The Perks

Being a "grown-up" means I get to decide what to eat on my own. If I feel like pasta, bam, pasta it is. In my twenties (okay and maybe into my thirties, alright so last week as well) this meant mint chip ice cream for breakfast. I've taken advantage of this perk of being an adult.

So I've been craving two things this week: Banh Mi sandwiches and coconut macaroons. And so guess what I had for dinner tonight?

The banh mi came from a recipe off epicurious. I had to further bastardize it due to the constraints of my ghetto Shaws in Fenway. They didn't have liverwurst and so I subbed in canned deviled ham. I've never eaten deviled ham so I wasn't sure what to expect when I popped the can. It was the perfect consistency for the sandwich and had a nice, slightly smoked (a little tin-y) flavor.


I also added cucumber and radish, plus I opted to marinate the onions, radishes, cucs in with the carrots. I assembled it all according to the recipe on epicurious. And was sure to include a good sized squirt of sriracha sauce.

Behold, dinner!

It wasn't anything like the banh mi I have in Chinatown but it was a pretty good sandwich and did satisfy my banh mi craving enough that I know I will be having the same for dinner tomorrow. The crunchy sweet, sour veggies were a great contrast to the smoothness of the deviled ham. It was made even better by the addition of a Tabasco dill pickle! Omg, why has noone come up with this pickle sooner?

The macaroon recipe came courtesy of my girl, Ina Garten. It's from her Family Style cookbook, a thoughtful gift from a good friend of mine. I love Ina. She makes some of the tastiest food! She's never one to skimp on butter, sugar or salt. A lady after my own heart. I've only made one other dessert from this cookbook and it took a little tweaking to get it alright (a word to the wise: if you make the tiramisu be sure and not use all the rum called for, otherwise when you open the fridge it will reek of alcohol. Ina certainly doesn't skimp on the booze either!).

Ina's macaroon recipe called for sweetened condensed milk, coconut (of course) and vanilla. What can taste bad with those three items? They were very simple to put together and once out of the oven smelled heavenly.


I poured myself a glass of milk and tried some. Sweet and chewy, they were exactly what I was craving. Although, the look of the macaroon wasn't so fantastic. They looked like they had spread out a bit and the bottoms cooked a bit faster than they should have. Actually I think this is an overall issue with my oven. I don't think the heat circulates very well and so the bottoms of cookies and cakes cook too fast and the middle and tops stay blonde. Bummer, so much for a fancy new stove in a new condo!

But yay for being a grown-up!