Stress has overtaken my entire being. One surefire way to help me distress is watching reality television. Thank goodness there is a ton on for me to watch right now. Two reality food shows have started this week Next Food Network Star and Masterchef. There isn’t anyone on Next Food Network Star that has grabbed my attention yet. There is a woman with an absolutely horrible accent. I’ve never heard anything like it. It makes my ears hurt. Check it out just to hear that accent! Masterchef on the other hand has some interesting characters! There was a Scottish woman who was gushing over Gordon (of course I would too!) and he seemed to love her too. Some crazy bearded back woods redneck served the judges alligator. I was impressed, I miss southern food! And then there was the crazy who served sushi off of a naked woman. This confused me completely. So that’s my short and to the point recap of the reality food shows I'm watching now.
Cooking probably isn’t something I should do to de-stress. We all know that it just gets me hyper and usually pretty annoyed. Of course during a particularly stressful day, I decided it was time to try out cooking eggplant. This is my second attempt, the first being The Sandwich That Made Me Cry debacle. I found this recipe on a blog that I read daily Cheap, Healthy, Good. The recipe is Roasted Eggplant with Mushroom Tomato Sauce. There was no way I was going to try to make another sandwich. My sandwich cooking days are over! I cannot tell you how important it is to read through the entire recipe before you start cooking. When will I take my own advice?! I remembered that the eggplant had to be salted and than it sits out for 30 minutes after being sliced (I didn’t know why I was doing this, but apparently it draws out some of the bitter liquid. Very interesting I had no idea this was done!). So I paused Housewives of Orange County and sliced and salted the eggplant.
After Housewives was over I went back into the kitchen to continue with my cooking. Don’t forget to rinse off all that salt!! Thank goodness I didn’t. You broil the eggplant for 8 minutes, flipping them once. While the broiling was happening I chopped a green pepper and onion and I sliced some mushrooms. Of course since everything I do in the kitchen is very slow the eggplant finished cooking before I was done chopping. I was also pretty distracted by the ants that had invaded my living room that day (part of my stress!) and I felt the need to check 50 times or so to see if they were still there (they were and they still are! ) By now it’s was about 6:30 and I was starving. So I grabbed a skillet (heated the oil of course) and put the onions, peppers, and mushrooms in it with some garlic, Italian seasoning, hot pepper flakes, and salt. You cover the skillet and cook this until most of the liquid is gone, then you uncover and cook another couple of minutes.
Meanwhile you get a baking dish ready and spray it with some cooking spray. Once the mushroom mixture is ready you pour half of it into the baking dish, than put ½ of the eggplant layered over that, and add some ground pepper. Spread half of the tomato sauce onto the eggplant, and add half of each of the cheeses (I used mozzarella and feta). Then you go back and do the same thing again (like lasagna), but don’t add the mozzarella cheese this time. Now you have to bake this and that’s when I realized the huge mistake I made! This thing is supposed to bake for 60 minutes! Are you kidding me?! I turned my eyes to the clock and it was 7!! Yikes I wouldn’t be able to eat until 8. This is why you MUST read the recipe through once before you start cooking. I was devastated, but alas I put it in the oven and watched some more reality television (I also snacked on some leftover Crab Rangoons). Once the 60 minutes is up you add the mozzarella and let it get melted and bubbly in the oven for about 5 minutes.
Final Product:
(I just love that little mountain of feta in this picture!)
Even though I had to wait a millennium (between the debacle and the cooking time) to eat eggplant, I was very happy I tried to cook it again. This recipe is great. Once again I over did it with the cheese (you think I would stop and think before putting cheese on my food!), but it was super delicious!! I will be making this every time Anthony isn’t around for dinner (if I don’t order take out)! And there is enough leftover (if you are eating single) for lunch for 2 days at least!! Loved it! If you like eggplant, mushrooms, and red sauce try this out! Finally something I was really happy with. Next time I will remember that I have to cook it for an hour though and start the process earlier. It's a perfect dinner for those who want to eat vegetarian once in awhile!
