The world's most delicious sandwich.

Want to know how to make the most delicious sammich the whole world over?  I thought so.

As an initial caveat, I might be biased because I inadvertently discovered this gem, which I have come to call the Italian BLT, while I was sitting on a beach in the most beautiful place in the world: Positano, on Italy's Amalfi Coast.  On our first day of vacation, we plopped ourselves on the above beach for pretty much the whole day, but for when when my husband went to find us lunch and found a convenience store with a tiny deli counter tucked into the back.  He ordered these prosciutto, mozzarella, basil, and tomato sandwiches and we proceeded to return every day for the rest of our stay (vacation problems: arguing over whose turn it is to get up out of their lounge chair to go get lunch).  This sandwich is simple, but somehow the whole is so very superior to the sum of its parts.    

Ingredients (these are for one sandwich): 

Ciabatta roll

4 thin slices of prosciutto (my Whole Foods happened to have this, and if it's good enough for Paul Kahan, it's good enough for me)

3-4 medium thick slices of fresh mozzarella

4-5 basil leaves

3-4 tomato slices

a couple drizzles of olive oil

salt and pepper

I presume you don't need me to tell you how to assemble a sandwich.  My only piece of advice is to be more generous with the olive oil than you think you'll need to be, because it softens up the ciabatta and makes it easier to eat.  

These travel well wrapped in waxed paper or parchment paper.  I tried to tape them shut for a recent lakeside picnic, but my olive oiled hands and parchment paper kept the tape from sticking.  My messy assembly forced me to go Martha on the whole situation and tie them with string, which actually worked fantastically.

Good luck keeping your dog away. 

(All photos by Tall and Salty.)

Brrrrrrr.

It is downright freezing and unpleasant outside.  If you too are a Burrito of Sadness, a few things to help you cope:

The Mindy Project.  It is laugh-so-hard-you-wake-up-your-sleeping-dog hilarious.  (And you can watch it burrito-ed into your couch.  Mindy would approve.)

I've been using Vitamin E oil to moisturize my face (I read about this trick here).  It is heavy, and I don't know that I'll keep it up once I have my heater dialed down and there is a drop of moisture in the air, but for now, it feels fantastic.  For the rest of your parched winter skin, Kiehl's Creme de Corps is a splurge, but so very worth it. 

And if all else fails, drink.  These Winter Sun cocktails are citrusy (fights scurvy!) and a great pick-me-up for when you feel like winter is never, ever, ever ending (warning: your kitchen might end up looking like this).

(Top illustration by Jillian Fleck, via The Daily Muse; Mindy Project image via Vulture; skin photo by Yulia Gorbachenko; Winter Sun cocktail images by Two Tarts via Cup of Jo.)

Happy 2013!

Well, despite my good intentions, Christmas really got the best of me this year (and yes, I did end up " frantically ordering things on December 23 whilst wrapping into the wee hours of the morning like a crazy woman").  But hey, didn't we all?  And with 2013 upon us, the slate is clean, right?

Or not.  :)  In any event, while my absence might seem like evidence to the contrary, I've missed you all, and I have appreciated your "when are you coming back?" questions -- it makes me feel loved!  So here I am, and I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that there is lots of happiness in store for you in 2013.  Thank you so much for coming back to visit.  To break my blackout and get your 2013 started right, I thought I'd share a few things that I've been enjoying or discovering over the last month.  

Cards Against Humanity, which aptly describes itself as "a free party game for horrible people."  I played this at our friends' New Year's party, and it is hilarious.  You'll cry with laughter (and shame).  You can buy a set of the cards for $25, or print your own at home for free!  (Interesting tidbit: it started on Kickstarter.)

I made a few batches of Rosemary French 75s, which taste delicious and look fancy and festive.  The recipe: put a sugar cube in the bottom of a champagne coupe.  Put 2 ounces of gin, the juice of a lemon, and 1 teaspoon of this rosemary syrup into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake (I don't have a cocktail shaker, so I just use a cup of ice and stir it with a spoon).  Pour into the coupe, fill up the rest of the glass with prosecco, and garnish with a sprig of rosemary.  Enjoy!

I read about this Kiehl's Avocado Eye Cream here, here, and here, and decided it was the universe leading me to a solution to Chicago Winter Face.  It feels like glue, which in this case is a good thing.

I signed up for For the Makers, a monthly service that's like Birchbox for crafts!  The prior boxes look like they had lots of goodies in them (like this pouch you can make to fit your phone, cash, and cards).  I am overly pumped to get my pseudo-Martha on.

And finally, a little tip that really seems to work: to improve your posture (something I am always working on and pretty much always failing at), turn your palms up.  That's it.  It really does make your hold your shoulders back, like you're supposed to!

