San Diego

This past weekend Andrew and I went to San Diego for the wedding of our dear friend Sam. He was one of Andrew’s best men in our wedding last October and Andrew was able to return the favor this year. It was a beautiful wedding and we are very happy for Sam and his bride, Jon.





We were also able to stay for an extra day and just play in such a beautiful city. We had asked a local, Jon’s niece- Sarah, for recommendations for good Mexican food. She said that Lolita’s has the best burritos and to get the California burrito, which has delicious carne asada and fries, yes fries, in it. It was yummy!





>We also went to the zoo and had some fun there. It is a huge zoo and we didn’t even get to see many of them in our time there. But out favorites were the hippos, monkeys and, of course, the pandas.




Now, for dinner, we had a special treat. It was amazing, delicious, fabulous… I could keep going… But more about that in another post, once I learn to master a recipe or two to share… You’ll just have to keep coming back!



After dinner, we were stuffed so we decided we would take a nice walk on the beach before we started the drive back to Vegas. It was a beautiful evening. However, we could just not pass up the sweets shop by the beach. We stopped and got some very interesting treats. Andrew got chocolate dipped bacon and I go the chile chocolate. I almost got the chocolate dipped whole jalapeno, but I wanted to have a reason to go back… They were both delicious and my spicy chocolate reminded me of some brownies I made a while ago- they are delicious, fudgey chocolate with a surprise kick of subtle heat at the end. I want to share that recipe. Enjoy!


Chile Brownies
Makes about 2 dozen

1 ½ tsp. Chile flakes
1 (19.5 oz.) package fudge brownie mix
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup water
2 cups dark chocolate morsels, divided
3 Tbsp. Unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. heavy cream

1. Grind pepper flakes with a mortar and pestle or spice grinder. Combine brownie mix, pepper flakes and cinnamon in a bowl, whisk to combine. Stir in eggs, oil and water until blended. Add ¾ cup chocolate morsels to batter; spoon into a lightly greased 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 for 28-31 minutes. Cool completely.

2. Place 1 cup chocolate morsels and butter in a large glass bowl. Microwave on high 1 minutes or until melted; stir in cream. Pour mixture over cooled brownies, spreading to form a thin layer.

3. Melt remaining ¼ cup chocolate morsels and drizzle over brownies. Sprinkle with Chile flakes.