California Avocado Breakfast Burrito

We just spent a long, sunny, glorious weekend in San Diego visiting our good friends, The Korns. At the time, summer had not yet hit Washington which made that sunny weather extra special. While there I learned about a new food, local to San Diego: The California Burrito. The definition from Serious Eats:

There are burritos, and then there are California Burritos. The San Diego staple is not trying to be authentic Mexican cuisine—it's basically meat and potatoes stuffed into a flour tortilla for hungry, sand-crusted surfers. The beast of a thing usually involves carne asada, french fries, a bunch of cheese, salsa fresca and of course guacamole.

I didn’t have a chance to try one while we were there (guess we need to go back soon!) but this surfer super food did come up a few times in conversation. Michelle said she likes the breakfast burrito version best and Al mentioned she and JT make them at home with tater tots. So in honor of avocado month combined with a hankering for this newly discovered delicacy; I did my best to create it. And we made it even better by having it for breakfast and adding avocado.

For the “French fries” my options were to run to McDonalds or to use the tater tots we had in the freezer. Running out to McD’s would have been quicker than the 25+ minutes it took to cook tater tots in the oven, but it would have meant changing out of my pj’s, so in the end the frozen tater tots won! Does McDonalds sell French fries before noon or would I have been stuck with a hash brown patty?

Here’s my version of the California “Breakfast” Burrito. The key components here are French fries (or tots) and avocado.

California Avocado Breakfast Burrito 

Tortillas
Tater Tots or French Fries (5+ per person)
Bacon (3 pieces per person)
Sharp cheddar cheese (we used Coastal)
Cabbage, shredded
Chipotle Sauce (canned chipotles mixed with sour cream, Greek yogurt, cream cheese or mayo - make ahead and dip chips in your left over sauce!)
Eggs, scrambled (2 per person)
Avocado, sliced (lots!)

Optional Condiments: 
Feta
Green onion
Cilantro
Salsa
Ketchup
Sour Cream
Extra chipotle sauce

1. Cook the tater tots or French fries
2. Get the bacon going and fry it until it’s crisp
3. While the fries/tots and bacon are cooking, get out the rest of the ingredients for your burrito bar
4. At the last minute scramble a few eggs

To build the burrito:
Melt grated cheddar cheese on a tortilla. Add a little shredded cabbage (for crunch) and chipotle sauce (this is best made ahead, I combined canned chipotles with ½ Greek Yogurt and ½ cream cheese). Add a layer of tots, scrambled eggs, bacon and all the slices of fresh, delicious avocado you can fit. Roll it tight and top with salsa, feta, green onions, sour cream and extra avocado. And yes, if you’re following along that means there were three kinds of cheeses in our breakfast burrito. We may not be hungry surfers, but that’s how we roll.

I’d still like to try an authentic “California Burrito” but let me tell you, this was amazing. Perfect for a big breakfast on a lazy weekend!

Quick highlight of our trip:

The beach at Coronado Island

Handsome PJ, my San Diego doggie love

The San Diego Zoo

Maggie the Polar Bear

WWU reunion with JT and Alison, Kevin and Amy, Rob, Michelle & Maggie at Craft & Commerce. Besides the company the highlight there was bacon corn dogs. I never knew I could love a corn dog that much. The night before we had tapas at Davanti Enoteca in Little Italy. We got to eat under the stars and every bite we had was amazing, but the white bean bruscetta with arugula and parm and the mascarpone polenta really shined!

Our awesome hosts and good friends, The Korn family!

And of course we were happy to come home to this guy and sunshine in the NW!

Wine Tasting in Walla Walla, Washington

I’ve reached a point in my increasingly busy life when it seems impossible to say yes to anything. One more thing on my plate and I might actually implode from the stress of it all. But when some of my Bellingham girlfriends decided to plan a wine tasting trip to Walla Walla, Washington, I knew this was something I needed to say yes to. These girls (who are just like my fellow beauties) are all trying their hardest to do it all, too. In fact, when I’m at my limit I take a moment and picture each one of their faces as a reminder that I am not alone, that I will survive, and that I have a wonderful support group of women who know what it feels like to go home and cry at the end of the day but damn they look like they’ve got it together when they drop their kids off at daycare/school the next morning.

