Eggplant Parmesan

 One of my favorite go-to recipes. Hearty, pretty healthy, and freaking delicious. Oh, and it makes a ton, and the flavor gets better over time, which means it's perfect for leftovers. 

But I cheat. I cheated this time. I used mozzarella cheese instead of parmesan. There's no rhyme or reason, other than it sounded good. Notice I also didn't use regular spaghetti noodles, which means I broke rule #2. Rules 1 and 2 are already broken, and I've come to terms with that. Have you?

 Guess what; those aren't the only rules I plan to break here. Like for instance, the fact that I didn't lay out and salt the eggplant first. I did this for a long time before I got lazy once and didn't feel like doing it anymore. And guess what? It tasted the same to me without taking extra steps to remove the water! 

So anyway, grab that eggplant and slice away into 1/2 inch pieces or thinner. I even left the skin on! 

Once again...

Other than eggplant, you'll also need oil, which I forgot to take a picture of (I used evoo), pasta, which I also forgot to take a picture of, a plate, flour (I used white wheat), and a couple eggs or milk. I usually use milk but wanted to be a...

Sorry. I'll stop with the rebel nonsense. It's at this point that I like to get the oil ready. I like to use a skillet for frying eggplant because you really don't need to deep fry it. In fact, I think it tastes better if you don't - hence why this is pretty easy! So I heat some oil over medium in a skillet while I'm getting everything else ready.

 After you've put the oil over medium heat (we'll turn it up later, for now just keep it on medium so it doesn't smoke), dip the eggplant in the flour. 

Then in the eggs or milk. 

Then back in the flour. 

And onto the plate. After all the eggplant is coated, you can transfer them to the hot skillet.

*Insert picture of the eggplant cooking in skillet*

'cause that would have been nice to take a picture of...

This is what it looks like coming out of the oil. 

I think I ate a slice or 2 while cooking the pasta.....

Yes, and speaking of that, cook your pasta while these are cooking, or after they are done. I used rigatoni because that's what I had on hand, but I give you permission to use whatever you want. 

You're welcome.

Grab the skillet you fried the eggplant in, and empty out the remaining oil. You don't need to get it all out, we just don't want any pools left in there. Pour in your can of tomatoes and heat over medium heat for a few minutes, breaking the tomatoes apart as you go. Add in a couple tsp of sugar, and stir until combined.

 Now at this point, you can serve this dish however you want. I usually get out my iron skillet (for no other reason because it's huge), and layer it like this from bottom to top: sauce on the bottom, then pasta, parmesan cheese, eggplant, more sauce, more parmesan cheese. 

BUT ...I went crazy with the cheese this time. Instead of parmesan on top, I used slices of mozzerella, which doesn't melt like the finely grated parmesan I usually top it off with. So to fix this problem, I stuck the whole dish into the oven and set it on a high heat broil for about 2-3 minutes. 

Then I set this bad boy on the table. 

And then I went to grab my husband, who had fallen asleep on the couch. I called, but he didn't answer. I tried to bribe him with blueberries, but nothing. Not even a distant whimper. 

And then I discovered this...

My husband. Asleep. This, folks, is married life.

Now please excuse the ugly pillowcase. It was one of the many items my husband owned as a bachelor. As a matter of fact, I thought we got rid of that thing a long time ago! Hey, Ugly Pillowcase, what do you have to say for yourself? 

 Oh good grief. I won't even go into the couch potato pillows. That's another post for another day.

But lookie there. He's not holding the remote!

 I would also like to ask you to excuse the Speed Racer blanket. No, we do not have children..well not children under 25 anyway. Not children other than ourselves anyway.

But then I woke him up. After taking 12,000 pictures of my poor, speed racer, heart blanket infused husband, I light touched him to wake him up for dinner.

*quiet whisper* "Hey elf, dinner is ready!" (Don't ask why, but we call each other 'elf' sometimes

At this point my husband jumped up as if I blew a frog horn in his ear. He almost joined Elizabeth. It was almost the big one. 

"Don't scare me like that!" -- he said.

"Sorry." -- I said. There was nothing more to say. This was just part of the routine.

But he woke up to this and all was okay again.

And this..which I'll share a little later on. 

 I'm picky about garlic bread...REALLY picky, and I finally found the right way to do it. Well, the right way for me, anyway.

