Geocache This: Grilled Eggplant Sandwich with Creamy Mushroom Spread

I’ve mentioned before that I am the resident caterer for my group of friends. I’ve done birthday parties, anniversary parties, surprise birthday parties, more birthday parties, but this one was a first – my friend, Robin, called up and asked me to cater her geocache party.

If you knew Robin, you’d know that this is not a normal request. I didn’t even know what geocaching was (and after a trip to Wikipedia, I’m still not sure I understand it). As far as I can tell, you run around pretending to be a cyber-era Jack Sparrow looking for buried treasure, using your smart phone to find specific coordinates. (I know, sounds like oodles of fun, huh?) I still haven’t gone beyond making calls with my cell phone, and now I find out that you can hunt for the wreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge while playing Angry Birds at the same time. READ MORE

Recipe: Grilled Eggplant Sandwich with Creamy Mushroom Spread

Summer Squeeze: Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad

When I was coming up with side dish ideas for the pasta tasting I did a few weeks ago, I knew I wanted to use tomatoes and fresh corn for one dish because they were in such abundance, and both crops have tasted better than average this year. When I showed the idea to a friend, she said “but it’s so everyday and boring.” Well, of course she’s right, but I would not be daunted. I set out to come up with a couple of twists that might look a little less everyday.

I love to squeeze every bit of flavor out of the ingredients I have, so instead of a raw salad, I thought I would roast the vegetable. Besides, I thought a roasted salad would pair better with a raw pasta sauce (pesto).

To try and make it a little more elegant, I decided to serve the salad in tomato boats – just hollowed out the tomato halves and roasted them along with the corn. It makes portioning much easier (don’t you sometimes hate trying to figure out how much is enough?), and I used the tomato flesh for another dish later on.

The salad dressing couldn’t be simpler – just oil and vinegar with a couple of dried herbs thrown in. And I used one of my favorite inexpensive flavor weapons: roasted garlic.

Roasted garlic is such a breeze – I just throw a halved-head of garlic and some olive oil into foil and toss it in the oven for 30 or 45 minutes. It comes out so fragrant and rich. I mash it down, combine it with a touch more olive oil, and stash it in the fridge for weeks. I’m not sure how long you can realistically expect to keep it in the fridge, but I’ve worked off of the same head of roasted garlic for a month or more. The trick is to make sure the oil covers the garlic – it acts as a great preservative. You’ve got roasted garlic add at a moment’s notice, and it costs about 45 cents to make.

Roasted garlic can make all the difference in a simple dish like this. Raw garlic could easily overpower the other flavors, but roasted boosts the overall flavor without drowning out the corn and tomatoes.

This dish was part of the winning combination for the pasta tasting party. You could say that it squeezed out a win.

Recipe: Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad

Torta Reform: Mushroom and Rosemary Potato Torta

Do you have one of those pieces of kitchen equipment that you only use when you have to? For me, it’s a mandolin. It’s difficult to clean, it’s awkward to use, and every time I touch it, I think I’m going to end up with one less finger by the time I’m finished. Of course, the fact that I have a cheap (in the negative sense of the word) mandolin probably has more than a little to do with it. Regardless, I seldom get it out – unless I absolutely have to.

We went to a party this weekend. One of us (not me) ended up having a little too much fun and was paying for it the next day. I hate days like that. I can certainly empathize with anyone who wakes up because they hear the ants crawling outside the bedroom window (I’ve been there once or twice myself). In an effort to combat the remnants of an exciting evening, Don had requested something starchy but light for dinner (yes, he was still not himself by dinner time – he thought it was a really good party). Starchy but light? READ MORE

Recipe: Mushroom and Rosemary Potato Torta

Crepe Crusader: Sweet Corn Crepes with Scallion Dill Sauce

Don and I found ourselves with an unusual set of circumstances – a rare Saturday night with no work and no plans with friends. What better opportunity for a date night? Unfortunately, it was the first of the month – the mortgage was paid, and not much was left over for dinner and a movie.

So date night at home it was. I didn’t want to do just a regular every night meal. I wanted to make something a little special, but I wasn’t sure what. What eventually came to my rescue? Crepes. What was my inspiration? IHOP, of course. I mean, when you think of a special meal with a gourmet twist, my thoughts automatically go to IHOP, don’t yours? (OK, I saw an IHOP commercial with crepes in it – what do you want? Every great idea can’t come with a flattering story to tell, can it?) READ MORE

Recipe: Sweet Corn Crepes with Scallion Dill Sauce

My Childhood Favorite with a Twist: Noodles and Green Beans with Asian Peanut Sauce

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to eat was pasta and peanut butter. I don’t even know where I got the idea. Mom didn’t make it, my brothers didn’t eat it, but I absolutely loved it. In fact, I think my brothers’ collective reaction was ‘Eew, gross,” when I made it. They just didn’t know what they were missing. Read More

Recipe: Noodles and Green Beans with Asian Peanut Sauce

Grilled Fruit Salad with Kiwi Sauce

I had one of those moments the other day. I don’t like to talk about it too much because it’s kind of embarrassing, even though it happens to all of us. Luckily the moments are rare and mostly fleeting – I decided to make a virtuous dessert. READ MORE

Seasonal Abundance: Onion and Arugula Tart

Have you ever heard of a CSA? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, people buy a share of the produce harvest that a farm produces all season. They are nationwide, and there is one here in Bradenton – Geraldson Community Farm. Even though I’m not a shareholder, I’ve been the recent recipient of their bountiful harvest.

