Tuesday was a fun day for cooking. We were having a pot-luck lunch for the director's birthday on Wednesday, so, after a yummy lunch of leftover ratatouille, I hit the packing house for vegetables on my way home. I picked up 6 lovely eggplant, as I was planning to make Eggplant Caviar for the potluck.
Eggplant caviar calls for:
3 large eggplant, washed
3 tbsp minced garlic
6 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
You bake the eggplant at 350 for 45 minutes, then let cool and peel them. You puree the eggplants, then add in the other ingredients. I refrigerated mine overnight, which blended the flavors quite well, and the final product tasted like garlic hummus, with a slightly different texture. Some of my co workers liked it - of the ones brave enough to try it! The final product is gray, which is not the most appealing color for food. But to quote Lumiere: "Try the gray stuff, it's delicious!"
Dinner was leftovers from the 4th of July. I also made some gluten-free cupcakes for the boss, but I forgot the frosting. :(
I tend to skimp on breakfast - it tends to be something like Special K bars unless I am not working that day, so I am going to skip writing about breakfasts unless they are worth it.
Dinner last night was nachos, with cheese, salsa, leftover roast pork and greek yogurt. Yummy! Lunch today was the leftover Eggplant Parmigana from Saturday. And dinner - I am not sure yet. Something easy, as my back hurts and my cat is angry after the shampoo misadventure of this morning.....
I will also post the recipes for Monday's creations soon.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
So, Later Tonight Turned Into Thursday
But I brought the pictures with me!Here is Dad's oil-less turkey fryer:
Mom's Stunning Parfait
The side dishes
My tasty scones
And my tasty Parmesan French Toast
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
A Bit of Baking
I ended up having the Greek yogurt with honey and pecans, and a couple of toasted wheat rolls with Garlic and Herbs Laughing Cow, a few slices of Colby Jack, and a few slices of Genoa Salami, for an almost European breakfast (I had a very similar combination for breakfast when I was in Vienna.)
A little after breakfast, I headed over to my parent's house for their 4th of July cookout. The menu consisted of Beef Brisket and Boston Butt cooked slowly in dad's oil-less turkey fryer, with baked beans, fruit salad, french bread, ice cold watermelon and cantaloupe, with a tasty desert of a parfait made with berries, angel food cake, and vanilla yogurt. Needless to say, they sent me home with lots of leftovers!
Monday was a relaxed day. I stayed home, and made a leisurely breakfast of fresh baked scones. I had breakfast late, so I had dinner a little early, and made a recipe from the Epicurious iPhone app for a savory Parmesan french toast topped with mixed baby greens and poached eggs. It would have been better with fresh Parmesan, but I wanted to use things I had on hand, and it was quite yummy with the dried grated cheese.
Today I brought some leftover ratatouille for lunch, and had a few leftover scones for breakfast.
I will post pictures of everything, with recipes, later in the day.
A little after breakfast, I headed over to my parent's house for their 4th of July cookout. The menu consisted of Beef Brisket and Boston Butt cooked slowly in dad's oil-less turkey fryer, with baked beans, fruit salad, french bread, ice cold watermelon and cantaloupe, with a tasty desert of a parfait made with berries, angel food cake, and vanilla yogurt. Needless to say, they sent me home with lots of leftovers!
Monday was a relaxed day. I stayed home, and made a leisurely breakfast of fresh baked scones. I had breakfast late, so I had dinner a little early, and made a recipe from the Epicurious iPhone app for a savory Parmesan french toast topped with mixed baby greens and poached eggs. It would have been better with fresh Parmesan, but I wanted to use things I had on hand, and it was quite yummy with the dried grated cheese.
Today I brought some leftover ratatouille for lunch, and had a few leftover scones for breakfast.
I will post pictures of everything, with recipes, later in the day.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
July 2nd and 3rd
So, Friday evening was ratatouille and Swiss Steak in Pepper Gravy. The ratatouille was not as yummy as the first time - I had forgotten that mom's oven runs about 25 degrees cold, so I had the oven actually set for only 375. As a result, the vegetables were not cooked as much, which, while good, was not mouth-wateringly yummy.
We stashed the leftovers in the fridge, with plans to bake it more the next evening. The swiss steak was delicious as always - mom fries the steak, then adds the gravy (usually McCormick's Brown Gravy, but she only had one packet, so she used one Brown and one Pepper gravy packet) and lets it simmer as long as she wants - the more it simmers, the better it gets!