These are my Blossom Bitches. I call them this affectionately, of course. The majority of us started out as a small group of women who saw each other at birthday parties; our children attend the same daycare—Blossom. But as the years have gone on, I’m now realizing we play more than our children do! And the fun group continues to expand and include more moms, not all of whom take their kids to Blossom (we’re not REAL bitches) and what has resulted is an amazing group of wonderful women who all have their highs, their lows, their individual beauty, and most importantly, their hilarity.

9 of us mamas went on this trip and as you can imagine, we were a dangerous bunch. We were too loud, laughed too much, and demanded too much from our servers. But we did it all with a smile. There were only two pukers (me) and some of us (not me) even went for a run both mornings. These bitches are hard core.

From left to right: Heather E, Jen, Amy, Nicole and Steph

From left to right: me, Heather C, Sandi and Lynn

We laughed on this trip!!! And as we all know, laughter is the best medicine. Oh, and wine. Can I add that too? And a pimped out limo bus?

Meet Amy. She is the cutest thing alive. She wears blue and white polka dot dresses with yellow tights.

We went to quite a few wineries on our trip, although we didn’t get to every one on the list. On Saturday we went to: Basel Cellars, Saviah Cellars, Northstar and Dusted Valley Vintners. On Sunday:  Adamant Cellars, Dunham Cellars and Tamarack Cellars.

Our favorites were Basel Cellars (great wine and BEAUTIFUL grounds complete with a vacation rental house unlike anything you’ve ever seen!), and Northstar was awesome with a live band and we were able to buy a bottle of wine, throw down a blanket and have a delicious picnic of meat, cheese, and yummy bread.  Sunday favorites: Adamant Cellars was the most understated but most divine tasting wine, and Dunham Cellars hooked us up by giving us our own secluded table outside (wait a minute…) and our own server who brought out wine after wine for us to try.

This is us at Basel Cellars posing by the pool. Don't look so dangerous yet, you say? Just wait.

This is what I like to call the AmberAmyOctopus. We thought this was a good idea at Northstar. Yes, there were people around.

This is Nicole posing in the house at Basel Cellars. We got a personally guided tour from Norita, our lovely hostess who we rented our house from. She works at Basel! Downstairs was a bar, stage (ehem, see above) and movie theatre. We were like giddy school girls. It was super awesome.

I mentioned Norita - she was the best! Here's a link to her listing on VRBO: http://www.vrbo.com/293418. There were 9 beds! Each one of us got our own, which was amazing amazing amazing. It was reasonably priced and not a far drive to anywhere we wanted to go.

I highly suggest a wine tasting trip to Walla Walla! You’ll find lovely wine in an unpretentious atmosphere. Perfect for a girls trip!

Don't you love it when the wind gusts up just in time to add that extra bit of cuteness?

Oh, and a big shout out to those special people who picked up the slack for 9 moms who needed a break. I guarantee it was worth it. Aren't you happy now, bitches? I know I am.

Thirsty Thursday: Avocado Margarita and Austin, TX Top Ten

In January I tagged along with Curtis on his work trip to Austin, TX and then my oldest friend Kelly (we've been friends since she was 2 and I was 3) and her husband Mark graciously put us up at their home and entertained us for the weekend. The only disappointing part of our trip was Snowcropolys had just hit Seattle and our friends Amy and Brock were supposed to join us for the weekend but couldn’t make it since SeaTac Airport was closed due to the weather.

When people asked how my trip to Texas was, here was my answer:

#1. It was so much fun to see and spend time with Kelly and Mark. I haven’t laughed so hard and that much in a long time!

#2. Knowing Seattle was experiencing snow, ice storms and power outages, the 70 – 80 degree Austin weather and sunshine was incredible and just what we needed in January.

