Eggplant Parmesan

Not all of the eggplant may be used.

1/2 eggplant sliced into 1/6th inch thick
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 egg white, whipped
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup tomato sauce
2 ounces mozzarella cheese (shredded or torn)

Spray a skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Whip the egg white and milk together. Mix half of the Parmesan cheese with the bread crumbs. Salt the eggplant slices. Dip the slices in the egg white then in the bread crumbs. You may not use all of the eggplant. Cook over medium heat until each side is browned about five minutes. Grease a casserole dish and layer the browned eggplant slices with tomato sauce. Sprinkle with the rest of the Parmesan cheese and torn mozzarella. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is melted.
Serves 2.

Sticky Buns
Adapted slightly from Ina Garten

This are extremely easy!!! I highly recommend making them when you want something elegant but easy. Plus everyone loves them.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
1 package of puff pastry, defrosted
2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place a 12 cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Mix together the butter, 1/3 cup brown sugar together. Place about 1/2 tablespoon of the mixture in each muffin tin. Distribute the pecans evenly throughout the muffin tin on top of the brown sugar/ butter mixture.
Lightly flour a flat surface. Unfold one of the puff pastry sheets with the folds going from left to right. Leaving 1/2 inch border
sprinkle the sheet with 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Starting with the end nearest you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly-roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam side down. Slice the roll into 6 equal pieces, each about 1 1/4 inches wide. Place each piece, spiral side up, in 6 of the muffin cups. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry to make 12 sticky buns. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the sticky buns are golden brown on top. Allow to cool for 5 minutes only! Invert the buns onto the parchment paper (ease the filling and pecans out onto the buns with a spoon). Serve at room temperature to warm.

For mini sticky buns: Spoon about 1/4 teaspoon of the brown sugar and butter mixture into a 24 muffin tin. Sprinkle the pecans evenly. Roll out the puff pastry sheet to about twice the original size. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon according to previous instructions, and roll the pastry into a jelly roll. Slice each roll into 12 slices. Bake for about 15 minutes. (Watch them carefully!) Allow to cool for 5 minutes, and invert the buns onto the parchment paper (spooning the filling out onto the buns.) These are great for gathers, showers, or parties.

This past Memorial Day weekend my hubby and I snuggled up on the coach and watched several episodes of The Best Thing I Ever Ate, the cheese edition!  The show consists of chefs and food writers describing their favorite dish in a particular category, and one chef best cheese dish was a cheese fondue in a particular restaurant.  We both were drooling by the time the show was over.  Our first instinct was to hop in the car and drive to Memphis, TN, and go to the Melting Pot (a all fondue restaurant) there; however, driving in a car for a couple of hours did not seem like very much fun.  So the next day we drove to the store, picked out several gourmet cheeses, and found a recipe for fondue.  I have been given several fondue pots for gifts, and have kept two.  I whipped out my shredder and got to work fixing all the dippers.  The fondue was so yummy!!!  My favorite dipper is the green apples.  They just seem to give the cheese and extra bite of freshness that increases the goo of the cheese.  A bit of advice, the liquid may seem like a small amount of that much cheese, but we added more liquid than called for and had to keep adding cheese.  (Not that it was not all eaten in the end.

2 cups of good drinking beer
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons ground dry mustard
1 clove of garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons flour
6 cups shredded cheese (combinations can be played with, I suggest starting out with cheddar, then branching out to gouda, gruyere, Fontina, and white cheddar)

In a saucepan (sprayed with cooking spray), heat the beer, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and garlic over medium heat until almost boiling. While that is heating up, toss your cheese with the flour.  Turn the heat down to low, slowly add all of the cheese.  Stir continuously; some use a wire whisk to whisk the cheese until melted.  Heat until almost boil.  Pour into a bowl or fondue pot.  Serve with dippers (Below.)

Dippers

Green apple
Smoked sausage
Cauliflower and broccoli
Sautéed Zucchini
Bread, cubed

At the Melting pot, they use all different types of bread for dippers including rye, wheat, and French bread.

Sweet tea is not limited to the traditional Southern tea. I have made several refreshing tea punches that are fabulous! Here is one of them. The original recipe had simple syrup steeped with mint. I thought honey would be an excellent substitution. And my mint is being extremely slow in showing their little green leaves, so I have not added it to the mix. Including green tea, the drink will help build your antioxidants and increase hydration levels. I hope you enjoy!!!

Green Tea and Apple Punch
Adapted from Giada

2 ½ cup water, boiling and divided
4 green tea bags (I used Lipton Green Tea with Ginseng and Lemon)
4 tablespoons honey or Agave syrup
1 ½ cup apple juice (preferably 100%)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup sparkling water, chilled

Steep the green tea bags in 2 cups of boiling water for 6 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the remaining ½ cup boiling water with the honey or Agave syrup. Strain the tea and add to the honey mixture. Allow to cool, about 45 minutes. Add to the apple juice and lemon juice. Chill. When serving, add the sparkling water, and serve over ice.

