Eggplant/Sausage Parm

I think I am possibly the least talented person alive when it comes to cooking eggplant. 

I started with an eggplant from my sister-in-law's garden. I peeled, sliced, layered in between dish towels and pressed under a big Le Creuset pot.

About four hours later, I breaded the cutlets sans egg with my own mix of homemade breadcrumbs. Fried in a mix of canola and coconut oil because I'm almost out of coconut oil.

We layered the eggplant with tomato sauce, chunks of tomato from my own garden, cheddar, Parmesan and chunks of bratwurst. (It was on clearance at Target). Seasonings included garlic powder and Italian seasoning.

Covered with foil and baking at 350 for 40 minutes. While I'm in the shower, husband will prep some sort of pasta with the leftover sausage.

The end product was fabulous on a bed of spaghetti, sprinkled with some more Parmesan. 

I haven't cooked a real meal in ages and this might make up for it.

Eggplant sandwiches

I hoped to make more eggplant parm but ran out of crumbs.

I breaded the eggplant and fried it in oil and fresh basil from the garden.

Then I piled it on hot dog buns (potato rolls) and topped it with spring mix and salad dressing.

Except for mine. Mine got horseradish sauce.

Best eggplant ever

So, eggplant is labor intensive. But for some reason I planted it. Now I have to cook it.

First, I washed and peeled the eggplant. Then I thinly sliced it and laid the cutlets on tea towels. I lightly lightly salted them, sprinkled them with garlic powder and Italian seasoning. I covered them with another tea towel and piled the tea towel with cookbooks and Le Creuset cookware.

Two hours later, I breaded them with egg and a mixture of my leftover crumbs-- bread crumbs, bagel crumbs, goldfish crumbs and everything pretzel chip crumbs.

Then I fried them in lots of oil.

Meanwhile, I browned some ground sausage. Added peppers and tomatoes also from my garden. And no salt added tomato sauce. And Italian seasoning.

Layered eggplant with the sauce to fill the casserole dish. Baked at 350 for an hour.

Reluctant Eggplant

Tonight's dinner is eggplant parm, except I don't want eggplant parm.

Frozen eggplant cutlets, Market Pantry basil tomato sauce, mozzarella and shredded Italian six cheese blend.

I haven't made bread lately so they'll be mo garlic bread.

I need a side to make this exciting. I got nothing.

Everyday food

Sigh.

Friday night we were supposed to go visit one of our favorite families, but as we got ready to hit the highway on this fabulous holiday weekend, the car began to spray antifreeze everywhere explosively and smoke profusely. We hitched a ride from one of my husband's work colleagues, sitting in the back of the car with the biggest and friendliest black dog ever.

My daughter was devastated. We ordered pizza from Papa Johns and watched the Muppet Show.

Yesterday my daughter went with my mom while I went with my dad to see if this was a quick easy fix, like a hose. Three hours later all I can say is, it's not.

My husband and I made a pasta dish before I left for work. It was wheat rotini in red sauce, simmered with kielbasa and basil, and served with mozzarella on top.

This morning he made chocolate chip pancakes for brunch and now we're having eggplant Parmesan with several kinds of cheeses.

Eggplant Spinach Lasagne

I stopped after my haircut and splurged on some cheese from Calandra's. I wanted a twist of mozzerella, but the per pound price is up to $6 making the average twist $7-something. I had $6-something.

So, I also purchased a pound of grated romano, which brought my tab to $14.88 and seemed more appropriate if I were going to write a check.

For lunch we had mozzerrella with the leftover fried ham (think breadless sandwiches), my mom's ugly bean dip, bruschetta made with tomatoes and basil from the garden, and the last loaf of homemade bread from the freezer.

If I had thought about it, I would have also purchased ricotta. But I didn't. So when I got the idea to use some of the mozzerrella to make a lasagne (I have had one box of no boil lasagne noodles forever) I needed some other filling. I decided on eggplant and spinach.

Ingredients:
- one box no boil lasagne noodles
- garlic powder
- 2 cans tomato sauce (the normal sized cans, not the tiny ones)
- four color organic peppercorn
- olive oil
- about 2 cups spinach
- about ten pieces of breaded and fried eggplant
- 1/3 pound fresh mozzerella

The lasagne has three layers. So used about 1/3 for each layer. Except for the eggplant, it only goes on the bottom 2 layers.

In a small pyrex casserole dish, layer the sauce, noodles, spices, a little cheese, eggplant, spinach, and then repeat. The top layer has no eggplant, but does have cheese. I used spaghetti noodles to tent aluminum foil over the whole lasagne and baked at 375 for an hour. I plan to uncover for the last 15 minutes.

Eggplant Parmesan

I unexpectedly worked late tonight, so I briefed the husband on how to make eggplant parmesan with some frozen eggplant cutlets we bought at the warehouse club. For lunch today, I made my daughter a scrambled egg with the last of the blueberry bread pudding. And leftover broccoli sicilian for breakfast. Yes, we splurged and got a sicilian last night.

So, the eggplant cutlet come breaded. My husband added layers of sauce, garlic pepper, Italian seasoning, grated parmesan and shredded cheddar, with some diced broccoli for good measure. It's yummy.