Week 15: Eggplant Parmesan

This week Abby helped me step out of my box. If you had asked me a few days ago if I liked eggplant, I would have replied with a (disgusted) "NO." When Abby suggested trying eggplant Parmesan this week (made from beautiful farmer's market eggplant), I decided to be a grown up, and see if my hatred toward this unusual vegetable was justified or not. Who knows...maybe I would be like Fermina in Love in the Time of Cholera who thought she hated eggplant her entire life, and when her crazy mother in law made her eat it virtually every day, she discovered that she was quite fond of it.

Overall, I thought our dish was quite yummy! Now, I'm not entirely convinced that I would appreciate eggplant as much if it was not fried, and then baked with an obscene amount of cheese, but it was a good start.

When questioning the nutritional value of this meal (which we served with whole-grain pasta...makes up for all that cheese, right?), we decided that perhaps we could try BAKING the breaded eggplant slices instead of frying them. We could also take away the casserole aspect of it, and just put the eggplant on a bed of pasta with some sauce and a little (or a lot...) of cheese.

INGREDIENTS
2 medium eggplant (about 2 1/4 pounds), cut into 1/2-inch-thick round slices
kosher salt as needed, plus 1 tablespoon
5 cups fresh breadcrumbs (we could've gotten away with about 3 cups, I bet)
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
freshly ground black pepper
vegetable oil for frying
all-purpose flour for dredging
6 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons milk
olive oil, as needed
7 cups marinara sauce
2/3 cup grated Parmesan, divided
1 pound fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS
Arrange the eggplant slices on several baking sheets and sprinkle generously all over with kosher salt. Set aside to let the bitter juices weep from the eggplant, about 1 hour.

Transfer the eggplant to a colander in the sink, and rinse well under cold running water. Transfer eggplant to a work surface and blot very dry with paper towels.

In a large bowl, whisk together the 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, breadcrumbs, oregano, thyme, and season with pepper.

Place the flour in a medium lipped plate or bowl. In another medium bowl, whisk the egg and milk together. Dredge an eggplant slice in flour, then dip it in the egg, and finally dredge it in the breadcrumb mixture. Shake off any excess breading and transfer the eggplant to a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining eggplant.

In a large straight-sided skillet, pour the oil to a depth of 1/2 inch. Heat the oil over medium heat until it registers 400 degrees F on a deep frying thermometer. The oil must be heated to 400 degrees so that the breaded eggplant, when added, will drop the temperature of the oil to the proper frying temperature of 375 degrees F.

Working in small batches, fry the eggplant slices, turning once, until golden brown, about three minutes per batch. Using tongs, transfer to a paper towel-lined baking sheet and season with salt to taste. Repeat with the remaining eggplant.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly brush a 15 x 10 x 2 inch baking dish with olive oil. Cover the bottom of the baking dish with 1/3 of the marinara sauce and arrange half of the eggplant over the sauce. Cover the eggplant with another 1/3 of the sauce. Scatter half of the Parmesan and half of the mozzarella over the sauced eggplant. Repeat with the remaining eggplant, sauce, Parmesan, and Mozzarella. Bake until hot and just beginning to brown, about 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

Week 14: Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Since I was running around this week doing 1,000,001 other things, I was looking for something simple this week. I saw a recipe that intrigued me on Joy the Baker, one of the cooking blogs that I follow religiously, and decided to take a shot at making homemade rance dressing. It made a BUTTLOAD (by official measurement), and I'm still enjoying it.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of real mayonnaise (we used the lowfat stuff)

1/2 cup of sour cream (again...lite)

buttermilk (to desired consistency)

1 clove of garlic

1/4 cup Italian flate leaf parsely, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped

salt to taste

healthy pinch of freshly ground black pepper

dash of Tabasco

DIRECTIONS

Mince the garlic with a knife and then sprinkle with about 1/4 teaspoon of salt on to the garlic. With a fork, mash the garlic and salt into a thick paste.

In a bowl combine all of the ingredients except for the buttermilk. Stir. Add buttermilk utnil you've reached the desired consistency. Tase and season as necessary. Chill for a couple hours before serving. Thin with milk when it comes out of the fridge if you wish.

Week 13.5: Pinkberry Wannabe

This week I had another fun food adventure. I made fro yo with Lisa! Ever since last summer when sisters, Jon, and I stumbled upon Pinkberry while wandering Greenwich Village, I have been obsessed. Fortunately I am able to get my fix of tart yogurty goodness since a similar venue (Mochi Yo) has opened here in Kansas City. If only it weren't so dang expensive. My solution? Homemade!

I searched and searched for recipes that might give me the desired outcome. I found quite a few recipes that claimed to emulate Pinkberry, many that just contained yogurt and sugar. I ended up choosing one from Recipezaar that was posted by a chick who claimed that she, too, was in love with Pinkberry, and had been on a similar quest to recreate this heavenly dessert at home. She had combined three recipes that she had found on the internet, which seemed like a recipe for success to me!

