Archive | April 2013

Mission Mini – San Francisco

One of the benefits of visiting a large city is that they probably have plenty of specials using Groupon Now feature. It is where you look for deals at participating stores/restaurants that are happening for a limited time period (usually only for the day).

When Hubby and I were in San Francisco, I checked Groupon Now and found a Mission Mini cupcake deal. I love deals and I love cupcakes. And when they are mini cupcakes, I think I love them even more because I can get more flavors to satisfy my sweet tooth. I quickly bought the deal and told Hubby that we were on our way to Mission part of town for cupcakes. After he finished rolling his eyes (he has no sweet tooth), he put the address in the GPS so that we could drive there.

This bakery of minis offers different flavors depending on the seasons.

Flavors of the cupcakes I ordered (shown in the picture from top left going clockwise)

Ruby Red Velvet – Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting {This was all right, but not as sweet as I would have liked.}

Banana Maple – Banana cake topped with a pure maple syrup glaze {the texture seemed more like a breakfast bread and less like a cake, but I think that is because it is a vegan cake. It was still really yummy.}
Swiss Almond Coconut – Fresh coconut cake with buttercream topped with toasted almond and shredded coconut. {I always love coconut cupcakes.}

Cinnamon Horchata – Mexican rice milk cake with cream cheese frosting topped with freshly ground cinnamon. {This had a mix of flavors that I was not familiar with -sweet cinnamon with a hint of spice-, but tasty nonetheless. }

Pumpkin Spice – Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting {Quite possibly, my favorite pick of all the cupcakes. The texture and flavor were perfect.}
Lemon – Lemon cake topped with cream cheese frosting {This was good lemony flavor, but a little drier than I would have liked for lemon cake.}

If are in San Francisco, especially the Mission area, do yourself a favor and go to Mission Minis.
Mission Minis 3168 22nd Street San Francisco, CA 94110
http://missionminis.com/index.html
(415) 817-1540

Mission Minis, your deal on Groupon worked! I might live on the other side of the country, but you have a customer anytime I am in the San Fran area!

Passion not really to die for

Apr22

Scale of 1 – 5: ♥ ♥

This book was a listed as a romantic suspense and the main characters are Tommy and Ellie.

Ellie owns a restaurant in a small town in east central Georgia. Her ex-boyfriend Tommy broke up with her when she would not commit to the relationship. While they are doing this awkward dance around each other, Ellie has a bigger problem. Her mother visits her and proceeds to blackmail her.

While Ellie is trying to figure out how she is going to run away before her mother tells her secret, her mother is killed. Ellie is a prime suspect. Ellie thinks that she can tell the police only partial facts that she thinks is relevant. Withholding information makes her look even more guilty. At this point, I realize what an idiot this girl is. And I keep reading. >>don’t ask me why<<

This book was annoying to me because Ellie kept holding secrets. There was no communication with Tommy because she was afraid of his reaction. I can understand not wanting to reveal a dirty, deep secret. But at some point, if you love someone enough, you have to be able to trust them enough to share the things that might tear you to apart. Let him decide.

Ellie did not have a passion to die for since she was willing to run instead of facing her demons with the man she suppose to have loved.
In my opinion, once she can confessed it all the love story/murder mystery got on track. Considering Ellie’s character annoyed me so much, I finally realized why I kept reading… so I would know what her secret was and who killed her mother. I cannot leave a mystery story without all ends neatly tied up.

Passion to Die For (Silhouette Romantic Suspense) is one of those books that I would suggest that you could read to fill the time, but if you had something else better to read then choose the other option.

Let’s go to SNOBs

Apr16

When I was in Charleston, my friend said “We are going to SNOBs for lunch”. I was like, “Where?”

SNOB – Slightly North of Broad (as in Broad Street). Lovely acronym.

She made reservations for 12:30 in the afternoon. I thought she was being overly cautious to ensure we had a table. How crowded could a restaurant be in the middle of week in February? When we arrived, I realized that was so necessary. The place was packed on a Wednesday afternoon in such a way that most restaurants would dream for a Friday night.

Since we had a reservation, we were seated in about 10 minutes of our arrival. Once at our table, I began to review the menu. I did not know what I wanted to eat. The lunch menu had so many different choices, that I was hard pressed to choose just one. I decided I wanted something light but more heartier than a salad. In the end, I ordered the ahi tuna. It was accompanied with rice and cabbage and drizzled with some Asian style-flavored soy sauce reduction. I thought the portion size was small, but I was surprised that after eating all of it, I was so full afterwards. I think my eyes are bigger than my stomach, especially when I see so much good food.

For dessert, I had the special of the day: key lime pie with a shortbread crust topped with a passion fruit sauce. I really liked the pie because it was tart enough in the way that I like it, but still sweet. The shortbread crust was buttery and went well with the creaminess of the pie. If I ordered this again, I would opt to leave off the passion fruit sauce. It was too sweet and I could not fully enjoy the tartness of the pie for the sweet sauce. It seems harder and harder to find restaurants that make key lime pie. So if I come to SNOBs again, I hope they have the key lime pie that day so that I can order it.

