Eggplant Mozzarella

I have now cooked 100 recipes from The New Moosewood Cookbook!!! It’s kind of hard to believe that I’ve made it this far, and I am so proud of myself for sticking with the project for this long. I initially thought I would be at the 100-recipe mark several months sooner, but this is not the time to dwell on “should of”s. The important part is that I’m here now!

Fancy...

            To celebrate my accomplishment, I decided to make eggplant mozzarella, which is what you get when you forget to buy Parmesan cheese at the grocery store. Turns out it’s just as good. I also whipped up some spaghetti to eat alongside the eggplant. 

Basically, eggplant parm (mozz) is lasagna but instead of layering noodles you layer giant pieces of eggplant. Technically Moosewood’s recipe called for using one of their recipes for the marinara sauce, but I was too lazy and just bought a jar of Classico at Kroger. But I did splurge and get the fancy “Italian Style” breadcrumbs, whatever that means.

            The dish was absolutely wonderful! Since eggplant is basically flavorless, the dish really just tasted like cheesy pasta sauce, which I am totally fine with. And it’s quite filling because of the eggplant. My only wish was that I had some crusty garlic bread to mop up the excess sauce. I might have to make a grocery store run before eating the leftovers as my lunch this week!

            A couple days ago, I decided to repurpose the blueberry pie fiasco I made for Memorial Day. I made it into blueberry crisp using Moosewood’s topping recipe from its apple crisp recipe. It is perfect this way; much better than the pie. With vanilla bean ice cream on the top, it’s pretty much the quintessential summer dessert.

            I have one more week of summer classes remaining and then about 2 weeks back with my family. I have already sketched out a plan that involves me cooking a LOT because I really really want to finish this project. And after those two weeks at home, I’ll be spending the next 7 weeks without a kitchen! So the cooking will be on a major hiatus and I’ll be setting myself back quite a bit. The pressure of the deadline is really there!

           

 If you want to read a bit more about my last 100 recipes, be sure to check out my new “Greatest Hits” tab on the top of the blog. I’ve included my 10 favorite recipes there along with links to the posts. Thanks for the encouragement! 141 recipes to go!

Getting in the (Cal) Zone

Me too, Ben. Me too. 

One of my most favorite flavor combos in the entire world is Caprese: mozzarella, basil, and tomato. I was having a massive craving, so I flipped through Moosewood and found the calzone recipe. Originally, this recipe calls for a spinach ricotta filling (which is also delicious) but it included a list of additional filling options, one of which was a caprese. I literally could not stop thinking about it, so I ran out to the grocery store after class and picked up all the ingredients necessary. I'm also making Moosewood's pesto.

Deconstructed

The calzone dough is incredibly simple, and just requires time to rise. It did take kind of a weirdly long time to rise. I might've made it a bit too wet because I was trying to half the recipe, so my calculations were probably a bit off. But I got there eventually. Similarly, the pesto is basically just a couple spurts with the blender. Then, all I had to do was assemble and bake. I spread some of the pesto along the dough, then topped it off with mozzarella and tomato slices and crush red pepper flakes. 

I decided to add spinach to my calzone filling because I had some leftover from the green salad dressing. I knew it would only add some substance and deliciousness to the calzone. I just quickly wilted it with some garlic and olive oil.

Maybe I should've called them
"baked sandwiches"??

The assembly process was very similar to the samosas. And I was equally bad at it. There must be an art to determining how much you need to fill the dough. An art at which I fail epically. But as I've said so many times before, aesthetics are not my strong suit. Taste however, usually is. 

I ate the calzone with a salad, which was very yummy. Great way to end a busy Wednesday! 

Sandwich Saturday

Quick Saturday post to say that I put some of the antipasto I made on St. Patty's Day on some yummy bread from Trader Joe's. I also ate it with slices of fresh mozzarella. Very yummy and a quick meal! Hope you're enjoying the weekend!

