The LOOP: Handcrafted Churros

We made a recent stop on the way home from Disneyland to The Loop: Handcrafted Churros,  named after the shape of the handcrafted churros they offer, which is located in Orange County’s Little Saigon community. In a fun little twist on the classic Mexican treat, the Loop offers churros dipped, glazed, or chilled, meaning they come with an ice cream sundae.

The LOOP: Handcrafted Churros - Westminster, CA

The LOOP: Handcrafted Churros – Westminster, CA

They are so insta-famous to me that I refused to head back to San Diego without getting my hands on some churros. We arrived expecting a crazy line considering it was a Saturday afternoon, but we got lucky and only had a couple people ahead of us. Although, after we ordered it was another story. Continue reading

Julian Pie Company

Yay, it’s the first day of Fall! Bring on all of the apples and pumpkins! I must say Fall is my favorite season. The problem is living in San Diego, we don’t really get Fall weather or season changes, but luckily Julian does. Julian is a mountain getaway, an hour northeast of San Diego, located in the Cuyamaca mountains.

San Diego also doesn’t really offer cider donuts like I was always seeing all over my Instagram feed in the Fall, so one year I did an internet search to track down cider donuts in town and found Julian Pie Company offers them. It makes sense that Julian would be the place to find cider donuts since every September they have a two-day Julian Apple Days Festival, not to mention Julian is famous for apple pies.

Julian Pie Company - Santa Ysabel location

Julian Pie Company – Santa Ysabel location

I got my husband on board for taking a day trip to Julian by fitting in some off-roading in his prized Jeep in the Laguna Mountains after. We set off in the morning on a Saturday and decided to drive through Ramona and stop at the Santa Ysabel location because I knew they had a bigger selection of donuts, in my experience than the Julian location. Continue reading

Soda & Swine at Liberty Station

Soda & Swine is a creative meatball eatery with lots of small to medium sized bites. We visited the Liberty Station location. It has a gold bar, old-fashioned looking baking area with pies on display, sunroofs adding lots of natural light, wood covered walls, a 20-foot foosball table that works as a community table, plenty of seating, and an outdoor patio with more seating.

You order your food upon entering Soda & Swine, then seat yourself and your food is brought to you. You can also order from their wide selection of sodas. On the other side of the registers are the pies, they have a couple different types of apple pies, seasonal treats and soft serve ice cream. The next stop is the bar, it is a full bar where you can order a cocktail, wine, beer (lots of local crafts), and if you are feeling funky, a champagne slushy.

We got some suggestions on what to order for lunch from the employee at the register. You can check out their menu here for yourself. Soda & Swine has several meatballs to choose from, such as, smoked pork, chorizo, chicken, beef and quinoa meatballs. You can order your meatball as a slider, submarine, spaghetti, or 3 meatballs in a skillet with sauce and cheese.  Once we picked our meatballs, we ordered some sides as well and set off for a table. The food started to arrive quickly, but not everything came out at once. We liked this system since we ordered a bunch of different items to give a try so it was like having appetizers, entrees and dessert.

Fried Pizza Knots

Fried Pizza Knots

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Liberty Public Market

We recently checked out the new Liberty Public Market at Liberty Station.  Liberty Public Market offers the best fresh and local flavors. It reminded me of Grand Central Market with the rustic environment and prepared foods, produce, seafood, pasta, beer, wine, cocktails, coffee, pastries and desserts.

Liberty Public Market at Liberty Station

Liberty Public Market at Liberty Station

We first went to the market on a Saturday at lunch time. It was pretty packed, but manageable. Once inside the market my family and I split up because we all wanted to try something different. For me my first stop was coffee at The WestBean Coffee Roasters. They offer lattes, cappuccinos, espresso, cold brews, and even Nitro cold brew coffee on tap. My eyes were drawn to their Salted Caramel latte. I wanted an iced, but for some reason the word “iced” never escaped my lips. It wasn’t a problem because the latte was superb! Next visit I will go iced for sure. Continue reading

Weekend in LA – Part 4

Ice cream was a definite theme to our weekend in LA and there was an abundance of options to choose from.  We were in Mid-City and stopped in at Sweet Rose Creamery.  Sweet Rose Creamery offers a wide range of classic ice cream flavors as well as seasonal flavors.

Menu at Sweet Rose Creamery in Mid-City

Menu at Sweet Rose Creamery

You could get your ice cream in a cup, cone, or if you were feeling wild, they offer an affogato.  Affogato is an espresso shot poured over a scoop of ice cream.  Sweet Rose Creamy also serves Caffe Luxxe coffee and a selection of tea from The Art of Tea. Continue reading