As promised, I’m back from my vacation! And, the first thing I want to do is give a huge THANK YOU to all of my lovely guest posters. Each one of their posts had me drooling and wishing I could get to my kitchen immediately to whip up all of their delicious treats! The reason I couldn’t however is because the hubby and I were in San Diego for the last three weeks – and even though we did have a tiny kitchenette in our hotel room, there was definitely no way to bake.

It was a fantastic vacation though; the break from the cold weather here in upstate NY was a very welcome one indeed. I was also excited to meet up with Marie of Meandering Eats a few times during our stay; we had so much fun together! During one of our outings, we had lunch together at Cucina Urbana, and I had the best mushroom pizza I’ve ever tasted:

With foraged mushrooms, braised leeks, and truffle oil, how can you go wrong? The atmosphere was nice too, although we didn’t stay for dessert…instead, we headed over to Venissimo Cheese shop.

Several samples and a pound or so of cheese later, we headed back to Marie’s place and made ourselves a little cheese tray with crackers and wine, which we nibbled on while we chatted. It was beyond amazing.

Oh, and while I’m on the subject of cheese…the mac & beer cheese from Stone Brewery is definitely something I need to recreate at home. The hubby and I went there for lunch one day, and while I wasn’t thrilled about the rest of the food we had there, this dish was perfection in my book.

Although there was plenty of good food to be had (fresh berries in the middle of winter is always a wonderful thing), we didn’t spend all of our free time eating (although we did spend a considerable amount of time at Jamba Juice)! The hubby and I also hiked around Torrey Pines together and took in some beautiful views:

We visited the Safari Park:

We took a trip to LA and the surrounding areas, and visited the canals at Venice Beach:

As well as the iconic Santa Monica pier:

We even ducked into a little restaurant on Hollywood for dinner, on route to the Chinese Theatre:

Those are the hand and foot (and wand) prints of the main cast of Harry Potter, in case you were wondering…I just had to snap a photo for my sister, who is a huge Harry Potter fan!

We also toured the USS Midway, a retired aircraft carrier. The view from the Island was pretty sweet:

And I couldn’t help but take a photo (on my phone, hence the bad quality) of a brownie recipe they had sitting in one of the mess halls, which literally feeds an army. 5 1/4 pounds sugar anyone? Also, prune purée is an interesting addition…I might actually have to try that.

All in all, we had a great time…and I’m so thankful for the hospitality of such a wonderful food blogging community! Now that we’re back home and getting back into the swing of things, I’m looking forward to getting back into the kitchen – and so is my kitchen buddy, who definitely missed us while we were gone – so stay tuned for more recipes soon!