Recipe:

* 1 Eggplant (medium size, or whatever size you can get)

* 1C Milk or 2 Eggs, beaten

* 1C Wheat or white wheat flour

* 28 oz jar whole tomatoes

*2 tsp sugar

* 1 lb Pasta

*  1C Parmesan cheese (or mozzarella cheese slices)

* Oil, for cooking

* Parsley (optional)

Directions:

Slice eggplant into rounds. Separate eggs (or milk) into one bowl, and flour in another. Add enough oil to a skillet to cover the bottom, and heat over medium heat. Meanwhile, dip eggplant into flour, then liquid (eggs or milk), then flour again, and set aside on a plate.  Once all are coated, transfer coated eggplant to the hot oil. At this point, you can turn the heat up to medium high (if it smokes, turn it down again). Let cook about 2-3 minutes on each side, or until light brown.

Transfer cooked eggplant to paper towels to drain. Cook pasta according to directions on box. Meanwhile, remove the leftover oil from your skillet, and pour in the can of tomatoes, heating over medium heat, and breaking tomatoes apart as you go. After a couple minutes, add the sugar and set aside. Grab a dish and layer a little sauce on bottom (barely enough to cover), then pasta, then half the sauce, 1/4C cheese, eggplant, other half of the sauce, then 3/4 C cheese. If your dish is oven proof, you can place it in the broiler over high heat for 2-3 minutes until the cheese bubbles.

Enjoy!

Crispy Chicken Fingers

Fried chicken happens to be one of those meals I just find silly. Not so much the end result of  "fried chicken" ('cause that part's delicious!), but more the part about all the suggested ways to go about getting the perfect fried chicken. I cook so often that when I don't, I feel like I'm missing something, so there is a lot of trial and error. 

I've never experienced an error of any kind with fried chicken though, or chicken tenders for that matter, because it's just so, so easy. Even still, there are a few tiny things I've noticed along the way when making fried chicken, that ensure a crispier outside, and moister inside. 

First things first though. Here are some myths I've never, ever found to make my fried chicken any better. In fact, they seem like a total waste:

MYTH BUSTER!

1. COAT IN WHITE FLOUR.
Nope. I promise, it does nothing. Not only is white (Aka: Enriched) flour unhealthy (digests super fast in your body and provides very little to benefit your body), you can substitute whole wheat flour for a prettier color, and the taste is 100% exactly the same. Just trust me on this one!

2. YOU MUST USE BUTTERMILK.
False again. I've used buttermilk countless times, and I've never, ever noticed it helps anything. The idea is that it's thicker, so it coats the chicken better and allows more flour to attach itself on the chicken. Guess what, you can get the same coating from milk (even watery milk like skim, rice or soy), or an egg. Buttermilk sometimes even makes the chicken too soggy. You really just want enough of something liquidy to hold the wheat flour, but I've found that too much liquid can add sogginess.

3. YOU MUST SOAK CHICKEN OVERNIGHT OR FOR AT LEAST 2 HOURS.
Uh, sorry but no. Sure it works fine, and you can do this if that's your thing, but it's always seemed like a waste to me. And besides, I just don't have that kind of time. I'm not great at planning ahead and it never works out to where I think about it the night before. Even when it has, it's never seemed to make a difference in the final product.

4. YOU MUST LEAVE THE SKIN ON THE CHICKEN.
Again, I'm sorry but this has never made a difference in my opinion. The idea behind this is that the skin helps the coating stay on better, and gives it a crispier exterior. That seems to make perfect sense, but I've never found it to make a difference..With that said, I'm really grossed out by chicken skin, so the idea of knawing into fried skin does nothing for me. The idea of it being crispier, does even less for me. I feel a little sick to my stomach typing about it, which means it's time to move on. If you like the skin, please do your thing, but it's not going to ruin the chicken if you don't. 

5. YOU HAVE TO USE BONE-IN CHICKEN:
You don't. You can, and it will probably make it more moist, but I've never done it (my husband isn't into bones), and the chicken is always very moist. Leaving the bone in is supposed to make for juicer chicken. I can't debunk this, since I've never tried it,and it's probably true, but I can tell you it's not totally necessary. 

So moral to the story: It's just not that hard to make fried chicken! You can do it without all the complication, and with just a few simple ingredients. It is time consuming, but it's also very easy.

So here's way I do it that works every single time: 

Get out 1 lb of chicken. As mentioned before, I always use boneless, skinless chicken. About half the time I just buy tenders, and the other half I buy thin breasts when I can and just cut them in half lengthwise. I used chicken breasts this time.

