I Pledge Allegiance, to the Pies, and All Things Just as Good

It's Summer!

And I am finally back to my blog and finally have free time!

Now what is it that I am going to first write about in my Summer Collection of blog posts? Well, if you know me at all or have noticed a trend in what is I especially like to post about (or if you just so happened to already read the title of this post) then you will know what this is going to be all about...

FOOD!

So Let's Begin...

Yes indeed, this post is about PIES! More specifically though, Republic of Pie, an awesome coffee shop in North Hollywood with So Much Amazingness all concentrated in one area.

On Magnolia Blvd in North Hollywood, CA is quaint but cool cafe carrying a very relaxed and respectable atmosphere filled with scents of fresh coffee and nothing but sweet pastries as the first things you see when you walk through the door.  After you order in the front some coffee, pastries, slices of PIE, or some hearty and delicious breakfast options, you can go ahead and head to the back of the coffee shop and pull yourself a seat.  They have a wide assortment of couches, seats, stools, tables, benches, and other comfortable spaces where you can just have your meal, a cup of coffee, a sweet slice of pie and either have a good conversation with a friend, read a book, or get some work done. 

Similarly to Young Hickory which I wrote about a while ago, this coffee shop has a great atmosphere to it all and although I don't live in the area, if I did, I would definitely spend a lot of time here reading, writing, hanging out, or just indulging myself in delicious pieces of pie.

So by now you're probably DONE with me only mentioning all the delicious food here and not showing you what it looks like, so let me show you what this place is all about.

So as I mentioned before, once you walk in you will see all the savory pastries they have to offer especially since you have to walk past the earlier customers sitting at a the few couches they have in the front and refrain from drooling over them as you see the sweets they had already started enjoying.

To the right is the counter displaying Nutella Turnovers, Almond Danishes, Jam & Cheese Danishes, Apple Turnovers, a Variety of Croissants, Lemon Bars, Macarons, Coconut Bars, Lemon Tarts,  and SO MUCH PIE!

Peach, Apple, Strawberry Rhubard, Marion Berry, Chocolate Cream, Espresso Almond, Chocolate Banana Cream, Key Lime, Cookies & Cream, Banana Cream, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Coconut Cream, Pecan, Pumpkin, and SO MUCH MORE!

And just in case you don't wanna feel TOO guilty starting off your day with something sweet, you can kick off your day with some delicious breakfast plates such as these...

 But please make sure to grab a cup of coffee too because this stuff is good, their drip is fresh and tasty and their specialty drinks are so savory.  And just LOOK AT THEIR LATTE ART!

I went with my sister and because we didn't want to feel like we were just starting off with something sweet, I ordered the GRILLED BREAKFAST WRAP which had egg, bacon, mozzarella, potato, avocado, pico de gallo, and jack sauce... Seriously, this was Delicious!

My sister took the higher road though and ordered the yogurt with fruit and granola which was very tasty too and not absurdly creamy or tart

BUT OF COURSE WE GOT A SLICE OF PIE ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!

The two of us after having our individual breakfast plates shared a slice of ooey gooey creamy whipped Cookies & Cream Pie and I say unto you we indulged in such a delectable piece of heaven, And. It. Was. Good.

2.4 seconds later of nothing but me looking like this gif

BOOM

The next time I was in the area my sister and I tried to convince my mom for us to go there again but noooooo we figured it would be good to explore another breakfast place.  Although I was initially bummed because, I mean come on you saw the pies, the other place turned out to be pretty good.  But back to Republic of Pie, if you are in the area, or even just somewhere in LA and willing to make the drive to North Hollywood despite LA traffic, do it! Or if maybe you live in the area and need a study spot or just some good pie go ahead and make your day with some delicious pie.  Maybe you could even bring a book and just kind of listen to the sounds of a real coffee shop.

I miss this place and I miss the coffee shops I came to love in San Diego I can't go to right now during the Summer so hopefully next time I come back to the blog I will have a coffee shop similar to this one I can go to near home

Ugh, me too

Wingin' It

MORE FOOD!

I kind of meant to not just talk about food on this blog but since it basically is an ultimate passion of my life (yep, just called it a passion), and since it says its part of my life on the header of my blog... Deal with it.

So the other day one of my friends was like "Yo ever since you talked about wanting Buffalo Wings I have been craving them so lets get some chicken wings" ... 1. of course I talk about food enough to make my friends crave certain foods and 2. Hell Yes was I down for getting some wings.

She yelped a place for Chicken Wings and we ended up deciding on a local sports bar/wing spot called DIRTY BIRDS!  You can find it on 4656 Mission Blvd in PB (Pacific Beach) in none other than San Diego!

And of course, since we are super cool and super smart (and super broke), we went on a Friday which is their HAPPY HOUR CHICKEN WING DAY where all chicken wing baskets were HALF OFF!

