What to Eat When You Can't Eat Anything

As some of you know, I had my wisdom teeth pulled this weekend. Originally scheduled for Tuesday, the day Sandy swept into town, it was postponed until Friday.

Turns out Vicodin and I are in no way compatible, but I'm getting pretty good at ice packs and sleeping on my back. The thing I'm mostly complaining about, to no end, is not being able to eat. I love to eat. I live to eat. Really, I do. Little makes me happier than sinking my teeth into a burger and fries, slurping my mom's spaghetti, reveling in my dad's smothered pork chops, gobbling up sushi rolls, nomming on naan and curry, or popping popcorn shrimp into my mouth, even chowing down on a Taco Bell Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme!...you get the picture.

So, I'm two days in and really struggling to eat soup, soup, and all things slurpable. Because my mouth is swollen in a weird way I really can't chew without biting myself, I'm struggling not to get bored. In an effort to entertain myself, and you, here are some of the things I've been eating!

1. Yogurt, vanilla
2. Chicken stock, microwaved
3. Black bean soup puree
4. Carrot and ginger soup
5. Butternut squash soup puree
6. Green smoothie Odwalla-esque thing
7. Vanilla icing -- I'm not kidding, just icing by itself...I know, judge me why don't you?!
8. Vanilla ice cream
9. Carnation milk breakfast shakes, French Vanilla flavor
10. Hummus, also by itself
11. Guacamole (but only a little, I'm saving it for the refried beans that will be my lunch tomorrow)
12. Cremita de arroz (Cream of rice)

There was the early, abortive attempt to eat a cheese stick because I succumbed to desperation too early. Yeah, I'm not cut out to be a beaver and chew only with my front teeth.

The best things thus far have been yogurt, the black bean soup puree because it's spicy, the green smoothie because I eat that normally, the breakfast shakes (a surprise winner!), and guacamole (because it's the most flavorful thing I've eaten in two days). The worst thing were soups #4 and #5--not my favorite vegetables to begin with. Cremita de arroz was decent, but considering my mom used to make it for me when I was little, there is just no matching those childhood memories.

Anyway, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you physically can't chew or really open your mouth, try eating some of these things. You'll find yourself requiring nourishment every 2-3 hours, which is quite difficult, but hey, you'll become a connoisseur of soupy sustenance.

I can't wait to catalog my post-op binge. Get ready for burgers, pasta, ribs, taco bell, fried chicken, and who knows what else! I'm taking suggestions!

Happy eating! 

My Favorite Cookie: Sandtarts

Today I decided to bake my favorite cookie since childhood: sandtarts. It's been a few years since I've made these delicious little cookies chock full 'o goodness, but it was time. Mostly because I was already in an almond mood as I waited for the pears to ripen to make almond and pear upside-down cake (next post!), and sandtarts are so amazingly almond-y.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........

What are sandtarts? By another name, they are Mexican wedding cookies. They often have nuts. My family's version which I've been making with my mother for as long as I can remember is better than Mexican wedding cookies and has no nuts, which makes them a safe party treat!

The recipe is extremely simple, and is as follows:

Sandtarts Ingredients

Serves about 35 depending on how large you roll the balls of dough

¾ cups butter

4 tbsp sugar (heaping)

2 cups sifted flour

~2 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp cold water

2-3 tbsp almond extract

Cream butter and sugar; add remaining ingredients; mix well.Pinch off  into roughly 1 inch bits of dough and rollinto balls. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before putting confectioner's sugar over the top, otherwise it will just melt the sugar. 

Sift confectioner's sugar over the top or roll cookies in powdered sugar and enjoy!

Here's a picture of the dough:

It's a big bowl, but it doesn't make that much dough so make the balls small to get the most mileage out of it!

Here's a picture of the size of the dough balls. They're actually a bit smaller than 1 inch:

Here's a picture of them (all 38 of them!) when I pulled them out of the oven:

A close-up for the varieties of color and shape. As you can see, they don't really flatten out much.

Final product post-sugaring! As a side note, I used a colander (yes, like a spaghetti colander) to "sift" the sugar over the top. Necessity is the mother of invention!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!

Happy Eating!!

Guacamole!

I made some guacamole the other day and thought I'd post it up, since I make guacamole differently than other people, on account of how mine's spicy.

