Category Archives: dining

Circling Back to The Thumb

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The Thumb: Is it a gas station, car wash, wine store, gift shop, bakery or BBQ?

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Inside The Thumb gas station.

We discovered The Thumb while visiting Arizona two years before we moved here. While driving to dinner one evening, our car told us to get gas and directed us to the closest gas station.

The car sent us to The Thumb. While my husband pumped gas, I noticed the two-story building that was unlike any gas station I’d ever seen before. I witnessed a stream of people leaving the building with white plastic bags with red lettering. Waving in the breeze were banners that said “BBQ.” There was a pig statue by the entrance as well as on top of the awning over the gas pumps.

What kind of barbecue is found inside a gas station, I wondered. The Thumb’s website says it’s  “Just your average gas station…” Yet, it’s been featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” on Food Network.

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This past Wednesday, I was driving my husband to his appointment for PT following a doctor’s appointment for me. Hubby was hungry and said he didn’t eat breakfast. We had 45 minutes to kill between our appointments. I noticed the last time I drove to PT that The Thumb was close to his PT.

I got a three-cheese quesadilla with brisket. He ordered an amazing breakfast burrito. It was so delicious! I wanted to look around the shop because the inventory has changed since my last visit. We went to The Thumb a couple times after first moving to Arizona, but it’s out of the way so we quit going.

From my first visit to The Thumb:

There was an extensive gift shop with all sorts of kitschy things like hand towels with funny sayings, Pug cha cha, cactus and other statues for the yard.

There was a pretty extensive wine section plus a bakery that looked so mouthwatering. I should have tried the snickerdoodles or homemade pop tarts! They looked scrumptious. One side of the building had a huge chandelier with tables for those eating in, plus a patio with more tables for dining al fresco. A huge aquarium had several people entranced.

Then there was the barbecue. People were lined up to order and people were stocking up on the six flavors of sauce.

We ordered a pound of brisket, some coleslaw and tried a few sauces. We both decided the original was best. After getting our gas we headed back to the condo we were staying in and surprised our daughter with an amazing dinner from the gas station!

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The fish tank inside the gas station.

So why is it called The Thumb, you ask? It’s named after a famous mountain and hike located in the preserve by our house called Tom Thumb. I found this photo online with thousands of Tom Thumb’s Trail images. It does look like a thumb.

If you happen to be driving through Scottsdale on the 101, I highly recommend a stop at the Thumb for a car wash, bakery, bottle of wine, barbecue, gifts — and oh yes, gas.IMG_0879

What unusual gas stations or shops have you discovered during your travels?

Shower or Bath?

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This was our bathtub in our Palm Springs home of 28 years. To the left, behind the mirrored door, was the shower. I loved the bathtub faucet because the water flowed like a waterfall. Also, I could lay back and stare out the window at trees against a blue sky. When we lived in Palm Springs, I did take mostly showers, but also indulged in baths.

The other day, I used our bathtub in our new home for the first time in four years! It felt so luxurious and decadent to soak and take my time. I bought epsom salts to help my poor foot, hands and knee that are hurting lately. I wondered why I never pampered myself like this since moving? After my soak in the hot tub, I fell asleep for an afternoon nap. I never can nap, so I think I found the secret.

My normal routine is speeding through a shower and getting dressed and ready for the day early in the morning. Mother’s Day weekend was the perfect time to change it up and indulge myself.

Another view of our bathtub in the Master Bedroom of Casa de Wickham.

Friday, I went with a few friends to our local culinary cooking school. We signed up for “Lunch and Learn” where we watch the meal being prepared and then enjoy a delicious lunch.

The menu was Balsamic-Glazed Steak, Roasted Vegetable Orzo Salad, and Individual Lemon Cheesecakes (topped with Lemon Curd.)

Everything was delicious and nothing looked too time consuming or difficult.

Balsamic-Glazed Steak and Roasted Vegetable Orzo Salad prepared by the chefs at our cooking school.

