recipes with rachel

I like eating. Food is emotional, and cultural, and social. I appreciate good quality food, and well-crafted meals.
But, I'm no Julia Childs, or Remmy (the rat), for that matter.

I've never baked my own Thanksgiving turkey, or grown my own basil, or juiced my own grapes.
I can barely tell you the difference between Fenugreek and Greek yogurt.

But, I have potential.

I have a kitchen.
I have a meat tenderizer, a lemon juicer, and a whole bucket of Christmas shaped cookie cutters.
I have all the makings of a budding kitchen goddess.

Something I also have on my side is Rachel. She's my sister-in-law and we share the same desire to bring our glimmering candle out from under the bushel of Ramen and peanut butter sandwiches, and create a wildfire worthy of Smoky the bear's attention.

And so, with the help of our new favorite smart phone app - Epicurious - Rach and I are building up a list of relatively healthy, budget-friendly recipes that we plan to conquer. Each week we'll try out something completely new, and document our experience. We'll gather tips and tricks along the way, as all good chefs do: "substitute baby prunes for oil" or "add a pinch of this ancient Mayan aphrodisiac 12 seconds after achieving a rolling boil", etc.

Our first culinary experiment was with a delightful veggie side called Eggplant Croquettes. This past Sunday Rachel and I both prepared these for our dinner - Rachel in the heat of Texas, and I in the pleasantly cooling air of approaching autumn.

This may be small potatoes to some, but it was a new frontier for me, and I have to give myself credit, they turned out pretty good! And now, for your viewing pleasure the Eggplant Documentary.



Eggplant Croquettes

Ingredients

•2 medium eggplants, peeled and cubed
•1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
•1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
•2 eggs, beaten
•2 tablespoons dried parsley
•2 tablespoons chopped onion
•1 clove garlic, minced
•1 teaspoon salt
•1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
•olive oil for frying

Directions

1. Place eggplant in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on medium-high 3 minutes. Turn eggplant over and microwave another 2 minutes. The eggplant should be tender, cook another 2 minutes if the eggplants are not tender. Drain any liquid from the eggplants and mash.

2. Combine cheese, bread crumbs, eggs, parsley, onion, garlic and salt with the mashed eggplant.

Mix well.

3. Shape the eggplant mixture into patties. Heat oil in a large skillet. Drop eggplant patties one at a time into skillet. Fry each side of the patties until golden brown, approximately 5 minutes on each side. Patties can be frozen before frying and cooked later.

I gleaned a few insights from the process and have added them to my bag of tricks.

First of all, the original recipe calls for A CUP of vegetable oil for frying. Sick. Makes me want to throw up a little. I just used a couple glugs of olive oil to lightly coat the pan. The goal was to get some nutrition from these, not set myself up for an early death.

Second, eggplants are an interesting creature. Kinda spongy, kinda fibrous. I discovered that tender is perhaps a relative term when dealing with eggplants. I microwaved them for a good 7 minutes, and I do think they were soft. They definitely weren't crunchy. But they do have a unique texture. I think I got them as tender as eggplants ever get, but with this being my first date with eggplant I don't have much to compare with.

I threw three patties in the skillet at a time, instead of the recommended one (why wait?).

This side was the absolute perfect compliment to the steak we had with it! I couldn't imagine a better dish to pair it with. I think we'll keep it in the recipe box for future steak night use!

Upcoming recipe? We've got homemade granola on the brain . . . and a load of recipes to choose from.

wanted: new music

Alright, I need suggestions. I'm ready to get acquainted with some new artists, create some new Pandora stations, and change up my music for the fall.

What should I look in to?

What are your favorite songs, artists, bands, etc?

Give me your suggestions - anything goes! In fact, I'm not going to give any parameters or guidelines, I need fresh suggestions.

Ready, go.

birthday crash

In addition to all the great things I previously wrote about, my 24th birthday brought with it a first that I am not anxious to repeat any time soon.

My first traffic collision.

McKay and I were on our way to enjoy some birthday smoothies at Roxberry Juice. It was about 7:15 pm and the sun was in that sweet spot of blindness in my rear-view mirror. We happened to be driving through construction (surprise surprise!) so there was only one lane to drive in. no turning lane. no passing lane. one lane.

We arrived at our destination, with Roxberry juice on our left. So, I stopped, put on my left blinker and waited for the oncoming traffic to clear. Before that happened, we noticed a brand new Pizza Pie Cafe in the parking lot to our right. McKay designed their logo and knows the owner of the chain well, so at the last second we decided to turn into PPC first and check out their new location. Seeing the truck behind me also stopped, left blinker flashing, I quickly switched my blinker to the right and started to turn into PPC.