It's also totally yummy:

Now I normally make this with my sous-chef, but since he's currently luxuriating on a small Caribbean island I had to do it all by myself, hahah.

I don't know what other people put in their guacamole, but here's (more or less) what went into mine:

Ingredients:

1 avocado, peeled and mashed

~3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro 

1 finely chopped serrano pepper with seeds

1/4 diced red onion

~1 teaspoon of salt, more to taste

~1 tablespoon lime juice, to taste

Serves about three to four people if you don't want leftovers.

Now some people put garlic in it, which tastes good too, and tomatoes--but that's generally what I use salsa or pico de gallo for. 

I might have overdone some of the salt and lime juice because the avocado was very ripe, so it needed some extra oomph, but just taste steadily as you go to make sure it tastes nice to you.

A quick tip on picking avocados: make sure that they have some give to them when you squeeze them, but not as much as a mango, maybe more like a peach. That's assuming you like your mangoes very ripe, as I do.

Next time, I'll consult my sous-chef and see if there's some trick to make it yummier I've forgotten.

Happy eating!

Celebrating with Food!

So to celebrate Christmas and the end of term, I cooked my boyfriend some food last Sunday: spaghetti carbonara and brownies!

Since they're both so easy to make, I'm just going to post pictures and recipes. This also likely to be my last post before the 25th, so Merry Christmas, y'all!


Spaghetti Carbonara:

This recipe is a bit Martha Stewart, a bit of my boyfriend's French host mom's recipe, and a bit of my own tastes:

Spaghetti Carbonara

1 pound spaghetti

8 ounces (8 slices) bacon, cut 1 inch thick crosswise (if you're ritzy you can substitute pancetta)

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

3 large eggs* at room temperature

3/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano** cheese, plus more for serving

1/2 cup half-and-half at room temperature

2-4 cloves of garlic (optional)

1 handful chopped parsley (optional)

*Straight from an Italian and tested by my boyfriend's host mom, it's best when there are n-1 eggs, n being the number of people eating. However, I follow this rule starting at 3 people; for 2 people I add 2 eggs, 3 if I don't have half-and-half. 

**Gruyere is yummy, a bit more flavorful, and may melt more easily. I've done both and I like the Gruyere more, but negligibly. I wouldn't substitute any other Parmesan cheese for the Pargmigiano Reggiano. 

1. Set a large pot of water to boil (for pasta) and salt generously. 

2. Mince the garlic.

2. In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat (with the minced garlic cloves if you add them), stirring occasionally, until the bacon is crisp, 8 to 12 minutes; transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

3. When the pot is boiling, add pasta and cook until al dente, according to package instructions.

4. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together eggs, Parmesan, and half-and-half. Set aside.

5. Drain pasta, leaving some water clinging to it. Working quickly, add hot pasta to egg mixture. 

6. Add bacon and some of the grease if you desire; season with salt and pepper, and toss all to combine (heat from pasta will cook eggs). 

7. Serve immediately, sprinkled with additional Parmesan cheese (and the chopped parsley if you have it).

Next up, Rose's (my roommate) world-famous brownies!

I follow the recipe exactly, and they are super easy to make. Just don't forget to grease/Pam the pan!

Brownie Recipe #2

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13x9 inch baking pan.

2. Mix together the butter, sugars, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs. Combine the dry ingredients, gradually stir into the wet mixture until well blended. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes

And then, just because it's totally brilliant--Rose's Christmas present to me! It has the in/appropriate name of a "Screwnicorn" because it's a corkscrew in the shape of a unicorn (I collect unicorns!):

Happy Eating!

(No) Turkey Day

Edit// So, I know this is super late, but just pretend I posted it on time ;).


Thanksgiving is almost here! This means family, friends, and food.

At my house, no one really likes turkey. My dad has had food poisoning twice from turkey, so he really doesn't like turkey. Instead, we've decided to go cajun/creole for Thanksgiving. In part, because we are so close to Louisiana here in Texas, and in part because my dad got this awesome book in thanks for speaking at an industry conference called My New Orleans: The Cookbook by John Besh:

Greatness awaited us within the pages of this book...

Since it's just my dad and me for Thanksgiving we decided only to make two dishes (showing remarkable restraint for my family). This restraint was helped by the fact that a client gave my dad a pecan pie so we don't need to make any dessert.

