Eggplant Parm

Three white eggplant from our CSA share this week became two trays of eggplant parm, one destined for the freezer. My recipe is lower in fat than the traditional recipe, but it's not exactly health food here. I think a tray needs at least a cup of cheese, my husband would add 2, but it's really up to you and your cardiologist.

Eggplant Parm
Ingredients
3 white eggplant
a bunch of salt
6 eggs, beaten
4 cups breadcrumbs
big handful dried oregano, basil, or mix
2 teaspoons salt
spritz olive oil

Tomato sauce
2-4 cups cheese

Method
Oven to 350F.
Peel and slice eggplant vertically.


Lay slices down, salt, let sit 5-10 minutes, flip, repeat. Note, white eggplant isn't as bitter as the big purple eggplants, so you can skip this step (though the slices are still a pain to work with) if you like.



Beat eggs with 1 teaspoon salt.
Mix breadcrumbs, herbs, and 1 teaspoon salt.
Rinse eggplant slices.
Drag slices through eggwash, coat in breadcrumbs. Layer in pan. Spritz lightly with olive oil.



Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes. Pull out, add tomato sauce and cheese. Bake another 15-20 minutes until bubbly.



I made quick tomato sauce. Basically 3 onions, 10 cloves of garlic, 3 ribs of celery, all minced and sauted in olive oil. Add 2 big cans of crushed tomatoes, one of diced, salt, pepper, dried oregano to taste. A touch of tomato paste at the end.



I ended up with two large foil trays of eggplant parm. One is in the freezer, one in the fridge for tomorrow. A tray should feed 4-6 easily. Yeah, we're three, but I didn't have smaller trays.

Freezer Week

So this plan of intelligent scheduling and shared dinners isn't working out too well. We ate out three times this week, and ended up with cereal once. For some reason the crock pot liner (the actual pot thing) is missing.

So I've decided to spend the weekend filling the freezer with meals. I do like the commercial places - Let's Dish, My Girlfriend's Kitchen, Your Dinners, etc - however, I find them rather expensive and not necessarily great given the list of food allergies and what various humans do and do not eat. Canine # 1 is much easier to feed - rice, veggies, meat or fish, and some fish oil and garlic for her little doggie heart. And no matter what you make Canine # 1, she thinks you're the greatest cook on the planet and the most amazing and heroic individual of all time, just because you fed her. Damn, I want to be a dog. Or at least replace my humans with canines. Much easier to take care of. Then again, the humans never go to the bathroom on the floor.

So does anyone have any suggestions on what this girl can cook and freeze??? So far my list consists of:

• macaroni and cheese
• eggplant parm
• spinach manicotti
• cauliflower soup
• lemon-butter flounder
• beans and rice / peas and rice
• roast veggies

Ideas, any, veggie or not veggie, are greatly appreciated.

This week's CSA

CSA = Community Supported Agriculture. I basically get a share of something, whatever the farm or its partners feels like, a week. It can be great, it can be exciting, it can be disappointing, but for us it's worth it.

Actually, Human # 3 is now doing pick up, so the posts are going to be even more sporadic than before. Here's what we got in the CSA this week:




Peaches, pattypan squash, pears, tomatoes, lettuce, red peppers, cauliflower, and white eggplant. Hardly visible is bread from the Breadery.

The peaches will be eaten out of hand by the humans who don't itch when they eat peaches. The patty pan squash will be cut in half and stuffed with tomatoes and breadcrumbs. Pears will be poached in whatever I feel like drinking a glass of that night. Tomatoes will be stuffed into the squash. Lettuce will be made into salad. Red peppers will be sliced and taken by Human # 1 in lunches. Cauliflower will be made into soup. The white eggplant will be made into eggplant parm - honestly, I would never suggest doing this with white eggplant, but I'm too lazy to do anything else.

My camera is officially broken, so these are from my blackberry instead. Anyone have recommendations for a good digital camera?

Work

I haven't been very good at cooking, let alone blogging about cooking, recently. I blame my job. I like my job. But I'm still adjusting. I've thrown things in crock pots, scrounged around, Whole Foods-ed it, gone out, and haven't been around much.

Plus the foot saga goes on. I finally got a bone stimulator this week. It likely will take two more months to heal. Which sort of sucks, but there's not all I can do about it. The stim unfortunately means I can't really walk or stand during the few waking hours I'm at home.

However, I am indeed getting a CSA shipment tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be back.

Are you kidding me?

Did I grow up poor or something? The fact that this is news astounds me.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/18/cooking.to.cut.costs.ap/index.html

This week's CSA

This week's CSA consisted of peaches, blueberry bread from the Breadery, some I believe delicata winter squashes, peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, red potatoes, basil, marojam, and thyme. And of course eight ears of corn.

We ate some of it today. The fruit is likely to be eaten out of hand. The rest is still a mystery.



Tonight's dinner used last week's CSA ingredients - the baby zucchinis. I made some easy stuffed zucchini. Omit the parm and this may actually be healthy.

Stuffed Baby Zucchini
Ingredients
6 baby zucchinis
1 small/medium tomato
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pepper
Parmesan cheese

Method
Oven to 350 F.
Tip and top zucchinis. Cut in half.
Remove inside of zucchinis with a melon baller. Roughly chop insides.
Place outsides in a baking dish.
Chop tomato.
Over medium heat, saute garlic in olive oil until it is golden. Add zucchini guts and tomato.
Cook until tender, season to taste.
Stuff zucchini halves with mixture.
Top with Parmesan cheese, to taste, if desired.
Bake until everyone's ready for dinner, say 20 minutes.




