This our guide to visiting two attractions in the heart of Los Angeles, the Original Farmers Market and the La Brea Tar Pits. Los Angeles is a crowded sea of humanity with seemingly no escaping the constant flow of traffic. It wasn’t always that way. Los Angeles started to grow in the late 1800s driven…
This article is our ranking of Universal Studios Hollywood Rides from our favorite to least favorite. Please be sure to read our general visitors guide for detailed park information. The focus here is on the actual rides. UPDATE: NOVEMBER 2020. Unfortunately Universal Studios has been closed due to COVID. This article will be updated when…
We survived, we are not yet bankrupt and we had fun! Not the most positive intro for a post that is supposed to be about a great family adventure, but truly that is the reality of Universal Studios Hollywood. Yes, it can be a great experience, but one must definitely temper expectations and plan ahead. …
Who knows what synesthesia is? Not me, until my 12-year old daughter used it in a text message. It went like this, Mom Cole texted “we are at the Music Tastes Good Festival,” Daughter Cole texts back “music has no taste unless you have synesthesia”….errr what is going on here? Well it appears that a…
So we have grown our own Carolina Reapers, the hottest pepper on the planet (at least as of fall 2017). The question now becomes what to do with them. Of course, hot sauce is a must and we successfully created our own edible sauce. Now we move on to a full dish that incorporates the…
Chicken Tikka Masala is a favorite of our family. This dish, often found in Indian restaurants is more U.K. than India based. Our unique take adds sauteed onions and peppers and is probably not traditional. However, it tastes good. We made this along with our super hot Carolina Reaper Phall. So here is our Chicken Tikka…
We have been having fun (and some pain) experimenting with our homegrown Carolina Reaper peppers, the hottest chili on the planet according to the Guinness Book of World Records. We created our own hot sauce that actually proved tolerable and this recipe, inspired by the British based Chili Wizards, came out in the hot but…
In an earlier post we talked about growing the Carolina Reaper, the world’s hottest pepper. Our efforts produced a bountiful harvest and the next challenge becomes what to do with these beasts. We are going to be experimenting with different recipes over the next few weeks but figured we would start with a good old…
Back in 2011 we went back to our family reunion in North Carolina and spent a few days outside Charlotte in the small town of Fort Mill, South Carolina. During our stay we stopped at a small salsa/hot sauce stand at a now defunct shopping mall next to the Carowinds amusement park. We got talking…
A relatively easy to prepare nut free Mexican green mole Mole is often cited as the national dish of Mexico. There are all kinds of moles but one thing most of them have in common is they are made with nuts. Unfortunately our family suffers from severe nut allergies so mole has been a…