What we DID decide to make, though, is very exciting! Red beans and rice and shrimp creole.

Since this is also a fashion blog, I figured I'd show you my totally cute apron from an artisan linen shop in Puerto Rico. I'm super into cute, unique aprons:

Kinda looks like a dress!

Anyway, back to THE FOOD! Here's the recipe for Red Beans and Rice:

Yuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyy

Red Beans and Rice 

Time is the key to making successful red beans: they need to cook slowly and well. (I totally agree, and I think this is true for almost any bean.) Using flavorful fat is another secret. Just as my grandmother did, I keep the fat from every batch of bacon I make, and I save the fat that solidifies on the surface of chilled chicken soup and roast chicken drippings, too. (Thankfully, my dad has been saving the fat from his breakfast bacon for a few days now for this recipe.) Just a little bit adds big flavor. 


Serves 6

2     onions, diced 

1     green bell pepper, seeded and diced 

1     stalk celery, diced 

2     tablespoons rendered bacon fat 

1     pound dried red kidney beans 

2     smoked ham hocks 

3     bay leaves 

½     teaspoon cayenne pepper 

3     green onions, chopped 

       Salt 

       Freshly ground black pepper  

       Tabasco

3     cups cooked Basic Louisiana White Rice  (We're using regular long grain white rice because we couldn't find Louisiana White Rice)

Dad and I went to our local Fiesta for the freshest ingredients that would be cheaper than Whole Foods.

Viva Mexico!

My dad: cool as a cucumber.

The fish counter was super sweet. Yes, that is a big balloon shaped like a dolphin in the back. 

This is a picture of all the ingredients laid out on our kitchen island (minus shrimp and rice):

This is about how big we chopped the veggies. I thought it said "chop" not "dice" the onions, so I did them too big. However, in the words of Julia Child, "never apologize."

I learned how to cut lemongrass from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exe3Aa1d7Ro

This was "the tender part," which is the part perpendicular to the knife if it's not clear from the video:

Procedure:

1. Sweat the onions, bell peppers, and celery in the rendered bacon fat in a heavy soup pot (ours is 8 qt) over medium-high heat. (Sweating the pot means with the lid on, according to my dad. So that's what we did)

2. Once the onions become translucent, add the kidney beans, ham hocks, bay leaves, and cayenne, then add water to cover by 2 inches. 

Picture pre-water:

Picture post-water:

3. Increase the heat and bring the water to a boil. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and allow the beans to slowly simmer for 2 hours. Periodically stir the beans to  make sure that they don’t scorch on the bottom of the pot, adding water if necessary, always keeping the beans covered by an inch or more of water. 

4. Continue cooking the beans until they are creamy and beginning to fall apart when they’re stirred. 

5. Remove the ham hock meat from the bones, roughly chop it, and add it back to the pot of beans. 

6. Stir in the green onions and season with salt, black pepper and Tabasco. Serve with white rice.

***THE TASTE TEST***

These beans were extensively tested and approved by my dad.

Ta da! Dish 1 done.

Dish 2 is shrimp creole:

Oh, sorry, am I drooling? My bad. Oh, you too? Rock on.

Shrimp Creole

This new version of a longtime Louisiana favorite has Vietnamese influences; it's spicy and sweet, full of herbs and flavor. Any ultraripe tomatoes will work. 

Makes 12 to 15 servings, but what you will see on this blog is a halved recipe, so just halve all the quantities. 

5 pounds jumbo Louisiana or wild American shrimp, peeled and deveined We used pre-deveined and "easy peel" wild American shrimpSalt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh lemongrass
1/2 cup olive oil
3 medium onions, diced
10 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 bell pepper, red, green or yellow, seeded and diced
5 pounds overripe Brandywine tomatoes or other heirloom tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped - In this case we had to use stewed tomatoes, unsalted, because we couldn't get any ultraripe tomatoes on short notice. 
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
Leaves from 2 branches fresh basil, chopped
Leaves from 1 sprig fresh mint, chopped
Sugar
6-8 cups cooked white rice

1.  Put the shrimp into a large bowl, season with salt and pepper, then mix in lemongrass. Heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a large, deep skillet over moderate heat. Add shrimp, stirring and tossing them with a spatula. Saute until they turn pink, about 2 minutes. Remove the shrimp from the pan and set aside.


