Baked Eggplant with Mozzarella Cheese

I hesitated to call this "eggplant parmesan" because there isn't actually any parmesan cheese in it. Traditionally, eggplant parmesan is usually cooked in a casserole dish with layers of eggplant and cheese. Instead, I bake my eggplant slices individually and serve them on top of a bed of pasta. My grandmother taught me this method, and I prefer it because it keeps the crusty coating of the eggplant nice and crispy. This meal is perfect for a meatless meal that will keep you full and satisfied.

Ingredients
4 small eggplants or 2 large eggplants
1 1/2 flour
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups of italian style breadcrumbs
2 cups shredded or fresh mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded asiago cheese (can use romano or parmesan as substitute)
2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce
A few pinches of salt

** This recipe is best served on top of some pasta such as spaghetti, linguini, or long fusilli (pictured)

Cut eggplant width wise at about 1 inch thick. Rinse slices with water then sprinkle lightly with salt. Let the eggplant sit for at least an hour. This will take some of the natural bitterness out of the eggplant and keep it from getting soggy once breaded.

Once eggplant has rested, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pat the slices dry with a towel. Next, set up your dredging stations. You want to use 3 shallow bowls or little casserole dishes for your stations. Fill the first bowl with the flour, the second with 3 beaten eggs, and the third with the bread crumbs.

One at a time, coat the eggplant slices in the flour followed by a drip into the egg bowl then into the italian breadcrumbs making sure the slices are fully coated. Place the coated eggplant pieces on a greased baking sheet a few inches apart from each other. 

Place the baking sheet in the oven and cook for 10 minutes. Once 10 minutes has passed, take the eggplant out of the oven and turn each of the pieces over other side. Cook again in the over for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown.

Take browned eggplant out of the oven and turn on the broiler. Top the eggplant slices with about a tablespoon of tomato sauce and top with mozzarella and asiago. 

Place baking sheet back into the oven under the broiler for about 5 minutes until the cheese has melted and bubbling.

To serve, sprinkle eggplant with italian herbs and lay on top of a bed of pasta. Pair this with a fresh salad and you have the perfect meal for a romantic meatless dinner for two with plenty leftovers for lunch the next day :)

Strawberry Mint Lemonade

Instead of buying my produce at the grocery store, I usually go to this amazing organic farmer's market on Sundays to get what is in season. I ended up purchasing this huge tray of organic strawberries for 4 dollars, a total bargain! The only thing is there were so many strawberries that I had to think fast about what to do with them since in only takes a few days for fresh strawberries to go bad. While I ended up freezing most of them for future smoothies, I did decide to make some fresh lemonade with the remaining berries. 

Strawberry lemonade is incredibly easy to make and a million times better than the powder lemonade mix you buy from the store. I threw a little mint into this recipe for an extra bit of freshness, but if that doesn't suit you then feel free to leave it out.

Ingredients

4 cups of fresh strawberries (with stems cut off)

1 1/2 cups lemon juice (about 8 juicy lemons)

2 cups of sugar

15-20 mint leaves

6 cups of water

First, add 1 cup of water with sugar and mint leaves into a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmering boil and cook for 10 minutes, then set aside off the heat for another 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, juice your lemons till you have about 1 1/2 of juice. Mix the juice and 4 cups of water together in a large pitcher or whatever you plan on serving the lemonade in.

Add the strawberries in a blender with the remaining 1 cup of water. Blend until none of the berries are left whole. Pour the strawberries puree into the pitcher. If you choose, you can strain the strawberry puree with a strainer to avoid getting seeds into your lemonade.

Using a strainer, pour cooled mint sugar water into the pitcher. The sugar water should be somewhat syrupy and smell distinctly minty. Mix well with a long spoon. Make sure you taste to see if the final product is sweet enough for you. If you prefer sweeter, add another cup of sugar and water to a sauce pan and cook until syrupy as previously instructed, then add to the pitcher once cooled.

