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.

Day 12: Happy (Belated) Pi Day

 

HAPPY PI DAY! (3.14.12)

Pie for everyone!

As you can probably tell, I no more took this delicious-looking picture of pies than I actually had pie on Pi Day. Sadly, my day consisted of one big fat pot of vegetable soup with too-salty saltines. C'est la vie triste of a graduate student with a cold during the last week of papers.

 

Day 11: Homemade Vegetable Soup (Can Be A Blessing In Disguise)

Homemade Vegetable Soup

Status: Homemade (obviously)

Satisfaction: 8--but then again, any soup goes with a cold.

Associated with: Elie Wiesel's Night

 

It may sound like a strange association, but I distinctly remember picking up this book back in fifth grade and latching onto that memorable sentence on the back cover, in which he rhetorically asked, What is the secret to getting a potato in your soup? As a Holocaust and concentration camp survivor, Wiesel understands that which we often take for granted; so that even though I have made this vegetable soup while cursing the untimely cold that has clamped onto my immune system during the last week of the quarter, a moment of reflection reminds me that my situation, after all, is not such a dire one. Not by a long stretch.

Day 10: Tea at the Huntington (Consumed in a State of Semi-Madness)

 

English-Style Tea at the Huntington Library

Satisfaction: 10.

Date: 3/12/12

Associated with: Alice in Wonderland (of course)

 

As you can probably already tell from the nifty tag in the lower left-hand corner of the tea picture, I didn't take it. Didn't have the temerity to whip out my camera in the middle of a decent English tea room in front of our prospective students and department vice chair (but the food that I ate was essentially exactly the same, so there you are).

So. Mad tea parties. The only reason the madness of the tea party factors in here is my current psychological state. The event itself was quite, fortunately, un-mad. I was a much happier camper--not least of all because the tea was delicious and (for me) free. And did I mention delicious?

Day 9: A Very Dickens Dinner (with Herman Melville)

Just kidding about the Melville. It was a strictly Dickensian dinner with my fellow Dickensians.

Day 9: A Very Dickens Dinner

On the menu: 

Mini Spinach Quiche

Potatoes au Gratin

Classic Pasta Salad

Fluffy Biscuits

Duchess Potatoes w/White Gravy

Dessert: Caramel Flan (see Day 8) and Ice Cream

Associated with:

I thank you, Charles my dear fellow, for your approbation.

Happy Dickens Dinner Day!

Day 8: Homemade Creamy Caramel Flan (is Like a Taste of Heaven)

Creamy Caramel Flan

Status: Homemade

Satisfaction: 10. Creamy and delicious, as the title implies.

Associated with: Clouds (and some Michaelangelo)

I know what you're thinking: Another flan post in one week? Blasphemy! This repeat, however, merits sharing. It was my first attempt at flan--and frankly, it was awesome. Creamy, delicious, melt-in-your-mouth sinfulness in every bite I will pretend I did not take because this is technically for, er, tomorrow's Dickens party. (Did I mention that I'm hosting a Dickens dinner? I'm hosting a Dickens dinner--gee, I wonder what tomorrow's theme will be...)

Anyway, it's sort of what I imagine a mixture of clouds and heaven would taste like if you could take a bite of them. The picture above captures the general sentiment of hallelujah choruses that exploded inside of me at first bite.

It's recipe time! (Click "read more.")