When coming up with ideas for dinners without Anthony, I stated to think about all the things that he doesn’t like (eggplant, mushroom, pineapple). Then I remembered a pizza that my friend mentioned. While it sounds like a weird combination, I could totally see why it would be great. This is why I decided to make a Pineapple and Jalapeno Pizza. Pineapple used to be my topping of choice on pizza and it wasn’t always available. I’ve suggested pineapple on pizza to Anthony before, but he is not into the fruit on pizza thing. Luckily I found a recipe online for this exact pizza. At least some people have good taste out there!
The recipe calls for store bought dough (I had a small thought of making my own crust, but it seemed like too much work). I picked up wheat pizza dough from Wegmans. You can either just stretch the dough by hand over your pizza pan or roll it out with a rolling pin. I stretched it by hand (one less item to wash!) and tried to get it as evenly spread out as I possibly could. Then you make an easy pizza sauce (you could just buy pizza sauce to make this even easier) using a can of tomato sauce, olive oil, 1 clove of garlic chopped, and chopped basil, thyme, and parsley. Spread this over the pizza dough, than add mozzarella and parmesan cheese (1/2 of each). Top the cheese with pineapple (1 large can) and jalapenos (1 can), than add the rest of the cheese. Bake it in the oven for 30 minutes (at least). Mine was in the oven for 35 minutes.
Final Product:
I'm from New Jersey (we like thin crust!) so the crust on this pizza was too thick for me. That fact alone makes me want to try to make my own crust next time. Even though the crust was thick, it was actually pretty good considering it was store bought. I loved, loved, loved the pineapple with the jalapeno. The combination of the sweet and spicy was perfect. Too much cheese for my taste, but with a few little changes this recipe can be perfect!
A few days ago I really wanted to make a vegetable sandwich with eggplant, portabella mushroom and roasted red peppers. I tried combining two different recipes for said sandwich; one where the veggies are grilled the other where they are sautéed. Disaster ensued and it wasn’t just because I was trying to make something up on my own. The first issue was when I decided this would work without using the grill. I thought it best not to try to grill stuff when Anthony wasn’t home, I didn’t want to blow myself up. So I figured why not just pan fry these things (thinking back now I don’t even know why I thought of that, all that oil on a sandwich = yuck). When I took the portabella mushroom out of the fridge it was a little soggy around the edges and when I took the gills out it was starting to break at the edges. I should have just stopped there, but instead I got my eggplant ready. I put some oil in a pan and added half of the mushroom and two slices of eggplant. Another bad idea was adding the roasted red pepper to the hot pan, it started making a popping sound and was sticking to the pan. I pulled that out right away. Meanwhile the mushroom somehow managed to start burning and the smoke detector started shrilling. Everything was way too oily, the mushroom was way too burned and when taking the red pepper out of the pan half of it fell on the floor. Then I when I tried to cut the bread I discovered it was way too hard; I couldn’t even cut it (this is why I don’t like shopping ahead of time!). I got so angry and frustrated with all of it that I took everything and threw it all in the garbage! There is not final product picture for this one. I thought about taking a picture of the trash, but that wouldn’t have been very attractive.
I had been defeated by the cooking. It finally did me in; to the point that I swore I would not be cooking for the entire rest of the time that I was dining alone. Lack of sleep, coupled with being bored sent me over the edge and I ended up in tears over a vegetable sandwich. A sandwich!! I heated up some leftover pizza and took some deep breaths. Is this it? Am I through with all of it? Done?
I really did think I was and then a miracle happened. Last night I got my act together and managed to put a meal together. The recipe was horrible, so horrible I’m not even going to post it, but I cooked. I didn’t let the whole issue of the night before make me lose my confidence in my ability to cook a basic meal.
Here’s a picture of my recovery meal.
It is fettuccini tossed in a mixture of tomato paste, olive oil, garlic, and hot pepper flakes with salad greens added to it. Why? Who knows! Was it good? Not really, but I was happy. Happy that I moved on from the disaster of the day before and had the will to continue on with my cooking adventure.
Can’t wait to see what I come up with for next week. It’s my last dining alone week, so it should be interesting.