I made some lemon-thyme rice. Totally simple.

Lemon Thyme Rice
Ingredients
1 cup basmati rice
2 spritzes olive oil
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups water
Juice of 1 lemon
About 2 teaspoons thyme leaves, after they are removed from the stem
Additional thyme to garnish

Method
Medium heat.
Add olive oil, garlic, saute until golden.
Add rice and salt. Cook about 1 minute.
Add lemon zest.
Add water.
Add lemon juice.
Heck, toss in a lemon if you like!
Add thyme.
Raise heat to high. Bring to boil.
Low heat, cover, cook 20 minutes or until done.
Add additional thyme to taste.



I boiled some corn. We're drowning in corn - and I'm the only one who likes it in this house.


Some butter was delivered today. It made a nice picture, though it sort of looks like vanilla ice cream here. Which I would sort of like for dessert. Which I don't think we have. Sad.



Okay, this picture sucks. But it's a simple mozzarella and tomato salad. The mozzarella is from South Mountain Creamery, delivered today.

Shucker's

Our favorite restaurant on the trip was Shucker's. We had our first and last meals here. As Human # 3 said on the first night, it was about the most perfect meal we had ever had. On the first night we were cranky, had just been on a plane for a day, and had a bit too much family togetherness. We were seriously concerned about the fact that it was in a hotel. Yet all three of us put our blackberries away, enjoyed the meal, loved the service, and remembered that we actually liked being around each other. All four of us returned for the last night, and it was just as good. So good, indeed, that everyone submitted to my picture taking and food blogging, even holding up their plates for the best view.



Of course we started with oysters. Everyone finally decided that I was right, and there was no such thing as too many oysters. We had four types of local oysters. We then ordered another dozen of our favorites. They were amazing. Creamy, sweet, and luscious.



We also had a shrimp cocktail. Tasty.



I had fried oysters, served on potato wedges, with some cole slaw. Best fried oysters ever. And I've had a lot of fried oysters, trust me.



My husband had a Dungeness crab cake. He erroneously believes they are better than Maryland crab cakes. They were good though. Nice grilled asparagus and buttery mashed potatoes.



Human # 3 had the steak. A fourteen ounce piece of sirloin, creamy, buttery mashed potatoes, and sweet giant carrots.



Husband and Human # 3's brother (and therefore my brother-in-law) had the fish and chips. The fish was fried halibut from the Queen Charlotte Islands. Human # 3 and Brother argued about whether these were the greatest fish and chips, or whether the fish and chips at the public market Vancouver were the greatest. Outside the Pacific Northwest, a small restaurant in Astoria, Queens and a stand in Reykjavík are suggested. I think we need to have a world-wide fish and chips tour.



For dessert my husband and I had a chocolate cake with a glass of Côtes du Rhône each.



The other two split a peanut butter ice cream pie. Which I nearly stole.

It was a great meal, and a great culinary end to the trip. This is my highest recommended restaurant we visited, no question about it.

Sky City, Seattle Space Needle

Okay, I'll be honest. It was a revolving restaurant at Seattle's biggest tourist trap. It was overpriced. But the food was decent, the ingredients local, the service very good, and the view spectacular. Would I recommend it? There's better dining. But it's not bad, especially if you want to sit and see the Space Needle view. I can recommend the halibut sandwich, as well as the Caesar salad. Just make sure you do the restaurant first, since the observation deck is included.



Here's Mt. Rainer. I think.



We ordered the Lunar Orbiter. Mainly because everyone else ordered one. It was basically just a scoop of chocolate ice cream, some chocolate sauce and a cherry, and some smoke. It did look cool.

Ray's Boathouse

We met a good friend of mine from college, JW, and his girlfriend, JT, for dinner. And by met, I mean that they picked us up and picked an awesome restaurant. Damn, I love my friends. And his girlfriend is lovely, smart, very pretty, and has a wicked sense of humor. To be fair, I usually like my friend's significant others (though there have been some, ahem, exceptions). I almost think as a post-college young professional there are few other ways to make new friends - though my friends have dated or married in some pretty cool people.

Back to the food. Didn't bring a camera, but here's a link. The restaurant itself was gorgeous. We had a table right on the water. Actually, I nearly got seasick looking down. A couple police boats sirened around that night.

We shared the shishole sampler, which consisted of Dungeness crab, manila clams, scallops, prawns, and alaskan king crab.

JW, my husband, and I all had the sampler for a main course. The sampler had a piece of grilled Columbia River chinook salmon, with local mashed potatoes, green beans, and a nectarine sauce. Next, it had a piece of Chatham Strait sable fish cooked with sake, with choy sum, jasmine rice, radish sprouts, honey soy, and scallion oil. Finally, the sampler had a piece of grilled Alaskan halibut with some kale. The salmon and halibut were amazing. I didn't really care for the sable fish, but I think I just didn't like sable fish. JT had Alaskan King crab legs. They were huge. Gorgeous. Pre-cracked with some cool tools. Served with green beans.

Almost everything on the menu was very local, and the location of most of the food was noted on the menu. The location was beyond beautiful.