Tag Archives: sriracha

The Year I Dressed Up As My Favorite Condiment

How is it already November 4th?

I ran into Trader Joe’s for milk and eggs this morning and the 99cent Christmas advent calendars are out, the candy cane green tea is on the shelves and the Thanksgiving staples are stacked up high! Turkey Day is 3 weeks from Thursday…

Halloween was celebrated here for what seems like weeks with a church trunk-or-treat outing mid-October, the school Fall Festival the following week and the piece de resistance last Friday night. Not to mention the school costume parade on the morning of October 31st, too.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t really give too much thought to the kids’ costumes. As a matter of fact, I picked up a Michelangelo Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume for Holden last year at Target for 90% off {$2} and he was thrilled with it for this year. Elliott wanted to be Wednesday Addams which I thought was brilliant. I started my hunt for a white collared shirt, black dress and striped tights when I came across a darling {dead bride} costume at Ross for $12.99. It was different and well made so I picked it up and she ended up loving it so that is what we went with for her this year. I guess that means I have 12 months to procure the proper Wednesday Addams attire!

For truck-or-treat I literally went into the dress up box and pulled out two super hero costumes. Bam. Easy.

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{the fall festival wasn’t ready for this motley crew}

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{apparently pizza isn’t the only thing TMNT’s like to eat}

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I wanted them to participate in the school parade, obviously, but tried to keep the costumes simple. Elliott begged me to take her to Party City for these suspenders and I found a cute “nerdy” math equation tee at Old Navy for under $3. Holden decided to don an old AYSO jersey and go as David Beckham. Done and done.

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{a friend’s older teenage daughter did Elliott’s make-up for Halloween night}

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The Tuesday before Halloween I needed some serious hocus pocus to come up with a costume for me. A friend posted a Sriracha costume on Facebook awhile ago that was from Target. I checked my local Targets for it with no luck and then decided to try Target.com. I found it on sale, but had to pay expedited shipping to guarantee it here for trick-or-treatin’. I ordered it on Tuesday and it was at my door the next afternoon…

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{the best $8 I’ve ever spent ~ I’ll wear it for years to come}

That’s about it, folks. We managed to carve a couple pumpkins and Elliott decorated one for the contest at school…

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{Elliott’s “Girly Pumpkin”}

*****

Is it just me or does it seem like after Halloween, the holidays are downhill from here?

Fasten your seatbelt.

Homemade {Food Truck} Tacos

Korean tacos from the Kogi truck were Jay’s Father’s Day wish a couple years ago.

We checked Twitter and met the truck in Westwood for some Korean BBQ tacos that were out of this world.

Thanks to Pinterest, we can now make them at home.

I followed this recipe for the meat.

For the slaw, I just used one package of cole slaw mix and mixed it with the first five ingredients of this recipe and added a little squeeze of Sriracha. Let it sit and marinate for a couple hours and then get ready to build your tacos!

I used just under 3 pounds of meat {lean chuck roast} and cooked on low for about 8 hours…

These were to-die-for.

The meat and slaw would also be excellent in slider form or just pile a little meat on top of some slaw and call it a salad.

We don’t need no stinkin’ expensive gourmet taco truck!


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I Left {A Bit Of} My Heart On Story Road

When we lived in the Bay Area, the kids and I would frequently visit Happy Hollow Zoo with our friends, the Cohens.

Each time I would exit the 101 onto Story Road, I would quickly notice it was littered with {Vietnamese Baguette} shops. I never really gave much thought to it other than the fact that there were so many.

I recently came across this post on Not Without Salt. Ahhhhh, Banh Mi! It immediately clicked that this was the baguette sandwich pictured in these store windows. I knew I had to make it…just by reading the ingredients alone, I could tell that this sandwich was right up my alley.

Sriracha. Cilantro. Basil. Garlic. Meatballs. Baguette.

I chose to do more of a slider version and picked up these rolls…

The only changes I made to the recipe were substitute the fish sauce with soy sauce, use jarred jalapeños, and didn’t sear the meatballs in oil first ~ I just baked them from the get-go…about 22 minutes to be safe. Also, I made 11 meatballs instead of a dozen.

I slathered on the Sriracha mayo then halved one meatball and put both halves on one roll.

Added the colorful toppings…

…took a bite and almost died.

This sandwich was beyond amazing…the soft rolls soaked up the juices from the meat and the rice vinegar and literally molded the bread to the meatball. The carrot and radish provided crunch. A million things came together in this meal and if I knew then what I know now, I most certainly would have pulled off at one of these little Vietnamese eateries, ordered a banh mi and enjoyed it in the shade of a tree with my good friend, Nancy, while the kiddos ran around and played in the HH park {or watched the weird puppet show as we occasionally did while eating our lunch}.

Story Road took me to and from Happy Hollow many times. The memories of these visits with Nancy are some of the happiest days of our time in the San Jose area. The kids would run free, see all five animals at the mini zoo, ride old rusty rides, freak us out and disappear in the maze for a minute, laugh and play while Nancy and I chatted about this and that.

Nancy, I miss you terribly and would love it if we could share a banh mi and get caught up sometime soon!

XOXO

Rewrapped

Last night {and the night before!} we had lettuce wraps.

They’re Elliott’s fave.

There was just a bit of the meat mixture and lettuce odds and ends leftover, so for lunch I fixed up a {lettuce wrap wrap} if you will…

I just took the meat and heated it with a little of the leftover rice, chopped the lettuce and added some cucumbers and cilantro. I tossed it in a little Sriracha Ranch, rolled some in into a warm flour tortilla and ate the rest as a salad.

Sure was a nice break from tuna.

If you haven’t made lettuce wraps at home, you really should try them. You don’t need to go to P.F. Chang’s to get your wrap on!

You’ll be lucky if you have any leftovers, though.

Have a happy, {wrappy} Wednesday!

Tuesday Tidbit

{Photo courtesy of Google Images}

I’ve been putting this stuff on eVeRyThInG lately…

It’ll perk up a Whole Grain Turkey, Ham & Cheese Lean Hot Pocket like nobody’s business.

Add a kick in the pants to a Lean Cuisine (preferably Sesame Chicken) any day of the week.

Possibly some spicy tuna rolls and California rolls with a kick in our future?

YES, indeed!