The Joys of Eggplant!

I have no shame in admitting I'm cheap. I hate to spend so much money on groceries. So I've been on the lookout for "re-usable" meals. I love eggplant and Trevor is so/so about it. Lucky for me, eggplant was on sale for $1 at Weis (the grocery store next to our apartment). It was huge and looked like I could get a lot of meals out of it, so I bought it! I decided to get all the eggplant made on Sunday since the rest of the week was really busy and I could eat quick sandwiches out of it! I really want to try non-fried eggplant meals but Trevor wasn't having that... yet ;) It was beautiful outside and completely felt like fall! We decided to eat these guys outside on our patio, it was a perfect combination! 

 Basic Fried Eggplant:

Eggplant

Panko Crumbs

Flour

Egg

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

 1) Slice the eggplant about an inch thick... a little thinner if you'd like but not too thick. 

2) Pre-heat oven to 350 and begin heating oil on medium in a pan on the stove.  

3) Take a strip of eggplant and dip it into a bowl of flour, coating everywhere.

 4) Take the floured eggplant and dip it into a bowl of egg making sure to once again coat everywhere.

5) After the eggplant strip has been floured and egged, lay it on a plate of panko. I find it easier to lay it atop and then with a fork spread some on top instead of dipping it in to the panko. I don't know why but I always feel like the panko is the hardest to get covered everywhere.

6) Place the covered eggplant into the heated oil and let simmer for about minute or two on each side until brown.

7) Remove from pan and place on a cooking sheet and place in oven for 5 minutes so the oil can drain off. If you want to skip this step, make sure to put the eggplant on paper towel after removing from oil so at least some of the oil can dry off. 

8) TA-DA enjoy!

ps. I dabbed some raspberry vinaigrette on my sandwich to make it delicious. It worked.  

So for some reason it's not letting move my text to align right but we're just going to roll with it.

We ate eggplant sandwiches for a few days and then moved on to EGGPLANT PASTA!

This was scrumptious. 

Eggplant Pasta:

 Bowtie Pasta! (Or any of your choice)

1 small can of tomato paste 

1 can of whole tomatoes

 1 can of tomato sauce

Salt 

Parsley

Pepper

Red Pepper Flakes 

Leftover Fried Eggplant

1) Heat a large pot of water with a teaspoon of salt.

2) Once the water begins boiling, add pasta.

3) Mix tomato paste, sauce and whole tomatoes into a skillet on medium heat. Let simmer, stirring frequently. Add the seasons to your liking.

4) Begin smashing the whole tomatoes once soft enough. After you've smashed all the tomatoes, mix in eggplant.

5) By that time, the pasta should be done boiling. Drain it and add it to the sauce.

6) Stir together on medium heat for about 4 minutes or so.

7) All done, enjoy!

I paid a dollar for that eggplant and it made six or seven meals. Not bad ;) Next time I want to try eggplant chips and stuffed eggplant. If you try these recipes, let me know what you thought! 

-Nicole 

 

I wish I were Mexican.

As much Mexican food as I devour, I should be given Mexican citizenship. I am seriously a Mexican food lover to the max. Trevor gets really sick of Mexican food quickly so I always have to play it safe and not over do it or else he will never let me make it! Back home, I was blessed with a family who put up with my Mexican tendencies and made Mexican for me at least once a week. It was always our "Cheap" meal too... so I never thought some of the ingredients would be so expensive!! I mean, Tortillas are SOOO expensive! 3 dollars for eight tortillas?? That's ridiculous. Maybe I'm shopping at the wrong store but either way... ridiculous! We decided that we would try and make our own tortillas for this Mexican meal. I've only had homemade tortillas once-- in Alaska-- and so I was eager to try them.

Tortilla Recipe:

http://www.texasrollingpins.com/tortillarecipe.html

They were delicious! I recommend everyone to try that recipe! There are a lot of variations of tortilla recipes depending on the amount of warm water you use and whether or not you use lard or shortening. I had shortening in the house so I used shortening. Trevor and I also like our tortillas crispy, so I cooked them in a little ( and I mean LITTLE ) bit of vegetable oil. I don't have any tortilla "kits" or equipment to make tortillas. I dont even have a rolling pin! Instead I substituted a rolling pin for a regular old can (you know, the cans that hold peas or corn) and rolled it as thin as I possibly could. I then stuck the tortillas on a pan on medium heat with the oil. They cook really quickly, so it was hard for me to keep up with rolling and frying so I had to be fast. Trevor also likes to cook his tortillas in the grease left over from the meat. Not my cup of tea (Does make a good tortilla... but really fatty and greasy!) but he said to make sure I mention that. Give it a shot if you want. 