This lemonade is a great summertime treat that is perfect for large parties or just for a quick refresher. Enjoy!

Spicy Mac and Cheese

  

I don't think I've ever met someone who could say 'no' to a hearty bowl of mac and cheese. It is a meal that is a favorite of my husband Muhi, and he became the inspiration for my post today. Muhi loves spicy food, so I put an quick and easy twist on a classic mac and cheese recipe for a little extra kick! 

I'm using not only the traditional smoked cheddar for this recipe, but also a habanero cheese. If that's too much spice for you, a pepper jack cheese is a good substitue. You will still get that pepper flavor without as much heat. If you don't want that peppery taste, then any melty cheese such as gouda or munster will make a great non-spicy mac and cheese.

Ingredients
1 box of pasta
4 cups of milk
1/2 cup of flour
6 tbs of butter
2 cups smoked cheddar cheese
4 cups habanero cheese
2 tsp chili powder
pinch of salt and pepper

Heat a pot of water over high heat until boiling. Add 1 box of pasta and allow pasta to cook until al dente, stirring occasionally. I'm using rigatoni noodles for this recipe, but you can use any pasta you like. Although, I would try to stay away from long noodles like spaghetti or linguini since they won't hold the cheese sauce as well. Drain water from cooked pasta pot and set pasta aside.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a medium sauce pan until milk is almost about to boil. You should see steam coming from the milk but no bubbles. Take the milk off the heat, and in another medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium low heat.

Once butter has melted, turn the heat on low add the flour. You should whisk the mixture for about a minute until the flour and butter becomes a shiny paste. This butter/flour mixture is called a roux. It is a french culinary technique that is used to thicken sauces and gravies.

Turn off the heat, and slowly whisk in the milk to the butter/flour mix. Stir continuously until the sauce is thick and smooth with no lumps. 

Next, add the shredded cheese to the milk sauce and stir until cheese had melted. Add the chili powder, salt, and pepper to the sauce.

Pour cheese sauce over the cooked noodles and mix.

You can serve as is, or you can bake in an casserole dish with bread crumbs and cheese on top for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Either way it is delicious and leads to one happy husband :)

Tea-Infused Scones with Blackberry Preserves

My husband and I are tea fanatics, we've got at least 40 boxes and tins worth of tea in our apartment at all times. So I got to thinking, what else could I use this tea for other than making tea to drink? Then it came to me, scones. Scones are almost like a cross between a biscuit and cracker. They are slightly on the dry side and usually paired with jams or butter and hot tea. These scones I am making were infused with peach tea leaves for a little extra flavor. You could use any tea you like for this recipe but I would stay with black teas as a white or green tea may not be strong enough to infused enough flavor into the scone batter. You really want to choose a tea that has a deep, strong flavor. Earl grey or a fruity black tea would be perfect for this. For a more exotic flavor, you could use a chai tea for a cardamom cinnamon taste. I'm using peach iced tea leaves from a place called The Tea Room that my husband and I visited while we were recently in Savannah.

Now you could get some store bought jam to go along with these scones or you could whip up some preserves. Preserves are very quick and easy to make and will last up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator, or can be frozen for long term use. My tea scones with blackberry preserves are sure to please anyone, especially tea lovers like us.

Scone Ingredients:
4 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups of milk (plus a few tablespoons for the scone icing)
1/2 tsp lemon zest
3 tbs black tea
3 tbs confectioners sugar

Preheat the over to 400 degrees. Add milk and 2 tablespoons of the loose black tea leaves to a small pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil then turn off heat and set aside for about 10-15 minutes to cool. The milk should be a brown color once infused with the tea.

To make the scone dough, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar until well combined. To add a little extra tea flavor to the scones, take the remaining tablespoon of tea leaves and blend them into a fine powder.

