I am writing this because I recently received a request for a blog to be added to my blogroll but the message got accidently got deleted. If this was you (it was a cooking blog). Please accept my appology and resubmit your request. I think I have the glitch fixed now. Sorry – John
Denise and I have this running debate about eating out. Basically it goes along the line of Denise and I like going out to eat, but we disagree on whether there should be a waiter. I like having a waiter, it can make or break a meal. Denise however does not like a waiter, she thinks they drag out the meal and just make the final tab higher. For the most part when we go out Denise wins because lets face it, price usually wins. Sometimes however it does not, and Kickback Jack’s is actually a good example of that.
First of all I have to say we we went to Kickback Jack’s on a Groupon coupon which means our final tab was 15.75 (which includes what we paid to groupon and our tip). Even without it however I still think we could of beaten most counter service locations. Speaking of locations, they have two: one in Claremont and one in Rancho Cucamonga. We went to the Rancho Cucamonga location. It was an interesting motif with a caribbean bunny thing going on.
On the regular menu most items were about $10, but we ordered off the “Just Right” menu in which most items were between $5.50-$7.00.
According to the just right menu the portions are half of the regular menu items. When I ordered I was afraid it wasn’t going to be enough, so I also got a peanut butter and chocolate milkshake. I ordered the jack special that came with one pancake, one egg, two sausages, and thin cut potatoes. I was worried that it wasn’t going to be a lot of food, but it was huge. So big that I wasn’t able to finish my potatoes (but I did finish the milkshake). It was good too. I only got one pancake, but it was about the size of two Denny’s pancakes. It was fluffy and had a hint of vanilla in it. Denise had a chicken and cheese baguette sandwich. I had a bite of it and it was good as well.
The only down thing I will say about Kickback Jack’s is that the service was kind of slow. It took us awhile to get a table, but that was understandable because it was really busy, but even after we got a table it took a long time between when we ordered and got our food. Two of our original menu requests were not available). Another weird thing was that the menu had a lot of advertising on it, didn’t bother me too much because I just didn’t read those pages, but it was still weird. Despite this our waitress was very attentive and she did give us a free order of homemade potato chips for our wait.
The Jack "Just Right" special.
Overall, I really liked Kickback Jack’s and I think I will go back again. The portions were more than generous, the food tasted good, and it came at a good price. I think I will go back one day on a Saturday morning and invite my mom for breakfast. One thing you should know is they close at 3pm, no dinner.
AJ's got a virus.
Unfortunately, AJ caught another virus. He has had a high fever for two days now so we took him to the doctor. I am probably a bad parent but I had to laugh at AJ’s antics on the way back from the doctor’s office. He still wasn’t doing too well and he kept drifting in and out of sleep, but he was fighting it. So every time he woke up he kept on saying “two minutes.” “Two minutes” is the option Denise always gives him before he goes to bed. He has yet to not choose the “two minute” option. Apparently this also applies to viruses.
Smoke+Silicon=your're data is done.
Experience told me that the tier 1 level professionals couldn’t help me any more than what I had done. I wanted to have at least said to myself that I tried, but when I smelled the smoke of my hard drive stink up the poor computer repair store’s display room I knew there wasn’t much more to be done…
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This weekend I learned to obey an important rule in network management. Continue reading
Working for the police department I realize there are a lot of rules. I realize that not all of the rules make sense, but I do know that they are all there for a reason. Today I got a man very angry at me. I am probably going to get a formal complaint because of this individual, but in this particular instance I don’t really care. I wish just once I could grab someone and say “I know you are mad right now because you are not getting your way, but you need to trust me right now because if you knew everything that was going on in this exact moment you’d see that I am not only helping you but in fact I am saving you and your family’s life.” Unfortunately, I am not allowed to say that, but I really want to say it. i also need to say I am sure there many times when I have been on the other side of this situation as well. My only guess is that somewhere in the great judgement day we will all see the errors of our ways, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating today!
