What's all the Hub Bub?

Las Vegas Sundae

08 02 10'

Written by Jebba

This is how they make sundaes in Las Vegas!

And because it is vegas, of course it’s decadent, sinful, over the top and down right dirty! This is called the “Messy Sundae®” (according to their site its a registered trademark) and it’s at a restuarant called Sammy’s woodfired pizza. The sundae is simply Vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, walnuts, whipped cream and a cherry on top. Sounds like a good old fashioned sundae right? Exactly. The “messy” part of this sundae put its over the top with the ooey gooey sauces overflowing the glass and onto the plate. It’s just fun!

We did eat dinner before this delicious dessert. I had a woodfired Thai chicken pizza which was topped with Julienne of veggies, cilantro, scallions, peanuts, lime juice, fresh mint and spicy thai peanut sauce (and of course cheese).

Hubby and his Desert Dwelling Brother decided to copy each other and each had a Rustic Neapolitan Caprese Pizza. This Caprese pizza was fresh mozzarella, basil, EVOO, and the homemade sauce.

And of course if she hasn’t been mentioned on the blog before Hubby’s desert dwelling brother’s lovely wife (who we will call “Mini Meg”) had “LaDou’s barbecue Chicken Pizza”. Apparently it is the restaurant’s most popular pizza. It is “Sweet and sassy barbecue sauce, barbecue chicken breast, cilantro, smoked gouda and sliced red onion.”

I would go to here again — and because it is a chain you can try out other locations as well. There seems to be a good variety of pizzas as well as other entrées and tapas so you could try something new at least a few times before you found your favorite. The price was reasonable and the atmosphere was chill.

Sammy’s woodfired pizza

Category:

Food Review, Travel

Las Vegas Carmel Pecan Cheesecake – UPDATED!!

07 25 10'

Written by Jebba

My sister-in-law and I are making a cheesecake partly for my Desert Dwelling Brother in law’s Bday and for our home cooked dinner tonight.

The boys are playing “MTG” (for those of you unaware MTG is “Magic the Gathering” aka “nerdy cards”, aka “my brother played this game with kenny haines” or “oooh magic”.

Recipe and step by step to follow once we return home.

We followed the extremely odd directions except for the “frosting” which we improvised on because we didn’t have cream of tarter and this cheesecake simply did not work out. I was a bit skeptical from the beginning when it asked us to use corn syrup and corn starch- yekkk – and then even more skeptical when it wanted us to only cook the cake for 15 min at 350 degrees. I didn’t even taste this mess of a cake since it was really more like soupy pudding – and looked worse. Maybe I will try it again someday because there was mention that the oven may or may not run at the correct temperature – LOL!

WORST RECIPE EVER (but here is it none the less)

CARAMEL PECAN CHEESECAKE
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Homemade cookie crust
3/4 flour
2 TBS sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons butter softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine flour and sugar. Add egg, then butter and vanilla extract. Mix well. With GENEROUSLY greased fingers, press dough evenly onto bottom of greased 9 inch cheesecake spring form pan. Bake 12-15 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside.

Have all ingredient at room temperature. Keep oven at 350 degrees.

Caramel pecan filling
24 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup dark corn syrup
3 TBS cornstarch
3 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp butter flavoring
2/3 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, corn syrup and cornstarch with and electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs and yolk one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract and butter flavoring. Stir in chopped pecans. Pour filling onto crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

REDUCE HEAT TO 200 DEGREES and back for 2 hours, or until center no longer looks wet or shiny. Remove cake from oven and carefully run a knife around inside edge of pan. Tun oven off and return cake to it for an additional 2 hours. Chill overnight.

Caramel pecan frosting
2 TBS butter
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp cream of tarter
2 TBS milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

In a small heavy saucepan, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, cream of tarter, and milk. Bring to a boil. Turn off heat and cool to lukewarm, about 110 degree. Stir in vanilla extract, powdered sugar and pecans. Beat with electric mixer until creamy—add a little extra milk if it appears too think. It will thicken after it is on the cake. Spread warm frosting on cake, creating a design by drawing swirls with the bottom of a spoon. Keep chilled.

This is the soupy mess…

Category:

Food Review, Travel

Jebba Hubba & The Hubby take Vegas

07 24 10'

Written by Jebba

We have arrived!

Category:

Killer Lily Blooms!

07 20 10'

Written by Jebba

1 Comment

The gigantic killer Lily plant (that I talked about at the end of this post) has bloomed! We have have been doing some research and we think it may be a “Turk’s Cap Lily” aka “Tiger Lily”. What do you think?

Category:

Flora, House & Home, Outdoor, wild Kingdom

1 Comment

Pittsburgh – Part IV

07 15 10'

Written by Jebba

Sight-seeing! We spent Sunday doing some fun things around the city. We all decided it would be fun to go on a “Duck Boat” tour. (I am sure you know what a duck boat tour is now because of the recent tragedy that occurred in Philadelphia but if you don’t know here is the website of the tour company we went on.) But we had to wait because everyone else in town for the 4th of July had the same idea so the tours were all booked until 1:30pm. So, while we waited we took one of the inclines up the hill. It was pretty neat and had a great view — Oh, and there was ice cream and shaved ice at the top too! Once again everyone ate it too fast for pictures – monsters!

