Timbale, or: Brandie reconsiders her relationship with eggplant.

My friend Heather and I caught an episode of Everyday Italian earlier this week and were both intrigued by Giada’s recipe for eggplant timbale. Yes, people, Giada managed to do the impossible: make eggplant look damn scrumptious.

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with eggplant for years. Ever since I had a horrible experience with an eggplant parmigiana that went terribly wrong about eight years ago, I’ve been iffy about cooking it. But after giving it a go with Heather yesterday, I think I’ve made my peace with the big purple veggie that God forgot.

This is a pretty involved recipe, and, as always, alterations were made, which will be noted where appropriate. Or maybe where it’s NOT appropriate. I just roll that way.

FYI: You will need a springform pan to put this recipe together.

Ingredients:
2 medium eggplants, sliced 1/4 in thick (ha!–good luck with that)
1/2 pound pasta (we used ditalini; Giada called for penne; I say use what you got)
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb Italian pork sausage (Heather picked up a 4-cheese variety; oh, yum)
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
2 cups prepared marinara sauce
8 oz mozzarella (Giada called for 6, but when is more cheese EVER a bad idea??)
1 c Italian cheese blend (parmesan, asiago, and romano–Giada calls for 3/4 c Pecorino Romano, but again: when is MORE cheese EVER a bad idea??)
A splash of beef stock (Giada calls for Marsala wine instead; we left this out)
Olive oil
Seasonings: salt, pepper, dried basil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place a grill pan over medium-high heat (or, if you want to be all fancy-like, use a charcoal or gas grill). Brush the eggplant slices with olive oil and dust with salt and pepper. Grill until tender and covered with grill marks, roughly 3-4 minutes per side. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to boil (salted liberally). Add pasta and cook approximately 8 minutes (right around al dente). Drain pasta and set aside.

Warm 2 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet. Add onions and saute until tender and almost translucent (3-4 minutes). Add the beef and pork, breaking meat into smaller pieces while browning (5-6 minutes). Add beef stock and cook until liquid evaporates (4-5 minutes or so). Turn off the heat. Add peas and marinara sauce and stir until combined. Add pasta and cheeses; sprinkle with basil. Set aside.

Line the springform pan with the eggplant slices. The edges should overlap and hang over the side of the pan. Fill the pan with the pasta mixture and press down evenly.

Fold eggplant slices over the top of the pasta and add the remaining slices of eggplant to the top of the pan to completely enclose the timbale.

Bake until warmed through, allowing cheese to melt, approximately 30 minutes. Let rest on counter for 10-20 minutes to set.

Now comes the fun part: use a serving plate to invert the timbale and remove the springform pan (as Heather can attest, this endeavor sounds easier than it may be to actually carry out). Giada says to top the timbale with 1/4 c of Pecorino Romano, but we forgot this step and were none the worse for it.

Slice and serve!

This is insanely delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I went back for seconds, and had to tell myself that going for thirds would be a little overboard.

Consider me converted: eggplant, at least in this incarnation, rocks my freaking world.

Best of both worlds.

Merging the latent vegetarian and the Italian in me, tonight I tried a roasted vegetable lasagna (in part inspired by my successful experience with Giada’s roasted veg pasta last month). I had intended to use a mix of yellow squash and zucchini, but the zucchini in my local market looked like a truck had run over it. Instead, I stuck with the squash, some sweet red bell pepper, and a white onion. You can use any veggies you like for this–if you’re a fan of eggplant (I am decidedly not), it will go nicely with this, as will fresh sauteed spinach and/or mushrooms.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Ingredients:
9 lasagna noodles
4 cups prepared/heated tomato sauce
2 large summer (yellow) squash, diced
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1 white onion, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
32 oz part-skim ricotta
2 eggs
3 cups shredded mozzarella
salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings (to taste)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Place vegetables on a foil-lined baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables, then season with salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings (I used a mixture of basil, rosemary, thyme, and oregano). Toss to coat.

Place on top rack of oven and roast for 10-15 minutes until vegetables are tender. Remove from oven and cut heat down to 350 degrees.

While vegetables are roasting, prepare noodles by boiling for 6-7 minutes until just shy of al dente (add a bit of olive oil to the boiling water to prevent noodles from sticking together while cooking). Remove from heat.

Mix ricotta, 1 cup of mozzarella, and eggs in a bowl until smooth. Set aside.

