"99 Ranch Market" destination to remember

Love this place!!!!!

San Diego (Clairmont Mesa) has the best one out of Arizona, San Diego, and Orange County.  China Town in San Francisco has such a variety of small markets and restaurants that I haven't even looked for one there.

Love the eat in/take out too! Ducks still hang by the neck cooked and dripping like in "Christmas Story". If you see the ducks hanging, you are at one of the two way inexpensive, way delicious, huge portion, places there that we love. Don't forget the BBQ steamed pork buns there either.

No more coiled snake in the freezer section like so many years ago but all the living and dead seafood and other things you can imagine. On our last trip to 99, it had been remodelled so it wasn't as much like being in Beijing in the late 80's. The remodel makes it a little less nostalgic but the smells and tastes are still what makes it unique and a favorite desitination.

Sorry for my preference of Chinese food over other Asian cuisine but if whatever you eat is something that comes from the sea or land and the cook isn't sure if it's an animal or plant, or doesn't know how to translate what it is, always choose the Chinese version.   Thai comes in second place. The others Asian cuisines are hit and miss for me with some highs but enough extreme misses that have caught me off guard in such bad ways that I always prefer Chinese. Ok, raw pig snout in the north of China caught me off guard once, but other than that, althoug some Chinese food has been a surprise, rarely has that surprise been a dissapointment.

Ok, enough of the plug for Ranch 99 Market and Chinese food. Just a note for my kids to remember.

Found another soy-free blogger.

In looking up some soy-free things, and after who knows how long of surfing around, I found another blogger that has some decent soy-free input. Thankfully, he has some dairy-free input too. Many of the things listed there are similar or the same as what we have done and found.  Some of the products have changed to include soy or lecithin but, as always, read the package and even then be careful.

http://www.cookingallergyfree.blogspot.com

Below is a page with food replacements.
http://www.cookingallergyfree.blogspot.com/search/label/Allergen%20Replacements

Pumpkin Smash Jamba Juice type Smoothie

So DS brought me a can of pumpkin and asked me to make a smoothie like the one a while ago at Jamba Juice.  They are seasonal so have been gone for a while.

Sooooooo, we googled and most of the recipes online were about the same.  Basically a milkshake or Yogurt shake with some pumpkin in them.  Not much healthy about that, especially for a kid that has some problems with milk at times.  The other filler besides ice cream is usually Soy Milk. Yuck!   Even if it weren't so bad for soy allergy people, who wants to be around for a soy burp.  Remember the smell of rancid baby burp rags after soy formula? No thanks!

Soooooo, here's what we came up with and besides tasting pretty good, its only about 108 calories each glass when you split the batch into two glasses.

1/2 cup canned Pumpkin (organic or other)
1 cup of rice milk
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups of ice

Blend till done and pour in two large glasses.

Ok, so if you want to have the milk shake version, then add 2 cups of vanilla ice cream, or 2 cups of vanilla frozen yogurt, or 2 cups of rice dream ice cream if it is still dairy and soy free.

Mozart Study for Kids

Time for Mozart in April! Vivaldi was great studying last month. Bach and Beethoven and Handel were fun listening to as well but will have til later to study individually.

As usual, we will start with an opera, play, story, or Classical Kids CD to set the stage of what the musician sounds like and who the musician is.  Practicalpages from Nadene in South Africa is again the source for the starting materials.

Two Classical Kids CD's this time for Mozart!
Mozart's Magical Fantasy: A Journey through "The Magical Flute"
Mozart's Magnificent Voyage

My kids are a little old but the Baby Mozart stuff may come out here and there again from years again.

We may find one or more episodes of Little Einsteins from years ago also for Mozart.

NOT watching the Amadeus movies from what I remember of appropriateness to children.

Library books. (will post ones I find if have time)

Practicalpages- I will use these pages linked from the page below for study
http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/free-pages/famous-musicians-pages/

Ambleside links
http://www.amblesideonline.org/ComposerSch.shtml

Monet Study for Kids

Now on to Monet!  Picasso was last month and went really well.   I will be adding links and materials I use and plan to use and editing through the month.  Thank you Nadene from practicalpages for the consistent set of materials to start from.  It gives me the ability to not start from scratch.  I can then add what is appropriate for my children to explore and develop.

