Some Food C Fierce Ate In California

Snakes alive! J Fierce has just been killing me on posting. That's what you get, I suppose, when Grandma Fierce, your 82-and-a-half-year-old grandmother, decides to take you to Los Angeles for a few days. I'm sorry I let down the blog a bit while I was attending the Rose Bowl (and watching the Buckeyes kick some duck butt, but this blog is about FOOD not sports so let me just say right here in the parentheses how freaking amazing it was to see your favorite sports team win an amazing game LIVE okay rant over).

I don't have any recipes for you here but I do have some Food I Ate In California. May I just present one caveat: Grandma Fierce does not possess the most discerning taste buds. Back in the day, she used to make a mean apple pie. These days she is more concerned with getting the early bird special at her local Bob Evans (and then introducing her granddaughters to any poor waitress who just happens to be in her line of fire). Our 4 1/2 days in LA consisted of 13 meals:

• two were consumed on airplanes (which resulted in unspeakable acts of digesticide on Grandma Fierce, and woe unto the poor souls who had to hear about it for days afterwards);
• five were consumed in the hotel and involved the Saddest Chicken Sandwich I Have Ever Eaten;
• three were consumed on a tour bus (and two were breakfast and I'm not sure that "granola bars" and "the cheese Grandma found in her purse" really count as meals); and
• three were actually consumed outside of any transportation vehicle and hotel. These are the three I can tell you about. Actually I'm only going to tell you about two, because one of them was at Johnny Rockets. (It was across the street from the hotel, but we only went there once when it was light enough out. Grandma Fierce was not into being outside at night "with the freaks in this town." Trust me. I could not make this up.) Could we take a taxi to an In-n-Out Burger? NO WAY JOSE. Johnny Rockets it was - and she had never heard of the place. "I feel like I'm eighteen again, they play the same songs!" Yes, Grandma Fierce, the french fries have also been frozen since you were eighteen. Oh well.

One afternoon we (along with the forty other retirees on our bus, oh my lord, did I really take that trip?!) stopped at the Los Angeles Farmers Market for lunch. In existence since 1934, the LA Farmers Market houses shops, merchants and purveyors offering a range of goodies from fresh fruit and flowers to touristy trinkets and postcards to sit-down eateries. Take a look at these babies! I would love to make some of J Fierce's shortbread cookies with some walnuts added, wouldn't you?

The weather wasn't fabulous, but the rain didn't dampen our spirits. Well, Grandma Fierce is kind of in a constant mood of dampened spirits, but she likes it that way, we think. I had one of my favorite foods of all time, grilled cheese with onions, from a little stand tucked under an awning:

On our way out, Grandma Fierce had to pick up some sweets. It's so fun finding out what your grandmother can and cannot eat depending on what type of denture adhesive she's using that day. For example the pecan gadgets (on the lower left) are probably not the best bet. BUT DELICIOUS they were.

Another afternoon we were in Santa Monica and had some amazing brats from a place called Let's Be Frank. (Irresistibly cute logo, right?!)

(Note: We also were in the same vicinity as Joe Germaine and the 12-year-old Buckeye fan in me almost peed her pants because the 1997 Rose Bowl was when I fell in looooooooooooove. Sorry KFTF, I was young and impressionable.)

All in all, it was a great trip. Had you followed my tweets, you'd know how much I love the crazy that is Grandma Fierce, and my Buckeyes. Stay tuned to the blog this week for more awesome baking from J Fierce, and hopefully I will unpack and get back in the kitchen!

In love and Buckeyes,

C Fierce