to the cool air and water flowing down Pine Creek Canyon..”

J and I had truffle macaroni and cheese at a great little spot called Herbs & Rye which makes totally awesome flat bread pizzas. Neither of us knew what to expect, I mean I knew they were expensive mushrooms and supposedly they were great but after the first smell of the mac and cheese we were turned off. So much that we just had it sent back. The odor was so offensive to us that I had to put the dish on the table next to us to just get it away. It was interfering with our delicious pizzas. The staff was very cool about it and took it off our bill no problemo. So I was surprised when I was sniffing around the cheese island at Whole Foods and came across this truffle cheese and I actually kind of sort of liked it. It was super expensive so I just got a small piece and it was great. Super creamy and coated on the outside with edible ash as opposed to a wax or something.

During Christmas my secret Santa at work gave me a bottle of black truffle oil too and we’ve been loving it on popcorn ever since. Truffles are slowly finding there way into our hears I guess.

A classic cheddar perfect for crackers, nice and sharp just like I like it. J has always been a cheddar girl and this one had her singing. You can see in the photo how it crumbles in parts when you cut it, loved it. One thing I don’t like about though is it’s yellow color which for me is unnecessarily added.

We watched Forks Over Knives the other night on Netflix. The information wasn’t really anything new but it did make me want to cut down on all the dairy we eat around here. We don’t eat a ton of meat but I’d also like to cut that down and possibly completely out. I’ve been reading a couple new books lately too. Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar, Miracle Health System which has got me hooked on a drink made of 2 teaspoons of Bragg raw organic apple cider vinegar, two teaspoons of honey and about a cup of water. It’s actually pretty tasty, sort of like a weak apple cider. The other book is Back to Eden which talks a lot about cabbage as a wonderful food source. So I got myself a cabbage and made some soup. A very simple and clean soup that both J and little Z enjoyed.

Took this pic in the evening golden hour. While I was taking this I was explaining it to Z our future photographer. It’s so cool to get to teach your kids awesome things like this.

Back in the day my mom and I would mow lawns over the summers for extra money. My brother did it before me and the job was eventually handed down though there were times where we all three worked together. It was awesome for me as a kid because we would split the money 50/50 and at 20-40 bucks a lawn with and average of ten or more lawns it was like $150 to $250 every couple weeks and for a 12 year old that’s MONEY! So every other Saturday we would mow from morning until dark. The properties were for a bank that I’m assuming repossessed after folks fell short on their loans and most were in the shady parts of town. But nestled in one of those not so pristine areas was a place called Buds. Buds had about five little tables and an old diner style bar. Even the bar was small with only 4-6 stools and where we always sat. Right behind the bar was Bud and his grill. You could almost stand up on your stool lean over the bar and flip the burgers yourself. There were only two menu items that I recollect from Buds. Tiny hamburgers (which my Mom would order like 15 or 20 with grilled onions only) and chili. The hamburgers (there was no trendy name like sliders) were so small they were literally one or two bites tops. I would steal a couple/few from my Mom but the chili was where my heart was. It was this super meaty chili with maybe a couple beans. The awesomeness was in how small the beef was ground. Yeah you guessed it, tiny. Never any big chunks just the finest ground beef you’ve ever seen and oh so, oh so flavorful. Buds became a Saturday lunch favorite with my Mom and I. Not sure how she came across Buds, I think my Grandma may have gotten her hair done somewhere around there but I know she had been there before because she knew how to order those tiny burgers? Since then Buds has closed down and even if it were still there I’m not sure if it would live up to my memories.

So I was going to make chili this past weekend. My usual is bean heavy and vegetarian but I had some ground beef I needed to use up. I called up Moms to ask what she remembered about Buds chili because it was obviously the direction I wanted to take it. I figured she would have a better recollection of it since childhood memories are sometimes a little vague. She came back with “It was all meat and grease”. Her advice was to get some 70% meat and start there, lol. I went with an organic grass fed 80%. The chili turned out wonderfully. It was a cross between Buds (texture wise) and Wendy’s (taste wise) which is a very good thing in my book. Another childhood memory of mine is my grandparents taking me to Wendy’s for chili and they always would vocalize that Wendy’s had “the best” chili. Sad to say but I fully agree still to this day.

The measurements below are just what I’m remembering from over a week later but should be pretty damn close. Flavor to your own liking, the key is very fine beef, very few beans and some liquid.