Add more Italian spices to this cheese mixture to kick up the flavor.

Cover bottom of a 13×9 baking dish with one cup of tomato sauce. Place 3 noodles on the bottom of the pan and cover with a layer of the cheese mixture. Top with 1/3 of the vegetables, then cover with another cup of tomato sauce.

Repeat with two more layers. Top with remaining cup of sauce, then sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.

Cover pan with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove cover and heat for another 10 minutes until cheese is bubbly. Let sit for five minutes before serving.

I couldn't get a good picture of the layers; it's so cheesy!

As you can see, this is a relatively simple dish to make, and it serves a lot of people, so it’s perfect for company. Plus, it’s hella tasty! I can’t wait to try it again with a different variety of vegetables.

Enjoy!

The joy of pomegranate.

I’ve never cooked with pomegranate before, though I’ve always enjoyed the tart-and-sweet combination of the fruit. I don’t drink the juice often–it’s relatively expensive for my budget–but when I came across this recipe in last month’s Cooking Light, I had to indulge. And boy, am I glad I did. This delicious pork dish will be a favorite in my kitchen for many years to come. As always, I made adjustments and alterations according to my particular taste.

Pork with Pomegranate Sauce

Ingredients:
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground black pepper
4 boneless/skinless pork chops
2 tsp olive oil
2 chopped shallots
1 clove chopped garlic
1 c pomegranate juice
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Dust chops on both sides with the first 4 ingredients. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chops; cook 3 minutes per side.

Remove from heat and place a foil tent over chops to keep them warm.

Add shallots and garlic to the pan; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add juice, sugar, and vinegar; bring to a boil.

Cook for 5 minutes or until thickened (if you prefer your sauce a little more liquid-y, cook for less time). Serve sauce over pork (about 2 tbsp. per chop).

Serve with your desired side dishes. I chose to serve this with black-eyed peas w/bacon (a Southern New Year’s tradition) and sour cream garlic mashed potatoes (after boiling potatoes and draining, mix butter, garlic powder, salt, pepper, sour cream, and milk–all to your personal taste–into potatoes and mash/whip to desired consistency, then top with chopped green onions). Perfection.

The pork is the perfect blend of sour and sweet, tender with a tart bite. If it were possible to be in love with a hunk of meat, then I would have to admit that this is wuv … twu wuv.

That last sentence sounds like the set-up for a “that’s what she said” joke if I ever heard one.

Anyway … enjoy!

Olive o(y)l.

I posted this entry over on our classic movie blog, but the recipe is so good, I wanted to re-post here.

For Christmas, my friend Erin decided to indulge both the classic film fan and the latent foodie in me, and thus gifted me with Francine Segan’s book Movie Menus: Recipes for Perfect Meals with Your Favorite Films. The result of years of research, Segan’s book provides updated, time-tested recipes inspired by some of the greatest films Hollywood has to offer. Most of the recipes are quite easy to prepare, and the menus range from delicious appetizers to succulent entrees and even some decadent-looking desserts.

Segan groups the recipes by genre–from ancient Greece and Egypt, through the Renaissance and Victorian eras, straight through the American war years and today, each chapter provides multiple dining options as well as a list of suggested movies to accompany each menu. Each chapter also offers an introduction to set up the genre/historical era and concludes with party-planning tips for setting a complementary dining scene for your prepared menu. And for the movie buff in all of us, the book is sprinkled with classic quotes befitting each recipe as well as fun trivia facts and movie stills from each genre.

For the first of what will be many recipes I tackle from this book, I decided to make one of the appetizers from the initial chapter, an herbed olive spread. Segan suggests this yummy treat could accompany such films as Spartacus, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Ben-Hur, and Titus (though, thankfully, she does warn you to eat BEFORE watching this rather disturbing adaptation of Shakespeare’s play).

Herbed Olive Puree (serves 10)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup pitted whole oil-cured black olives
1/2 cup pitted whole brine-cured green olives
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley, mint, and basil
grated zest of 1 lemon
6 pita breads, cut into quarters and warmed (or toasted baguette slices)

Directions:
Combine the olives, onion, olive oil, garlic, fennel seed, cumin, and coriander in a food processor and puree until smooth. Place in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow the flavors to mingle at room temperature for at least 6 hours.

Stir well and top with the minced herbs and lemon zest. Serve with warm/toasted bread.