If you haven’t already guessed it I am not above marketing my website. Not that I make much money on it but it does help me with my server costs. Anyhow, Groupon told me that I would get $20 bucks for anyone I refer to them. Groupon is a site that I have talked about before. Basically what they do is they have a deal everyday on their site. Mostly it is for 50% or more off of restaurants. Right now you can get $40 dollars of organic fruit for $20. You can use the deal anytime during the year but the catch is you can only get in on the deal on the day it is offered. I have used this service to get buy one get one free boat trips, meals, and museum tickets. Anyhow, if you are interested please use the following link http://www.groupon.com/r/uu21098684 and tell them John Pedroza sent you (if they ask) . There is no fee for signup and you are never obligated to accept any of their offers and all of their offers are money back guarenteed. If you signup thanks, if not, no problem. Hope you have fun with groupon!
These cookies are banana mix with chocolate chips and chopped pecans
I like dessert, and what I especially like are brownies and cookies. This annoys Denise. I am not exactly sure why this annoys Denise but it has turned into a bid of a ritual of sorts. Denise often asks me what I would like for dessert but when I answer brownies or cookies she gets annoyed. I don’t quite understand the annoyance, but it yet it’s there, and yet she still asks me what I want for dessert, and I always give the answer brownies or cookies. It often becomes a rather circular conversation, sometimes you just have to let it go…
Anyhow, sometimes after performing the “what would I like for dessert” ritual Denise doesn’t make dessert (I am guessing Denise doesn’t really like brownies and cookies). On those occasions I am left to my own devices. That is where my Cake Mix Cookie recipes comes in handy. I think this a really funny recipe because I am not a big fan of cake, but I really like cake mixes as cookies. The other bonus is that I can usually get cake mixes very cheap at the 99 cent store. All you need is 5 things and about 10 minutes.
First the four ingredients:
You will need 1 cake mix (regular size)
One large egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 bowl to mix it all up
(optional) is any extras like chocolate chips or walnuts
All you have to do is mix it all up in the bowl. Set the oven for 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Wait 10 minutes and then your done. Easy.
An excellent recipe for when your wife asks you what you want for dessert but doesn’t actually cook desert. The other thing I like to do is experiment with different cake mixes. The possibilities are almost limitless.
This weekend we had a big storm up in the San Bernardino mountains. It dumped about 16 inches of snow, killed 3 people, and caused havoc on the electric system up in the mountain range. Normally, in this situation I would’ve just come home and hunker down, let the storm pass, and then slowly dig out. I had to be at work on Saturday so in this case hunkering down was not an option. Luckily I have a great mom and I called her pretty much last minute and she not only agreed to take me in but she invited all of us to stay with us for the weekend.
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In a small token of appreciation we took my mom out to have pupusas. Little known to my mom there was a Salvadorian restaurant right around the corner from where she lived. The star food from El Salvador are pupusas. Pupusas are basically tacos, but instead of being open ended they are completely closed. My favorite pupusa is made with cheese and locoro (a Central American herb type plant). They are generally served with a cabbage dressing called repollo. The restaurant we went to was called San Salvador (599 East Foothill Boulevard, Rialto, CA). It was very nice and had a very good atmosphere. For about $8 dollars you got two pupusas of your choice (my other pick was chicharron) with rice and beans. The only negative thing I had to say is there was only one waitress there on a Friday night and it was really busy. Other than that I thought it was a good value and it is always fun to try something different.
Speaking of things hanging around...
As fun as hanging out with my mom was all good things of course come to an end. We went to church in San Bernardino because church was canceled in Crestline due to the power outages. The drive coming up into the mountains was pretty good but once we came into Crestline we could start to see bits of snowy chaos. There were a lot of stranded cars and downed trees that I had to negotiate while driving. The other thing is when it is snowy I normally don’t drive down Lake Drive. I usually go down Crest Forest because the grade isn’t so steep, but that road was closed, so we had to go down the steeper road.
After we got the car in the berm was taller than Denise.
Slowly, but surely we made it home. The last thing we had to deal with was a big berm. The snowfall was 16 inches but thanks to the snowplows the berm was about 4 feet tall. It took me 3 and half hours but we did get the car in. Now, it is all about resting as much as I can because I have to go back to work on Monday.
Triumphant over the snow berm.
I don't think breakfast can get much better than this.
If there is anything I like it is good comfort food. I love how every culture has it’s own unique comfort food. Mexico in particular is blessed with many different types of comfort food. Some things like churros or tacos are well known to the American pallet. Somethings however I think are not so well known.
