Eggplant Parmesan

One of the veggies we received in our recent delivery was eggplant.  I've never cooked with eggplant before, but I love eating eggplant parmesan at restaurants.

I found an eggplant parmesan recipe online that turned out really good.  It wasn't hard to make, just a little time consuming - it was basically like making lasagna with eggplant instead of noodles.

Breaded eggplant slices after initial baking.

Assembled dish going into the oven.

The finished dish after baking.

The plated dish!

This recipe is worth a try if you love eggplant or have some delivered to your door and don't know what to do with it!

Pops Visits DC

Last week, my dad came to DC for a conference.  Once the conference ended, he was able to spend a couple of days with us before he flew home.

We spent one day at Mount Vernon...

Making friends with Washy.

In Martha's garden.

And the other day at the National Air and Space Museum...

Airline version of the plane he flew in Vietnam.

In front of a cool wall mural.

He picked the right day to fly back to Florida since it got COLD here over the weekend.  Yesterday's high was 52 and today's is expected to be 56.  However, highs should warm up into the 70s later this week.  I'm not ready for the cold yet!

Tortellini with Butternut Squash

The Real Simple magazine recipe for tortellini with butternut squash and mushrooms turned out fantastic!

Mushrooms prior to roasting.

Butternut squash prior to roasting.

The finished dish.

Instead of shredded fontina, we added grated parmesan on top since we had some in the fridge.

In the end, this dish was definitely worth making - we recommend giving it a try.  However, I have a couple of recommendations:

1. The sage leaves have an overpoweringly bitter taste, so you'll want to pick them out either after roasting or before eating.
2. The butternut squash is quite challenging to peel.  Maybe our peeler is just dull, but I ended up peeling with a knife.  It's time consuming, but seemed to eventually work.

Fruits and Veggies Galore

I'm really excited about redeeming the Groupon we bought to South Mountain Veggies!  Our order will be delivered next Thursday, and we had a great selection to choose from.  We got the medium family share bag which includes 12 items.  Here's what we'll be getting:

Yum!  I see some delicious meals in our future.

Eating Acorn

Trader Joe's has some beautiful pumpkins and squash right now.  And thanks to the latest Real Simple magazine, I actually know what to do with them.

Acorn squash.

Tonight with dinner we had parmesan-roasted acorn squash.  I substituted dried sweet basil for thyme (since we had some in the cabinet).  It turned out delicious!

Before baking.

After baking.

We paired it with lemony olive oil pasta, substituting chicken for tuna.

The next recipe we have planned is tortellini with butternut squash.  I have high hopes for it since the other recipes from this month's issue have been excellent.

Cornbread and Chili

Now that fall and its heavenly temperatures have arrived, I decided it was time to have cornbread and chili for dinner.

The cornbread was made with cornmeal from Mount Vernon, using a Nelly Custis recipe that was included.

It turned out being delicious!

This month's Real Simple magazine has some great looking recipes.  I used a chili recipe to go with the cornbread and have two more recipes planned for later this week.  The chili recipe is Chipotle Beef and Beer Chili.

Since I couldn't find chopped chipotles in adobo sauce anywhere around here (this is when I particularly miss the Cuban cuisine influences in Florida), I substituted home-grown jalapenos from my friend Colleen's herb and vegetable garden.  I'm definitely not a spicy food person, but with the seeds and ribs removed from the jalapenos they were pretty mild... and tasty.

I predict we'll be using this recipe again during fall and winter.