Eggplant Parmesan

I went to Savannah for the day to run a few errands. One of which took me into the Fresh Market, A kinda upscale specialty grocery store. On a side note, they have a fairly decent bakery section too, thought their cakes are as bad as every other grocery store with the lard frosting to match. They do make a nice strawberry rhubarb pie, John and I's favorite. Anyway, I saw a box of eggplant cutlets in the freezer section that just seemed to be begging me to take them home and make them my dinner. So I did. I was not disappointed in the slightest.

They. Where. GOOD!

I made myself a very tasty plate of Eggplant Parmesan. The sauce went perfectly with them, great tomato taste and not too many herb to overpower the taste of the eggplant (a whole lot of garlic though!)

I found I needed to bake them longer than the box called for but other than that just make according to package directions and serve over pasta with tomato sauce and a dusting of freshly grated Pecorino Romano.

My box contained 7 large pieces

My Sauce recipe:
1 can diced tomatoes
Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
1 1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 beef bouillon cube

Drain tomatoes and squeeze out the excess liquid. Puree and combine with remaining ingredients. Simmer while the eggplant is cooking, about 20 minutes.

This is so fast to put together, two pots, on to simmer the sauce (which requires very little prep work) and another to cook the pasta in. Then just bake the eggplant (it doesn't leave a mess on the pan that is hard to get off either) and then PRESTO (PASTA NIGHT) you have dinner!

Thanks Helen of Fuss Free Flavors for hosting!

Chickenless Chickenish Stew

A tasty version that is cheaper, faster, and easier than regular stew. I used bacon drippings instead of olive oil when I made it the second time. It was quite tasty and very hearty.

Any type of bean really would work in here, the garbanzo are just a better color for chicken. Try adding beef broth and using kidney beans for beefy stew, just skip the cream soup and use Steak Seasoning in place of the chicken.

1/2 onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, sliced

2 carrots, cut into coins

olive oil

1 can garbanzo beans, drained (White beans work too but have more of a bean taste)

1 can corn, drained

1 c. frozen peas

1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted (Or other cream soup that's vegetarian)

5 c. water

3 chicken bouillon cubes (Vegetarian imitation works just fine, still has the taste)

3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 1/2 tsp. McCormick Rotisserie style chicken seasoning

Large dash black pepper

1/4 c. flour

Saute onion and celery in oil until starting to get tender. Add carrots and saute 4 or 5 minutes more. Add water, chicken cubes, soup, corn, peas, beans, potatoes, and seasonings. Simmer until potatoes are tender. Mix flour and enough cold water together to form a thin paste. Stir that into the hot stew and cook, stirring, until thickened. 

Update - You can replace the cream soup with 1/2 c. milk with equally, if not more so, delicious results. 

The two different pictures are from different batches of stew on different nights. You can see I make it quite often.

Mint Cream Pie

We used to spend most holidays at my maternal grandparents house in Maryland. And my Grandpa always made Rum Creme Pie. I don't drink rum, or even like how it tastes (except Fannie May Egg Nog creams), so I changed the pie up a bit.

First I made it with maple. I made a crust out of the maple leaf shaped maple cream filled cookies you get at the dollar store. BTW I love those cookies. Then I used real maple extract and I think maybe some vanilla in the filling. It was really tasty.

Then I made the cream filling with just vanilla as the flavor and folded in fresh strawberries, and raspberries.

That was so good I made the filling lemon and folded in blueberries.

You get the idea. It's very versatile. So be creative. But wait, I have one more. I think it's the best one yet. It even won the Pioneer Day Pie Bake Off in my ward. Though in all fairness this year I made three out of the four pies being judged.

Mint Cream Pie

6 egg yolks
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 (.25 ounce) packages unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups heavy cream
2 drops Peppermint oil
peppermint extract to taste
green food coloring (optional)
1 c. crushed mint chocolates (York pieces, Mint M&M's, andes mints, mini chocolate chip)

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until they are light and fluffy and kinda a pale yellow color.

In a saucepan, soak the gelatin in water until the gelatin is no longer opaque. Bring to a boil.

Slowly beat the hot gelatin into the egg mixture. Set aside

Whip the cream until still peaks form, add peppermint oil and the peppermint mint extract to taste and food coloring to desired shade.

Fold the mint flavored whipped cream into the egg mixture. I found a hand whisk was the best for that. Don't use an electric mixture, it will break down the whipped cream and leave you with a runny mess.

Fold in chocolate candy. Chill mixture until it is firm enough to keep a bit of shape. Spoon filling into pie shells. Serve after chilling for several hours.



This is good in a baked chocolate oreo crust or a regular pastry crust with a chocolate layer spread in the bottom. When the pastry comes out of the oven I just sprinkle it with chocolate chips and let it sit for a while. When they are melted I spread them out.