Makes 5 cups.

I love my garden.  I just made my first of many, I am sure, recipes from its contents.  I highly recommend having a garden.  It is not as time consuming as one would think, and the reward is so wonderful.  I read several books before diving in and I highly recommend All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.  Though he is somewhat fanatical about his way being the only way, I did learn quite a bit about the way of having a smaller and more efficient garden.

After I finished watching my favorite cooking shows and Julie and Julia, I wanted to spend an afternoon cooking up a storm.  Tomorrow begins another long week at work, and I wanted my last afternoon to be spent in my kitchen having cooking therapy.  Two things I must make are hummus (great snack for when I am working) and pesto.  My basil is huge! And I found some pine nuts in the freezer.  Pesto is one of those ingredients that add charm and elegance to a dish.  I put it on everything but mainly my sandwiches. It adds so many flavors to the sandwich.  So in search for the perfect pesto recipes, I found that I actually like Weight Watchers recipe.  Surprise, surprise!!  I found that I did not miss the large amount of olive oil as much as I thought (though I did add a bit more).  I hope you enjoy!

Pesto
Adapted by Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook

1 bunch fresh basil, stem removed (about 2 cups packed leaves)*
3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
3 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2-3 tablespoons water
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Place the basil leaves in a food processor and pulse until chopped.  Add the pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt, and pulse.  Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and 2 tablespoons water and blend.  Add the Parmesan cheese and blend.  Add more water if the mixture is looking dry.  Pulse for about 30 seconds more.  Spoon into a storage container and add the last tablespoon of olive oil (this will absorb while it is sitting) and chill.  The pesto is ready to serve now; however, I like it better after it has been chilling for about 1-2 hours.

Makes about 1 cup.

*Since the basil is from my garden, I needed to wash it.  Then I dried the leaves in my salad spinner.  It worked great!!! I highly suggest getting one for salad leaves (much cheaper when you buy a head rather than a bag and for drying herbs etc.).

Spring is here.  I smelled the perfume in the air as I toke Jack out for a walk.  The pear trees and azaleas have already shown us their beauty and are letting other plants release their vibrant colors.  In my garden, the tomato plants are beginning to have small flowers appear.  I hope their promised fruit will be bountiful.  On this rainy spring morning, I decide to prepare the batter for waffles to surprise the hubby.

He and I are fans of the establishment of Waffle House.  If you have never been, please go with friends.  The restaurant is not “high class” but is a wonderful place to relax and eat fabulous food. Food that calms and comforts.  And I found a clone waffle recipe.  The recipe suggests that one make the batter the night before but that it can be used the present day.  I figured a couple of hours in the refrigerator would be a good compromise.  I am being dreamy in thinking that our future children will wake up on Saturday mornings with excitement because waffles await them.  However, on this morning, my husband and I will enjoy rich waffles with sweet blueberry syrup and pineapple and banana smoothies.

Almost Waffle House Waffles
Adapted from recipes.calputer.com

1 ½ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons butter, softened
½ cup half and half
½ cup milk
¼ cup buttermilk

Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.  With an electric mixer, beat the egg in a medium bowl.  Add the sugar, vanilla, and butter and mix until smooth.  Add the half and half, milk, and buttermilk.  Beat until smooth.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until thoroughly combined.  Cover and chill for 15 minutes to overnight.  (The original recipe states that the batter is much better after letting it stand overnight.  I have neither foresight nor patience for this to occur; the most my batter has ever sat was 2 hours.  The waffles were still divine.)

When you are ready to bake, preheat your waffle iron and allow the batter to sit at room temperature for a bit.  Spray your iron with cooking spray to prevent stickage.  Spoon 1/3 to ½ cup of batter into the iron and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until your waffle iron beeps at you, which mine annoyingly does, or the light changes colors..  Some waffle irons have lights that go from red to green when the waffle is finished; however, I find that the amount of time for waffles souly depends on what kind of waffle you like.  Lightly browned, crispy, soft?  It is your choice.  And every waffle iron is different.

Make 4-6 waffles.

A word about waffle irons:  A good friend of mine bought me mine for a wedding present.  And though the life of it has been short, my waffle iron is on the brink.  My mother’s, however, has lasted her my entire life span.  (Not fair.)  I prefer the waffle irons that make small ridges.  This enables the ratio of syrup to “cake” (?) to be greater in my opinion.  My hubby prefers the round waffles, and I do not care if they are round or square.  Small ridges, large holes, round or square, this is completely up to you.  However, I do believe in nonstick surfaces and removable plates.  This enables easy clean up and less sticking of the batter.  I truly hope you enjoy your waffle making days.