Adultolescence

So yesterday I went to Walmart because I had some things to buy, but I ended up only purchasing 4 items: a small cactus plant, a can of chickpeas, an underbed storage box, and the Frozen DVD. This was so ridiculous to me, not only that I bought this truly bizarre combo of items but also that I made an entire trip to Walmart for these seemingly completely unnecessary things (not really the chickpeas--we'll get to that). And in my typical self-deprecating manner, I posted a picture of the items to my FaceBook page with the caption “I am not an adult…”

Which, I mean, is a true statement. I’m not an adult. Yes, because of my age I can vote, see R-rated movies, serve in the military, give consent, drink alcohol, purchase lottery tickets, tobacco, and pornography, and be held accountable under the full capacity of the law. And there are even some typical “adult-ish” aspects to my life. I have a job (two jobs!), I very generally take care of/provide for/maintain responsibility for myself which is a major part of adulthood. I have to be an advocate for myself. I also get to do things like eat my dessert before my dinner or watch YouTube videos for 3 hours just because there's no one else around to tell me not to. 

But also there are many many many decidedly non-adult things about my life. Even though I file a tax return each year (because I have two jobs and the IRS exists), I'm still listed as a dependent on my parents' taxes and so I just get all my money back. I don't have a real credit card, just a debit card. Age wise, I can't rent a car or run for federal office. And no matter how many Martha Stewart tutorials I read, I can't for the life of me fold a freaking fitted sheet. 

As mentioned before, I'm in a very transitional period of my life right now. I'm on the cusp of entering the world (isn't that a terrible phrase??) and generally, I feel that society expects me to be an adult. 

But here's the thing about being an adult that I am coming to realize: it's always going to be kind of dependent on the situation that you're currently in at that time. And a lot of the time, it doesn't really depend on you, it depends on another person or group of people. 

As you know, I'm an education major and part of my program involves us pre-service teachers going into classrooms for a few hours a week to essentially practice teaching. My very first ever teaching placement was in a Kindergarten classroom during their math period; I was 20 (I might have even been 19 my first few visits to that class, I don't remember; I have a late birthday). And on my first or second time in that classroom, the lead teacher came up to me and asked if I could lead a math station with the students that morning. To be clear, she had created the lesson and given me all the materials and then told me exactly what to do. But I was still petrified. But what I quickly realized as the students began coming over to my station and I began teaching them, was that they were completely convinced that I was an "adult". I was their teacher and in that moment, to them, I had all the competence, confidence, and knowledge that I needed. Funnily enough though, I'm reasonably sure that's not how the lead teacher felt about me at that time. But even though she knew I was most likely not a competent, confident, and knowledgeable adult, she did know that I needed a chance to try being one, even if it was just for an hour in front of a bunch of Kindergarteners. She was willing to step back in that moment and let me try, but still be there to help me with the consequences, negative or positive. 

Now sometimes, this influence of other people works in the opposite way. Like if I'm fighting with my parents and I say, "but I'm an adult!" and they say "No you're not!" I tend to side with them. Because, well they actually are adults, so they're probably right. And that's a big confidence blow, but importantly, like this former teacher, my parents are doing this as a way to help me deal with consequences. Or maybe even protect me from consequences. 

And when you don't have this support for dealing with consequences, the influence of others can backfire. Instead of learning that it's okay to try, you learn that you've failed and you are very reluctant to try again. You get very end goal focused (like, "I'm never going to get there!") rather than small moment focused (like, "I need to find a more manageable way to solve this problem.")

So this is what I was thinking about tonight while cooking and eating Moosewood's Gingery Chick Peas (thanks Walmart!) with quinoa--a very yummy, but very beige colored meal. And unfortunately, I don't think I'll really have a definite answer to the question, "Am I an adult yet?" for many many years. But increasingly, I'm beginning to come around to the fact that that's okay. And that probably that's not the question to even be asking in the first place. If you have a support around you and the space and confidence to act as an adult in whatever particular moment or situation, you're probably an adult. And those moments aren't going to happen all the time, or in a row. Because being an adult isn't a destination. Sure, it has a lot of perks, and I'm sure I'll get to a lot of them. But in true University of Virginia student fashion I'm trying to follow the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson who believed that we never stop learning and we shouldn't want to. 