I’m gonna have my Mom take a pic of Buds old storefront but until then the google map shot above shows the block where Buds used to be.

This website is a journal of our families cooking experiences and more importantly a quick reference to recipes we want to cook again and again. I haven’t made steel cut oats for awhile now so when I went back to the intertubes to find my old go to recipe it was, well…. gone. I found basically the same thing by Alton Brown but I had to dig through several sites wasting valuable time as I was trying to get something in J’s stomach before she went to yoga. Somebody’s gotta workout in this house. So I figured it’s time to get this recipe in a safe spot.

So the cake is vegan but the frosting is all cream cheese and butter. The recipe calls for dusting with powdered sugar not frosting so it could easily be vegan or I’m sure there are some great vegan frosting recipes out there if that’s your thing. I made these for Z to take to school for her birthday last week and they were a huge hit. The recipe said something funny like this won’t be the best cake you’ve ever had but it WILL taste good, it WILL be quick and easy to make and WILL be homemade, all which was true and that’s what I love about this cake. I didn’t even notice that it was vegan until a day or two later when I was trying to recollect the ingredients for a coworker. Bottom line, these simple chocolate cakes may be the new go to cake for occasions like this past week.

There’s a place here in town called Nothing Bundt Cakes that is mouth watering. They get tons of orders for work parties and special events etc. We’ve ordered them several times at my work and they are always amazing. These kinda reminded me of those but it could just be that I frosted them kind of like they do. This isn’t the normal way to “spread” icing on a cupcake but it was actually the perfect amount.

I asked Z if she wanted pancakes for breakfast this last Saturday, it was just the two of us because J had to work and was gonna hit yoga afterwords. She replied with “chocolate pancakes”. It caught me off guard at first but then I realized she meant chocolate chip pancakes like I’ve made a couple times in the past. But now I had chocolate pancakes burned into my mind and there was no turning back. I’m glad I went with my “gut” because these were totally awesome. It was actually like eating a birthday cake for breakfast, not something you should do often unless you want to blow up like the stay puft marshmallow man but very super tasty non the less. Everyone obviously loved them (we saved some for when J got home that afternoon). Three thumbs up.

They look so good cooking on the griddle.

Last night (11-04-11) our dog Sweetie Pie passed away (SP). She was one of two strays that came to our door about three years ago. They were all the blessing to us. SP soon had a litter of puppies and we kept one of her daughters. So just like J, Z and I, there was the little family of three dogs, momma, papa and daughter. SP was the wild one but yet the good/smart one. She danced and chased, she played hard and loved hard. To most guests she was a ferocious beast, growling and barking and even a little bite here and there if you gave her the chance, our brave defender. Only four years old (we think) she went well before her time, in a flash leaving much wonder in all of our minds as to what, how and why. That’s something we will never know but I do know that I’ve learned a few things from that dog about how to be a leader of a household. She had and amazing spirit.

Today when I was deciding what to listen too at work I picked Jonsi. This is the first song that came up randomly. I don’t think it was so random after all. It describe SP perfectly and instantly brought a tear to my eye. I played it for J when I got home and she cried too. We will all miss you Sweetie Pie, so very much. Fortunate our paths crossed.

Jonsi – Boy Lilikoi
Jonsi - Boy Lilikoi

I want to be a lilikoi boy lilikoi
You grind your claws, you howl growl
Unafraid of Hoi Polloi
You run, you’re free, you climb and dress trees
You reignite
You growl, you howl, you show your teeth
You bite, it’s alright

Say no more, use your eyes
The world goes and flutters by
Use your eyes, you’ll know you are
Use your eyes, the world goes and flutters by
Use your eyes, you’ll know you are

Why me, my boy, you burn so bright
Do you illuminate?
One day you’re out, you give up the fight
You slow down heart-rate

We all grow old, use your life
The world goes and flutters by
Use your life, you’ll know you are
Use your life, the world goes and flutters by
Use your life, you’ll know you are

Electricity wires are down
Rainbow colours fade into brown
I dreamt you were smiling, shifting for good
Courageous boy, now you are gone
And run past the years, no place to go
Your spirit is grand, so life goes on
You are
You are

I want to be a lilikoi-boy ooooh
You grind your claws, you howl, you growl
Unafraid of Hoi Polloi

Electricity wires are down
Rainbow colours fade into brown
I dreamt you were smiling, shifting for good
Courageous boy, now you are gone
You run past the years, no place to go
Your spirit is grand, so life goes on
You are ..
You are ..