This week’s meal plan is lacking Monday and Tuesday because we will be out of town for Madame’s work conference in Niagara!  The boys and I plan to hit up a local nut farm and go searching for strawberries too since rumor has it they are ripe there…. Oh yeah, and then we’re going to Madame’s parent’s house for Father’s Day weekend, so there’s a gap on both ends of this meal plan, lucky me—a vacation (and I love helping cook when we go home to our parent’s house, but I don’t have to make the plan!!).

Since this week is lacking on menu ideas, if you feel like you need more ideas just check out last week’s menu which was so good, every day’s meal was wonderful and almost all were new to us.   Shaved Asparagus Pasta was pretty much the easiest meal I’ve ever cooked, I recommend it as an easy seasonal meal!  The meal originally comes from Martha Stewart, but The Red Spoon has a much more detailed version of it that is quite helpful.

June 10-16

These days the menu features lots of green items.  It’s wonderful.  It also would seem that there is some debate on the internet (and maybe beyond) as to whether it’s healthier to eat leafy greens raw or cooked.  Since my 3-minute internet research session was inconclusive I’ll stick to just not worrying about it, and will cook them sometimes and sometimes not.  Basically I will let the recipe and my stomach decide what sounds best (which reminds me of this interview I started to read last night).  For further reading on cooking leafy greens try reading this article about Kale and its recent popularity.

Looking back at least week, one great meal was Cream of Asparagus Soup with Fresh Cheesy Garlic Bagels!  We ate it last night and like I just said, it was a great meal, especially the fresh bagels, which were topped with cranberry goat cheese (since we rarely buy cream cheese).  Let me just say, once you start putting goat cheese on bagels it’s unlikely you’ll ever go back to cream cheese…

Having not made this dish in quite some time we were excited to eat Eggplant Parmesan again, so we jumped the gun on summer and bought some Ontario greenhouse eggplants and tomatoes.  We had some red and yellow peppers a friend had given us so it seemed right to make a sauce from scratch and use it for the Eggplant Parm-Awesome!  (Haha, sorry, that seemed like a good name but when I wrote it down it looked absurd.  Oh well, I’m sticking with it from here on out!).

We also made Abundance on a Dime’s Cucumber Salad with an Ontario greenhouse cucumber, some more of the red and yellow peppers, and chickpeas.  It was a nice fresh-tasting side to the Parm-Awesome!

Eggplant Parm-Awesome

Based on Mollie Katzen’s Eggplant Parmesan recipe from The New Moosewood Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized eggplants
• 1 cup wheat germ and/or bread crumbs (mixture or just one)
• 1-2 eggs, whisked
• ½ – 1 cup flour
• 1 cup mozzarella, grated
• ½ cup parmesan, grated
• 1 jar of pasta sauce or the following ingredients:
• 1 onion, diced
• 1-2 Tbs. oil
• ½ cup peppers, chopped
• 1 can crushed tomatoes or 4-6 medium sized tomatoes
• 3 Tbs. tomato paste (optional)
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1-2 Tbs. Italian seasoning
• 1 Tbs. honey
• Salt and pepper

If making the sauce begin here, if using a jar of sauce proceed to the next paragraph.  Heat the oil in large pot.  Add the onions and fry until translucent.  Add peppers and garlic and fry for 3-5 more minutes.  Add the tomatoes,( tomato paste), Italian seasoning, honey, and salt and pepper, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally for 30-60 minutes, until the sauce has thickened.

Preheat the oven to 350.  Slice the eggplants into ½ inch thick disks.  Lightly coat one or two baking sheets with oil.  Fill a bowl with flour, coat the slices of eggplant with the flour and set aside*.  In a second bowl whisk the eggs.  You can stretch your eggs with a bit of milk.  In a third bowl put the wheat germ and/or bread crumbs.  Dip each floured eggplant slice in the eggs, then in the wheat germ to coat it.  Place on an oiled baking sheet.  When finished coating the eggplant slices bake them for 20-30 minutes, until they are turning golden brown on top.  Sample one, it should be crispy on the outside and creamy soft on the inside (at this point try not to sample more…).

Cover the bottom of an 8 x 12-inch glass baking dish (or similar sized baking pan) with your sauce.  Add a layer of the crispy eggplant slices and top with grated mozzarella.  Repeat 2 more times with more sauce, eggplant, and mozzarella (or until you run out of ingredients).  Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes, until it is bubbling and the top is golden!  Allow the dish to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.  Serve with a salad and red wine.

* Note: Katzen omits the egg and flouring, simply dipping the eggplant in milk and coating in the wheat germ.  For a gluten free option use a gluten free bread crumb.

Spring is beginning to arrive at the market and that is good.  It also is beginning to arrive in my backyard where I’ve been able to harvest small amounts of leaves from various young plants—dandelions, mustard, spinach, kale, and lettuce.  So this is good.  However, asparagus hasn’t come yet (Friday we will get some from Bailey’s!) so it still kind of feels like Spring isn’t fully here yet.  At the Kitchener Market we were able to pick up some local greenhouse arugula and chard, but neither of those really makes me feel like spring the way the asparagus will.

Sunday afternoon we went for a hike at Rattlesnake Point which is on the Escarpment that looks out over Lake Ontario.  It was beautiful!  We joined two of Madame’s brothers and their spouses, had a lovely picnic, played some Frisbee and kicked around a soccerball, hiked, enjoyed the warmth of sun, and had a great time!  When we got home instead of doing our Cinco de Mayo feast we had guacamole (a mini, non-local celebration!) and a frozen Beet, Potato, & Mushroom Casserole.  Thus we will celebrate Siete de Mayo.  I checked that phrase on google and the only interesting thing I found was a blog from a US surgeon in Afghanistan from two years ago.  His reason cited was the same as mine, well not the same really in any way other than the fact that when you can’t celebrate Cinco de Mayo you celebrate when you are able!  So, come on over for some great Mexican food on Tuesday night if you’re nearby!

The Eggplant Parmesan will be made with local greenhouse eggplants.  Kind of hilarious, and strange… but I was excited to eat something different and pretend that it’s summer.  Tonight’s Penne with Cabbage is something I’ve made before, but a long time ago.  It’s simple and tasty.   Also, I’m branching out this week, or returning to my roots–the Moosewood Cookbook is featured this week in two recipes, Eggplant Parmesan and Spanokapita.  Should be great!