Here’s the recipe for Roasted Vegetable Orzo Salad:

12 oz eggplant, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

8 oz cherry tomatoes, halved

1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and cut into 3/4-inch pieces

1 small red onion, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

5 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil, divided

3 TBSP balsamic vinegar

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup orzo

2 TBSP chopped fresh chives (you can use basil, mint, etc.)

  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss eggplant, tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, 1/4 oil, vinegar, teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper together and spread into even layer. Roast until vegetables are slightly softened and charred in sports, about 25 minutes, stirring halfway through roasting.
  3. Meanwhile, bring 2 quarts of water to boil in a large saucepan. Add orzo and 1 tablespoon salt and cook, stirring often, until al dente. Drain orzo and transfer to large bowl. Stir in remaining tablespoon oil, and more vinegar if desired, chives and roasted vegetables and any accumulated juices. Serve warm, at room temperature or cold. 

I made this during the weekend. I added a dash more balsamic vinegar to the orzo and veggies and topped it with Feta cheese crumbles. I thought about adding Kalmata Olives or chicken.

Are you a bath or a shower person and why?
What would you add to the Orzo Salad?

Comfort Food

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With the cold weather the past two weeks, I have been indulging in comfort foods. Food that my mom taught me how to cook. Namely, oxtail soup last week and this week I made clam chowder.

After going through my recipes with a friend over the phone, I decided to check out how my great-grandmother’s recipes were different from mine.

This is the title page of the soup book. You can see my great-grandmother’s signature at the top of the page. This copy was a Christmas present to a relative or friend.

My great-grandmother, Ella Leighton Upton Owen, published a series of miniature cookbooks from 1898 to the early 1900s. I find it interesting that she went by her married name, “Mrs. Dewitt C. Owen” rather than her name — Ella Owen.

This soup book was the seventh in her series. I don’t know why she called them “Ripley Series of Cookbooks.” My great-grandfather, Dewitt Owen was a newspaper man in Dixon, Illinois. Eventually, they moved west to Washington state where he continued the trade. Great-grandmother Ella used her husband’s printing press to create her cookbooks. She had to set the type by hand! Can you imagine?

My mom told me that they hauled the printing press by covered wagon across our country. Don’t think the dates match up for that.

The cookbooks were sold throughout the country to women’s church auxiliary groups. At times, Ella supported the family with her ingenious little books.

I wrote more about her books HERE with excerpts from her “Sick Room Necessities” booklet. Two years ago, I wrote a post about comfort foods and shared snippets of the Soup book. You can read it HERE. When I wrote this post yesterday, I thought it was a brand new subject. You can imagine how I felt when I discovered I wrote the same title and subject matter two years ago! But no worries, I have more information in this post, than the one two years ago!

The recipe above is similar to my oxtail soup that I learned from my mom. But I quit dredging the oxtails in flour, because I like a clear broth. I also don’t use cayenne, wine or Worcestershire sauce. I skip the turnip cut in “fancy shapes” and I don’t “par-boil” the veggies. I do use lots of garlic and a bay leaf.

Another secret, is to refrigerate the soup overnight. The next day, I get rid of the fat that solidifies on top of the soup.

For clam chowder, I use canned clams. I cut bacon into small bits with my kitchen scissors (no fat salt pork — whatever that is) and fry it up. Then I add onions, celery and garlic to the bacon. I boil cubed potatoes in a separate pot. After the onions are clear, I stir in Wondra Flour and cook it in the bacon mixture. Add milk, let it thicken, then add clams and potatoes with the potato water. Delish and very comforting in our cold weather.

What are your favorite comfort foods?

Time to get cracking!

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Dungeness crab from Costco.

Saturday morning we met friends from our old home for breakfast. I had a crab and asparagus omelette and my husband had a crab cake “benny.” We had a great visit with our friends and the food was delicious.

Since we were off our hill into Scottsdale proper, we made our way to Costco. I must have had crab on my brain because I ended up with the crab pictured above. Typical of Costco, it was more than we needed. Three crabs total.