Add the tea powder to the dry dough ingredients and mx well. Next, cut the butter into small chunks and add to the dry ingredients. Using a pastry cutter or your hands (I prefer hands) cut butter into the flour mixture until it resembles course sand and the butter is evenly distributed in pea sizes pieces throughout the dough.

Once the tea infused milk has cooled slightly, add to the dry ingredients by pouring through a fine strainer. You don't want the wet tea leaves from the hot milk to get into the dough.

Add the lemon zest and mix dough until the liquid is incorporated. If the dough seems a little dry, add a tablespoon of water. Sprinkle a little flour on a cutting board and roll out dough in a rectangle to about an inch thick. Cut rolled out dough into triangles.

Lay scones on a greased baking sheet slightly apart from one another. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the 400 degree oven. When scones have finished baking, place them on a rack to cool. Once scones have cooled slightly but are still warm, combine confectioner sugar, a few tablespoons of milk, and a squeeze of lemon juice to make scone icing. Brush icing over scones liberally. 

Now for the preserves. You can use any berry but blackberries happen to be my favorite and add real depth of flavor when paired with the scones. There is what you will need:

Preserve Ingredients:

3 cups of blackberries

1/2 cup of sugar

1 tbs lemon zest

Blend blackberries in a food processor until all the berries are no longer whole pieces.

In a small pot, combine blackberry puree, sugar, and lemon zest and bring to a soft boil over medium high heat. 

Allow mixture to boil for 20 minutes until it has reduced slightly. Make sure the preserves don't boil too hard otherwise it may burn at the bottom of the pan.

Turn off heat and set aside preserves. Once the preserves cooled completely, they will solidify into a jam-like consistency.

Pair blackberry preserves with the tea scones and some hot tea for a tasty treat!

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I bought some beautiful Poblano peppers are my local farm stand the other day, and the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw them was stuffed peppers. Stuffed peppers can be made in so many different ways and you will find endless recipes on how they can be prepared. It's a great dish because you can really change things to your liking and make it completely your own recipe without messing anything up. There's no real wrong way to stuff a pepper. However, the basics usually include some sort of meat (usually beef but I've seen chicken, shrimp, and pork used as stuffing) along with rice. The rest of the ingredients that you choose to use can be to your taste. I prefer a mexican flare to my peppers so I'm using black beans, chili powder, salsa, etc. Additionally, the type of pepper that is to be stuffed is up to you. It's very common to see bell peppers used in this role and they work well because the amount of space within the pepper is perfect for lots of filling. I chose Poblanos not only because they were fresh at the farm stand, but because I prefer the slightly sweeter taste of the Poblano over the bell pepper, but feel free to use whatever your palette prefers.

As I said, this recipe is really great if you want to get creative. So if you want more spice add more chili powder or hot sauce, if you want a more Italian feel then skip the beans and add some marinara and basil. Whatever you feel is right in your tummy, follow it. Here is one of my stuffed peppers recipes:

Ingredients:
6 Poblano peppers
3/4 lb of ground beef
2 cups of rice
1 cup of corn
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup of black beans
3 tbs hot sauce
1 can of diced tomatoes or tomato sauce
2 tbs chili powder
2 tbs onion powder
1 tbs paprika
1 tbs cumin
1 1/2 of any shredded cheese for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet over medium high heat, add beef, beans, corn, spices, canned tomatoes, and hot sauce. Once meat has been cooked through and no longer pink in color, add the ricotta cheese and rice. Stir all ingredients together until thoroughly combined and add salt and pepper to taste. Turn off heat and set aside while preparing peppers.

Usually you will see the tops cut off of peppers for stuffing, however with a Poblano it's easer to cut the pepper lengthwise in order to stuff it. It also makes for a nicer presentation of the dish in my opinion. Just use a sharp knife to cut the pepper lengthwise and scrap out all the seeds and filling. You can choose to cut off the stems of the pepper if you wish, or leave them on.

