PROSCIUTTO SANDWICH

I’ve been into prosciutto lately… and wanted to make this… but there are so many ingredients and a college student simply does not have the resources to buy such expensive little condiments. But prosciutto, thastuff is goood. So… here’s an experimental sandwich. I think it tastes good. Of course, there’s garlic. And cheese. Yum.

Roast Garlic Prosciutto Sandwich
slices of rustic Italian bread, ie) thick bread
sliced prosciutto
cheese (something country-like… like Asiago or goat cheese or Parmegiano Reggiano or something)
balsamic vinegar
pepper
head of garlic
mayonnaise
lemon juice
butter lettuce
tomato slices

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Wrap the garlic in aluminum foil. Put the garlic in the oven and let it roast for 45 minutes. When the garlic is done roasting, take it out of the oven and let it cool (make sure it’s semi-warm or room temperature… you’ll see why).
2. Pop the garlic out of the skin and mash it. Add mayonnaise, a little bit of lemon juice, and pepper.
3. Spread some of the garlic/mayo on a slice of toasted bread. Layer on prosciutto on top of the garlic/mayo. Drizzle on a bit of balsamic vinegar. Layer lettuce and tomato on top of that, and top with cheese. Spread a little more of the garlic/mayo on the other bread slice, and place it on top of the sandwich.
4. Enjoy!

Note: I take no responsibility if this sandwich does not turn out well… as I just made it up and have yet to make it myself. I will update this post when I have…

REVIEW: MARIPOSA

Mariposa is located on the third floor of the Neiman Marcus in Newport Beach. If you have the money, it’s quite a nice place to have lunch, sipping on consommé and eating popovers on the patio while looking out at the ocean and the palm trees…

Mariposa is awesome because of three things: popovers, strawberry butter, and consommé. Flaky, buttery and airy popovers, freshly made strawberry butter, pure chicken consommé. They always give this to you. If you ask for more, they gladly give you some. Yum. The food itself is not much more than average for the price range, but still quite good.

Roast Chicken

CAPRESE SALAD

I think caprese salad is delicious for barbecues… and similar events. It’s more of a summer thing. Yeah… this picture was taken in July, indicating how far behind I am on posting my cooking and baking and eating adventures. And it’s super easy. Tomato, basil, mozzarella. Salt and pepper.

THE BEST RED VELVET CAKE, EVER

Here it is, in pictures. It is the best red velvet cake I have ever tasted. It is better, I think, than SusieCakes, Sprinkles, and other bakeries combined. I don’t know exactly how I made it so that turned out so well for my palate, but I halved the sugar. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. Thanks, Smitten Kitchen.

ROAST GARLIC GRILLED CHEESE

I like cheese. I like garlic. I thought putting them together would be a splendid idea, with a touch of truffle. Although I don’t want to be snooty, I agree that truffles smell delicious. The mushroom-y, fungus-y truffle that is friggen expensive. And although truffle oil (least, most truffle oil) is merely some sort of oil with chemical additive that smells like truffle, it still smells divine. Here is my grilled cheese sandwich. I shall name it the GG sandwich. And I feel proud because I’m almost certain I came up with it entirely on my own. Well, I did but chances are someone did the exact same thing.

REVIEW: MACARONS

The macaron is a traditional French pastry, made of egg whites, almond powder, icing sugar and sugar (cite Wikipedia). I’ve had an obsession with macarons since I went to Paris about six years ago. They looked good, but the thought of them being mostly sugar made me think that they were just like meringues which baffled me, because I never though meringues were all that special (They are delicious, but not very special). On top of that, macarons are/were rare in the states, so I never bothered to look for them. I figured I’d try them from Pierre Hermé the next time I wound up in France. Then I started researching.

So… three venues. Vanilla Bake Shop, Paulette Macarons, and Layer Cake Bakery.

Vanilla Bake Shop sells mostly cupcakes… and macarons on the side. Their cupcakes (assuming that their minicupcakes are tiny versions of their cupcakes) are delicious. They easily beat out all the other bake places. Too bad they’re in Santa Monica. Yes, I drove to Santa Monica to get cupcakes and macarons.

SQUASH & TOMATOES

Summer Squash Torte

yellow squash
potatoes
olive oil
parmesan cheese
green onion
salt & pepper

LILLIAN (my pink standmixer)

Rather than tell you about her in words, let me just show you pictures of her at work:

ALFAJORES

I’m back! More like I am sick and can’t sleep and since I have nothing to do, will update. A lot. I thought I had posted about dulce de leche, but obviously not, so really fast! here’s how to make the normal person’s dulce de leche:

HIATUS

I haven’t posted for a while… and this blog is going on a hiatus until I get all my stuff together. Plus, summer’s over so I can’t bake and cook half the day away… I apologize, I know there are people who actually read this blog.