Saturday morning, I baked some lovely frozen croissants. They didn't rise all the way, however, they were beyond delicious when topped with a little butter. Add in Melita One to One Parisian Blend coffee, and I was a very happy girl.
Since breakfast was late, I skipped lunch, and headed over to my parents house about 1:30pm. They are having a 4th of July party, and it was also my sister's birthday, so we had a phonecall to make (my sis lives in Cali) and some shopping to do. Dad is cooking beef brisket and a boston butt in the oil-less turkey fryer for the 4th, so we hit the sale at Food World to pick up the meat.
After shopping, we watched the movie "It's Complicated". That move is dangerous - the main character owns a bakery, and OMG the food is deadly! One of the foods mentioned in the film was Lavender Honey Ice Cream. The tingling in my tastebuds at the name instantly compelled me to find a recipe!
Having been collecting iPhone cookbooks lately, I went to the Epicurious app and seached for the ice cream recipe. Jackpot!
To make Lavender Honey Ice Cream, you need:
2 cups of heavy cream
1 cup of half-and-half
2/3 cup honey
2 tbsp lavender flowers
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
You mix the cream, half-and-half, honey, and lavender flowers in a pan, and just bring it to a boil. Remove from heat, and let steep 30 min. Strain out the flowers, put it back i the cleaned pan, and warm it up. As it's warming, whisk the eggs and salt in a bowl, then slowly whisk in 1 cup of the cream mixture to temper the eggs. Whisk the egg mixture into the cream, and bring it up to 170 degrees for about 5 minutes, until the mixture clings to the back of the spoon. Remove from the heat, cover, and let cool. Once cool, refrigerate for 3 hours, then freeze it in your ice cream machine.
Mom pulled out some fantastic honey from the pantry - it tasted like the essence of clover flowers in summer - and we have lots of lavender as we planted a Spanish lavender plant there a few years ago. (I have a white lavender plant and a cutting from the Spanish lavender plant growing in my flowerbed at my apartment.) I actually missed a lot of the second half of the movie, as I was busy mixing up the ice cream, however I did manage to watch the scene where they make chocolate croissants from scratch. *drools* One day I will try that!
After the movie, mom and I started on dinner. (Well, she started - I mostly observed, chatted, and took pictures, as well as changing out the burned out lightbulb in the kitchen) I had purchased extra eggplant on Friday to coax mom to make Eggplant Parmigiana, and was very successful!
Mom's Eggplant Parmigiana recipe comes out of the Gourmet Magazine cookbook, with a few alterations. The original recipe call for a freshly-made marinara tomato sauce - mom cans tomato sauce in the summer from the tomatos up on Chandler Mountain, so she uses her own, or a mixture of commercially prepared and her own. Last night was the latter, as she made two casseroles so that we all have leftovers for a meal later in the week.
For Eggplant Parmigiana, you need:
2 medium-large eggplant, sliced in 1/2 inch rounds
2 cups of italian breadcrumbs
1 cup of shredded parmesan
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp parsley, minced
1 jar of marinara sauce
1 pkg mozzarella, shredded
approx. 1 cup olive oil for frying
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
Place the eggplant in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let soak 5 min.
Mix together breadcrumbs, parmesan, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and set aside. Brown eggplant in hot olive oil. Layer in a casserole dish in the order eggplant then bread crumb mixture then marinara sauce, until ingredients are used up, ending with marinara sauce. Top with mozzarella, then bake at 375 until cheese browns. Serve immediately.
This came out incredible as usual, and dad served up some chianti red as compliment. As we were eating the first dish, the second dish went in the oven with the previous nights ratatouille, to which I added a little more olive oil, as the first time I made it I added a full 1/2 cup to the 1.5 size recipe. Both dishes came out fabulous, and were packed and frozen for late consumption. (I ended up with 1 container of Eggplant Parmigana and 2 containers of ratatouille.)
Later in the evening, we froze the ice cream, which came out creamy and rich and yummy, although it was a bit too sweet. Next time I will try using only 1/2 cup of honey, to see if that tempers the sweetness. I have another recipe for Honey Ice Cream, that I will post when we make it again, which uses less honey but comes out perfect. We paired the ice cream with fresh made cups of Starbucks from mom and dad's Tassimo coffee machine (one of which I will own someday - just not yet. I have a lot of coffee pods for my current inherited Mr. Coffee Home Cafe.)