Shrimp after being seasoned yet before starting to sizzle:

Shrimp ready to be put off the heat:

2. In the same skillet, add remaining 1/4 cup olive oil, onions, garlic, celery and bell peppers. Cook, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes.

3. Add tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low and when sauce comes to a simmer add bay leaf, allspice, and red pepper flakes. Simmer 10 minutes.

4. Add shrimp back to the skillet along with basil and mint. Cook for a minute or two. Season with salt and pepper. If the sauce tastes too tart, add a little sugar to balance the flavor. Remove bay leaf. Serve over steamed white rice.

And there you have it! That's what we made for Thanksgiving. Let me know if you try it out, it's totally delicious. To wrap things up, here's a picture of what our table looked like:

It lasted roughly five minutes.

Happy Eating!

Breakfast Sandwiches

Hello all,

I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of Harvard students are less than thrilled about their daily breakfast offerings. With the exception of freshmen who still get hot breakfast, in the upperclassman dining halls the food can be less than appetizing five days out of seven. It is an unchanging offering of cold hard boiled eggs, un-shelled warm hard boiled eggs, cold cuts, sandwich cheese, tomatoes, refried beans, hummus, bread stuffs, cream cheese, jam, jelly, butter, and margarine. Oatmeal or some variation thereof if you want it, and the ever-present cereals. Now if that were what we had to eat a few days out of the week, it might not be so bad. But really, who wants cold cuts and oatmeal every single morning? Especially when Harvard's reasoning for cutting hot breakfast is that it's poor with an endowment of just $35 billion. Yeah, right.

Since I like breakfast, I've gotten creative over the years. This year though, I think I've really hit the jackpot. I make a delicious breakfast sandwich every morning that is piping hot and delicious. It starts off like this:

The start of a very beautiful, very short relationship with a sandwich.

What is all of this? Well, here's an enumerated ingredients list:

2 slices of turkey (or ham)

2 slices of cheese

~3 tablespoons of refried beans 

Sriracha or Frank's or Tabasco to taste

2 slices of tomato

1 hardboiled egg sliced in your dhall's handy dandy egg slicer

1 english muffin or wheat thin, toasted

The first thing I do is mix hot sauce with refried beans. Coming from Texas I find the refried bean offering pretty bland, so I hit it with some hot sauce to make it taste better. While I'm doing this, I've got my bread toasting in the toaster until it's extra crispy (since it's going to go in the microwave I overdo it so that it resists sogginess). 

Next, I dry off the tomatoes with some napkins, because when I microwave the sandwich all the water just leaks out of the tomatoes and gets everything wet. Then, I pepper or salt the tomatoes and egg, depending on my mood. Sometimes I leave it plain.

To assemble:

Put the refried beans on one piece of the bread, then put a slice of cheese down followed by either ham or eggs, then tomatoes, then another slice of cheese, and then the other half of the bread.

Zap it in the microwave for about 35 seconds to get the cheese melted and everything heated up without un-crisping the bread. You can also patiently wait on the panini press if you so choose, which will keep crisping up your bread, but I usually don't have time for that in the mornings.

After that, you're all done! Voila! Your beautiful, delicious breakfast sandwich awaits you:

Take that, cold breakfast. Mmmmmm....

If you want a neater sandwich to eat, just leave out the egg and/or tomatoes to make it flatter and more stable.

Happy eating!

Totally Useless Kitchen Equipment

As Thanksgiving rolls around, many of us will be in the kitchen cooking up traditional Turkey Day favorites like mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, turkey, and pumpkin pie. If your family is more like mine, however, no one in your family likes turkey and stuffing leaves you unenthusiastic, so you do non-traditional feasts for Thanksgiving. Last year, my mom and I made a clam bake for Thanksgiving! I wish I had photographs to show you all, it was so delicious. Previous family Thanksgivings have also included roast duck, rack of lamb, and pernil.

Regardless of what you and your family make for Thanksgiving, cooking the meal is usually a monumental task that uses up lots of dishes, utensils, and kitchen implements. Places like Williams Sonoma and Sur la Table sell lots of nifty gadgets to make your cooking expedition easier. Sometimes though, their inventions are totally useless, but at least they lead to a lot of hilarity when browsing your local crockery/cookware shop!

