Recipes are wonderful for so many reasons. I literally sat on my couch the other night and read through my favorite cookbooks...for the millionth time. Not only are there tons of recipes that I want to try, but they also give me ideas for recipes that I can create. Right now, my favorite cookbook is Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentiis. I have to say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE her! Her cookbook is exactly how I envision mine to be, and I just love her recipes. I feel like my tastes are still growing and developing, so every time I read her recipes, I find more things that I never would have thought to try, but now sound amazing to me.
I saw a recipe for her Pizza di Spaghetti, which made me think of what Italian Comfort foods I love and should make for dinner tonight. So, when I get home tonight and my hubby asks what's for dinner, I will be prepared! Tonight I am making Spaghetti with Italian Eggrolls (which are total comfort food for me) and garlic bread. I am going to also make too much Spaghetti, so that I can make Giada's Pizza di Spaghetti tomorrow night, or the night after for dinner.
Two dinners are now planned out this week, before I am asked the dreaded question, and I have to say, I am a little proud of myself :)
I also have to let you know in advanced, I will blog tonights dinner, tomorrow, but I was told at the beginning of my blog, that I am not allowed to share the secret recipe of my families Italian Eggrolls, and also, they won't look anything like they are supposed to (I am still mastering the technique). So just to warn you ahead of time, tomorrow's blog will be just a tease, sorry! :)
How excited was I last night when I could actually answer my husbands question about what was for dinner?! I arrived home, immediately put on my pajamas and got to work on my Italian Comfort Food Dinner (part 1)! As I had mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I have been forbidden to share my Italian Eggroll recipe. This is a recipe that my grandmother brought over from Italy and decided to share with my mother, (probably so that my father could still eat well), and my mother shared it with me. However, I am not sure if it's just my family, or if every Italian does this, but when you receive a recipe in my family from any of the women, you must realize that it is going to be missing at least one ingredient. I believe this to be on purpose, but they always say that either the recipe is not missing anything, or that they just 'forgot' that they ALWAYS add that one item that make the recipe what it is. My mother apparently inherited this technique, so when she gave me the recipe for Italian Eggrolls she not only forgot an ingredient, but forgot to tell me that there was a specific technique that had to be done. I have been trying to perfect this technique and recipe for over a year. If you have any Italian friends or family members and you want a recipe from them, it's probably better to just watch them make it, and take your own notes.
However, last night, the technique was mastered! I finally made eggrolls the way that they are supposed to be made, and was so thrilled with myself. I even did a little dance in the kitchen, in celebration :) I also cooked up some whole wheat pasta and some sauce that I had canned a couple of weeks ago.
I have to admit, I was in comfort food heaven, and ate way, WAY more than I should have...thank goodness for whole wheat pasta, so I didn't have to feel quite as guilty about the two servings that I had. We didn't really have any leftover pasta...since I was a pig and ate it all, so I will make more pasta tonight and put it in the fridge to make the Pasta di Spaghetti for tomorrow nights dinner. I am not 100 percent sure what tonight's dinner will consist of, but I took out some pork chops to defrost before I left the house...so I could possibly make something with them tonight...stay tuned!
I love having people over for dinner. I love everything about it, figuring out what food to make, cooking, presentation, the great company...all of it! This weekend we had over my best friend since middle school and her husband for dinner. I spent all day Saturday cooking tons and tons of food. My friend Kara is eight months pregnant, so I wanted to make sure that I made some goodies for her to take home and snack on later!
So what was the menu, you ask? I made sure to get some watermelon for when they got to my house, since the only thing that she has been craving since she has been pregnant. I have to admit, I have been a little disappointed that she hasn't gone off on some crazy cravings, but nonetheless, I wanted to make sure that there was watermelon if she needed it :). I also threw together a green salad, with some mixed greens, cucumber, tomato, and a little bit of freshly grated Vermont cheddar cheese sprinkled on top.
Dinner was stuffed pork chops with a side of mashed potatoes. I tried out a thin mint recipe, along with some cupcakes for dessert. I made sure to make extra cupcakes to send home since I know both Kara and especially her husband LOVE my cupcakes.
I was a little disappointed with the thin mint recipe that I found, because they didn't taste exactly like the Girl Scout Cookies that I love so much...which is probably a good thing overall, since I can definitely eat boxes upon boxes of those dang Girl Scout Cookies!
Anyway, dinner went off without a hitch, and everyone went home with full bellies, and a bag full of goodies for later! Stay tuned for my issues with the thin mints...
It's pretty typical for me to think about what to make my husband and me for dinner ALL day long. In fact, most times I start thinking about what to make for dinner as soon as I wake up, and ponder the question all day, until I arrive home from work and my husband greets me with a hug and a kiss and says, "Hey babe, what's for dinner?" This is the moment that I dread most days because even though I had racked my brain all day, I never really know what to make on weeknights given the food that we have in the pantry. I have had this issue for a long time now, so a smart person would probably think about what to buy the next time at the grocery store that could help out with this daily conundrum. Not me, of course not, that would just be way to smart. I, on the other hand only think about the complicated or time-consuming meals that I want to make, and never end up with anything that I can just throw together after working a long hard day.
Last night was no different. I actually couldn't even think about anything to make...normally I can at least think of something silly to throw together, whether that would be a frozen pizza or leftovers. But my husband greeted me with open arms and a kiss and asked the dreaded question "Hey sweetheart, what's for dinner" to which I replied, "I am not even hungry...I have NO idea...sorry boo." Which ended up being ok for him, he just trecked into the kitchen and heated himself up some pizza rolls. Several hours later I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to eat. I decided to settle on French Bread Pizza from the freezer...
... which didn't turn out so well.... This was followed by a small hissy fit, since I now had to go back to the drawing board and figure out what the heck to make for dinner.
I found an unopened jar of organic salsa, and some sour cream and chips...so I decided to just have chips and salsa for dinner with a little dollop of sour cream.
As you all know by now, I am addicted to anything eggplant, especially if it's roasted! So it was only natural that during the winter I would fantasize about how not only to heat up my house with the oven on, but what I could make with eggplant that isn't at its peak ripeness. So while sitting in my favorite chair, staring out at the snow one afternoon, I came up with the idea to make an eggplant sauce.
What could be better, and how could I go wrong with roasted eggplant, tomatoes, and garlic? I couldn't think of anything that would taste better, and over the years I have tweaked the recipe and added some other wonderful ingredients to enhance the sauce, such as cream, white wine and a variety of spices. This is a recipe that I hold dear to my heart for one reason or another, and am constantly thinking about how to make better. I recently decided that peeling the tomatoes after they are roasted would make the consistency of the sauce better, and since doing that, I finally feel like the recipe is perfected! I have never measured this recipe, so things are definitely just approximated and you can try different amounts until the taste is perfect for you. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!
Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
1-4 garlic cloves, peeled and cracked
Heavy Cream
White Wine
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Spaghetti Seasoning
Dried Parsley
Basil
Preheat the oven to 425. Then place eggplant, cherry tomatoes and garlic on a sheet pan and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Place in the oven and roast for about 20 minutes. You will know when these are done because they will be slightly charred, but mainly a nice brown color (plus they will smell delicious). Take them out and let them cool. Then peel the skins off of the tomatoes. Once that is done, take everything from the sheet pan and put it into a food processor. Then add the rest of the ingredients, with a splash of white wine and a splash of heavy cream. With the food processor running, stream in Olive Oil until you get the desired consistency.
Before eating, you just want to place the sauce in a sauce pot and simmer until you burn off all of the alcohol, unless you would like to get a little tipsy by eating your pasta :)
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