I haven't had breakfast yet this morning, although I plan to have some of the cantelope in the fridge with some of the Greek yogurt mixed with honey and pecans, as well as the remaining black berries from the Farmer's Market trip on Thursday.
We stashed the leftovers in the fridge, with plans to bake it more the next evening. The swiss steak was delicious as always - mom fries the steak, then adds the gravy (usually McCormick's Brown Gravy, but she only had one packet, so she used one Brown and one Pepper gravy packet) and lets it simmer as long as she wants - the more it simmers, the better it gets!
Saturday morning, I baked some lovely frozen croissants. They didn't rise all the way, however, they were beyond delicious when topped with a little butter. Add in Melita One to One Parisian Blend coffee, and I was a very happy girl.
Since breakfast was late, I skipped lunch, and headed over to my parents house about 1:30pm. They are having a 4th of July party, and it was also my sister's birthday, so we had a phonecall to make (my sis lives in Cali) and some shopping to do. Dad is cooking beef brisket and a boston butt in the oil-less turkey fryer for the 4th, so we hit the sale at Food World to pick up the meat.
After shopping, we watched the movie "It's Complicated". That move is dangerous - the main character owns a bakery, and OMG the food is deadly! One of the foods mentioned in the film was Lavender Honey Ice Cream. The tingling in my tastebuds at the name instantly compelled me to find a recipe!
Having been collecting iPhone cookbooks lately, I went to the Epicurious app and seached for the ice cream recipe. Jackpot!
To make Lavender Honey Ice Cream, you need:
2 cups of heavy cream
1 cup of half-and-half
2/3 cup honey
2 tbsp lavender flowers
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
You mix the cream, half-and-half, honey, and lavender flowers in a pan, and just bring it to a boil. Remove from heat, and let steep 30 min. Strain out the flowers, put it back i the cleaned pan, and warm it up. As it's warming, whisk the eggs and salt in a bowl, then slowly whisk in 1 cup of the cream mixture to temper the eggs. Whisk the egg mixture into the cream, and bring it up to 170 degrees for about 5 minutes, until the mixture clings to the back of the spoon. Remove from the heat, cover, and let cool. Once cool, refrigerate for 3 hours, then freeze it in your ice cream machine.
Mom pulled out some fantastic honey from the pantry - it tasted like the essence of clover flowers in summer - and we have lots of lavender as we planted a Spanish lavender plant there a few years ago. (I have a white lavender plant and a cutting from the Spanish lavender plant growing in my flowerbed at my apartment.) I actually missed a lot of the second half of the movie, as I was busy mixing up the ice cream, however I did manage to watch the scene where they make chocolate croissants from scratch. *drools* One day I will try that!
After the movie, mom and I started on dinner. (Well, she started - I mostly observed, chatted, and took pictures, as well as changing out the burned out lightbulb in the kitchen) I had purchased extra eggplant on Friday to coax mom to make Eggplant Parmigiana, and was very successful!
Mom's Eggplant Parmigiana recipe comes out of the Gourmet Magazine cookbook, with a few alterations. The original recipe call for a freshly-made marinara tomato sauce - mom cans tomato sauce in the summer from the tomatos up on Chandler Mountain, so she uses her own, or a mixture of commercially prepared and her own. Last night was the latter, as she made two casseroles so that we all have leftovers for a meal later in the week.
For Eggplant Parmigiana, you need:
2 medium-large eggplant, sliced in 1/2 inch rounds
2 cups of italian breadcrumbs
1 cup of shredded parmesan
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp parsley, minced
1 jar of marinara sauce
1 pkg mozzarella, shredded
approx. 1 cup olive oil for frying
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
Place the eggplant in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let soak 5 min.
Mix together breadcrumbs, parmesan, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and set aside. Brown eggplant in hot olive oil. Layer in a casserole dish in the order eggplant then bread crumb mixture then marinara sauce, until ingredients are used up, ending with marinara sauce. Top with mozzarella, then bake at 375 until cheese browns. Serve immediately.
This came out incredible as usual, and dad served up some chianti red as compliment. As we were eating the first dish, the second dish went in the oven with the previous nights ratatouille, to which I added a little more olive oil, as the first time I made it I added a full 1/2 cup to the 1.5 size recipe. Both dishes came out fabulous, and were packed and frozen for late consumption. (I ended up with 1 container of Eggplant Parmigana and 2 containers of ratatouille.)