One of my favorite lesser known comfort foods is Chilaquiles. I think this dish is less known because tortilla chips are not really known as breakfast food in America and because this dish is more from the south of Mexico. Chilaquiles is nice because it is simple to make and you can find the ingredients almost anywhere. To make this recipe you will need:
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5 eggs
A dab of vegetable oil
1 chicken breast cooked and cubed
1/2 bag of tortilla chips or 4 corn tortillas quartered and fried until they are brown.
2 tomatoes
1/2 an onion
1 clove of garlic
2 TBSP of cream or sour cream
2 green chiles (or a 4oz can of chopped green chiles)
1/4 cup of water
Salt to taste
White Cheese (optional)
Avocado (optional)
1) You need to do is toast your tomatoes by heating them over a low heat in a frying pan. Heat them until you start to see black marks on your tomatoes.
2) Put your toasted tomatoes, your onion, your garlic, your green chiles, your cream, and your water in a blender and puree until it all becomes pink and smooth. If you want you can do this with a pestle, Aztec style, but don’t come crying to me if it takes too long.
3) Take the sauce out of the blender and put it into a sauce pan. Stir and heat with a medium flame until the sauce starts to boil. This will slightly thicken the sauce. When it thickens set it aside.
3) Turn the flame down low and slightly coat your pan with oil. Let the oil heat up and then add in the eggs. Cook the eggs until they are slightly underdone (think custard like).
4) While the flame is still on add in your chicken and mix.
5) Add in your tortilla chips and mix.
6) Slowly pour and mix in your sauce. You want the sauce to cover everything but not drown the dish.
7) Salt to taste.
8 ) Put the chilaquiles on a place and serve hot. Garnish with white cheese and avocado.
Being Chicano I cannot claim that my version of chilaquiles is Mexican, but I wouldn’t call it American either. What I would call it is an easy dish to make that makes for a nice hearty breakfast. Here is a video if you are interested:
If you’re reading this blog post because you think I can help your waist line survive the fair, I will make this post really short: you can’t. If you are reading this post because you want to have some fun, but you don’t have that much money, then maybe I can help you. Being the country bumpkins that we are, we have to admit we are fair going people. County fairs have been around for a long time, but unless you are from an agricultural area, they are largely forgotten. Unknown to most Californians, there is at least one fair per agricultural district, which means that there is not only at least one fair in each county, some counties have two! Riverside County is one of those counties.
The Set of the Date Festival Pageant
The fair we went to was the main fair for Riverside County. It’s official name is the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival. Yes, not only are dates a major crop in Riverside County, there is a whole fair dedicated to them. Due to the fact that the fair is dedicated to dates, the fair is held in late February, making it the earliest fair of the season (most county fairs are in the summer). If you’re wondering who has the best date (and I know you were dieing to find out) I have a picture for you (mouse over for the name of the winner):
To find out which was the best date put your mouse over the picture.
Yep, that’s right the winner was Shield’s Date Farm (if you want to know why they are the best CLICK HERE).
The 4H club asks you not to touch the animals (scroll over for the reason why).
County fairs, if you are not careful, can be very expensive. Admission to a typical fair is about $8 per person with another $7 for parking (or free parking if you are willing to walk a little). In addition to the admission, anything that you buy at the fair will be expensive. This, however, can be mitigated if you don’t ride the rides, you bring your own food, and don’t buy dumb souvenirs.
At this point you might be thinking “well then why do I want to go to the fair?” The thing I love most about a county fair is the variety. I think most people get so lured in by the flashing corn dog lights that they forget that there are many things included with their admission price. Here are just some of the things we saw while we were at the fair(click to enlarge):
AJ liked the monster trucks until they reved up their engines.
Where else can you see how to milk a camel?
AJ shows off his .25 cent Geniune Green Fair Rock (the cheapest thing you will find at the fair).
If you lose AJ this is what happens.
We also learned how to milk a camel:
(If you want to learn how to do this yourself you can visit them at http://www.cameldairy.com/Home_Page.html)
So what was our grand total for all this fun? $16.25, that price includes two adult admission prices and one genuine souvenir green fair rock. If you have time to go to the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival I encourage you to go, you have until February 27th. If by chance you don’t have time to go to this fair might I suggest you go to the San Bernardino County Fair in May in Victorville. If you do you just might catch a glimpse of the world’s best Banana Nut Bread ;).