The Huffington Post in this article has compiled a list of 10 of the most useless cooking devices of all time (and the last one contains three-in-one!). I think my favorite is the Roll 'N Pour, for those of us who just can't manage to pour soda out of bottles or milk out of half gallons:

/Edit @ 3:53 pm check out the cabinets behind this guy! SO INTENSE!

Yup, I've definitely gotta get me one of those!

Happy cooking!

Epic Sandwich Time!

Hi everyone,

I'm really excited about this post! This sandwich is delicious and making it was the fulfillment of a craving long-deferred. I first saw it on TV in late July/early August sitting at home in Texas with my mom. With steak, guacamole, melted cheese, refried beans, and good bread, it was love at first sight--I resolved to make it and eat it. Well, three months later, I made it, and golly was it good!

Being one of the more fancy, delicious, and longer dishes I've made thus far in terms of entrees, I decided to post it first before anything else. Excitingly, it's also delicious as a stand-alone steak.

This is Pati's picture first with its cutesy border:




This is my rendition:

Mmmmmm....

Messy and hard to keep together as a sandwich, but totally delicious.

About two weeks ago I decided that the time was ripe for this Epic Gourmet Sandwich. My friend Axel had cooked me dinner a few weeks ago and it was my turn to cook for him. I also decided that my boyfriend might like an epic sandwich, seeing as how it is a universal truth that all men love sandwiches. I kid, though I've never met one who didn't! He got roped into being my sous-chef, as you will see below.

The recipe is as follows, straight from Pati's Mexican Table:

PEPITO: STEAK & AVOCADO SANDWICH

Makes 4 to 6 generous tortas or sandwiches of about 4" length

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 lbs flank steak
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or pressed
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/8 tsp black pepper
Pinch of sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil

4 teleras, bolillos, petite baguettes, or baguettes sliced into 3 to 4 inches and cut in half
6 ounces Monterey jack cheese, muenster or mild cheddar
1 cup gucamole (see below)
1 cup refried beans (store bought or homemade)

TO PREPARE
Marinate the flank steak with the soy sauce, olive oil, Dijon mustard, garlic, rosemary and black pepper. You may marinate it anywhere from 1/2 hour to overnight in the refrigerator. Remove the meat from the refrigerator and sprinkle with salt when you are ready to cook it.

Preheat the grill pan or grill at medium-high heat. Once it is hot, place the meat and let it cook anywhere from 4 to 5 minutes per side, depending on how well done you want the meat. You can drizzle any extra marinade right over the top of the meat while it cooks. For medium, its closer to 4 minutes per side, for over medium, closer to 5 minutes per side. Remove the meat from the heat and place it on a cutting board. Let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes, slightly covered. Thinly slice across the grain.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Slice the baguettes, teleras or bolillos in half lengthwise and place in a baking sheet. Spread about 3 tablespoons of refried beans on the bottom half of each bread. Cover with about 3 to 4 tablespoons shredded cheese. Place in the oven and let the bread crisp and the cheese melt, for about 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Top the pepitos with a generous amount of the thinly sliced meat and 3 to 4 tablespoons of the guacamole. Place the tops on top! Eat while hot.

GUACAMOLE
Makes over a cup

INGREDIENTS
2 ripe avocados, halved, pit removed, meat scooped out and mashed
3 scallions, about 2 tbsp, rinsed, tops removed, white and light green parts thinly sliced
2 tbsp coarsely chopped cilantro leaves, optional
3 tbsp jalapeno or serrano chile, more or less to taste, minced (seeding is optional)
2 tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed
Salt to taste

TO PREPARE
Gently mix ingredients in a bowl or molcajete and serve. It can be prepared up to 12 hours in advance if covered and stored in the refrigerator.

The Making of an Epic Sandwich

I took a trip to the Shaw's in Porter Square for the necessary ingredients. Since I'm not in Texas anymore I did not expect to find bolillos or teleras, but I also couldn't picture this luscious sandwich on a narrow baguette. Shaw's had a great alternative in the ambiguously named "French bread" loaf which you see about a third of in the picture above. It was nice and soft on the inside and crisped really well on the outside.