Linnea in Monet's Garden lesson plans, book, and movie.  The lesson plan is in case I don't have time to write out my own and just for an idea.
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/elem/Jeryl-Monet.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Linnea-Monets-Garden-Cristina-Bjork/dp/B0002E5QIA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334622975&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Linnea-Monets-Garden-Heinz-Schachtner/dp/B00000IZ83/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1334623069&sr=1-2-catcorr

Giverny and the gardens website.
http://www.fondation-monet.fr/uk/


Youtube videos of Monet's Garden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsWRsG0yhUU&feature=related

video with drive to Giverny so you can see what the region looks like.  It is different from a window driving than traveling through France by train.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83474iMwius

Share Impressionism, media used, techniques, and subject matter. Present some modern Impressionists that I sold paintings from years ago.

Visit San Diego Museum of Art at Balboa Park to see Monet painting.
Use Impressionist books we have at home and get more from the library if needed.

Water Lilly project
Go to see water lillies at nursery. Maybe visit Koi ponds Olivenhain, Forum mall, Zoo, and/or Balboa Park Sculpture Garden. Take photos, do sketches, describe sounds and smells, and produce art through multiple media.
http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/our-monet-inspired-water-lily-pond-paintings/

Houses of Parliament project
Choose architectural building with water reflection to visit different times of day or possibly Balboa Park. Sketch, Chalk draw and smear, photograph for later, describe how feel (hot, cold, sad, happy, ????) and try to make artistic portrayal feel that way.  DON'T try to make it look exactly like the building!
http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/painting-our-monet-inspired-houses-of-parliament/

Minibook on Claude Monet
http://practicalpages.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/famous-impressionist-artist-minibooks1.pdf

Impressionist Music - We won't be studying it by composer for this month but we will listen to some and review this wikipedia entry so there is some historical perspective on music of the time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionist_music

Vivaldi Study Unit for Kids

Yes... We love Vivaldi! In teaching our children about art, artists, musicians, composers, and music, we have come up with units to help us with this.  I may post other units here or start a separate school blog.

First read "I, Vivaldi" ISBN 978-0-8028-5318-9
http://www.amazon.com/I-Vivaldi-Janice-Shefelman/dp/0802853188/ref=reg_hu-rd_dp_img

Next Listen to "Vivaldi, Ring of Mystery" by Classical Kids
http://www.amazon.com/Vivaldis-Ring-Mystery-Audio-CD/dp/1895404770/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332291122&sr=8-1

Tour Venice on Youtube.  Preview the videos that are posted.

Go to mapquest type sites and look at arial images of Venice including the Island of the Dead.  This gives great context of what Venice is and was.

Use Nadene's awesome site and scroll down on the two following links to Vivaldi to use as a research start. Have kids do supervised web searches and look at local library for additional materials.  They need to do some of the finding.
 http://practicalpages.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/famous-musicians-biography-lined-with-map.pdf

 http://practicalpages.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/famous-musician-biography-red_blue.pdf

Although the Composer Timeline from Cincinnati Public Radio is brief on information, it is a decent timeline to have the children see where a musician was in time context of other musicians.
http://www.classicsforkids.com/composers/composers_timeline.asp

Listen to Vivaldi station on Pandora or to other recordings and have the kids fill out a  couple music appreciation log sheets from Nadene's practical pages after a week or two of listening and being familiar with Vivaldi's music.
http://practicalpages.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/music-appreciation-log-sheet.pdf

No Bake Easter Cake made from "Little Debbies" or other cheapo things

Ok.. So I was walking down the aisle at Walmart and the kids wanted to make a cake.  Since soy was ok on this day with the allergic child out of town, I thought... I can use anything junky from cake mix to ???

So we hit the junk food and cake mix aisle all full of soy and every other coloring and form of hydrogenated cheapo filler that Walmart shoppers use and WHAM!!!! There it was!!!  Waxy, plastic shortening covered Little Debbie's in hexigon shapes.  We bought 2 or 3 boxes for about .99 each and came home to make some quick frosting.  Put the frosting in a gallon ziplock. Clipped the bottom corner and here is the result.