Enter young inexperienced driver.

As I started making my turn, a silver Jetta snaked out from her lane, onto the shoulder to go around me. Before I could stop, the Jetta had clipped my bumper, tearing it clean off, and I had left a thick scratch along the entire drivers side of the car.

Great! My first accident on my birthday. What was this going to cost us? We wondered as we pulled over to the shoulder to take care of business.

Young driver's mom hopped out of the passenger seat, fuming, and immediately called the police to vindicate the wrong we had heaped upon her and her budding driver. McKay and I sat sheepishly in our car, waiting for the officers to arrive. As far as we were concerned, the accident was our fault and we were hosed.

When the police arrived they started getting our paperwork, and then inquired about my protruding belly.

"Are you pregnant, ma'am?"

"Yep!" I replied

"We're going to get a medical team here just to make sure you're alright. How old are you?"

"24," I replied "24 today!"

His eyes got all sympathetic for a minute and he almost reverently wished me a happy birthday.

With that, the secret code was hissed through his little vest radio and the medics were on their way.

I felt 100% fine physically, and a little silly as an ambulance pulled up, lights flashing. I joined a couple paramedics in the back of the ambulance as vitals were taken, and small talk was made. Everyone was over the top about looking after this pregnant birthday girl. It was a nice bonus!

As we filled out the paper work it slowly dawned on us that although we had been confusing in our last second signal change, there was technically only one proper lane of traffic. Making Jr. Jetta driver at fault!

Sure enough, after all the formalities were finished, the officers helped us load our mashed bumper in our trunk (a real trick, if you've never tried it). Then, we were on our way to get smoothies and the fuzz headed over to issue a citation to Jetta mom and lil sis.

Wow!

What started out as the most bummer birthday incident actually ended up being kind of a funny and exhilarating experience! If you're going to get in a wreck, do it on your birthday, 30 weeks pregnant and you'll get the special treatment (oh, and don't be at fault).

Now we just have to wait for the insurance stuff to get settled so we can get our bumper replaced! Our poor little accord looks quite naked and exposed right now. But, on the bright side, that bumper needed some serious work anyway. Perfect.

happy birthday to me!

I am two dozen years old today! So far it's been the perfect day. I woke up to an empty bed...suspicious! McKay had been up for a couple hours decorating the living room and getting crepes ready for breakfast. Mmmm!

After breakfast McKay headed off to work and the following great birthday things happened:

*I beat my Tetris high score (woohoo!/nerdy)

*My hair worked great

*I got to spend some time practicing the piano - which in my younger days would NOT have been a fun way to spend my birthday - but I really enjoyed it!

*I watched one of my favorite movies - Chocolat

*McKay brought home pizza (after I dropped a hint that I was craving it)

*Enjoyed smoothies from Roxberry Juice (after a slight traffic incident . . .)

*Fell asleep to Star Wars on our mattress that we dragged down to the living room.

It was a great way to spend the 24 hours of my 24th birthday!

early autumn love

I just read a facebook post from a friend declaring her eager excitement for the approaching season . . . and I got thinking about my most beloved time of year. Though perhaps premature, this post is dedicated to all the exciting things about fall 2010. Feel free to sip some cocoa while reading.

This year I am especially pumped for fall. For the first time in my memory I will be basking in the changing of summer into fall as a college graduate! no back to school. no tuition. no new packs of pencils doomed to be lost within the first week of purchase. no syllabi. no books to buy. no rushing to campus. no parking frustration. and NO late nights studying! "Ha-cha-cha" (Ghostwriter)

What will occupy my time? Well, during the early days of fall we will be welcoming in the Fallidays - a tradition begun last year by McKay and me to celebrate those early fall months when Christmas is too far away and Halloween is too lame to commemorate.

Labor Day is the official kick-off to Fallidays and will be spent with McKay's family in Moab this year.

Last year McKay commissioned, and I wrote, our first official Fallidays song. An important item of autumn business will be writing this year's Fallidays theme song.

Soup September, brand new to this year of Fallidays, will feature new soup recipes each week. Guaranteed to please.

October will bring one of the highlights of Fallidays - General Conference and screpes. For my long time followers, you may remember reading about screpes - or square crepes - in earlier posts. This is a delicious and favorite Fallidays tradition.

And of course, the most momentous and eventful occasion of this fall is the arrival of our baby girl in early November! Fall 2010 will not only be a season of pumpkin and cocoa and sweaters and scarves and crunchy leaves and crisp air, but a season of nesting and baby showers and an increasing belly!

So farewell to the last few weeks of summer, and a hearty hello to the most wonderful time of the year!