Category Archives: Foodie Fever

Foodie Fever Feature: Frosted Robin Cupcakes

How do I love cupcakes?  Let me count the ways.  However, I have not perfected the cupcake baked from scratch.  Enter Frosted Robin Cupcakes, whom I had the pleasure of visiting a couple of weekends ago.  They are located in Seaport Village, right on the San Diego Bay.   My son already found the decor enticing with the cow bench outside.  But inside, I found lovely decorated cupcakes that I hoped were just as good as they were beautiful.

Rather than try to figure out what would suit my tastes that day, I asked what would be a good choice for a first timer.  The house specialty was the Cayman Spice Cupcake, described as “coconut milk infused, cinnamon and nutmeg cake, coconut buttercream icing and cinnamon sugar sprinkle.”  Oh my!  I absolutely love spiced baked goods such as pumpkin pies and the Eggnog cookies I baked last Christmas (recipe found here).  I can say with certainty that the Cayman Spice Cupcake did not disappoint.  The cupcake itself was moist, while the spice added the extra kick.  The coconut buttercream icing was light, fluffy and not too rich.  But I’m most anxious to try the other exotic sounding flavors such as Caribbean Carrot, Lychee Rose, Mango, Sweet Potato and Pineapple.

Owner and manager, Sheree Harrison graciously took the time to answer a few of my questions on how she got started, why cupcakes, and what makes Frosted Robin Cupcakes a unique cafe experience!

What made you decide to start your own business?

Having progressed to the role of Global Director of Marketing for a major international law firm, I had been very successful in my corporate career and I was ready for a new challenge. My first love has always been art and I also love food, so the cupcake industry offered me an opportunity to create delicious treats that I could also design to be little works of art.

Why cupcakes?

[Sorry, got ahead of myself. See response above.]

What made you move to San Diego?

I had been travelling to San Diego over a course of about three years to attend a Marketing Partners Forum in Carlsbad and I fell in love with the city. It has everything my family and I love; the ocean, cool and sunny weather, mountains… I guess, all the things that everyone loves about this beautiful city.

Is it easy maintaining a business here and in the Cayman islands?

The cafe in Cayman is actually owned by one of my best friends. We’ve licensed the trademark to her, so we provide her with marketing support and any other support she may need.

What do you like best about what you do?

I love seeing people’s faces light up when they walk in the door and see our display case full of little, delicious, works of cupcake art. We all have fun, childhood memories of cupcakes at birthday parties and family celebrations. I love being able to take our customers back to those times when you could just enjoy the simple pleasure of sinking your teeth in to a cupcake. We do tea parties now as well and providing the big tea party hats, boas and costume jewelry has that same beautiful effect of transporting people back in time. Grown women become silly little girls again, it’s great!

Weekend in Pictures: Bacon is Meat Candy

It’s no secret on how much I love bacon, going so far as to try the chocolate covered bacon at the San Diego Fair last year. I’m sure many of you out there have seen the Denny’s commercials for their “Baconalia: A Celebration of Bacon” campaign.  After my sister described her experience with the Maple Bacon Sundae, I just had to try it.  So last weekend, we took some time out of our Saturday to venture out to Denny’s.  Coincidentally, my sister wore her “Bacon is meat candy” shirt, and the manager at Denny’s could not stop complimenting her on it, stating that they should be wearing that for their campaign.

The sundae was everything I hoped it would be and more.  The saltiness and crunch of the bacon beautifully offset the sweetness of the syrup and ice cream.  I highly recommend it.  For more bacon fun like clothing, food products and novelties, check out this site called Bacon Freak (the “Baconista” shirt is cute).  Hope you had a great weekend!

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Being a border town right next to Tijuana, it’s easy to see the celebration all around San Diego.  Many people tend to confuse today with Mexican Independence Day (which occurs on September 16), so here is a little explanation of what exactly is celebrated during Cinco de Mayo (from Wikipedia):

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for “fifth of May”) is a holiday held on May 5 that commemorates the Mexican’s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. It is celebrated primarily in the state of Puebla and in the United States. While Cinco de Mayo sees limited significance in Mexico itself, the date is observed nationwide mostly in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. “Cinco de Mayo is not a Mexican holiday—it is an American Civil War holiday, created spontaneously by Mexicans and Latinos living in California who supported the fragile cause of defending freedom and democracy during the first years of that bloody war between the states.” Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s Independence Day, the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico.