WAY EASY and you can make as many layers as you want!!  It even keeps for a long, long time with all those preservatives.  It also fits on any pedestal cake stand.

Lemon Pound Cake

My mom made this every year at Christmas and also other times.  She learned it from a very dear friend in the Opp family. We now make it for Christmas and many other times as well in three different flavors: Lemon, Almond, and Orange.

Mom used to bake it in regular or long thin loaf pans.  We cook it in mini loaf pans and always freeze it in plastic wrap tightly before serving if possible.  There is something about freezing it that changes the texture.  Freezing it also allows it to cut cleaner as it is partially thawed. Whatever the shape of the pan, make sure to make enough of the glaze to fill it to the top when the pan comes out of the oven while it is hot.  As you pour in the glaze to soak, also pull apart the pan sides or gently use a spatula or knife to allow the glaze to sink down the sides so that the whole loaf can absorb the glaze.  This is sort of like soaking a Rum Cake in rum, but we don't use alcohol in our family so the glaze does the same thing.  Before wrapping the loaves to freeze, allow the loaf to soak most of the glaze in and cool to warm.  Then empty the loaf onto the plastic wrap with any residual glaze and wrap tightly. Then freeze.

We made over 600 of them for a wedding using two Bundt tea Cake & Candy Mold pans and still had some left in the freezer 3 months later that tasted fresh when we pulled them out.  They usually don't make it to the thawed stage because they are great frozen.  They freeze well and about 36 of them store in each gallon ziplock bag for easy serving anytime. We made about 350-400 of them for another wedding and they worked out just as well.

The recipe to the right above is the same for both loafs and these smaller versions.  The instructions below are notes from making them in the Tea Cake or Petit Four shapes.

One recipe of the pound cake is enough for about 2 pans of the tea cakes.  Each pan makes 30 small cakes so one recipe is makes about 60 small cakes.

1. Preheat the oven and make the batter.
2. Lightly spray the pans with non stick spray(we use soy-free).
3. Lightly flour the pan or not.  If you flour it, make sure to bang it upside down over the sink to get out excess flour or you might get a gross, dry clump of it when done.
4. Fill a gallon ziplock bag with batter and clip off  one of the bottom corners a little.
5. Use the ziplock bag to pipe in batter to each shape of the pan.  Fill them about 3/4 or so full. (It depends on weather, oven, and your flour.)
6. Thwack them on a counter a few times or on the back porch(please be sanitary) to get out bubbles.  If you don't, then you will have air bubble holes on the finished products that are very noticeable since these are so small.
7. Put them in the oven to bake.  I have to bake them in our gas oven on the top shelf or they get too brown before done.  They look best when light but cooked.  Bake till golden on the edges.  It takes about 19 minutes in my oven.
8. Turn them out onto a bakers rack that is placed over a sheet cake pan or cookie tray. Set pan to side to cool while glazing.
9. Hand dip cakes in bowl of glaze and place on rack to drip and set.  You could also spoon or pour glaze over cakes either while hot and then again a few minutes later, or wait a few minutes and glaze but still while warm.  If they have glaze on all sides, including the bottom, they keep fresh longer.
10. Spray pans again, Refill with ziplock batter and start the process over again.
11.  Allow the cakes to dry.  Depending on humidity, it can take up to 3 hours but it is ok to freeze while still sticky.  Place about 36 in gallon ziplock bag if not sticking to each other and freeze them flat.

I know I have missed something in here somewhere, but hope to update this as we make more.  I also have pictures to upload sometime soon too.

This is about how full I like to fill them before baking.

This is how they look after they have been hand dipped and dried some.  You can see the darker ones that were from the bottom shelf in the oven versus most that were baked on the top shelf.

These were finished and what fit on our serving plates.  The dark ones to the side were from the batch cooked on the bottom rack. Some browning was fine when glazed but 4 or 5 of those look a little way to done so I'm guessing I gave those to the kids.

Basic White Sauce for whatever...