Two hours later of sitting outside with kitchen scissors, nut crackers and a bowl for shells and a bowl for crab meat — and I was done with the cracking.

It was time consuming, tedious and my back, shoulders and hands felt it. But I loved every minute of it.

Why?

First, because Dungeness crab is my most favorite food in the world.

Not only is it delicious, it reminds me of my childhood. We had a boat we kept in Anacortes, Wash., which is the gateway to the San Juan Islands. In Anacortes, next to the Shell Oil refinery, we would catch Dungeness crabs. We’d anchor in that cove which had a slightly sloped sandy bottom where the crabs loved to live.

They aren’t the most intelligent creatures and we’d fish for them with salmon rods. They’d hang onto the line with one claw — munching on whatever we used for bait — cat food, fish heads, whatever. As we reeled them in, they wouldn’t let go until they hit the water’s surface. My dad was ready with the salmon net underneath the crabs when they’d let go. It was his job to untangle the crabs and put them in an ice chest.

My mom’s job was to steam the crabs in the boat’s tiny kitchen and serve us plates of Dungeness crab with squeezes of lemon and melted butter within minutes of catching them.

I’ve had nothing like it since — except for maybe the razor clams we dug and Mom cooked at Ocean Shores. The Costco crab didn’t quite meet my memories of our freshly caught crab, but it was delicious. A real treat for me.

My husband is under the impression that King crabs are the best. That’s because they don’t take much work and you get a big piece of meat. Any Dungeness connoisseur will turn their nose up at this. We know that the delicate flavor of Dungeness cannot be surpassed — and the work to get every morsel out is worth the effort. That’s why I sat and cracked crab for both my husband and me.

When we lived in Palm Springs, my dad would do the same for Christmas Eve dinner so we’d all have a crab cocktail.

Now this is a Dungeness crab sandwich!

Are you a King crab person or a Dungeness lover? What is your most favorite food in the world?

Who knew cottage cheese would trend?

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My favorite brand of cottage cheese.

I’m a big cottage cheese fan. It’s one of my staple foods. I like a high protein diet and cottage cheese is a good way to get there besides eating fish, chicken and beef. I add cottage cheese to salads. I have it on toast with a poached egg, or eat it plain.

There are some brands I can’t stand and they make me gag. I like the brand above and basic grocery store cottage cheese from Kroger’s and Safeway, too. Growing up in Washington, I liked Darigold.

I was surprised to see that cottage cheese, once considered an old person’s food, is making a comeback. I remember having lunch with my husband’s grandfather in the early 1990s, and grand-dad prepared us a hot dog without a bun, cottage cheese and black olives. I loved it!

In the Wall Street Journal in an article by Julia Munslow called ‘We Knew Cottage Cheese Could Be Sexy’ Gen Z Discovers Lumpy Staple, cottage cheese is now going viral on TikTok.

There are all sorts of recipes of frozen cottage cheese with peanut butter, honey and chocolate chip type mixtures, which is a healthier version of ice cream. People are adding cottage cheese to pasta sauces.

Millennials and Gen Z-ers have started tossing tubs of their grandmother’s favorite weight-management tool into their grocery carts. They blend it into creamy pasta sauces, pancakes, dips, cookies and two-ingredient bread. It’s a departure from when cottage cheese surged in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s and was often eaten more plainly, with fruit or on salads. A “diet plate” once consisted of a scoop of cottage cheese next to a hamburger patty.

Dairy executives credit the resurgence to the innovation of the recipes spreading on social media—the #cottagecheese has more than 323 million views on TikTok—and the young consumers who are discovering it for the first time. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cottage-cheese-recipes-gen-z-discovers-98941401?mod=hp_featst_pos5

I also like potato salad, but I find it healthier if I reach for a scoop of cottage cheese instead. One thing my mom loved, that I couldn’t swallow was buttermilk. She drank a glass of buttermilk every night. Somehow I doubt that will be a trend on TikTok.

What are your thoughts about cottage cheese?