I love this recipe!  A friend made it for our Wednesday breakfast appetizer.  It is not exactly breakfast, but this does not matter.  The original recipe is a salad type dish, but we thought that dish was fabulous as a dip.  I made it at my own home and found that in order for the dish to be a dip one would need to chop all of the ingredients smaller as well as possibly mash the avocados a bit.  However, this dish is fabulous for burgers, fajitas, etc.  But if you are having a party, mash the avocados a bit and chop things smaller, and serve with multigrain chips.

Guacamole Salad
Adapted Ina Garten

I added cilantro and used big tomatoes because I had them on hand. I pulled a Nigella with this dish, and ate some for a midnight snack!  It is wonderful!  Because I love this dish as a dip, the instructions are going to be in dip form.  But for the salad, cut the tomatoes, bell peppers, and onion into bigger pieces, and do not mash the avocados and beans.

2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed, drained, and slightly mashed
½ cup chopped onion, red or yellow
2 tablespoons minced jalapeno peppers, seeded (about 2 peppers)
½ teaspoon freshly grated lime juice
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 2 limes)
¼ cup good olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon minced garlic
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
2 ripe avocados, seeded, peeled, and ½ inch diced

Place the tomatoes, yellow pepper, onion, black beans, jalapeno pepper, and lime zest.  Whisk other lime juice, olive oil, salt, and black pepper, garlic, and cayenne pepper and pour over the vegetables.  Toss well.

And just before serving stir in the avocado, slightly mashing as you stir.  Serve at room temperature and with chips.

Makes about 3 cups.

I seem to always be in the mood to grill on my last day off.  The reason is my need to soak up as much sunlight as possible before becoming a Cullen and sleeping during daylight hours. The weather is breezy and light, and I want to soak it all up as much as possible.  As I planted my garden, my hummingbirds were buzzing around, trying to scare me away from the area.  Their presence, which I dearly missed, made my garden planting ten times more enjoyable and myself more hopefully that this summer will welcome a bounty harvest.

When I grill which has not been many times, I find that I enjoy making a Grilled panzanella salad.  I watched Ina make the recipe on her grilling episodes, and it looked fabulous!  When I went about to make it, I was so disappointed that my bell peppers were not in their best state!  So I slightly modified the recipe a bit to include everything I did have, and those that I did not.  The definition of a panzanella salad is a bread salad with sometimes “leftovers”.  The bread, which is grilled, soaks up all of the lovely dressing and acts as little sponges bursting in your mouth with flavor.  I added a bit of goat cheese to mine in the beginning, and while the hot grilled vegetables were added, the goat cheese melted into the dressing making the whole thing rich and creamy.  My hubby of course stated I could have added more goat cheese, but this is a usual complaint of his about my cooking.  “It needs more cheese!”  I used potatoes, mushrooms, onions, and zucchini to grill, and added tomatoes and capers in with the dressing.  This salad will definitely be a staple for our summer months due to the easiness of it as well as the flexibility of the contents.  Hope you enjoy.

Grilled Panzanella
Adapted from Ina Garten

Good Olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon Dijon Mustard
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cucumber, cut into ½ inch thick slices (I did not use this)
1 large ripe tomato, cut into 1 inch cubes
10 large basil leaves
3 tablespoons capers, drained
Things to Grill:
1 onion, yellow or red, sliced into ¼ inch rounds
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 3 large pieces
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into 3 large pieces
½ small loaf of Italian bread (I used Asiago bread) cut into 1-inch slices
(I also used
1 small red potato cut into ½ inch slices
1 zucchini, cut into four pieces
2 ounces goat cheese)

Prepare the charcoal grill with hot coals.

In a small bowl whisk together the garlic, mustard, vinegar, and ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper, and ¼ cup olive oil.  Set aside.

Place the cucumber (if using), tomato, basil, goat cheese (if using), and capers in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss together.  Set aside.

When the grill is ready, brush 1 side of vegetables to grill with olive oil.  Place them olive oil side down, and the grill and cook for 4 minutes.  Brush the other side with olive oil, turn them over and continue cooling an additional 4 minutes.  The onions and potatoes will probably need a couple more minutes.  Remove the vegetables from the grill onto a cutting board.  Slice the vegetables ½ inch think cubes, and separate the onion rings.  Add them to the bowl with the tomato mixture and toss.

Brush the bread slices on both sides with olive oil and toast them on the grill until golden, about 2 minutes.  Place them on to a cutting board, and slice into 1 inch cubes.  Add them to the mixture.  Pour the reserved vinaigrette over the salad and toss together.  Serve warm.

Serves 6-8 people.