This is a great time to head to Downtown San Diego and Old Town to celebrate, especially with great food.  Outside of Ensenada and Rosarito, here are a list of places that I love to go to when I need a bit of Mexican cuisine (click on the link for locations and official website).  ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

1. Fresh MXN Food (Formerly known as Santana’s Mexican Grill.  The Quesomush quesadilla is the BEST!)

2. El Indio Mexican Restaurant & Catering (As featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network.)

3. Sombrero Mexican Food (Touted as Blink 182’s favorite Mexican cafe.  They go to the one in Poway, but we frequent the one in Misison Valley.)

4. Old Town Mexican Cafe & Cantina (Home of the original tortilla makers in Old Town.)

5. Roberto’s Mexican Food (If you want good rolled tacos, there is practically one around every corner here!)

(Image courtesy of 101 Things To Do)

Randomness: Fountain Drinks of the Future…Now!


Dig if you will these pictures of one of the coolest contraptions I have seen in a long time. We made a stop at a Jack In The Box near the San Juan Capistrano area a few weeks ago and saw this nifty new machine. After I paid for my food, the cashier gave me a cup and pointed me in the direction of where he said the fountain drinks were located.  I stood there in front of the thing for about a minute before looking up, and saw the instructional sign (pictured below).

What’s incredibly cool about this machine is that once you press your drink selection, you are then given even more selections, such as different flavors. For instance if you choose Sprite, the next screen after pushing the Sprite icon would have different flavors of Sprite, including raspberry and others.

My mom and I thought that we were the only ones that marveled at the machine upon first approach. But we watched another set of customers do the exact same thing we did: stand and stare at the thing until they realized that they needed to know how to work the thing, which forced them to look up and find the instructions. The cashier stated that they are the only Jack In The Box with this new fangled machine. We hope it comes to a Box near us soon!

Randomness: Nutella Day, February 5th

The first time I ever had Nutella was when I was visiting my aunt in Toronto.  She was putting it on her toast during breakfast.  I was quite confused about the thick chocolate spread instead of the regular butter or jelly.  Although I liked it, I never really got into it here in the States, just when it was available at the odd continental breakfast, plane ride or hotel room.

When I was pregnant with my son a couple of years ago, it seemed to be one of the few things I wanted to eat.  At one point,  I went through three jars in a month.  I especially loved it on bread or fruit.  I even created a little snack of my own what was a variation on something I had before:  Granny Smith apple slices, cream cheese and peanut butter on white bread.  My version was the apple slices, cream cheese, and Nutella on Hawaiian sweet bread.  It’s better than you could even imagine.

If you love the chocolate and hazelnut goodness that is Nutella like I do, tomorrow is the day for you!  I discovered recently that February 5th is Nutella Day.  Celebrate with recipes, sharing it on the web if you have a blog or social networking account, or just spread it on something good and enjoy.

Dinner With the Girls


As much as the everyday activities and tasks in life seem to take hold and drive our time, we not only need a little quiet time to ourselves, but we should also spend some time with our best girlfriends. So last week during San Diego’s Restaurant Week, two of my best friends and I went to Peohe’s in Coronado to have a little girl time. Regi, Janice and I have been friends for a long time (Regi is actually my relative). At first, we mainly partied together because we were all in a nightclub promotion group. But since those crazy days and weekends, we’ve calmed down quite a bit and have been in each other’s weddings and are Godparents to each other’s children. Rather than the all night party, we now do things like shopping, spa days, children’s birthday parties, movies, concerts and dinners out.

Restaurant Week is always great because participating restaurants will have a fixed menu for around $20, $30 and $40. It’s usually a three course meal, consisting of a starter, entrée and dessert. There were three selections for each course of the fixed price menu at Peohe’s, and luckily enough, we were able to try everything on the menu because we all have such varying tastes. Here was their Restaurant Week menu:

Choice of First/Appetizers Course

Lobster Bisque

Finished with whole butter, sherry and fresh lobster.

