Category: Orange County

Spending National Cookie Day with Chunk-N-Chip

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With all of the inclusive and outrageous food holidays, I love it when a food holiday comes along that reminds you why they are relevant and fun. National Cookie Day is one of those holidays.

I’m spending the holiday with Chunk-N-Chip in Santa Ana. They are a family owned small business that creates seasonal Craft Ice Cream Sammiches® with innovative ice cream flavors and oven-warmed cookies. In their words, their products are made with NO artificial whatchamacallits, and your sweet tooth can taste the difference!

Flavors like Chocolate Chip, Red Velvet, Matcha Green Tea, Brioche, and Snickerdoodle are par baked, so when you order your cookie or ice cream sandwich, they are warmed to order. While classics stay on the menu, they get creative each season. Currently, some of my favorites include their Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream with gingersnap pieces, Berry Cobbler and Donut Bacon Brittle. Out of the cookies, their Apple Cider cookie is currently stealing the show! I’m sure all of the combos are killer, but their Berry Cobbler ice cream sandwiched between two Apple Cider Cookies was the bomb dot com. This sounds silly, but I always feel less guilty about eating sweets when they are fruit-flavored. I’m aware this makes no sense…

Their storefront is located inside the 4th Street Market in Santa Ana which makes this the perfect date destination. You can nosh on a few different cuisines, play board games on their patio while listening to live music, then finish off with dessert from Chunk-N-Chip!

For good measure, if your date doesn’t involve cookies, you still win. See below for Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream goodness.

In the Kitchen: FARMER JOHN®

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Thanks to all of my readers for sticking with me during the breaks in between blog posts. It’s been a very busy year with a lot of amazing changes and accomplishments! One of which is that I’ve been trying to find more of a balance between cooking at home and eating out. The boyfriend is an amazing cook, and makes facilitating this balance a heck of a lot easier! When FARMER JOHN® reached out to me about doing a collaboration with their products, it was a no-brainer! It took awhile to figure out what dish we wanted to highlight, but once football season came around, we knew exactly what we wanted to do! If you don’t eat pork, I would advise you to stop reading right about now.

Their Premium Classic Bacon is naturally hardwood smoked for full flavor. While great on its own, it’s also the perfect addition to any dish…which is why we decided to make bacon wrapped pork loins!

First, form the bacon strips into a bacon weave. There’s a ton of tutorials on how to do it if you are hesitant, or impatient, like myself. Once you have the bacon weave, roll the pork tenderloins up, cutting off any excess strips.

These are some pretty badass bacon weaves! Once the tenderloins are wrapped, season them. We use a homemade seasoning containing sugar, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and cayenne pepper, among other secret ingredients.

Once coated, it’s time for the…

Yoder Smokers

Probing the meat with digital meat thermometers allows you to keep a pulse on the temperature, so your meat is always perfectly cooked! The tenderloins were on the smoker for around 2 hours at a temperature of 225 degrees fahrenheit. Once the meat hit 145 degrees, we took it off of the smoker, turned up the heat and crisped it up just a bit more. Keep in mind, the internal temperature of the meat is going to continue to rise after you take the meat off of the heat. It will reach the safe temperature when it’s thrown back on to crisp up the bacon.

Who’s hungry? We cut ours into slices and served it over our favorite coleslaw. The pork was perfectly cooked, and the bacon was perfectly crispy.

While, tri tips have been our Sunday BBQ go to when we don’t want to take up too much time prepping and cooking, this is a great alternative. It wasn’t time-consuming and the results were outstanding! If pork tenderloins aren’t your thing, FARMER JOHN® has an array of products and recipes perfect for the holiday season!

For more information, visit https://www.farmerjohn.com/

 

Where to Celebrate National Cheeseburger Day

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Today is a great day, and not just because Fall is just around the corner… It’s National Cheeseburger Day! If you don’t think there is an art form to crafting the perfect cheeseburger, stop reading and leave my blog. You are not welcome here. There are endless meat and cheese combinations to choose from, not to mention toppings! While so many places, don’t hit the mark, the below 3 absolutely nail it! Keep scrolling for my favorite cheeseburgers in no particular order.

 

Hopdoddy Burger Bar

This place is one of my go-to burger spots. They kill it with their salads, queso and fries, but their burgers are the true stars of the menu. You have a variety of choices including, classic beef burgers, veggie options, an ahi burger and more! If you haven’t had one of their seasonal specials, you are missing out on a huge part of life. One of my recent favorites was their Juicy Lucy, a fresh ground Angus beef patty stuffed with melted Tillamook Cheddar and topped with another layer of cheddar along with black pepper aioli and caramelized onions. I mean, just look at it. It’s beautiful – in all of its cheesy glory.

 

Bunz

This place is truly a hidden gem. It’s basically a food stand next to a skate park in Huntington Beach, but they are putting out some killer burgers. Their menu keeps things classic, and with combos starting at $5.49, it’s hard to find a better deal. Pro Tip: They open at 9 a.m. every day with a whole section of their menu dedicated to breakfast sandwiches.

ARC

If you are in the mood for a one-of-a-kind burger and need a new photo for the ‘gram, you need to go to ARC. You know food that looks good, but has just too much going on, yeah that’s not this burger. This burger looks insane and tastes even better! The patty is made up of short rib, ribeye strap, bacon lardons and duck fat. It is then topped with aged white Cheddar, red onion, lettuce, heirloom tomatoes and pickled Red Fresno Chiles. Pro Tip: Have the kitchen cut the burger for you, so you can easily share with your dining companion instead of attempting it yourself…you will end up with a mess on your hands.