So, after our quick jaunt to the top we headed back down to go on our duck boat tour. We got there late so we had to sit all the way in the back out in the open under the blazing sun! Good thing I bought my hat earlier otherwise my head would have fried! I took a picture of another passing duck boat for reference. Ours was exactly the same only green

We also visited the University of Pittsburgh – more specifically the Cathedral of Learning. It was wayyy cool and Hubby was an a good tour guide.

The Cathedral of Learning is magnificent and when you step inside you feel like you are in europe in a building that has been there for centuries. There are a bunch of themed rooms which sounded really cool but they were all locked up so we didnt get to see them. You can read about them online though. Its kinda super and we went straight to the top!

The Cathedral even inspired South Jersey Reporter Biggie Phil to do a little “thinking”.

It was a great sight-seeing excursion. Now I will be able to picture all of the places that Hubby and his Desert Dwelling brother reminisce about.

We rounded out that day – FOURTH OF JULY – by watching the city of Pittsburgh’s fireworks diplay over the river. We hung out on a pedestrian bridge with a ton of other people and just enjoyed the show. It was the best I have seen- and really long too! They put on a good show!

Category:

Pittsburgh – Part III

07 14 10'

Written by Jebba

SUSHI!!

We went here for a late lunch.

We all ordered different things and everything was extremely tasty. I forgot to take a picture of the chicken lettuce wraps and gyoza that were appetizers because we started chowing down right away – so tasty!

Mom and Dad got a sampling of rolls to share including a spicy california roll, spider roll (soft shell crab), flying fish roe, and some other roe, and other stuff. Dad also got some sashimi to slurp down. Hubby got a bunch of spicy rolls and I got 2 pieces of Tamago (egg) and one Oshinko (pickled radish) roll and seaweed salad.

This photo I like to call “Destruction.”

It all was super delish!

Category:

Food Review, Travel

Pittsburgh – Part II

07 13 10'

Written by Jebba

Our Hotel

My parents treated us to the most amazing hotel room ever. We stayed in the William Penn – Omni Hotel. WOO WOO!!! It was really nice. The lobby was incredible – totally decked out with huge chandeliers, ornate tray carved plaster ceilings, cushy lounge couches, places for ‘High Tea’, and lots of fancy schmancy decorations.

I borrowed this picture from the hotel website so you can see the beautiful lobby.

My picture doesn’t do it justice but here is my picture just to prove I was there – in THAT lobby!

The rooms were very comfortable and totally mine and the Hubs style — rich warm colors, nothing too frilly, and very comfortable.

Side note – we hung out by this fountain for a short while before Hubby and I met up with his friend Dave and his new wife Alexis. We didn’t get any pictures with them – BOOO – we were too busy chatting and having a good time. Dave and Alexis were really cool and we hope they stop by NJ sometime soon. If you want to see just how cool Alexis is check out her website here .

Category:

Pittsburgh — Part I

07 12 10'

Written by Jebba

Hubby and I were invited by my parents to go to Pittsburgh with them for the 4th of July weekend. They were driving up there to see some Phillies games, hang out and see the city a little bit more. Because they know that Hubby went to the University of Pittsburgh they thought he would like to go and see his old stompin’ grounds. He did! My Dad takes a yearly trip to Pittsburgh with his friend Howard so he has seen the sights quite a few times as well so my Mom and I were the newbies!

There will be a couple posts on the Pittsburgh trip and they aren’t necessarily in time order they are in general “what we did” groups. I realized I took mediocre photos again so enjoy them for what they are (not necessarily works of art).

We went to two Phillies games while in Pittsburgh. The Pirates stadium is called PNC park and its small in comparison to many of the major league parks but its quite nice and has a great view of the city. We walked from the hotel each night to the *Roberto Clemente bridge. They close this bridge down to car traffic an hour before and after each game so everyone can walk to the stadium.

The first game on Friday we sat on the third base side lower level. Our view looked like this.

The second game was Saturday night – Fireworks night – and we sat in the UPPPPPPPPER level on the third base side. Still a great view and an excellent view for the fireworks. Here is the view from the Upper level.
(I learned that no seat in PNC Park is more than 88 feet from the field – that means not a bad seat in the house!)

Hubby had some Manny Sanguillén pulled pork BBQ one night and my Dad tested out his new video camera as well.

The fireworks were really great — Hubby hadn’t seen a real fireworks display in year so he really enjoyed it. We left the stadium with the other tens of thousands of people and walked back over the bridge in the middle of the road and back to our hotel.

Category:

Friends & Family, Travel

First night in Pittsburgh – success!

07 03 10'

Written by Jebba

Me, Hubby and my parents drove to Pittsburgh yesterday to have a fourth of July adventure.

Saw the stinkin’ Phillies lose – bummer. But, I got some cotton candy so that made the night sweeter! (Check out my baseball earrings!) Hubby had a delicious Yuengling (the action shot shows just how delicious the beer was).

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