The flank steak was an adventure. It was really expensive, $17.98/1.75 lbs. I asked the nice meat section specialist for anything cheaper, similar to flank steak, and he said, "Everyone asks me that when they come in and ask for flank steak and see the price. But if you want flank steak, there ain't nothing like it. It's top of the line. You pay for what you get." Ok. I bought the flank steak.

I also decided to purchased serrano peppers because I know they pack more heat than jalapenos, and went with Monterrey Jack cheese because mild cheddar is boring and muenster seemed less Mexican, hahah.

The one thing I forgot: refried beans. I couldn't believe it, but as my guests said, the beans would have been too much. It was a really dense sandwich.

I made the marinade about two hours in advance and put the steak in the fridge. Cleaning the meat was an experience, especially with dollar store kitchen knives. I've never had to clean such a nice piece of meat so I was worried about messing it up. Thankfully, it came out okay. When I was done it was probably 1.5 lbs, which was just enough for 3 very hungry people.

Me and the meat

I had my sous-chef help me out with the guacamole, since we discovered in NYC this summer that we make good guacamole together.

We followed the above recipe this time, though we added about 1/2 more of an avocado and less cilantro because I chopped it less finely than Pati would probably recommend. I only used two of the serranos (I left the seeds in because I like a big kick), a perfect amount when chopped this size:

Those are the scallions to the left, and the serranos in the middle. Bling optional.

Guacamole:

Rock out with your guac out!(...?)

After the guacamole, I sliced the French bread in half horizontally and then cut it into thirds. I laid about five pairs on a baking pan (after preheating the oven to about 400 degrees because I'm not sure my oven really did 350 when it said 350) and covered them with chopped up strips of Monterrey Jack. I don't have a picture for it, but I left them there about 7-10 minutes while I seared the meat to get the cheese bubbly and golden and the crust hard and crispy. Side note: This is a great, delicious snack on its own. I call it...Cheese Bread.

Then it was time to sear the meat. I turned it up to medium-high heat and seared each side for about 4-5 minutes to get a medium rare-rare finish on the meat. I had to cut the steak in half due to the size of our frying pan, so one steak came out more rare than the other but we all thought it was okay.

Be sure your pan is HOT before you put the meat in, otherwise you won't get a nice char on the outside.

Be sure to let the meat rest for about 5 minutes before serving to preserve tenderness and moisture. Otherwise all the juices will bleed out and the meat will be dry. These are the lessons I learn from watching Chopped obsessively.

The steak at rest. It looks so peaceful.

Next, I pulled the bread and cheese thirds out of the oven. While waiting for the last half of steak to rest boys and I dipped extra hunks of bread into the guacamole and the marinade left in the frying pan. DELICIOUS. I was really impressed with the marinade. It makes a delicious steak on its own.

Finally, it was time to assemble the sandwiches. DIY guacamole, steak. I recommend cutting the steak a lot thinner than I do here, but it was tricky to do with cheap knives.


The final product:

Drool...

It didn't stay together very long because I cut the steak a bit thick and the bread was a bit overlarge, but eating it with your hands somehow made it extra satisfying for me. If you try it out, let me know how it goes! Flank steak can easily be substituted for some other kind of meat, but avoid frying pan steak because it won't sufficiently absorb all the wonderful flavors of the marinade.

So there you have it, folks! That is how you make an Epic Sandwich. Or Epic Steak, because it's just such a delicious marinade and such a great cut of meat. I am also permanently indebted to Pati's Mexican Table for introducing this sandwich to me. God bless cooking shows.

What is this blog?

Hi everyone,

Thanks for reading =).

This blog will center on food and fashion, not necessarily in equal amounts. What will I talk about?

Well, food will (mostly) consist of food that I cook plus recipes, food my roommates cook plus recipes, food I want to cook, wine and beverage fun, and things I do to improve my house's dining hall offerings.

In terms of fashion, I'll include anything from what to do if you want a job working in fashion, to trends I like/don't like, to fashion inspiration/mood posts, links to other folks' blogs and websites, and maybe my own outfits (or things I wish I were wearing).

That's the basic idea for this blog. Other subjects will probably pop up from time to time.

One last thing: Spaghetti in Heels. One, I love spaghetti. Over the course of my life, my diet has at multiple points been about 90% spaghetti. Two, I love heels. Therefore, Spaghetti in Heels.