Tag Archives: sammich

Ojai and Zombie Prevention

The lovely Allie and I went up to Ojai on Wednesday for a girls’ day. Our first order of business? Azu in Ojai.
I ordered the exact same thing as last time – the portabella sammich. Allie ordered the filet mignon tacos and we split. Those tacos majorly trumped the sammich this time. Filet mignon shall be my obsession of the week…
Afterwards we walked through town and then got into the car to get lost.
I got lost and found a place I’d been before. This meditation mountain is my favorite part of Ojai, besides the food of course…
Allie a la Meditation Mountain.
A beautiful, completely natural day…
This was a totally candid, natural pose… (I loves me some HDR and tone mapping!)

We spent the day wandering the town, exploring the hills and then went to Wades Wines for a beer tasting. Important zombie prevention techniques were discussed, diagrams were designed… It was a successful day.
Zombie Prevention: Don’t get caught without ammo.

In other news: I officially signed up for the Certified Cicerone Exam this afternoon. I’ve got plenty of time (NOT ENOUGH) before I take it, and I’m sure (COMPLETELY TERRIFIED) that I’ll do fine (FAIL MISERABLY)

I’ll be at Enegren Brewing all day tomorrey, for any of you locals who want to come by and say hello!

2 Comments

Filed under Travel

Grilled Portabella Mushroom Sammich

I didn’t spend ten minutes trying to find out the true spelling of Portabella… Okay, maybe I did, but it’s all in the name of journalistic honesty! The Mushroom Council has officially designated the spelling for those gigantic, steak-like shrooms. Portobello/Portabella no more! Portabella is the way to go. I’m a research junkie.

ANYWAY. I’ve been wanting to recreate a portabella sammich ever since my first one EVER at Breckenridge Brewery. Yes, I did spell it portobello then, when I was uneducated. ANYWAY AGAIN. I made one tonight!
Ingredients assembled! You can get a print-out version of the recipe HERE.

Grilled Portabella and Roasted Red Pepper Sammich
1 portabella mushroom
1 red pepper
2 slices of bread (ciabatta or foccacia recommended)
3 tbsp goat cheese
3.4 basil leaves, chopped
2-3 sundried tomatoes, diced
A handful of spinach
Olive oil
Salt + pepper

1. Take the portabella mushroom and clean it with a damp towel/mushroom brush.
2. After washing, scrape out the gills of the mushroom with a spoon.
3. Try not to mutilate the mushroom like I did…
Oops…. I’m pretty sure that’s a portabella mushroom there… I think…
4. Brush what’s left of the portabella with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside.
5. Take the red pepper and a pair of tongs and blister the pepper over medium-high heat on the stovetop. (A grill works as well if you don’t want your smoke alarms going off. Oops again…)
I’d also recommend hot pads for your hands. Metal tends to conduct heat. Oops times three…
Deliciously burned!
6. Place the blistered pepper in a Ziploc, seal and let it rest for 15-20 minutes, or until cool enough to handle.
7. Once the pepper is cool enough to handle, remove it from the Ziploc and peel of the skin. It’ll come off very easily thanks to the steaming effect of the Ziploc. This is not an ad for Ziploc. I swear.
8. In a mixing bowl, combine the goat cheese, basil and sundried tomatoes.
I prefer the sundried tomatoes that are soaked in olive oil. They have much more flavor than the boring, chewy dry ones.
9. Place the portabella mushroom on a preheated grill/grill pan and grill for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until grill marks appear.
GRILL MARKS! Ignore the fact that these are on chicken. My camera failed to successfully document the marks on the mushroom, thanks to a little irritating smoke that came out of the grill press almost immediately after I placed the mushrooms in it. TOO MANY OOPS! Learn from my mistakes! I’ve adjusted all the times/temperatures so that your recipe won’t burst into flames, no worries!
10.  Slice the grilled mushrooms and red bell pepper into bite sized pieces.
11. Slather the slices of bread with the goat cheese mixture and layer with the mushrooms, bell pepper and spinach.
12. Place the sandwich in the grill press and cook until warmed through – about five minutes.
13. This sammich is ridiculously hot, so enjoy it with a chilly brew that has enough flavor to bring out the tang of the goat cheese, the rich herbs of the sun dried tomatoes and basil, and the rich, savory umami of the mushrooms.
Old Chub Scotch Ale by Oskar Blues Brewery. Malty, boozy and smooth. A wonderful combo!

For no reason at all – some wonderful pictures that my lovely new camera has taken.
My most eager model.
OOPS! That’s not a picture from my camera, that’s my new business card!

I’m legit.

9 Comments

Filed under recipe

My Other Half

Yesterday was my last day of retail! I’m technically still “on-call” but after last night, there will be no more! I just can’t take it anymore – the sitting around, waiting for customers who never come, doing homework at the counter and no one really cares because there’s nothing to miss… It’s just a waste of my time, so I’m officially done!

To celebrate, I opened my second to last growler of Dos Beckis.
I think it has passed its peak! I think it’s been sitting a little too long with the trub… The flavor is a little metallic-y now, and the hops have definitely added more bitter to it. I still drank it, AND enjoyed it! No worries!

Today, I celebrated by meeting someone who I’ve only met on the internet. How risqué am I? I’ve known this person for a little over a month –  we were assigned to the same group project (in an internet college course) and have exchanged many e-mails and Skype conversations. I risked my life today…
She’s TERRIFYING! This is Sofia Pernas, the most brizziliant person in my class. Seriously, she’s the only one in the entire class who uses correct grammar and doesn’t need a thesaurus to think up big words when she writes. Oh yeah, and she’s an incredibly gorgeous, talented actress. That too…
We met up at Caffe Aroma, another Breaking the Chain in Newbury Park. This place is freakin’ adorable! It’s very kitschy and is normally filled with elderly ladies wearing big red hats having tea parties. PERFECT for a first time meetup! If this scared her away, then it just wasn’t meant to be…
I ordered the ice blended green tea with boba (soy, thank you very much!) – one of the top recommended drinks to order on Yelp. This. Was. Luscious! I’d recommend this, but without the boba. The tapioca pearls varied between hard and crunchy and sickly sweet. I may have found my new substitute for my coffee until Lent is over, though! GREEN TEA SLUSHIES!
My turkey avocado sandwich in the foreground with Sofia’s tuna melt and chocolate shake in the back. I envied her combo, I must say…
…but then I saw the HUGE chunks of avocado and sprouts sticking out, layered between thick slices of bread that was baked with tons of walnuts and seeds. And my life was complete. I only finished half and asked them if they could keep the rest in their refrigerator so it wouldn’t go bad. Sweetly, they complied, “only if you don’t forget to take it with you!”

I FORGOT THE OTHER HALF 🙁The menu for this adorable little cafe is slightly pricey, but totally worth it for the peace and ambiance.
Like I said, kitschy and adorable. The service here was wonderful! The girl working behind the counter gave her recommendations, which we greedily consumed, and put up with our ridiculous giggling for FOUR hours!
Two apples, no plums.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized