In a preGood Italian Food!

Last night, The Pedant and I cooked a really great dish from Lidia's Italy. It was really, very good. And not too complicated! The dish was Pasta alla Norma, a Sicilian specialty. We did modify things a bit but it still turned out to be amazing.

The recipe called for about a pound of eggplant fried in a cup of oil. We probably had well over a pound - maybe closer to 2 pounds - and we so didn't fry. (Sorry Lidia. I love you and your shows, but frying is just too hard for me and my waistline!) We sauteed in about 1/4 of a cup (a thin layer - but next time, maybe even a thinner layer) and it was good. Then we set a pound of whole wheat penne to boil (apparently, we couldn't find whole wheat ziti at the Teet) and made a simple sauce with canned crushed tomatoes, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. After adding in the pasta to let it finish cooking in the sauce, we added some fresh basil (from my mini-garden, i.e., 2 small pots on the balcony with basil, parsley and chives from our CSA), about 1 cup of ricotta salata (which, I really have to say is an amazing cheese - I really love it and need to find many more ways to use it!) and then layer on the eggplant and 1 more cup of ricotta salata. And it was amazing!

TP and I had a lovely evening eating (too much, but so worth it!) Pasta alla Norma and watching Cranford - a mini series recommended by my cousins and very entertaining.

We also made another Lidia dish for dinner Tuesday, but this time from Lidia's Family Table: Cauliflower and egg salad. We liked the recipe so much we actually copied it from the TV show before we got the book (although this was the first time we made it). Very simple, very good: steamed cauliflower, hard boiled eggs, EVOO, white wine vinegar. Toss, enjoy. And we did.

Land of the Wine Beverages!

So the Sherbs and I bit off more than we could chew with a Mark Bittman recipe involving roasted vegetables and yogurt - possibly because A) our broiler sucks and B) we don't have a broiler-safe casserole dish even if it didn't.

Also: it takes freaking forever to char tomatoes. Should I just put them over an open flame or what?

To counterbalance our not-quite success with the roasted eggplant, peppers, and yogurt, we made sangria - and stumbled upon a not too bad recipe. I don't think we'd use Weinstock kosher red wine again (it is so tannic), but a mix of red wine and cranberry wine, with chunks of granny smith apples, was tart and refreshing and did not taste as if we were trying to make Bartles & Jaymes (speaking of which - now that we have Mike's Hard Lemonade and such, does anyone drink Bartles & Jaymes anymore?).

We had a goodly amount of the sangria watching the Joan Collins film Land of the Pharoahs, which is sort of a telling of how the Pyramid of Giza was built, if you can allow for glaring failures in plausibility such as Joan Collins playing a deceptive and murderous Cypriot. There are some supporting characters who are interesting, but they take up only about a half hour of the hundred-minute plot, about as much time is taken for long pans across Egypt watching extras pretend to haul or build things.

Always, always eggplant.

The Sherbs and I have been eating a lot of eggplant lately.

First, last week we made eggplant parmesan for a get-together. We made twice as much as necessary (two Pyrex dishes worth), however, so lunch for this week is eggplant parmesan.

Then, we had eggplant at the Chinese place the Sherbs mentioned last post.

Last night, we used the last eggplant, the one that would have made too much eggplant in the parmesan, in a variation on a Cook's Illustrated Best Vegetable Recipes recipe. They want eggplant with pork in peanut sauce. We made eggplant and Morningstar veggie crumbles in peanut sauce.

The Cook's recipes are pretty darned hardy; despite my insufficiently salting the eggplant, replacing low-sodium chicken broth with high-sodium Osem pareve broth, and using sesame oil instead of peanut oil, the eggplant came out delicious. It was like peanutty ma po tofu with eggplant instead of tofu, which basically means it wasn't ma po tofu at all, but sort of had the same mouth feel.

Aubergine Victory!

Eggplant in miso glaze was a tasty success! The glaze was essentially Asian restaurant salad dressing without the ginger, and who hates that? Especially with sesame seeds!

I accompanied dinner with a pint of Black Sheep Brewery's Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale, which was like a less bitter Bass. Wasn't a perfect match for the eggplant, but it was a good ending beer for the day.

Mid-Prep Blogging

I am blogging mid-cooking, waiting for my eggplant rounds (soon to become miso-glazed eggplant) to absorb the salt I sprinkled on them a while back; Cook's magazine's Best Vegetable Recipes cookbook says thirty minutes, so I'm in a lull. In the first part of the thirty, I chopped a scallion and prepared the miso sauce.

Evidently, the miso that the Teet sells comes in a cantankerous bottle. If you do anything like squeezing it, it bolts out of the bottle and sprays across the cabinets, the countertop, and your jeans. After a quick cleanup and wardrobe change, I finished the dressing, and now I am here, blogging to you.

Thirty minutes is almost up. Time to find the sesame seeds.

Yum!

The Sherbs's eggplant and TVP cutlet casserole (or was it a terrine?) in Parma style, was fabulous. I'll eat pretty much anything breaded in tomato sauce with cheese on top, but the dish was beyond the usual parmadelicious.

I made salad. It was also good, but not as incredible. Veggies go in bowl, dressing gets made out of vinegar, oil, mustard, garlic, and sweetener, dressing goes on veggies. Four minutes, tops.

We had wine with dinner in our Grey Ghost Winery glasses. Because we are in Virginia, and therefore must celebrate Confederate guerilla fighters.