As you can see, I chose to leave the pimentos in the green olives (thus the tiny specks of red). Frankly, I have never found a green olive that DIDN’T have something stuffed in it–pimentos, garlic cloves, even jalapenos–and I didn’t feel like taking the little red devils out of each of those suckers. I don’t think it altered the intended taste at all (besides, you need a pop of color to counteract all that green!). In fact, I quite enjoyed this spread–it has a little bit of a kick from the cumin and fennel seed, and the mint and lemon add a nice counterpoint. This may be a little salty for some, but I found it to be delicious!

I could not find pita in my local store (go figure), so I chose to serve this spread with Old London Melba Snacks brand crackers (the sea salt variety). As I mentioned before, the spread is already salty because of the olives, so if you’re overly sensitive to salt (or trying to reduce your sodium intake) you might want to try a different flavor cracker.

YUM!

[Thanks, Erin! ]

New year.

I resolve to be better about blogging this year.

Don’t hold me to it, though. I’ve made this pledge before.

I love the optimism that comes from the new year. 

I hope your 2010 is filled with joy, adventure, love, and all the best things that life has to offer.

Classics.

Carrie and I recently started a blog for our mutual classic film obsession. You can catch the ABCs of Classic Film here.

In the meantime, here’s some eye candy.

Robert Osbourne (the silver fox ... rawr)

I like pounding peppermint pugnaciously.

I also like alliteration.

One of my favorite things about the holidays is spending time in the kitchen with my mom. Though my dad is a wonderful cook, he’s not much for prep time, so that leaves Mama and I responsible for hours of vegetable chopping and casserole constructing. I have come to loathe the sight of celery, considering how much I have to chop in order for Dad to put his dressing together, but if there was ever anything worth the effort, it’s that damn amazing cornbread dressing of his.

Mama and I have had some of our more interesting conversations as we chop away, and it’s where I’ve learned some of the best recipes and cooking techniques (and the secrets of squash casserole, which I still say is a gift directly from the culinary gods). When I head home for Christmas later this month, we’ll spend some time baking and creating some holiday goodies–cookies and candies and pies, oh, my!

One of my favorite of our traditional holiday treats is actually one of the easiest to make–peppermint bark. I actually made some of this the day after Thanksgiving, and have been nibbling on it ever since (when I haven’t been passing it out to everyone I see). Making your own peppermint bark is super simple and way cheaper than buying the “gourmet” bark sold in specialty stores for upwards of $5/lb. You can spend $5 for the ingredients and make a TON of this candy, and it’s great to package as budget-conscious gifts! Plus, it lasts a long time in the refrigerator, and it’s an excellent accompaniment to hot cocoa on a cold night.

Ingredients:
6 blocks of white baker’s chocolate
6 blocks of dark baker’s chocolate
1 bag of peppermints or 12 regular-sized candy canes

Directions:
Unwrap the peppermints or candy canes, and place them in a Ziploc sandwich bag, then place that bag in a larger (quart-size) Ziploc bag. This will help you avoid sending peppermint shards across your kitchen.

Using a kitchen mallet, pound the peppermints until they are crushed into smaller pieces (I try to get them as small as possible, but if you really like peppermint, you could use larger chunks). Set aside.

Break the white chocolate into pieces and place in the microwave. Heat on high 60 seconds. Remove and stir vigorously until the chocolate is smooth (don’t put it in the microwave any longer if you can avoid it … you do not want to overheat the chocolate). Mix half the peppermint shards into the white chocolate, stirring until the peppermint candy is thoroughly coated.

In a separate bowl, repeat the process with the dark chocolate.

Cover a cookie sheet with wax paper. Spoon the white and dark chocolate mixtures onto the cookie sheet in an alternating (checkerboard) pattern. Once you have emptied both bowls, take a butter knife and draw lines down the length of the candy pattern, swirling the two chocolates together.

Place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator. Let harden for at least two hours (preferably overnight). Break the candy into pieces and serve. Store leftover candy in a Ziploc bag or other airtight container.

As you can see, we like to mix the dark and white chocolates together, but you could also spoon each mixture onto the cookie sheet separately and harden and serve each individually, if that is your taste. To me, though, mixing the chocolates together gives you a great combination of the slightly bitter dark chocolate and the sweeter white chocolate, and I really enjoy them together.

Okay, off to the fridge for a piece of this!

I made a hell of a lot of food.