How did it go? I was pretty impressed. The texture was good, but softer than the real thing. I could try a different setting on the ice cream maker next time. The flavor was pretty close to what I was looking for, but not perfect. I could definitely taste the apple juice.

I may end up trying other recipes, but this one can definitely be a go-to for when my sweet tooth rears its ugly head... Now I just need an ice cream maker of my very own...

INGREDIENTS
10 ounces nonfat plain yogurt
4 ounces fresh green apple juice (I didn't know where to get this, so I just used Simply Apple)
2 1/2 ounces nonfat milk
2 ounces granulated sugar
5 tablespoons honey
5 tablespoons lemon juice
8 ounces whipping cream, sweetened

DIRECTIONS
1) Whip the whipping cream to a consistency where you can start to see the stroke marks of the whisk and slowly disappear. We put a little splenda in to make it "sweetened."

2) Add plain yogurt and mix well. Then add the rest of the ingredients.

3) Pour into ready to go ice cream maker (it may require freezing the bowl overnight).

4) The recipe said to scrape it down every 30 minutes to aerate it, but that wasn't necessary (or possible, really) with Lisa's ice cream maker.

5) Once it's at an ice cream/fro yo consistency, enjoy it plain or with toppings of your choice. Some popular Pinkberry toppings are fresh strawberries, kiwi, mango, peach slices, pineapple, blueberries, lychees, raspberries, chocolate chips, coconut shavings, Cap'n Crunch cereal, Fruity Pebbles, which chocolate chips, etc. Get creative!

*While the texture was smooth, creamy, and soft straight out of the ice cream maker, it wasn't quite the same after being saved in the freezer in a tupperware container. The taste was still great, but it was hard and had to be scraped into my bowl. It's probably best fresh!

Week 13: Basic Crepes

Abby and I completed our first breakfast recipe together this week. We made crepes, and then filled them with all kinds of deliciousness! We put strawberries, blueberries, and bananas inside, and then we rolled them up and topped them with yogurt, more fruit, and granola. What a great way to start the day!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted



DIRECTIONS
1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.

2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.

3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.


* I had the stove on medium high and found that the crepes were cooking as soon as they hit the pan, which made it impossible to spread around the pan evenly to make them thin and lovely. A lower heat worked better. We also thought that it might help to thin the batter out a little more if you are looking for thinner crepes.

* For the record, I had the leftover crepes refrigerator-cold, and they were still delicious!

* Abby also thought to add a little bit of cinnamon and vanilla into our crepe batter. It gave it a yummy little touch!





Ryan was in charge of buying us eggs...

Week 12: Veggie Burgers

Veggie burgers are something that I have wanted to try to make for a little while now. I wasn't even sure it was possible since the folks at Morningstar Farms list "vegetable protein" as a main ingredient, and I'm not really even sure what that is. So when my sister sent me a recipe that she had found on a friend's Facebook page, I didn't hesitate to give it a whirl.

The final consensus: Personally, I thought they were pretty good. Now, if you are one of those people who expects it to taste like a real, live hamburger, you are going to be grossly disappointed. But if you take it for what it is, which is an easy, healthy alternative to a hamburger, (AND dress it up as you would your regular burger) you just might find yourself pleasantly surprised.

Neither Abby or myself had made something quite like this before, so we did do a little experimenting and changing things as we went along...

INGREDIENTS

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can RO*TEL diced tomatoes and green chilies

1 clove garlic (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 onion, chopped

1 cup carrots

1 cup parsley or cilantro (we used parsley)

You can also add whatever other spices you want (we used a little mexican chili powder)

2 cups "quick cook" oats

DIRECTIONS

Use blender or food processor to mix all ingredients except the oats. (I was worried that my blender wouldn't be able to handle all of these chunky ingredients, but I just did a little stirring and everything was fine!)

Pour the blended ingredients into a bowl and add 2 cups of "quick cook" oatmeal.

Mix by hand.

Set oven to 450. Spray baking sheet with Pam and bake patties for 8 minutes. (We kept adding two minutes at a time because, even though there are no ingredients that really NEED to be cooked in order to eat them, we didn't want the insides of the patties to be mushy. We think the final time ended up being something closer to about 15 minutes. Abby had a good idea to lower the cooking temperature, and just cook for longer in order to really cook the insides. Might try that next time...)

You can also cook these patties in a pan or out on the grill. (We took the one patty that wouldn't fit on the baking sheet and cooked it in a little olive oil in a skillet. I really liked the browning that the oil gave it, but it was a little soft on the inside still. We also decided that this mixture was entirely too gooey to put on a grill...it would fall through!)

You can eat them like a burger or crumble them up and use them in tacos or salads.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to heat up one of those leftover patties, top it with ketchup, mustard, and crispy dill pickle slices, and (happily) call it lunch!