Day 13: Apple Candied Nut Cranberry Salads (Make Any Place the Happiest Place on Earth)

Apple Cranberry Goat Cheese Candied Pecan Salad (with Balsamic Vinaigrette)

Status: Restaurant (Faculty Center at UCLA)

Satisfaction: 7.

Apple Gorgonzola Candied Walnut Cranberry Salad (with Mustard Vinaigrette)

Status: Homemade

Satisfaction: 6.

Associated with: The Happiest Place on Earth

 

Every time I get an apple cranberry nut salad or some variation of it, I am instantly and miraculously transported to the Happiest Place on Earth. I may be the only person in the world who goes to Disneyland in large part for Pizza Port's amazing salad (okay, I'm overemphasizing its amazing-ness--but being in Disneyland will do that to you). In fact, it's so good that when the opportunity comes up...yes, I will not only have it twice in one day--I will even make it again, knowing I already had it for lunch.

Day 12: Roasted Garlic Cauliflower (Stars in the Next Disneyland Attraction)

An Entire Head of Roasted Garlic Cauliflower

Status: Homemade (3.15.12)

Satisfaction: 8.

Associated with: The Singing Busts at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion

Whenever anybody mentions a "head of cauliflower" or "head of broccoli," the haunting (quite literally) image of floating heads always comes into my, well--you get the point. The fact that I ate an entire head of garlic roasted cauliflower for dinner was a little sad (my palette is still a bit unsettled from the cold, hence the spartan choice), but it definitely provided some entertainment, since every time I started getting bored with it I'd just imagine my cauliflower springing to life and singing "Grim Grinning Ghosts" on my plate.