Here's the MENU! I made it extra big so you could see all the different delicious flavors they had.  And yes, those are the prices and we paid HALF for it! 

[5 piece for $3.50, 10 piece  for $6, and 20 piece for $11]

Needless to say that when I got the menu I was a little bit more than just slightly overwhelmed with all of the options and all of the possibilities.  I didn't quite know which ones I wanted and all I knew was that I wanted wings now.

CHECK OUT WHAT ME AND MY FRIENDS DECIDED AND DEVOURED

This was mine! - Dirty Ranch & Teriyaki

This is what my friends got 

(Left) Garlic Parmesan

(Right) Honey Mustard & BBQ

My favorite was of course the DIRTY RANCH - It was basically buffalo wings with ranch already on the wings which is what I dunk my buffalo wings in already so it was perfect for me

We definitely will be coming back to DIRTY BIRDS sometime soon because we got a lot more flavors to try out and a big appetite to appease.

Diabetic December

In the words of one of my SD friends: "Tis the effin' season"

I know it may be January and this post is titled with December but lemme just say last month was a lot of fun and deserves a post about it.  Winter Break is almost done for me and athough it will be sad to leave home and go back to San Diego.  I think my gut needs it.

I left San Diego cooking all of my meals which were just brown rice and chicken and SMALL PORTIONS to come home and find delicious home cooked meals everyday from my mom and a lot of going out to eat more delicious food and I think I am starting to pay for it but UGH ITS ALL JUST SO GOOD.

I just thought I would share with you all a little bit of the best desserts I had this Winter Break.  Also, sorry if the title is misleading but I DO NOT HAVE DIABETES ... but after eating all that I ate I have no idea how that is.  

Every year it is a tradition that my mom and I make Christmas Cookies together.  This has been going on for 6 years now we realized and were very surprised after calculating because we thought somehow it was only our 2nd or 3rd year.  Another tradition is our changing patterns of whether or not we share with people our cookies.. it varies every year depending on how generous and hungry we are feeling (this year we did not share with anyone... hence this post).

CHECK OUT OUR PRIDE AND JOY FOR CHRISTMAS 2013

These were our jelly cookies, the ones on the left were our "challenge" for this year.  We had never made them and they were pretty difficult to make since the cookies were fragile (hard to spread jam) and also you should know that the centers are supposed to be Christmas Trees... supposed to be.  The ones on the right we have been making every year and are my traditional favorites I usually eat 2 or 7 of them not too many 

The bars on the left are another set of "cookies" we have been making every single year and are my Mom's favorite and indeed are pretty dang good.  They have white chocolate chips, craisins, pecans, condensed milk, and clouds from the heavens.  OK but NO YOU GUYS LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THESE COOKIES ON THE RIGHT - this was our first year making them and holy crap they are mainly the reason we did not share treats this year.  They have chocolate, pretzels, and TWIX chunks in it and I LOST IT WITH THESE COOKIES THEY WERE GOOD.

But HOLD UP! There was more! We all have a bit of a creative side in my family and also hold the tradition of making sugar cookies which we later decorate as we please.

Now I know you are dying to know and YES I did make that cow and I also should let you know I made the Santa with the beard on the bottom left... the original cookie was a Christmas Tree shape but the oven did not like that and deformed it so I worked around it.

NOW THESE BABIES ARE MY PERSONAL FAVORITES OF XMAS 2013 BAKED GOODS

(cuz I decorated them)

They are just regular cupcakes but my mom found this marshmallow snowmen idea online and I let my creative side out (1. on the far left you can see a "melting snowman" 2. in the far back [hard to miss] is the "KING SNOWMAN" I dubbed him lastly, 3. is that guy on the right with half his head missing and a surprised expression on him... his story is that he was hit by a snowball and is still recovering from the shock haha)

Mmmmmmmmmmm it was all so good .... but guess what, it did not end there, 

and I am so glad it did not end with that

These delights are my expertise which I actually made back at school when my friend was down in the dumps and when my dad saw them on Instagram he made a personal request for some to made while I was home.

Their Name? Nutella-Mallow Pillow Pockets ... yes, that is their full name and they deserve each bit of it with how delicious and savory they are.  In case you could not tell from the name, they have nutella and marshmallow in them and are fluffy and crispy and chocolatey and marshmallowy and delicious and oh no I am drooling again.

We had them for post-dessert dessert while we watched a Christmas movie with some Hot Chocolate my sister had made and I decided to take the vanilla marshmallow that was all warm and gooey and lathered it on top and Oh Crap I Should NOT HAVE DONE THAT because my heart stopped, went to heaven, and wrote a personalized thank you letter to the angels for allowing us to have such goodness on Earth.

SO MUCH DESSERT AND DELICIOUSNESS IN DECEMBER I DO NOT KNOW IF MY BODY WILL EVER RECOVER FROM IT ALL BUT HONESTLY I THINK IT IS OK