Later in the evening, we froze the ice cream, which came out creamy and rich and yummy, although it was a bit too sweet. Next time I will try using only 1/2 cup of honey, to see if that tempers the sweetness. I have another recipe for Honey Ice Cream, that I will post when we make it again, which uses less honey but comes out perfect. We paired the ice cream with fresh made cups of Starbucks from mom and dad's Tassimo coffee machine (one of which I will own someday - just not yet. I have a lot of coffee pods for my current inherited Mr. Coffee Home Cafe.)
I haven't had breakfast yet this morning, although I plan to have some of the cantelope in the fridge with some of the Greek yogurt mixed with honey and pecans, as well as the remaining black berries from the Farmer's Market trip on Thursday.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Patty Pan Squash
After escaping work, I stopped by the Attalla Farmer's Market to see what yummy stuff they had that isn't grown up on Chandler Mountain. I picked up two colors of Patty Pan Squash, some onions, some blackberries, and some new red potatoes.
With such a plethora of tasty vegetables for dinner, I had to decide what to cook for dinner. After much debate (about 3 seconds) I decided that fried squash was on the menu for the evening!
My mother has always served Patty Pan Squash as a special summer treat, and I have never tried to cook them myself before, so I tried to remember everything I could about watching her cook them, and then, conveniently enough, she called, so I double-checked my memory.
To fry Patty Pan Squash like my mom does, you wash and then slice the squash into 4-5 thick circles (usually about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick). Dredge the squash in flour, then carefully place into a frying pan with about 1/4 cup hot oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the squash as they are cooking. Cook the squash on each side until well browned and softened. You may need to add more oil - my mom used Corn oil, I didn't have any on hand, so I fried mine in Rice Bran oil.
Note: I never use canola oil, as to me and my immediate relatives canola oil tastes like rancid fish oil. (Eeewwwww! - I made a chocolate cake with it once. :( So disgusting!)
Once the squash is nicely browned on both sides, it is ready to eat, and the hotter it i
s the better it tastes!
s the better it tastes!At mom's insistance, I added a piece of herbed cheese and a few slices of salami for protein purposes - but most of dinner was squash!
Breakfast this morning was very rushed - I managed to grab two slices of raisin bread, and made a cup of coffee once I got to work. Lunch was more of the fantastically yummy Ratatouille!
Mom had requested that I pick up some tomatoes for BLTs for her, which since I go over to their house on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, so I stopped by the S&S Packing house on my way off the mountain from work. I picked up the requested tomatoes, as well as all of the available ingredients for making the Roasted Vegetable Ratatouille (zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, green pepper, roma tomatoes).
So, dinner with mom and dad will be ratatoiulle, and whatever else we decide to have that we think will compliment it. More tomorrow!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Ratatouille
After resorting to Pizza for lunch yesterday, I really wanted something better for dinner. Searching through the various recipe apps in my iPhone for recipes using eggplant (and being annoyed that the Betty Crocker cookbook does not work at the moment) I found a recipe in the Whole Foods Market Recipes app for Roasted Vegetable Ratatouille. This was perfect, as it also used my newly-repaired oven, so I could thoroughly test the repaired Bake element connections.
The recipe is as follows:
(Note: the recipe is not mine, it came from the Whole Foods Market Recipes app for iPhone, which is free to anyone interested. I put it here because it was fantastic, and I don't want to loose the recipe!)
1 lb eggplant, 1/2 inch dice
1/4 tsp salt
1 lb zucchini, 1 inch dice
1 lb yellow squash, 1 inch dice
1/2 lb yellow onion, 1 inch dice
1/2 lb red bell pepper, 1 inch dice
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
1 lb Roma tomatoes, 1 inch dice
2 tbsp minced garlic
3 tbsp minced oregano
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
3 oz baby nonpareil capers, drained
Preheat oven to 400. Dice eggplant first. Combine with salt, set aside in colander to drain. Prepare remaining ingredients. Combine tomatoes, garlic, oregano and black pepper, set aside. Combine eggplant, zucchini, squash, onion and bell pepper, with olive oil. Place in roasting pan. Bake 45 minutes, stirring once during cooking. Stir in tomato mixture, bake 20 minutes. Stir in capers.