Have you stumbled on any great stuff in the last month?  Recipes, ticks, trips, products, tunes?  Do share.

(Top illustration by Emily McDowell Illustration; French 75 photo by Tall and Salty; Kiehl's photo by Christine; photograph of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly by Allan Grant for Life Magazine.)

Speed baking

I like baking sweets so much more than cooking actual meals: my distaste for making nightly dinners is well-documented, and despite my best efforts, seems only to be getting worse (likely because I'm not a very good cook, and because I have a general dislike of vegetables.  I seriously need a grown-up version of Deceptively Delicious).  But baking feels enjoyable: you're making something that everyone is pretty much guaranteed to love.  And making a dinner with a few sides feels like I'm juggling lots of things at once, leading to inevitable disaster, whereas baking only requires focus on one thing.     

But in the summertime, the last thing I feel like doing is spending a ton of time in the kitchen, carefully measuring and stirring things over a hot stove.  And year-round, sometimes you just want a home-baked good fast, so here are my three favorite fast and easy recipes for sweets.  Enjoy (quickly)!

The Black Apple's Salty Brownies

This recipe is so easy, and requires only a single bowl and no mixer (hand or stand.  Beat that).  [I actually wrote that without regard for the obvious mixer joke.  Unclear if that's a good or bad thing.]

I confess that I don't have the patience to get out a pot or turn on the stove, so I just melt the butter in the microwave.  Given the name of this blog, it should come as no surprise that I use salted butter, have a heavy hand with the salt, and also sprinkle salt on the top of the brownies before they go into the oven (kosher salt is good for the topping).  Try it -- the salty and sweet combination is delicious!  Additionally, I have never once waited the full cooling hour, and I have lived to tell the tale.

Ingredients

1 stick butter (8 tbsp)

1/2 c brown sugar 

1 c white sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 c flour
1/2 c cocoa
Pinch salt
Tbsp vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 390.

2. Melt butter in pot over stove.

3. Remove butter from heat, let cool about a minute, then add sugars (just use the pot as your bowl...it saves you more dishes). Mix well.

4. Add eggs, flour, cocoa, salt, and generous tablespoon-splash of vanilla, and mix well.

5. Line baking dish with parchment, pour in batter, and pop in oven.

6. Bake 20-25 minutes, I test with a knife in the center and remove when only a few little crumbs cling to the knife.

7. Cool one hour or overnight.

Smitten Kitchen's Jacked Up Banana Bread

This also requires only a single bowl and nary a mixer.  Hurrah!

I have used as many as five bananas when I've made this, and if you like a more gooey, intensely-flavored banana bread, I'd go that route.  If you (or someone for whom you like to bake) have problems with gluten, this recipe can be made gluten-free very easily: just replace the one-and-a-half-cups of flour with the same amount of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour.  I'm no expert, but I think the smushy bananas in the batter help it maintain the texture, which can get weird with gluten-free baked goods.

Ingredients

3 to 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted salted butter
3/4 to 1 cup light brown sugar (depending on the level of sweetness you prefer, I always use the smaller amount)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup of flour

Instructions

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2.  With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

3.  Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla and bourbon, then the spices.

4.  Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.

5.  Add the flour last, mix.

6.  Pour mixture into a buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan.

7.  Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, or until a tester comes out clean.

8.  Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Big Girls, Small Kitchen's Lemon Cookies

I love the taste of lemon, but as the Design*Sponge article on this recipe notes, you can use the base recipe to get fancy with lots of other things.  I've never experimented because I like the original too much to screw it up (which I of course would). 

To cut down on dishes, I (gasp!!!!!) don't sift the dry ingredients together.  I just add them directly to the mixer bowl with the butter and sugar.  And instead of rolling the dough balls in a bowl of sugar, I smush the tops of the cookies with my finger and drop a little coarse sugar into the dip.  To cut down on time, make the cookies large enough so that all the dough is used up in one go-round in the oven.  For me, that means two baking sheets with twelve balls of dough each. 

Ingredients

2 ¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1 egg
1/3 cup coarse sugar (plain, granulated sugar works if it’s all you have)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together.

3. Cream the butter, 1 cup of sugar and lemon zest until very smooth. Add the egg and continue to beat until fluffy. Pour in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined — you don’t want to overmix.

4. Spread the remaining 1/3 cup sugar onto a shallow plate. Form balls out of the cookie dough 2 inches in diameter and roll them through the sugar. Arrange on a cookie sheet 4 inches apart — these spread!

5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until just the edges are golden. The tops of the cookies should remain pale. Cool completely on the cookie sheets before removing to a plate.

(Images by The Black Apple, Smitten Kitchen, and Kristina Gill for Design*Sponge.)