**NOTE: Even though I would very much like to take credit for the absolutely perfect term "adultolescent", I did not make it up. It comes from the brilliant mind of Hannah Hart**

Happy St. Patty's Day! Let's Eat Some Pasta...

Okay, so can we all just agree that corned beef and cabbage is gross? Great. 

Though I have a lot of Irish heritage, I've never been particularly drawn to Irish food. Except Guinness. I have always been drawn to Italian food, though, regardless of the situation. 

After Spring Break, I felt I had taken far too long an absence from this project, so I wanted to jump right back in. Moosewood has an extensive block of antipasto recipes, which sounded perfect for me because they require just a couple of ingredients and come together quickly. I also made some pasta with fresh mozzarella and one of those "bake at home" bread loaves. 

The antipasto is meant to be served as a combo meal (much like Moosewood's mezza) that is light, but flavorful and delicious. I chose to make swiss chard, roasted green beans, and bell peppers. All of the dishes require marinating in red wine vinegar and lots of garlic, but are still pretty fast dishes. I think my favorite was the bell peppers, which were sautéed in olive oil with garlic and spices. They went so well with the pasta and cheese! 

I have no memory of ever eating swiss chard, but it's really yummy! For Moosewood's recipe, you basically just wilt the chard as you would for spinach. It doesn't exactly wilt in the same way, but it's the same general idea. I bought Rainbow Chard, which when combined with the bell peppers, made a beautiful and colorful spread. 

The green beans were not really my favorite, but that might've been because green beans are out of season. They were roasted, which made them kinda dry and crunchy, rather than the crispness you get from a fresh green bean. You cook them with onion and garlic, which was a yummy combo, but still not as good as the peppers and chard. 

Depressingly, we seem to be getting yet ANOTHER blizzard. I'm not quite sure what that means for my schedule tomorrow, but I'm assuming school will be on and it'll be back into the swing of things in the morning. It's kind of terrifying to think that there's only about 6 more weeks of this semester. I did absolutely zero school work over break, so I should probably catch up tonight (not happening). But being back in my apartment is definitely helping me get back into the right mindset and be ready to completely focus and succeed (and cook!) in my last weeks as an undergraduate. 

Luh-Sag-Nuh

Lasagna (note the entirely correct pronunciation in the title of this post) is one of my favorite things in the whole entire world. And I’m so pleased to discover how easy it is to make! My mom makes the most incredible lasagna and I recently learned that it’s basically Moosewood’s recipe, so I couldn’t wait to try it! I have also helped Mom make this dish before, so I felt okay about straying from the recipe a bit. Moosewood’s recipe is just basic cheese lasagna, but I prefer spinach because it’s more filling, and also spinach is delicious. I invited a friend over who shares my love of lasagna so we could emulate Garfield together.

Miraculously, I was able to find an illustration of my lasagna eating habits! 

            Before I could start the enthralling process of layering the lasagna, I had to make the tomato sauce. The sauce was a very simple recipe, and produces a really yummy thick marinara sauce. It is a bit chunky, but chopping the onion and bell pepper into smaller bits could probably solve that. When it comes to Italian food of any kind, I tend to prefer more sauce than most people find acceptable. Moosewood’s batch is a decent amount, but with the improper spreading that I did, some parts were kinda dry. Maybe like a batch and a half would’ve been enough. If (when) I make this again, I’ll try that. 

            The most difficult part about making lasagna is evenly portioning out your filling, sauce, and cheese between the layers. There are definitely some more highly saturated bits in mine, but I really enjoy all the elements of lasagna, so I don’t think it will be a huge problem. But I suppose if you’re a snob (and I did say to a friend that you’re allowed to be a snob when it comes to lasagna) you probably wouldn’t enjoy this. All in all this was a pretty delicious meal and very easy to make! Definitely deserving of the Garfield stamp of approval!