Mambo Italiano - Redux!

Yesterday, my commute was hellacious. (Granted, mine and about 1 million other people.) So after spending a day in a city filled to the brim with water and cranky people, my sister made the plea to my mother: "Can we have pizza for dinner?!" The response: "Oh yes!" Granted, my mother didn't have to commute in the craziness that ensued yesterday, but she did have to sit in bumper to bumper traffic and get no where. And we all love pizza. And, it was way to hot to consider cooking. So, we pulled up a menu of a local place (that's super tasty) and ordered a lot of food (you know it's a lot when my dad can't even finish everything):

Pizza (which was really very tasty - better than we expected)
Eggplant Parmigiana (mmm...fried goodness, and we all know I love eggplant...)
Pasta Primevera (with huge chunks of garlic)
Pasta Something with Tomatoes, Olives, and Artichoke Hearts (my sister's fav)

For dessert: Ice Cream. Cause it was that kind of night.

This was a momentous event because: a) we infrequently order take out: because 1) we're kosher; 2) we don't want to seem like the rest of American; 3) it's unhealthy; and, b) we don't eat Italian food as much as we do other cuisines (as a family, not me!) because my dad thinks carbs are evil (they're not! Moderation my dear friend!). But it was a tasty evening. And made up for the bad, cranky day. Viva Italia!

Also, this event has reminded me to think about the changing demographics, or perhaps in an economist's POV (Thanks, Ty!), because where the local pizza place is, there used to be a Chinese restaurant. We all know Jews eat a lot of Chinese food (well, NY Jews do) and my small, suburban town is no longer as "Jewish." Therefore, a Chinese restaurant will not do as well in an area where no one wants to eat Chinese food (which is sad, because they had really tasty food!!), so in comes a different cuisine, catering to a different group of people. Interesting, eh?

In other eggplant news, Tuesday night for dinner, my mom made a really tasty eggplant mushroom soup. It's good hot and cold, and super tasty.

Who Moos?

Last night for supper, The Pedant joined in a family ritual: Israeli food and guessing how many falafel balls my dad can eat. He wasn't supposed to witness this top-secret event (which takes place a few times a decade) but thanks to a weather-related problem, he witnessed it.

My mother had decided to get humus from Costco, so we needed to eat it around a meal, which is exactly what we did. We supplemented it with falafel, Moroccan eggplant, Israeli Salad, tabouli and an assortment of pickles and olives (only the 2 former I enjoy...). Then, my mom made a really tasty cold minted pea soup, which was tasty and green!

Dinner of Israeli food = good
My dad eating 8-10 falafel balls = normal (!!)
Lunch of leftover humus and Moroccan Eggplant = AMAZING

Ha HA!

But, in fact, I will provide more detail as to how the Sherbs and I roasted those vegetables! Point to the Pedant!

The mushrooms, onion, and eggplant were sliced lengthwise, the pepper into strips. Olive oil, salt, pepper, and liberal amounts of paprika were added. We then cooked the whole thing in the oven for about twenty-five minutes.

Very tasty.

Dinner was sushi, and as such was always fabulous.

Mario Batali Would Be Jealous of My Italian Food Skills

Enough about other silly things like growing up. Let's talk about what we really want to hear about: food.

Last night I had an adventure in cooking. I have been having boring lunches that leave me hungry and unsatisfied. Since I work a lot, dinner is often pushed to the wayside since I get home late and don't want to eat too much before bed. So, lunch is a big meal for me, also because I often don't eat until 7ish. The last few weeks I had been taking boring salads with boring proteins. But yesterday I got real and made a Polenta Lasagna.

And I tasted some last night, and it was good.

The Pedant sent me a recipe from a newspaper a few months ago for a polenta-sausage lasagna. So I made something similar, and added more veggies, less cheese, and less polenta. But, the outcome: a lasagna-esque (it's too saucy and not layered enough to be a real lasagna cheese, added mushrooms in a bit of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Then I cut up a round of ) deliciousness. I started by roasting a thinly sliced eggplant (we all know I like those) . Then I made a tomato sauce with veggie crumbles. Then I cracked some egg whites in the ricotta, garlic powder, salt, pepper and oregano. Then I sauteed briefly some protebellopolenta into slices. Then I got to layer, which is always fun.

The result: deliciousness. Granted, there wasn't enough to bind it together as a lasagna outside of the dish, but it tastes good. Next time: more polenta, more veggie crumbles. Oooo...maybe I'll make a layer of crumbles.

Later: Adventures in smoothie making!

An Ode to Eggplant

Last night, after a pilates class, Stoner and I cooked ourselves intense sandwiches. These sandwiches contained many of the important ingredients:

• Carbs (bread...mmm)
• Cheese (mozzarella in fact!)
• Onions
• Tomato sauce
• Eggplant

It was quite tasty. Granted, I pulled mine apart and ate it all weird and messy, but still delish. And so, even though I was up in the middle of the night (various reasons, one to be explained later) and am a little cranky today, I believe an Ode to Eggplant is in order, especially since I had some with lunch today. Similar to another ode, this will be an acrostic:

Eggplant - how I love thee!
Great, bit and Delicious
Gas comes forth after consuming you! So stinky, but worth it
Purple in color, delicious in taste
Lovely tasting with tomato sauce and pasta
And Chinese food and just baked in the oven
Never ending is my love for thee!
Tonight I will fart, again.