Baltimore, Botulism Benefit & Roasted Garlic

photo courtesy of allrecipes.com. I'll remember to take one next time!

I'm in my hometown of Baltimore, enjoying some time before I head off to Central America for a month (!!!). I haven't been cooking much, although I did make some dill dip for the Baby Bregel-Bausum's Botulism Benefit Bash on Saturday. There was a ton of food and terrific live music (by Earthtone!). Better than that, a lot of money was raised for Sinai Hospital's PICU, where my friend Sarah's baby girl Piper recovered from infant botulism in March. Once the music started, I was completely distracted, so I don't think I actually ate the dill dip I made. I followed my mom's classic recipe, though, so I'm sure it was good.

Perhaps the dill dip recipe will be another post, because last night for dinner I had roasted garlic, and that's what I want to write about. Roasted garlic is incredibly simple to make, tastes amazing, and has multiple uses. I usually eat mine smushed over bread, but you can add it to mashed potatoes, dips or pastas. It's also good on top of pizza, mixed into butter or hummus, or with cheese as an appetizer.

Ingredients
head of garlic (as many as you'd like to make)
salt
pepper
olive oil

1. Pull off most of the garlic skin, leaving the individual skins of the individual cloves.
2. Chop off the end of the head of garlic, exposing the cloves; maybe cut off about 1/2 an inch here.
3. Drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle some salt and pepper.
4. Bake on a baking sheet at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. You should be able to smell the garlic. You might need + or - about 5 or 10 minutes, depending on the size of the garlic heads and the strength of your oven.
5. Pull the cloves from the skin with your fingers or a fork.

A quick Google search reveals a bunch of different ways to roast garlic, including in muffin tins or ramekins, covered with aluminum foil, etc. I usually do it bare, but I'm thinking using aluminum foil might be smart.

Some Forgotten Ephemera From Vacay

I forgot that I had more photos of the vacay, particularly some of cooking/food. Some of them are even aesthetically pleasing. I've got pictures of a vegetarian sandwich from Andrea Kristina's Bookstore in Farmington, the camping cooking situation, the bacon green chili burgers, more scenic photos as well. There is also a picture of the fried chicken my mom made, which was really good, especially since I had a biscuit.

I'll Eat Whatever I Want Cause I'm On Vacay

So as soon as school got out me and my neighbors threw a party, titled The Last Supper. It was a blast. You might have seen the promo video.

Since then I've been on the road. I saw my brother's new baby girl, and my new niece, Aubree Hannah. On the way across NM I ate at KFC, Taco Bell, and McDonald's all in one day. Yes I had the Double Down, and yes it destroyed my intestines. While I was visiting my family I managed to eat pizza, fried chicken, green chili bacon cheeseburgers, and Red Lobster in four days.

After visiting my parents I went and hung out with a friend in Colorado Springs for a few days then camped over the weekend in Cotopaxi CO. From Wednesday to Sunday we managed to eat Mexican food four out of five of those days. Wednesday night was Carlos Miguels, Thursday night was Jose Muldoon's, and on Saturday and Sunday afternoon we ate at El Caporal. El Caporal had a great ratio of value to service to taste going on so it was hard to even try a new place the second day (get the Colorado Burrito, it's the one with the red sauce). The food we made while camping contained bacon all three times (breakfast, dinner, breakfast), as we were trying to avoid bringing any food back with us. It's been a great ending to a hectic semester. Enjoy the pictures.

SAABLT Wrap: This Is Not About A Car

So I'm reading Pigafetta Is My Wife, a book of poems by Joe Hall (for a good review of Pigafetta, go here). I'm loving the book on so many levels it's hard to keep this from turning into a glowing review, but as I was reading it I couldn't help thinking of pig's feet. I don't know why? I wanted to try and make a dish with pig's feet, but I also wanted to make something I would really like and something that goes along with the book's theme, a la my neighbor Rachel's blog, which has a concept I wish I could steal, and well, I kind of am for this post.

I'm making an Asia meets Latin meets America meets my fondness for bacon dish I call a SAABLT Wrap (which sounds like a car, but it's not, cause I checked first).

Spicy Asian Avocado Bacon Lettuce Tomato Wrap

1/2 lb Sliced bacon

1 Tomato, diced

1 Avocado, sliced

1/2 Onion, thinly sliced

Several whole leaves of romain lettuce

1/2 Lime, juiced

1 tbs Soy sauce

1 tsp Fish sauce

1-2 tsp Crushed red pepper

Light sour cream, to taste

First start by cleaning up all your veggies and getting them all prepped. In a pan, cook your bacon on low. When the fat starts collecting in the pan, add the onion, soy sauce, fish sauce (if you've never used fish sauce before, be prepared for a smell I can only compare to sex; no joke, it's pungent), and crushed red pepper. Keep the heat on low, stirring occasionally. When the bacon and onions start to brown add the lime juice. I just squeezed the lime right into the pan. Continue on low until the bacon is your desired texture. When it's finished, spread the sour cream on the lettuce leaves, adding the bacon mixture to one side and the tomatoes to the other, topping it off with the avocado. Season with salt and pepper.

Some Important Notes:

1. If you're going to season the bacon and onions while it's cooking like this, cooking on low is very important. The slower it cooks, the more flavor gets absorbed by the meat and the onions.

2. If you drink a beer with this meal, I recommend Carta Blanca (I'll explain why in another post).

3. I listened to angsty late 90's music while I cooked and had a great time doing it.

4. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky today. Not one.

5. I wish I would have put cheese on this but the name was already really long.