Peohe’s Salad

Field greens, mandarin oranges and candied walnuts, tossed in orange-ginger vinaigrette.

Herb-Steamed Artichoke

Poached in seasoned broth. Served with clarified butter and lemon-basil aioli.

Choice of Second/Main Course

Prime Rib of Beef

Slow-roasted to perfection, served with au jus and creamy horseradish.

Crab-Stuffed Tilapia

Coated with breadcrumbs, stuffed with crabmeat and finished with warm caper butter sauce.

Coconut Crunchy Shrimp

Large shrimp breaded in tempura batter, coconut and panko breadcrumbs. Served with sweet yet tangy plum sauce.

Choice of Third/Dessert Course

No Ka Oi (Hawaiian translation: “The Best”)

Macadamia nut ice cream pie in a chocolate cookie crust with bittersweet chocolate sauce.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Creamy cheesecake infused with raspberries and white chocolate.

Macadamia Nut Ice Creme Brulee

Homemade custard topped with caramelized sugar, macadamia nuts and fresh berries.


I’m so glad that Janice chose Peohe’s because it’s right by the water and although it was chilly, it was beautiful. We walked around a bit, getting in as much girl talk as we could before it got too cold. It’s times like this that I’m reminded of how beautiful San Diego is. All in all, it was a wonderful night with my best girlfriends. We’re planning a trip to the Bay Area sometime this summer. More adventures to come!

More Holiday Goodness: Pumpkin Pasties

On Christmas Eve, I tried my hand at these “Pumpkin Pasties” that I first saw on WordPress’ “Freshly Pressed” as “Two-Bite Pumpkin Pies”. I used the recipe from “Three Baking Sheets to the Wind” (seen here). Thinking I only had to use the canned pumpkin (complete brain lapse), I didn’t actually buy all of the correct ingredients on the can to make the pumpkin pie filling. I was lucky that I had been baking quite a bit for the past few weeks, so I had additional ingredients at my disposal.  I only had to make a few substitutions:  nutmeg for the ginger and whole milk for the evaporated milk. It ended up just as good! I also didn’t have a cookie cutter to cut out the pie crust circles, so I just used a glass with a 4 inch opening which yielded 8 circles. I rolled the remaining dough and was able to cut out 4 more circles. I brought the pasties to our family Christmas Even get-together and served it with Cool Whip. It was a holiday hit!

Holiday Fun: My First Cookie Exchange Party

This past Saturday, I attended my very first “Cookie Exchange Party”, hosted by my friend Tiffany.  The Evite stated to bring two dozen cookies that you’ve baked from your favorite recipe, plus bring samples for tasting.  If you don’t have a favorite recipe to make cookies from, bring a baked good to share.  Prizes were given out for best recipe and best presentation.  I guess I still didn’t understand just to what extent the guests would go to make their cookie presentations, as you can see from the pictures below.   I baked the Eggnog Cookies (recipe here) and brought them in a regular “bake and carry” tin, nothing fancy (see picture above).  Big mistake!

Along with the fantastic display of cookies for the exchange, we had a couple of wonderful presentations.  One was from Lisa ONeill, a consultant for “The Pampered Chef“.  The company is a “premier direct seller of high quality kitchen tools” and we were introduced to a few of their products.  I ordered a few things, and pictured here is one of my favorite products, called a Scoop Clip.  It’s a clip for your coffee bag that is also a dual measuring scoop.  To me, that’s one of the most perfect “all-in-one” gadgets I’ve seen in a while.  Also presented at the party were a few appetizers from the recipe books available from their catalogs, which were all so good.

The second presentation was from Lucinda Villanueva, a sales representative for Megawine.  She brought a few wines from their catalog, all of which they sell by the case at a great price.  I got a chance to chat with her about Port wines because I have not had one yet, and I heard they are great dessert wines.  The Port I tried was one she suggested I taste with chocolate and to let her know what I thought of it. 

