Tormented Kitchen

Flan is such a treat!  If you're unfamiliar with flan, you must try this.  It's simply custard with caramel in the bottom of the baking dish. It's smooth, cool, sweet, and beautiful. Now, I've had some bad flan. Let me tell you. There is one very popular Mexican eatery in Downtown Reno that I just don't like. Their flan is very firm, not very sweet, and tastes almost cheesy. Yuck. And then there are times you get flan that is so good, so amazing that it's like your mouth has found paradise. There is one particular person from the church back in my hometown that made pans and pans of amazing flan for church functions.  Amazing isn't even descriptive enough as a word. A lot of the flavor has to do with the caramel.  If your caramel is very dark, your flan will take on a toasty flavor with a bitter nutty, coffee-like aftertaste. I like my caramel a bit lighter, so there are hints of that toastiness, but it's not so noticeable. Those flavors will mello

Here is a recipe with some history I can relate to. Back in the 1920's this dish was created at Caesar Cardini's restaurant after he was running low on food. Someone there started throwing things together and made a tasty salad. I can totally relate to this, and I know I'm not the only one. Sometimes you go home and look in the fridge. Then you look in the pantry. Then you look in the freezer. Finally, you think "Damn. I have all kinds of weird things that don't go together!" So kudos to Mr Cardini and his staff for this. It's a fine example that sometimes you just start tossing things together and see what happens. Thinking back, I believe the first time I ate a Caesar salad I was a "tween", probably 11 or 12. I recall eating at a place in Carson City that has long since closed down. Mom and Dad ate something normal, probably grilled chicken sandwiches. They looked at me funny for ordering a Caesar salad, like "no way will she like th