It makes either two flat pies or one really heaped up pie. I use the latter. The pie pictured above is only half of the filling. I used the other half in individual mini tarts with the same oreo crust. It made about 8.

You can eat it like it is or if you wanna get fancy and garnish it I would use whipped cream or Swiss buttercream pipes and more crushed chocolate candies, crushed or mini oreos, chocolate curls or a dusting of cocoa powder.

Some other ideas I though up that look good are

Coconut - add a dash of coconut and vanilla extract in and fold in flaked coconut

Egg nog - Fold nutmeg and vanilla into the egg filling

I love caramel, though I am not sure what I would add to it to make it that flavor. Maybe Italian soda syrup as the flavoring? And then fold in some caramel ice cream topping just enough so that it swirls in but not mixes in fully? Maybe with some honey roasted cashews too...

Anyway, experiment, have fun, and let me know what you come up with

Leftover Makeover

Remember how I used the stir fry the other day to make soup the next day? I do it with all kinds of things. Todays was spaghetti. We had spaghetti for lunch and then I made it into soup for dinner



After lunch I boiled some beef broth. I added carrots, celery, spinach and corn. You can add whatever vegetables you want, green beans and zucchini are good too.

When the vegetable are tender add the spaghetti sauce, if there isn't much meat left in the sauce add a can of beans. Any variety works. Then add either the spaghetti noodles or some elbow macaroni. If you need to add uncooked noodles add them in the beginning with the vegetables.

A little salsa verde gives it a nice flavor. You also might want to add more Italian seasonings if there isn't much flavor from the spaghetti sauce

Pumpkin Chiffon with Toffee or Praline

This has the flavor of pumpkin pie with the much lighter texture of mousse

It's great in a regular pie crust piled up high or spread thin in a tart shell. I topped it with Swiss butter-cream curls, homemade English toffee, and leftover pieces of pie crust that I cut into the shape of fall leaves and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar before baking.

It's also fun to serve in mini tart shells or in crepes, topped with fresh Chantilly cream and more crushed English toffee. I like to make my own toffee but Almond Roca or heath bars work too. It would also be really good with praline coated nuts on top.

Both recipes, the toffee and the praline coated pecans are at the bottom

It looked a lot better before I cut it and messed up the Swiss Butter-cream

Pumpkin Chiffon
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
2/3 cup milk
1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon each ground ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg
4 egg yolks
1 c. whipping cream (whipped with sugar and vanilla to taste)

2 pie shells (Chocolate Graham cracker work well)

In a heavy saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over milk; and let stand for 5 minutes. Cook and stir over low heat until gelatin is dissolved.

Add the pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce the heat and cook, and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from the heat.

Stir a small amount of hot filling into egg yolks; return all to pan; stirring constantly. Bring to a gentle boil; cook and stir 2 minutes longer (mixture will be thick).

Remove from the heat. Cover surface with waxed paper; refrigerate without stirring until cooled. Fold in the whipped topping.

Let set until firm enough to shape. Chill until firm.

Toffee
2 c white sugar
1 lb salted butter
1 c slivered almonds

semi-sweet chocolate chips and finely ground pecans for topping

In a heavy pot, melt butter and sugar over medium heat. Continue cooking and stirring occasionally over medium heat as toffee begins to foam up and caramelize. It helps not to stir too often esp at the beginning but you have to make sure it isn't burning on the bottom as it starts really cooking. Watch on a candy thermometer as it goes up - add almonds at about 200 degrees. Cook until 288 on candy thermometer. Immediately pour onto a heavy cookie tray and spread thin. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top, let melt, and spread thin, sprinkle with pecans. let cool, break into pieces.

Praline Coated Pecans
6 Tbsp butter
1 c. light brown sugar
1 c. coarsely chopped pecans, walnuts, or both

Combine butter and sugar, mix until crumbly. Blend in nuts. Spread flat and bake on tin foil for 10 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 350. Cool. Sprinkle on top of chiffon.

I have baked these nuts in pumpkin cake and chopped then up a bit into smaller chunks and mixed them into frosting on spice cake. You can also add a little cinnamon and nutmeg to the brown sugar before you bake them and serve them as candies nuts just as they are

Plants

Random pictures of plants I took on my trip.

New Lable and Dinner

I added a new lable, Meatless Cooking. I only plan on applying it to things that are not obviously vegetarian. Like the icebox cake and the caramel slush. Cause who puts beef into their slushy?

Vegetarian Stir Fry for Dinner

The recipe is on Bean Basics again.

It's really good the next day as Stir Fry soup. Just boil some vegetable, beef or chicken broth and add the leftover stir fry vegetable and the leftover rice or a package of oriental noodles.