I got a bit over enthusiastic with the vegetables - I had the fresh eggplant, but I had purchased the other vegetables a week or so before, and decided to just use everything up and adjust the recipe accordingly. I am glad I did, as it turned out absolutely delicious! And I mean licking the pan yummy! The recipe calls for fresh garlic and fresh oregano, neither of which I had, so I used olive-oil packed garlic and dried oregano.
I ended up with about 2 pounds of leftovers, and have been told that refrigerating ratatouille overnight only makes it better.
This is a recipe I will definitely be repeating frequently. The ingredients are locally available and fresh at this time of year - I work in the middle of a vegetable producing farm area, and have ready access during the growing season to a decent variety of fresh vegetables at very cheap prices. This recipe uses five vegetables I can buy from the packing house produce stand just down the road from work, probably for less than $5 for a couple of pounds of each, and they have the vegetables all summer. I will be buying a larger jar of capers though - this used up my entire supply! I also plan to try other variations of this dish, in hopes that they are all just as good.
Breakfast this morning was the last of the strawberry yogurt, which I will not be buying any more of, at it was very sweet. I added a slice of bakery raisin bread, and coffee.
Lunch today will be more Ratatouille, as I had quite a bit left over, and it was beyond yummy fresh, and supposed to be even better the next day, so I plan to test this statement thoroughly! :)
Dinner tonight will include whatever I find at the produce stand tonight. Also, the local farmer's market is tonight, and is well worth checking for things the larger growers around work don't produce.
Last night I stopped by the local Aldi store, and picked up two bottles of Liebfraumilch white wine, a bottle of Chardonnay, two wedges of herbed cheese, and two packages of Genoa salami, which is a particular favorite of mine. So, the next few recipes should be fun, as I have plentiful ingredients at the moment!
The recipe is as follows:(Note: the recipe is not mine, it came from the Whole Foods Market Recipes app for iPhone, which is free to anyone interested. I put it here because it was fantastic, and I don't want to loose the recipe!)
1 lb eggplant, 1/2 inch dice
1/4 tsp salt
1 lb zucchini, 1 inch dice
1 lb yellow squash, 1 inch dice
1/2 lb yellow onion, 1 inch dice
1/2 lb red bell pepper, 1 inch dice
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
1 lb Roma tomatoes, 1 inch dice
2 tbsp minced garlic
3 tbsp minced oregano
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
3 oz baby nonpareil capers, drained
Preheat oven to 400. Dice eggplant first. Combine with salt, set aside in colander to drain. Prepare remaining ingredients. Combine tomatoes, garlic, oregano and black pepper, set aside. Combine eggplant, zucchini, squash, onion and bell pepper, with olive oil. Place in roasting pan. Bake 45 minutes, stirring once during cooking. Stir in tomato mixture, bake 20 minutes. Stir in capers.
I got a bit over enthusiastic with the vegetables - I had the fresh eggplant, but I had purchased the other vegetables a week or so before, and decided to just use everything up and adjust the recipe accordingly. I am glad I did, as it turned out absolutely delicious! And I mean licking the pan yummy! The recipe calls for fresh garlic and fresh oregano, neither of which I had, so I used olive-oil packed garlic and dried oregano.I ended up with about 2 pounds of leftovers, and have been told that refrigerating ratatouille overnight only makes it better.
This is a recipe I will definitely be repeating frequently. The ingredients are locally available and fresh at this time of year - I work in the middle of a vegetable producing farm area, and have ready access during the growing season to a decent variety of fresh vegetables at very cheap prices. This recipe uses five vegetables I can buy from the packing house produce stand just down the road from work, probably for less than $5 for a couple of pounds of each, and they have the vegetables all summer. I will be buying a larger jar of capers though - this used up my entire supply! I also plan to try other variations of this dish, in hopes that they are all just as good.
Breakfast this morning was the last of the strawberry yogurt, which I will not be buying any more of, at it was very sweet. I added a slice of bakery raisin bread, and coffee.
Lunch today will be more Ratatouille, as I had quite a bit left over, and it was beyond yummy fresh, and supposed to be even better the next day, so I plan to test this statement thoroughly! :)
Dinner tonight will include whatever I find at the produce stand tonight. Also, the local farmer's market is tonight, and is well worth checking for things the larger growers around work don't produce.
Last night I stopped by the local Aldi store, and picked up two bottles of Liebfraumilch white wine, a bottle of Chardonnay, two wedges of herbed cheese, and two packages of Genoa salami, which is a particular favorite of mine. So, the next few recipes should be fun, as I have plentiful ingredients at the moment!
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