Yeah, the title really says it all.

Today felt like a very ambitious culinary day, so I decided to tackle two recipes I had not tried before. Thankfully, aside from the utter disaster that is currently my kitchen, both recipes turned out well, and I recommend them highly.

The first thing I made tonight, a roasted vegetable penne, is my adaptation of a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis (otherwise known as “she of the massive boobs on Food Network”). Now, ordinarily, I can’t sit through Giada’s show long enough to become enticed by one of her recipes, because the moment she starts pronouncing the names of her Italian ingredients, I want to throw darts at the television screen. Seriously, if I hear the woman pronounce “pancetta” as “pan-CHAY-ta” in her overly-affected Italian accent one more time, I’m gonna scream. And then wrap the woman in her damn “pan-CHAY-ta” and shove her in a preheated oven.

Anyway, I caught her show while at home for Thanksgiving break (managed to watch the whole thing, wonder of wonders), and she was featuring vegetarian meals. And even though I’m no longer a strict vegetarian, I still love a good veggie dish!

When I went to the store to buy the ingredients for the first recipe I’m sharing here, I realized that what I was buying would, in a direct quote to my friend Carrie, “make a sh**-f**k-ton of food.” So let me begin with a warning. If you’re going to make this recipe, invite over half a dozen people or so to help you eat it, or at the very least, prepare to deal with leftovers for days. That being said, I bet this freezes pretty well, and it’s so delicious that it might not be that big a problem, in the end.

Ingredients:

2 red bell peppers (cut into strips)
2 zucchini (cubed)
2 yellow squash (cubed)
1 cup mushrooms (sliced)
1 yellow onion (diced)
1 box penne pasta
1 jar marinara sauce (I used Ragu’s 7-Herb Robusto! tomato sauce)
1 cup fontina cheese*
2 cups shredded mozzarella
2 cups frozen peas (thawed)
extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper
dried Italian seasoning mix

*Giada’s recipe calls for you to grate the fontina. I had difficulty trying to grate this particular fontina, however, because it is such a soft cheese. If you end up with a so-called “young” fontina, as I did, cut small chunks off with a knife until you have about a cup’s worth. It doesn’t really make a difference, all things considered–fontina melts like a dream, regardless of its lack of “grating” (so to speak).

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Place the peppers, zucchini, squash, onion, and mushrooms on a baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the top of the veggies, then sprinkle salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning over them (to taste). Toss with your fingers to coat. Roast for 15-20 minutes, until tender. Once the veggies are done, cut the oven heat down to 350 degrees.

(Side note: I snuck a couple of squash pieces before mixing them into the pasta. YUM. I mean, look at them! I could just eat these veggies by themselves! So, so tasty. I love a good piece of summer squash.)

As the veggies are cooking, boil a large pot of water (make sure you add plenty of salt, again to your taste). Add the penne and cook for 6 minutes (you don’t want to overcook the noodles, since you’ll be baking them later). Drain.

Add the roasted veggies to the pasta. Add the marinara sauce, fontina, 1 cup of the mozzarella, and the peas. Season with more salt and pepper. Mix well, making sure the veggies and pasta are coated with the sauce.

Pour the mixture into a baking dish (line with foil to save yourself a messy clean-up!). Cover with the remaining cup of mozzarella. Bake for 30 minutes, until the top is a cheesy, melty, bubbly layer of goodness. Let cool for five minutes, then serve!

Like I said, it is a MASSIVE amount of food, so make sure you invite someone over to share the goodness. And make sure you send them home with leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch (you’re welcome, Carrie and Jessica!). 

And while that’s plenty filling, you know there’s always room for apple crumble for dessert! This is an adaptation of a Robert Irvine recipe. His measurements didn’t really work for me; I ended up increasing the amounts of flour and sugar in order to make enough topping and to get it to the consistency it was supposed to be (thank you, Carrie, for wrestling with the topping when I was having “sticky finger” issues!). This was relatively simple to make, and a great introduction to baking for anyone (like me) who isn’t exactly what you’d call a pastry queen.

Ingredients:

6 large apples (I used 2 green and 4 red)
8 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
6 tbsp cold butter
juice of one lemon
2/3 cup brown sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel, core, and dice the apples. Cook the apples, with 3 tsp of sugar, in a saucepan for 10 minutes, until apples start to become tender. Do not overcook–you’ll end up with applesauce! Drain the apples and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the rest of the sugar, flour, cinnamon,  half the brown sugar, and butter. USE REAL BUTTER, NOT MARGARINE (learned this the hard way). Blend ingredients with fingers until the mixture becomes coarse and crumbly, then set aside.