We used the taco seasoning meat you can buy at the stores for like 50 cents but the last time we made tacos we didnt have any. Trevor improvised with what we had and it turned out amazing! He used brown sugar, onion, garlic and a half a packet of chili seasoning. He let the meat cook just like a normal taco seasoning. As a side, we had both Spanish rice and Hominy. The Spanish rice was on sale for 75 cents at Weis (the grocery store across the street from our house) and was from the Simply Sides collection. Alternatively, we could've used our white rice that we had and just cooked it and added tomato sauce. But we were going for quick and cheap and Simply Sides achieved that and it was pretty good. I am a huge fan of Hominy where as Trevor has only had it once and didnt like it. I hope to change that but I doubt it'll happen. I like to make my Hominy minimalist style.... half a tablespoon of butter and about a pinch of salt. Delicious.. but when is Mexican not?! :)

What is your taco seasoning recipe? If you try the tortilla recipe, let me know what you think! I am eager to hear peoples opinions as well as different approaches to homemade tortillas :)

--Nicole

The First Post.

Hi Blog World!

We've been living together for a month now and I've been snapping pictures of new meals we've tried. So, I have a lot of pictures saved up to share. I wasn't sure what would be the best "introductory" plate but I picked my favorite, Italian!! Homemade Gnocchi and homemade bread. Trevor and I have always wanted to try home made bread without a bread machine. My mom makes the best home made muffins and biscuits, I knew I had to try home made bread. We looked up a recipe on my phone (I have a recipes app) and went to Weis. We picked up some yeast, flour, eggs, sugar, salt, etc. Most people would have all this already in their kitchen but considering we've JUST moved out we don't have too much supplies yet. I was really excited to make home made bread but I could tell Trevor was way more excited to make it than I was. I was making dinner, which was home made Gnocchi. I've never had Gnocchi before but it sounded delicious and I like anything that involves potatoes. Especially since we bought a 5lb bag of potatoes at Walmart. Anything that has potatoes was going to be made this week. Trevor decided to take the initiative on the bread and destroyed the kitchen while doing it. Most recipes for bread call for bread flour but we made the mistake and bought regular flour. We had to google a bit and found a recipe (which I will let Trevor post eventually since he has it somewhere on the computer) that allowed us to use regular flour. Trevor and I both worked at a bakery/cafe/cupcakery about six months ago. Trevor worked there for two years and I only worked there for six months before it closed down and turned into a Thai restaurant. We learned SOME tricks for making fresh bread while working there but very little that come in handy in our tiny kitchen. The bread was rising while I began the Gnocchi. I'm a big fan of youtube videos and used this one for directions:

 

I found this one to be the best because it was short and sweet. I could follow a long easily and the recipe didn't seem too hard. I succeeded in the beginning of making Gnocchi, it wasn't until you're suppose to put it through a ricer that I realized a ricer is not what I thought it was. I tried to use the fork like they suggested but it didn't work out very well. I tried to use a strainer... but that was very difficult! Trevor saw me struggling and suggested we try a cheese grater. Ah, success! The cheese grater worked perfectly and I was able to follow the directions without problems. My Gnocchi turned out to be delicious! 

  My only complaint was that the sauce I used was NOT home made. The canned sauce was on sale at Weis for a dollar so I bought it. Big mistake. We're both used to home made spaghetti sauce (clearly we're Italian) and that was a let down. I also thought red sauce was too heavy and I think next time I might try a pesto sauce. 

 Trevors bread turned out great! We were both surprised by the softness and sweetness of the inside. It tasted great with the Gnocchi and we couldn't help but enjoy it a few times since then. Yesterday, he made the bread again and it was great to have with dinner. It even went well with breakfast in which I put some hummus on it (BIG hummus fan over here!) and devoured it. 

I'd like to think dinner was a success but I need to work on my sauces. Anyone have any good suggestions for Gnocchi sauces? Do you think red sauce is too heavy with it... or do you prefer it heavy? Let me know your recipes!

-- Nicole