Is it something you grew up with and liked? Or are you not a fan? What’s your favorite brand? Do you like it plain or in a recipe?

An embarrassing recipe

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Lemon lush



We are invited to a friend’s house for Easter dinner. I offered to bring dessert and said I’d make lemon lush. These friends were parents from my kids’ elementary school and the wife was a golf buddy of mine for years. We were surprised to find out that they moved from Palm Springs three months after we moved — and they live less than a mile away.

It’s an old recipe that I discovered in the 1980s when I worked in public relations for the Bob Hope Classic golf tournament. When the tournament was over, we’d have potluck in our meeting room for staff and volunteers. One of the wealthy woman volunteers brought in lemon lush and it was a huge hit. I asked her for the recipe. So many people asked for it that she used the copy machine and handed them to us.

I kept that recipe in my old Betty Crocker cookbook until it faded. There are tons of versions online. The one posted below is closest to the recipe that faded beyond recognition. (Tip: I use pecans instead of walnuts.)

Our friends loved lemon lush and asked for the recipe. I’m embarrassed to share it because it’s a Jello Pudding and Cool Whip recipe. But it tastes so delicious. When I’ve shared the recipe before, people look disappointed. It’s verging on embarrassment to share this with my friends! But it tastes so good — I won’t stop making it. Maybe I should throw in some fresh ingredients like lemon zest or fresh lemon juice?

I think it must be a recipe from the 1970s.



LEMON LUSH

Printed from COOKS.COM

Crust:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups ground walnuts
1 1/2 sticks of butter

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of Cool Whip

Topping:

2 small packages instant lemon pudding
3 cups cold milk

Crust:

Using a pastry cutter, combine ingredients for crust and pat into the bottom of 9×13 pan.

Bake at 325°F for 30 minutes. Let cool.

Filling:

Mix well and spread over cool baked crust. Refrigerate.

Topping:

Mix packages of lemon pudding with 3 cups of cold milk. Once mixture has thickened, pour over filling.

Top off with more Cool Whip and nuts, if desired.

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What recipe do you have that is super easy but so delicious?



How long would you wait for a taco? Hint: It’s La Super Rica

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Line outside La Super Rica Taqueria, Santa Barbara.
Waiting in line to get into La Super Rica Taqueria.

I discovered a new food this week. Adobada.

What is adobada? It’s marinated meat (often pork) in a flavorful, chile-based mixture. It’s chopped into chunks and cooked on a hot grill or pan so it chars on the outside and is tender and juicy inside. The taco and burritos I had included a citrusy flavor and chunks of pineapple.

Before we took our son to the airport to fly home to the Bay Area, we stopped at La Super Rica. It’s a taco stand with a line out the door from the time they open to closing. It became famous as Julia Child’s favorite restaurant.

Adobada tacos at La Super Rica
Adobada tacos.

When our son went to UC Santa Barbara he told us about the best Mexican food that we had to try. It was La Super Rica — our favorite Santa Barbara Mexican restaurant for 25 years before he discovered it!

Tamale with cream sauce.

Sunday, we waited 40 minutes to get inside to order at the window. Then we waited longer than than that to get our food. By the time it arrived, I was famished. I had the adobada taco and a chile relleno. It was so delicious, I wolfed it down. The wait was worth it.

The other adobada I had was in a burrito the day before from a liquor store in Carpinteria. They’ve been there for 25 years and we’ve been ordering breakfast burritos from them for that long. We’re trying to convince the owner to open a store in Arizona! Our son introduced us to the adobada burrito and we’re hooked. The line isn’t nearly as long as La Super Rica, either.

The wait at La Super Rica reminded me of waiting for pizza where our kids live. Although my son’s girlfriend commented that the Cheeseboard’s line goes around the block and has about 100 people and La Super Rica’s line is only about 20 deep. I wrote about waiting in line for pizza HERE.

La Super Rica patio
View of La Super Rica’s patio.

How long are you willing to wait for a taco? How about a pizza? What other food would you wait for?