The Donut Bar

Our condo in San Diego was about a half mile away from one of the best rated donut shops in the world The Donut Bar.  Of course I had to go multiple times a week.  I went on a morning jog everyday and it seemed perfect to end at the donut shop and get a hard earned donut (or 6) for a jog well done.

I always shard with the kids but they still wanted to go pick out their own.  Parking is really bad downtown and there is usually a line out the door at the shop and they sell out so I woke them up early one morning and we all walked down.  We got there about 20 minutes early and below you can see the line.

On the weekends they give out free balloons and a free donut to kids. I was amazed at how few kids were there.  I think I saw seven, including my own!  I just don't think a lot of kids live downtown.

The baker and owner of the shop came out and talked to us a bit.  He said the average donut shop makes about 600 donuts a day and then spends the whole next day selling them.  On the first day he opened he made that many and sold out in about 40 minutes.  Now he makes 2,800 everyday and sells out around noon.  It is a small shop and he said that is the max he can make and he makes the best donuts he possibly can.

The donuts cost more than most but they are also bigger than usual.  A regular dozen donut box fits six of their large donuts.  And they range from $2-$5 a donut.

Below you can see Tucker eating my very favorite donut, it has a poptart baked in the middle and a strawberry jelly.   They make a few based on the different poptart flavors.  The s'mores one is sooo good.

This time I tried the french toast donut.  It was a donut dipped and grilled like french toast.  They didn't grill it until after I ordered so it was very fresh.

Below are a few more of the donuts I've tried.  I took a picture of most of the donuts I've eaten, there are only a few that I forgot to take pictures of.

Strawberry split.


S'mores on fire (different from the s'mores poptart).

Nutella, forgot the name, poptart, lemon blueberry, apple fritter.


Monte Cristo with ham and cheese inside and headed in a waffle iron after I ordered it.


Crem brule, butterbeer, strawberry cream cheese, birthday, samoa, apple pie.


Caramelized coconut, the Homer donut, poptart, snickers (has a entire snickers bar on it), chocolate triple threat.


Assorted Halloween donuts.

Lemon chiffon.  I may have gotten some of the names mixed up but that is the best I can remember them.  And they still have tons more I haven't tried!


I've been to lots of donut shops and The Donut Bar is by far my favorite!  Way better than VooDoo donut, which I think it fun and one of the first donut shops of its kind but not as delicious as these.  Krispy Kremes are also really good and I love how they melt in my mouth, but these are a different kind of good.  Eating one of these is like eating a nice dessert.  And some of these I can only eat a half at a time.

I haven't been in over a week and writing this post is really making me want to go.  I went so much that the people there knew me and would ask about my kids!  I'm the person in line who answers everyones questions about which donut is which.  Bob hasn't really been taking part in my donut obsession and has only tried a bite here and there. While I've had dreams about this place and which donuts I'll order next.  Their menu changes daily so I usually look it up online before I go and come in with a list of the ones I want to try.  One time they were out of the poptart donuts when I got there at 8 and it threw off my day.  Next week I'm going again, I'll just have to figure out parking because we are definitely not within jogging distance anymore.

Thanksgiving Dinner

I have so many things to be thankful for especially this year and of course my family is probably the main one.  Since coming to San Diego I've got so spend a lot of time with the kids.  We don't really have places to be or scheduled things to do so we pretty much get to do what we want all day long.  And since we barely know anyone it is usually just us all day every day.  I feel closer to them and I think all this time together has helped us get along better.  Bob got Thanksgiving off work and it was really nice to just stay at the house all day and hang out.

I took a few pictures of us making dinner.

I think we only have ever made Thanksgiving dinner one time before because we usually go to my moms house.  I really wanted low key and easy so it was all pretty much out of a can or premade.  Below you can see Leon concentrating on the legos.  Its hard for him to get those pieces to go together the way he wants.

We ended up having some people over and it was fun.  I feel inadequate inviting people over for dinner because I'm not the best cook, but the company was nice.

Here I am cutting the marshmallows in half because the recipe called for mini marshmallows but we only had jumbo.  My hair was really frizzy that day because of the ocean and I'm not making my best picture face.  But it is the only one we took of me that day so I wanted to post it anyway.

And the kids putting the marshmallows on.

I hope you all had a great day too!

Little Italy

On one of Bob's precious few days off work we went out to eat in Little Italy.  We lived within walking distance but drove anyway because of the kids.  There were so many restaurants but I didn't want to go alone with the kids so it seemed like the perfect thing to do with Bob.

We decided to go to Filippi's pizza Grotto, it was a very old Italian style pizza restaurant.  You had to walk through the small grocery store to get to the restaurant in the back.  If I didn't read about that online I would have walked in and turned back around thinking I was in the wrong place.

It was nice to spend time with Bob and the kids.  The cheese on the pizza was really gooey and delicious.  But other than that I wouldn't say it was my favorite pizza, not bad though.

Afterward we walked by this place called idessert.  I was interested to I went in and got one.  It was this crazy dessert with layers of cake and meringue and gelato plus fruit and a few others.  I liked it but it was expensive and not really something I want to get all the time.