#3. I’d then go into excruciating detail about everything we ate and all the new food we tried! And Curtis would probably tell you all about playing golf, but I only care about food. Here are a few highlights:

AUSTIN, TX TOP TEN (in no particular order):

1. Getting to meet Food Network star, Guy Fieri.

2. Kelly and Mark introducing us to Kolaches for breakfast, an amazing Czech pastry filled with jalapeno sausage or bacon and cheese. Click here to see my attempt at recreating the recipe.

I would happily eat these every morning!

3. Uchiko Japanese Restaurant. This was our big splurge because Paul, the executive chef was competing on Top Chef at the time. And after we got back home we saw the final episodes and Paul won and becameTop Chef! It was a fun experience starting with really great cocktails and sake. The crazy waitress described each dish as “ridiculous” and some were ridiculous like the $30 “smoked duck dish” that was a tiny bite of duck served in a mason jar. But most of what we tried from sashimi to fried milk for dessert was incredible. We couldn’t afford to leave with full bellies, but we did leave happy and glad to have tried new things.

4. Torchy’s Tacos. I thinking opening a Torchy’s in our neck of the woods may be my next calling. They have a great menu, are reasonably priced and oh so good! The menu is witty with tacos named; Dirty Sanchez, The Democrat, and Mr. Pink. It’s a hot spot with a continuous line out the door all day long. The concept has got to work in WA too, right? Our top pick was the Trailer Park Taco and we’d “Get it Trashy” – take off the lettuce and add queso. We were only with Kelly and Mark for 3½ days but managed to hit Torchy’s twice, once for lunch and once for breakfast!

5. Gourdough’s donuts. On Saturday night after Uchiko we headed to downtown Austin to listen to live music and then wandered down Sixth street to people watch. Found a great bar with a balcony where we could perch up, drink and observe all the craziness. On our way home, at 2:30 am, we hit one of Austin’s famous Food Trucks: Gourdough’s Donuts. I ate an entire flying pig all by my piggy self!

6th Street

Cinnamon and PB&J

Flying Pig (Maple Bacon) and Banana Cream

6. Texas BBQ at Ruby’s. We tried it all; ribs, briscuit, sausage, cream corn, beans, and white bread with cold beer to wash it down. Curtis came home inspired to make Texas style smoked ribs.

Don't worry, I ate a lot more than that! 

7. Alamo Drafthouse. What a great movie experience! It’s so nice to be able to order a pitcher and a meal if you’re so inclined while watching the big screen.

8. Fried Avocado. This is another thing I’ve never tried that seems to be popular. We hit up the line of food trucks and the well known The Mighty Cone for fried avocado cone tacos. Serving tacos, dripping with delicious sauce, in a cone is brilliant.

Fried avocado, fried shimp and secret sauce. What else do you need in life?

Yes, we ate all the french fries too!

9. Foot long corn dogs and deep fried macaroni and cheese. As long as we were at the line of food trucks, we figured we better experience everything they had to offer!

Whose is bigger? 

10. Avocado Margaritas. Sounds weird, right? Well it’s creamy, smooth and delicious. Plus it’s an extra bonus getting all the health benefits of avocado in your cocktail! We hit Curra’s Grill on our way to the airport for a final farewell cocktail.

Here’s my attempt at recreating the Avocado “Frozen” (their word for blended) Margarita at home:

Very important thing to note: Avocado is considered one of the healthiest fruits on the planet because of its nutrient content. Its fat is monounsaturated, which lowers “bad” LDL cholesterol and raises “good” HDL levels. So cheers to a healthy cocktail!

 Horny Toad’s Avocado Margarita

1 ripe and delicious avocado
¼ cup fresh lemon or lime juice
2 cups crushed ice
½ cup tequila
¼ cup triple sec

Put in a blender and turn it on. It's so simple; that's why we love it. Then, rub the rim of the glass with lime and dip in a coarse sea salt and chili pepper mix. Sit back with some friends and enjoy the smooth goodness.

Cheers to the BEST weekend with one of my favorite people!