Last week was the final pick-up of the season at Geraldson (it runs from November through May – this is Florida after all), and the Vidalia onions were overflowing. How do I know this? It turns out that I have two different friends who are members of the CSA and passed along about three pounds of sweet onions, each. (One friend also gave me this wonderfully fragrant bunch of sweet basil that I turned into a pesto sauce and parked in my freezer. I’ve tried all sorts of prepared pesto sauces from the grocery store, and absolutely nothing compares to homemade. I’ll be able to work off of the two cups of freezer pesto for a few months.)

So, back to the story: six pounds of onions and two people in the house – what do you do? Well, I started playing with onion recipes, of course. The first one up is a real winner: an Onion and Arugula Tart. The filling is composed of sweet onions that have been caramelized with a little balsamic vinegar, mixed with peppery arugula, and combined with ricotta cheese. That all goes into a homemade pie crust that’s been seasoned with dried herbs. It was a total experiment, and turned out better than I ever thought it would. I think the only thing I might do differently next time is add a little heat to the filling. I thought the sharpness of the arugula would cut through all the sweetness of the onions, but it needs a little help.

As for the crust, I don’t know where I picked up this basic pie crust recipe, but it’s all I ever use. It takes about 2 minutes to put together and is just about foolproof. I usually add a little sugar to it when I’m making dessert, but when I’m using it for a savory dish, I try to spike it a little that way as well. The addition of dried thyme to the dough really adds a complexity of flavor that I thought was lacking when I left it out. Of course, you can certainly use a refrigerated pie dough from the grocery store, if you want (I won’t tell anyone), but when it’s this easy, why would you? Besides, the 30 minutes that you need to park the dough in the fridge is about the same amount of time that it takes to caramelize the onions, so it’s not like you’re gaining that much time anyway.

So I’m starting to think that this CSA idea is a pretty good one. I’ve been contemplating it for the last couple of years, and I think it’s time to pull the trigger and sign up for next fall’s harvest. Either that, or make friends with more people who are already members.

Weekend Lounging with Oatmeal Peanut Butter Pancakes

Don’t you love weekends? You don’t have to be anywhere, you don’t have anything on your to-do list. The only thing you’re required to do is laze around the house. Does that sound like your typical weekend? Yeah, me neither - but once in a while you have to ignore the piles of laundry and waist-high lawn in exchange for some much-needed down time. The next time one of those mornings hits, try these Oatmeal Peanut Butter Pancakes. They take a couple of minutes more to prepare than the boxed mix, but they are totally worth it. Luckily, it’s a 3-day weekend, and that usually gives me at least one morning to indulge in a fun breakfast.

It’s a little embarrassing, but I love peanut butter (What can I say? Parts of me are still just an overgrown 8 year-old). So any time I can add it into breakfast, I’m a happy man. This dish combines the best of my favorite morning meals: peanut butter, oatmeal, and pancakes. Make no mistake, this is decadent. That’s why I only make them on those rare, lazy days. But they’re both comforting and remarkably light at the same time. I know it sounds odd, but it’s true.

Ideally, you might cut the portions in half and serve them with some fresh fruit, but what’s the fun in that? Instead, I just top the pancakes with sliced banana. (That’s a healthy compromise, right?) Besides, one of the all-time classic flavor combinations is peanut butter and banana. It’s enough to make Elvis smile.

So the next time you want to ignore being a responsible adult, try out these pancakes. Child or adult, they’ll be sure to make you smile too.

Where's the Beef? Not in Eggplant Lasagna

One of the biggest dilemmas I continually experience while eating inexpensively is how to also eat healthy. I mean, it’s easy to load up on pasta and grains for little money. And cheaper cuts of meat tend to contain more fat than the more expensive cuts. But if you stick to just those things, you are missing quite a bit of vital nutrition. I finally realized that the way to kill two birds with one stone is to create some (sort of) vegetarian meals.

Now, I have nothing against vegetarians. If you’ve got reasons to be vegetarian or vegan, more power to you. I grew up in the Midwest where every meal was meat and potatoes – and ‘vegetarian’ was a derogatory term. Needless to say, it’s taken a little effort to get over that negative stigma of meatless dishes. For me, the one thing a vegetarian dish has to have is enough body to be satisfying. I’ve just never been a ‘salad-for-dinner’ kind of guy.

Because of that, most of my vegetarian dinners are take-offs of my favorite meaty dishes. This dish takes it one step farther – not only do I use eggplant instead of ground beef, but the eggplant planks take the place of the pasta as well. So this Eggplant Lasagna is so freaking healthy that it ought to come with a prescription. But, like I said, who cares if it’s healthy when it tastes like the lawn? Well, there’s the beauty of this one – it still tastes thick and rich - like the pasta and sausage laden version. Don’t believe me? Then try it for yourself.

Huh. Who knew that you didn’t need cows and pigs to make a great meal?