This is the one Mom uses that is just inside the cover of her favorite Better Homes & Gardens red gingham notebook cookbook.  It is a good start for cream tuna fish and peas on toast or for chicken and broccoli crepes.

Thin sauce: (1 cup)
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
dash pepper
1 cup milk

Medium sauce: (1 cup)  (this is what mom usually uses)
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
dash pepper
1 cup milk

In a saucepan melt butter.  Stir in flour, salt, and dash of pepper.  Add milk all at once.  Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.  Cook and stir 2 minutes more.

San Diego Area Places to Visit

Places to Visit

Old Town and Mormon Battalion Center

Fashion Valley, Mission Valley, Horton Plaza, Seaport Village, Forum, Carlsbad Premium Outlet, Downtown La Jolla, UTC (University Town Center Westfield Mall), Del Mar Plaza

Beaches

Star of India and other ships

Harbor excursion

Sea world

San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park

Wild Animal Park (San Diego Zoo Safari Park)

Disneyland

Knott’s Berry Farm

Magic Mountain

Universal Studios

Venice Beach/ Melrose Drive / Rodeo Drive/ Hollywood

Christmas College Vacation Quick List Menu Options

Gnocchi with spinach ham sauce or with trader joe’s marinara and ground beef, salad, green beans

Bacon wrapped sage pork medallion with salad and butternut squash with or without cranberries , melon, rosemary bread

Pesto pasta maybe with diced chicken and salad with croutons

Antipasto Platter like Whole Foods Market

Burritos and or fajitas

Spaghetti, Italian salad with pepperoncini

Greek chicken, honey rice,  tzatziki sauce,  Greek salad,  pitas, lemon soup

Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, homemade rolls

Asian chicken ?, rice, fruit

Steamed pork buns

Homemade ribs, salad

Pulled pork crockpot on buns with ciabatta

Chili and potato soup? With rice

Wingers type sauce on crispy fried chicken with or over salad

Wheat waffles

Apple cake

Swedish tea rings

Breakfast burritos

Orange Julius

Caramel Popcorn

Sour Cream Enchiladas/Regular Enchiladas, black beans, rice, chips

Chicken Enchilada soup

Empanadas

Zulema fajita marinated grilled chicken, rice, sautéed zucchini

Café Rio type pork with uncle Jason’s sweet green salsa and cilantro lime vinaigrette

Mousakka  with Mediterranean Dipping Platter from Whole Foods Market (white and wheat pita bread, feta, assorted olives, dolmas, hummus, roasted red bell peppers)

Jambalaya with rice

Shrimp lemon zest butter garlic pasta with spinach salad

Potstickers (homemade so soy free)

Bruschetta platter from whole foods market (marinated artichokes, roasted eggplant, sundried tomatoes, sliced toasted baguettes)

Spinach Artichoke Dip in bread bowl with sourdough bread from Whole Foods Market if still soy free and make from scratch if not

Pineapple or Mango Salsa Chicken with white or brown rice, Costco veggie tray and sliced cucumbers and baby carrots

Pesto filled Tortellini with marinara sauce or pesto or cold in tortellini salad

San Diego possible Soy Free Eating Options

This is a list of some places that may or may not still have Soy Free food options in San Diego and especially North County San Diego.  ALWAYS check first as ingredients are ALWAYS subject to change.

Restaurants

In and out (uses cottonseed oil)

Cessys (Mexican Taco Dive in Carlsbad)

Mr taco (Mexican Taco Dive in San Marcos)

Brunos pizza and lunch buffet (San Marcos)

Filipis pizza (throughout San Diego County)

Ranch 99 (bbq pork buns)

Phil’s BBQ San Diego dry rub

Rubios (Bean And Cheese burrito)

Il Fornaio (Throughout California)

Vigiluci’s downtown Carlsbad

Whole Foods Market Encinitas and La Jolla

Sprouts (rotisserie Chicken fairly bland but usually ok)

Souplantation salad only

Claim Jumper Carlsbad (maybe salad bar and maybe ribs if request no sauce but need to check each time)

Elephant bar (vegetables and salad no dressing)

Jamba Juice

Girard Gourmet for Sandwiches on Girard in La Jolla might have soy free bread