SNOBs has won awards for their food and their efforts to buy local ingredients. This restaurant is worth all the hype that has been created around it. Everything was delicious. I could tell that the ingredients were high quality. The food was fresh tasting and the flavors were bold. Price wise, this restaurant is not too hard on a budget for lunch. You could probably spend $10-15 per entree. I think that is about the same as some chain restaurants, but the food at the chain restaurants does not have the same complexity of flavors. And dessert prices were comparable to chain restaurants but 1000 times better.

Next time you are in Charleston, go to SNOBs…but make sure you make a reservation if you do not want an extremely long wait. When you ask for directions, ask “How do I get to SNOBs?” I doubt many people know the restaurant by its full name.

A Knight’s priorities can change

Apr13

Scale of 1 – 5: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Knight’s Desire is set in medieval times. Arian has a pitiful existence: Her stepfather has relegated her to living in her father’s house designed to eat the floor food scraps that the dogs consume. Wishing for happier days when she was loved by her parents, Arian is determined to find a way to restore Creswell castle, her family home, to its rightful owner: HER. She does not know exactly how she is going to do that, but she seems very optimistic that she is going to be able to find a way.

Judson arrives, sent by Arian’s great grandmother to confirm the Arian is indeed dead as Arian stepfather claims. If this is the case, Judson will become the owner of Creswell Castle. Judson is a night without property and desires to have his own land since land equals power and wealth.

Therein lays the problem for Arian.

How much does Judson want the land?
To what end would he go to obtain it?
Her great-grandmother sent him on a quest to find Arian, but does he care enough about her to report the truth?
Or would he kill Arian in order to take possession of her family’s land?

Not knowing if she can trust Judson, Arian decides that it is in her best interest to deceive him from knowing her true identity and try to figure out a way to get him out of the picture.

Her evil, malevolent, worse than devil incarnate, stepfather conceals her identity because of his own selfish reasons. <Grrr I hated him so much> He knows that if Judson finds Arian, he is out of a home. He has his own sinister plan to ensure the land becomes his property.

Amidst all the lusting after property, Judson thinks Arian is a servant girl named Jane. Even in her dirty state, he has some unexplained couple attraction to her. Suspicious of the viciousness with which her stepfather wants to treat her, Judson says that he would like for her to be his servant, attending to him in his sleeping quarters. This gives them both the opportunity to get to know one another.

Spending so much time with Judson creates inner conflict for Arian. He is considerate and kind to such an extent, she could almost forget the intense desire he has for her land. Fortunately for her, Judson knows just what to say to snap her out of any romantic mood – calling Creswell Castle his own. Talking about one day owning his property has the opposite effect since the woman he is talking is reminded that he is, yet another, interloper. Meanwhile, he is confused trying to figure out what he said incorrectly. Heh heh 🙂 I like irony in a story.

The novel for the most part involves lack of communication between the two main characters. I understand that Arian did this mainly out of self-preservation. Her stepfather, his wife, and son were evil, horrible people that were content to take what did not belong to them and do it by any means necessary. Since she was living on her own for so long without anyone who loved or care for her, it is difficult for her to decide if she can trust him with her life by confessing the truth. She knows that if he is not a truly honorable person, he will likely kill her for her family’s land.

Arian had some good ideas to help her cope with her bleak situation. She tried to protect herself as best she could. Although she was not trusting until the end, she loved Judson and that was good enough for me. The author created a strong female character that suffered a great deal of wrongs, but never gave up hope that everything was going to turn out okay. She knew that failure was not an option if she was going to devise a plan to survive and be victorious in the end.

I enjoyed reading the transition of Judson from a knight whose only desire was to have land to a man in love questioning his need for land. As the reader, I could visualize his change in priorities as he developed his relationship with Arian.

I would definitely recommend Knight’s Desire to anyone, especially those that like romance set in medieval times. There is nothing better than a story about a knight coming to the rescue of a woman who is the victim of many injustices. By the end of the story I was very satisfied with the way that everything turned out. Arian and Judson belong to each other. Justice was served and I trust the couple will live happily ever after.

Click Knight’s Desire to buy on Amazon

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Rainbow Drive-in Honolulu, Hawaii

Apr8

Our first stop in Hawaii was to get something to eat. I already checked to see what Guy Fieri triple D restaurant was between the airport and our hotel: Rainbow Drive In.

I told hubby that was where we were going. He was understandably hesitant because he knew that the quality of triple D restaurant were sometimes hit or miss. We have had awesome experiences and then there have been mediocre ones.

When we arrived, I was excited. I do not let hubby’s lack of enthusiasm affect me. And the crowds of people there bolstered my confidence that this was a good place to eat. I ordered the mahi-mahi plate with fries and coleslaw. Hubby ordered a hamburger.

The best part of the meal was the anticipation. It did not live up to the hype. In the picture is my food. The mahi-mahi was tough like it was overcooked. I think maybe they fried it and had it sitting under heat lamps (I do not know, just guessing). The coleslaw was good. It had a nice vinegary, light peppery taste. The fries were okay-nothing outstanding or special about them. Hubby’s hamburger was one sorry little sad piece of meat between two pieces of bread slathered with their special sauce. To me, it looked like one of those 59 cent burgers from McDonalds.

Hubby said that he was picking the next restaurant meal. Justifiably so. I did not even argue. I felt like I wasted my pick because I bought into what Guy Fieri was selling.

Overall, if you are in Hawaii, do not fall for the hype. The food is average, not spectacular.