You squeeze the ball thing which sends the juice inside then you crack the brown meringue part then eat it.

I personally have never heard of these before and I love to try new things.  So now you know what an idessert is too.

Penelope's 6th Birthday

Penelope gave me instructions a few days before her birthday on how to decorate her door in the morning.  Here is the video of when she woke up.

Penelope didn't give me much direction this year on what sort of cake she wanted for her birthday.  So I got a large back of m&ms and stuck them all over the outside of her cake.  Rainbows and bright colors are always popular with little girls so I thought she would like it.  

She did however tell me that she wanted flower cupcakes for her class at school.  Those I've made a few times before so they were pretty quick to frost and get ready.  With her birthday being toward the beginning of the year she was nervous about me bringing cupcakes in because not many kids have done it yet.  I think one parent must have dropped off treats in the office or something because Penelope kept asking me if I was going to leave them in the office.  And she wanted to make sure I brought them to the classroom because she didn't want to go to the office.  It was cute.  I had to remind her that it might be her first time but it wasn't my first time.  When I got there she had a crown on and was very excited.  Her class sang to her and she got to pass out the cupcakes.

Then after school we did presents.  Penelope got a couple things for her 18" doll, but she was really excited about her doll house furniture.  She got two big bags of furniture for her doll house and some little dolls.  It was great because up until now she has had the house without anything in it.  She also loves her dress up aprons and her notebook with black paper.  She got a 300 piece puzzle that the family ended up spending a couple days on.  And the only place it fit was on the kitchen table so we had to eat on the floor.  Then about 3 seconds after it was completed she ripped it apart.  No pause for a picture or for me to pick up Leon and show him.

For dinner she requested Red Robin.

The kids had fun, although I was getting stressed because we were seated for 30 minutes before anyone came over to our table.

Overall she said she had a good birthday.  It was different than what she is used to because she was gone most of the day.  And then she was upset for the next couple of days because she didn't want to go to school she wanted to play with her new toys.

Donut Run

Every once in a while someone will bring in donuts or some other yummy treat to Bob's work.  Since I am totally jealous of the random delicious bakery surprise we have to make periodic donut runs to make up for the injustice.  This time we tried out this bakery in Manette.  Neither of us have been there but I heard it was good and Bob smells it every morning on his way to work.

We got up Saturday morning and piled everyone in the car for donuts!  The kids were excited, and even though I could have used ten more minutes to brush my teeth and get dressed, I had fun too.  Bob was a good sport considering he tries hard to never eat anything that has as many calories as a donut has.

The kids were cute all trading bite for bite with each other.  Leon was especially generous with his bites.

Although we all loved our donuts they didn't have a large selection and I still think it is worth it to make the trip out to Sluys for their options.

Cookie Time

One thing Bob likes to do with the kids is make cookies.  It might seem odd because Bob tries hard not to eat cookies, but he knows the kids love it so they probably do it about once a month.  When I saw them making cookies Saturday morning I took a couple pictures.

Above you can see the girls in the coveted countertop spot.  Every time I ever make anything in the kitchen the kids pull up chairs and fight over who can sit on the counter top and help.  I try to limit it to one child at a time so they always fight about it.  Scarlett is usually the first one to realized someone is cooking so more often then not it is her sitting alone on the counter top.

Tucker was very excited about cracking the eggs.  I think it might have been his first time doing it.

Here the are eating fresh out of the oven cookies.

I am so thankful for Bob.  He is a great dad and I just love it when I see him doing things with the kids.

Popcorn Cake Recipe

This popcorn cake was my Grandma's recipe and it is so good.  I remember her making it every Christmas we saw her and I always looked forward to it.  Even now I can remember being upset because with one cake and eight kids in my family I never got as much as I wanted.

My grandma recently passed away and so I wanted to make it this year in her honor.  She was a great lady who was married to her husband for 67 years.  Can you believe it?  That is so long.  I love to see couples who have been married for a long time, one day that will be me and Bob.  The kids helped me measure and we talked about Grandma while we made it.  Hopefully I'll be able to do it every year.   Below is her recipe.

Popcorn Cake

Ingredients

4 quarts popped popcorn (I needed closer to 6 to get the right consistency...think rice crispy treats)

1 pound candy-coated chocolate pieces (I didn't have enough so I added chocolate chips to make it up, that is why my cake is more brown then it should be)

1 cup peanuts

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup butter

1 pound marshmallows

 

Directions

Mix popcorn, M&Ms, and peanuts in large bowl.

Heat oil, butter, and marshmallows in pan until melted (I used the microwave). Pour over popcorn and blend together with heavy spoon or hands.

Spray Bundt cake pan with vegetable spray. Press mixture lightly into pan and refrigerate until cool.

To remove cake from pan, put pan in warm water, then turn upside down until cake comes out.

We devoured this cake pretty fast.  Next time I might have to  make two!

P.S. Today is Bob's birthday!  Happy Birthday Bob!