Cover the apples with lemon juice, making sure to coat the fruit as evenly as possible. Pour apples into a baking dish (line with foil to avoid a mess!). Cover with the crumble topping and sprinkle the rest of the brown sugar on top. Bake for 30 minutes until apples are bubbly and the topping is nicely browned.

Serve over scoops of real vanilla bean ice cream.

And yes, it is just as delicious as it looks–sweet, warm, and tummy-pleasing.

Even though cleaning my kitchen is going to be a pain, it was completely worth it. Both of these dishes were wonderfully comforting for a cold, rainy night, and even with sending some home for my friends, I have enough leftovers for at least two more meals.

Enjoy!

Loyal daughters, gather ’round.

I am an alumna of Mississippi University for Women (MUW), the first public college established for women in the United States. It is a small university, the only public liberal arts institution in the state, and the student body is predominantly (85%) female.

Our relatively small school has a reputation as one of the strongest educational institutions in the state of Mississippi: it is consistently ranked among the top Southern master’s universities in the country, and recently ranked 7th among Southern master’s universities in the “strong commitment to teaching” category.

Yet because the university is small (approx. 2400 students), and because Mississippi is, like most states, facing a budget crisis, Governor Haley Barbour (R) has proposed merging MUW with nearby Mississippi State University.

Ignoring the financial aspects of such a merger (which, ultimately, would not help allay budgetary woes all around), the fact that Barbour has proposed closing a higher education institution that traditionally caters to the needs of female students is worrisome.

But not only has Barbour proposed this change to MUW, but he has also proposed merging two of Mississippi’s historically-black colleges, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State University, into another, Jackson State University.

Though I hesitate to call “prejudice,” it seems that Governor Barbour has no consideration for the needs of minority students, nor for Mississippi students in general. The argument has been floated about the state that Barbour feels eight state universities are simply too many. Yet next-door neighbor Alabama, dealing with its own dire budget constraints, continues to maintain 14 state universities, with no discussion of closure or merger.

As an alumna of MUW, I have joined the fight to protect and preserve the university from which I graduated two years ago. We have begun a Twitter campaign (using the hashtag #saveMUW) and many Facebook efforts to spread awareness, and have begun mobilizing within the state to do what we can to prevent closure. Ever since rumors of Barbour’s intended proposal came down last week, hundreds of MUW alums have contacted the Governor’s office, through email, post, and telephone, to make their opinions known.

Some traditions should be protected, and some senses of heritage must be preserved. Women fought for what seems like eons to gain access to educational opportunities, and the W was a large part of that fight, having seen thousands of successful graduates pass through its gates over the past 125 years. The idea that its importance has been discounted by a governor who spends more time these days planning a potential Presidential campaign (God help us all) for 2012 doesn’t help matters.

I write this post in the hope that our collective fight–the fight of Mississippi University for Women to remain relevant, the fight of Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State University to remain viable–is something you, dear reader, may find worthwhile to defend. We need all the support we can muster. Cutting education should be the very last consideration when states prepare their budgets. Education is vital, particularly in a state such as Mississippi, where students (especially female students, considering the high teenage birth rates) need every opportunity for higher education they can get.

Click on the “W Girl” page on this blog to get more information about what you can do to help.

Caffeine boost!

While type-type-typin’ away at my thesis tonight, I have been sucking down caffeine like there’s no tomorrow. Soda gets old after a while, though, so I decided to whip together a quick milkshake with some of the ingredients I had lying around my kitchen.*

Ingredients:
2/3 cup coffee-flavored ice cream
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp sugar
A dash of vanilla flavoring
Some semi-sweet chocolate chip morsels (to taste–I used a small handful)

To make: Combine ingredients and blend until smooth. Top with a dollop of whipped cream and a couple more chocolate chips.

Mmm … paper-writing fuel. Goooood.

*”Ingredients I had lying around my kitchen” includes my friend Carrie’s ice cream … well, it’s been in my freezer for two weeks, and it was screaming my name. Sorry, Babe. I’ll treat you to Scoops later this week–I wanna pick up some fudge for Mama before we leave town next week, anyway.