Alone, I could taste the fruit in the Port and she also mentioned it was a bit nutty.  I could also taste a bit of a bite at the end.  But after I tried it with a Chocolate Espresso cookie (made by my friend Erika), the wine enhanced the chocolate, and the chocolate enhanced the wine.  The Port made the chocolate more defined and in turn, the wine became more sweet.   It was fantastic!

All in all, it was a great experience.  Not only because it was food and wine with good friends, but because it shows the creative side of everyone at the party.  The cookies were all tasty and the presentations were beautiful, which means I have to step it up a notch when I make my presentation at next year’s cookie exchange.  I consider myself to be very creative, and the little pan I brought my cookies in this year was put to shame by every single tray of cookies in the room that night.   Lessons learned from my very first cookie exchange.  To host your own “Cookie Exchange”, you can follow Tiffany’s lead as outlined in this post, or you can also follow this great Better Homes and Gardens article here.  Finally, here are a few more pictures of the delicious cookies from the evening. 

(The following photos were all taken by Tiffany Kaechele)

To get in touch with Lisa ONeill from The Pampered Chef and Lucinda Villanueva of Megawine, please contact me through my “Contact” page. 

Holiday Goodness: Eggnog Cookies

I saw this recipe by Lauren Conrad (“The Hills”) in my latest People StyleWatch.  I love the Starbucks Eggnog Latte, so I’m up for anything with eggnog in it.  I always tend towards very fragrant recipes for my desserts and this one is right up there.  My whole kitchen smelled of nutmeg and cinnamon goodness.  These little cookies taste even better than I could describe.  I guess you could say they’re like a gourmet Snickerdoodle.  Either way, this is just about as perfect a holiday cookie as you can get.

EGGNOG COOKIES
 
2  1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp + 1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1  1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup salted butter, softened
1/2 cup eggnog
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and 1/2 tsp nutmeg. Mix well with a wire whisk and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter with an electric mixer to form a grainy paste. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks. Beat at medium speed until smooth.

Add the flour mixture to the eggnog mixture, and beat at low-speed until just combined. Do not over mix (Note: I just folded the ingredients and did not use a mixer).

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets (Note: I did grease the sheets with the remaining salted butter), 1 inch apart. Sprinkle lightly with 1 tbsp nutmeg.  Bake for 23-25 minutes or until bottoms turn light brown.

Immediately transfer to cool flat surface with a spatula.   Makes 2 dozen.

Enjoy! 

Very Berry Blueberry!

Tonight, I am going to try the recipe for Blueberry Crumb Bars from Smitten Kitchen.  They looked so crumbly and juicy when I saw the recipe on Cupcakes and Cashmere that I had to check it out for myself.  We have a breakfast potluck at work tomorrow, so I’m going to try my hand at this delicious looking creation while the hubby keeps our son occupied.

Note:  We went to 4 stores to find fresh blueberries today and we finally ended up at Costco.  They are Northwest Blueberries from Curry and Company and look absolutely delectable!  Stay tuned for the results!

Update:  My whole kitchen smells like blueberries.  This is by far one of the best smelling recipes I have tried in a long time!

Update 2:  I decided to change the picture to the finished product (click the link to see the original picture from Smitten Kitchen).  They taste as good as they look, trust me.

By request, here is the recipe from Smitten Kitchen:

Blueberry Crumb Bars
Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Recipes like this make me wonder why I don’t use AllRecipes.com more. After seeing a blueberry crumb bar on another site, I immediately wanted to make them but the first recipe seemed overly fussy. I knew there was a simpler way to do it, and lo and behold, All Recipes had it. Once I swapped the shortening for butter–of course–and dolled it up with some lemon juice and lemon zest, they were just as heavenly as the 176 commenters promised they’d be.

I could imagine easily swapping another fruit or berry for the blueberries–I’m especially thinking something tart like sour cherries or cranberries in the fall (I’d use orange instead of lemon with cranberries). But if you have blueberries on hand, do not miss a chance to make these.

These are easiest to cut once chilled, and store even better in the fridge than they do at room temperature–something unusual for cookies!

Yield: I cut these into 36 smallish rectangles

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. (This took an extra 10 to 15 minutes in my oven.) Cool completely before cutting into squares.