Once peppers have been cut open, proceed with stuffing the peppers with the filling. You want the filling to be heaping over the pepper, they should look overstuffed. You may have some left over filling depending on the size of your peppers, don't worry. This filling is great to use in tacos or burritos, so if you have left overs just save them in an air tight container in the refrigerator to be used in the next few nights for a taco dinner.

Place filled peppers in a over proof baking dish, spacing peppers slightly apart from one another. Once all peppers are in the dish, top with your choice of shredded cheese.

Cover the baking dish with a piece of tented tin foil and place in oven. The peppers should cook for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees. Once the cheese has melted and the peppers are fork tender, remove from oven. You can top peppers with your favorite salsa, mole, or tomato sauce, but I prefer them just as they are. Enjoy!

Peach Crisps

In my opinion, there is nothing quite like a warm fruity, syrupy, crunchy dessert on a cool summer night. One of my favorite standbys is a peach crisp. Top with some ice cream or whipped cream, peach crisps are simple to make and a crowd pleaser every time.

Filling Ingredients
4 large, ripe peaches cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine filling ingredients in a large bowl. Mix until brown syrup is coating the peaches. 

Fill 4 small ramekins with filling and set aside on a baking sheet.

Crisp Topping
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 stick of butter (cold and cut into small chunks)
3/4 cup whole blanched almonds
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbs water

Add all ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until the chunks of butter are well incorporated and topping is a play-dough like consistency.

Spoon chunks of topping onto peach filling until all the topping has been used and the peach filling is mostly covered. 

Place baking sheet with ramekins into the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes until crisp topping is golden brown and bubbling.


Once the crisps have finished baking and are out of the over, allow to cool (if you can handle the wait) for about 10-15 minutes. Top with the ice cream of your choice and dig in!

Cajun Burgers

Some of the best eats I have had in my lifetime have come from the great state of Louisiana. New Orleans is a food Mecca with some of the greatest culinary minds in Cajun and Creole cuisine. While I did dine at fancy restaurants and feast on expensive dishes, one of the best meals I had was actually a cheap cajun burger. The secret was in the sauce, which of course the cook would not share with me, so here is my best take on the recipe.

Burger Ingredients

1/2 lb. ground beef

1 medium - hot pepper (depends on your taste)

2 tbs cajun spice

1 tbs onion powder

1/4 cup of finely chopped yellow onion

Pinch of salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients together in a small bowl. Once all the components are thoroughly mixed, separate meat into 4 equal sized balls then flatten to about an inch thick to create the patty.

Heat a skillet on high and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Spacing burger patties apart, place in pan and cook on each side for about 3-4 minutes or until desired doneness. Feel free to add a slice of pepper jack or cheddar cheese around the last minute before taking the burgers off the heat.

Onion Rings Ingredients

1 box of Jiffy corn muffin mix

1 large yellow onion cut into thick rings

1 1/2 cups of buttermilk

1 bottle of vegetable or peanut oil

To me, nothing says delicious burger like some onion rings. While these were not on the top of the original New Orleans burger, I figured they would add a delicious twist..and I was right.

First pour oil into a heavy pot and turn heat on medium high. Next, pat the slices of onions dry with a paper towel. Combine the box of Jiffy mix with the buttermilk until it becomes a sticky batter. Dunk the onion rings one by one into the batter until completely coated. Drop a tester onion into the oil to see if it has reached the desired frying state, you can tell this when the onion immediately rises to the top and little bubbles form around the onion.

Fry all onions until they are a golden brown. Let drain on a paper towel and set aside to be used on burger.

Sauce

3/4 cup of light mayo (you can use regular as well)

2 tbs hot sauce

1/4 cup of fresh salsa

2 tbs Worcestershire sauce

2 tbs cajun seasoning

Combine all ingredients for sauce and adjust hot sauce to taste if needed.

Top burgers with onion rings, sauce, and any other desired toppings (my husband added some fried beef bacon to his). Be liberal with the sauce and enjoy :)