Hole in the Wall Happiness

When people ask me, "What's your favorite restaurant?" I answer, "Any delicious, hole in the wall, ethnic food place."

Jesse's El Taco de Mexico fits the bill.

Yes, "Jesse's El Taco De Mexico." The restaurant name alone made me want to eat there.

Michael and I ordered burritos. The tortillas tasted and looked homemade. In fact, every part of these burritos was homemade, so I will stop using that adjective. You can just mentally insert it in front of every ingredient. The beans and rice were perfect. The meat was super flavorful. But, what made these burritos bomb was the white onion and cilantro perfectly spread throughout the burrito and the amazing avocado salsa.

Oh, and the horchata was probably the best I've ever had. Super cinnamony. Yum!

My guy double fistin' horchata and a burrito al pastor.

I'm attractive too when I eat.

Too bad this restaurant is about sixty miles from our home...

Winter Garden Tour

My favorite season in Southern California is winter. After months of smog buildup and hot, dry weather, the rains begin to fall giving Los Angeles a much needed bath. The rains mean snow-capped mountains, boots & sweaters, citrus trees dripping with oranges & lemons, and a thriving winter garden! (My fingers are crossed on that last one.)

Here's the garden! I am hoping to have a glorious, future post with a before and after picture, but we'll see how successful we are.

(A) Bell pepper bush to the right of the "A" that we haven't ripped up since summer ended. There are three or four little kale plants behind it. And a jalapeno plant in front that used to house a black widow spider!! [see picture below]
(B) More bell pepper bushes.
(C) Netting along the back fence for our snap peas to grow up.
(D) I re-purposed my tomato cages for snap peas to grow up.
(E) Lettuce that is currently lying prostrate on the dirt from the recent rains.
(F) Strawberry barrel! With a red cabbage plant in the middle! I'm excited about this one.
(G) Lettuce.
(H) Spinach.
(I) Bibb lettuce.
(J) Purple carrots. (Yes, purple!)
(K) Beets.
(L) That plastic container used to be full of Costco pretzels. Now it is full of dirt and tiny carrot and beet plants.
(M) Chinese broccoli. (completely Michael's doing)
(N) Kale.

I think our current success rate with garden is about 30-50%. So, with the about a dozen plants we have going, we'll hopefully harvest at least five fruits or veggies. Not so great, but we're learning!

And playing with the hose.

Strawberry Barrel

My friend used her charm and Spanish language skills to get me a half wine barrel from Napa for free. It is now housing a few strawberry plants!

Stay tuned for a tour of the rest of our winter garden.