Place the milk or scrambled eggs in one bowl, and flour in another. I used white wheat (cause it has the same benefit), but regular whole wheat works perfectly too. It's what I usually use. Dunk the chicken in the milk.

Like my 70's style tupperware? No joke, these were passed down, and I use them all the time. Just bringin' back the 70's! 

Grab some oil and pour it into a pan. I have about an inch of oil in here, and I used peanut oil because it has a super high heat tolerance, and it's cheaper. It's also pretty decent health wise.PS: Do you like my "Cool Dude" mug that's reflecting off the oil? That's my husbands, but it matches my "Hot Babe" mug. Thanks, Jamie Oliver!

Heat to 375. Now, this is a deep fryer that I bought from Walmart for about $25. It's perfect, and I love it, but you DO NOT need to use a deep fryer!! I repeat, YOU DO NOT NEED A DEEP FRYER. You can use anything else that's deep enough for oil, and heat it over medium high heat. You'll know the oil is hot enough when you drop some flour in and it sizzles a lot w/ a few bubbles in the oil. If it starts smoking, turn it down!

After coating chicken in the wet ingredient, dip it into the flour, coating well. Notice the pool of milk on the chicken? Yeah, don't do that. Make sure you let it drip for a few seconds (and be patient, unlike myself). Coat both sides, and put right in the oil. 

You can also coat several pieces and put them aside on a plate to cook all at once, but it seems to flatten out the batter, making for less crisp. I can tell you right now, I'm being too picky and over complicating this step. Just dunk and cook.

See those sizzles? See the bubbles? You don't? That's because there were so many it blurred the focus. But they are there, and this is a good thing.

Because when you pull them out, after about 3-5 minutes (or until a nice brown color), they look like this. I didn't think to take a picture of the juicy inside until now. That's the thing about having a blog, you don't start talking, until after pictures are taken. Oh well, just a great excuse to make more!

These were some of the ones I let sit on the plate. A little more flat, but still crispy on the outside, and moist on the inside. 

And if you want to be really bad, which I did, you'll fry up some of these too! 

 

I usually make my own from scratch... as seen in the picture above, but I was lazy and bought some prepackaged ones and used the oil to fry them. They weren't as good in my

opinion, but they did the job.  

 

And then we dipped them in this homemade ranch dressing, but that won't be posted until later today. ;)

Here's the lowdown, yo.

Recipe:

(Feeds 3-4 Starving people) 

* 1 LB Chicken (boneless, skinless please)

* Bowl or milk OR 2-3 eggs, beaten

* Bowl of Whole wheat flour

* Oil for frying (peanut works best in my opinion)

Directions:

Heat at least 1/2 inch of oil to 375 or over medium-high heat.
Dip chicken in milk and then flour, coating evenly. If it doesn't look very coated, you may do dip them in each again. Either place coated chicken on a plate, or cook each piece as you go. Cooking as you go works best, but you need to watch it so it doesn't burn, as each piece will be cooking at different times. Let cook in oil for about 3-5 minutes, or until golden brown. If you're worried about dying from salmonella, you can cut into a piece and make sure it's not pink. Pink chicken = no bueno. Serve w/ homemade ranch, ketchup, or my even steak sauce! 

Oh, and french fries!

How I Arrange My Spices

Did I tell you about the spice rack I made recently? Well, I mean that I copied from Alton Brown? You've seen Alton Brown, right? Well, in one of his episodes, he showed how he has all his spices arranged. Instead of the typical containers, he emptied each one out into little tins with clear lids, stuck velcro on the back, and stuck the tins on the inside of his shelf. "Interesting...", I thought. "I bet I could pull that off!" And then I forgot about it completely for several months. 

But then one day my husband and I were at Michael's when we came across the cutest little tins, just like Alton uses (we are on a first name basis now), except that they were even cuter, since they were heart shaped! The problem with heart shaped tins is that I'm married, and my husband isn't into the heart shaped stuff. So this is how that went down...

Me: "Awwww......look! They are just like Alton Brown's! I have to have them!!"

Husb: "Yeah, but what if they don't fit. And they are $30. Isn't that a little much? Are you listening?"

Me: "They have heart shaped ones!!"

Husb: "That's not happening.."

Me: "We're buying these! If we don't buy them now, they might be gone forever!"

Husb: "I'm not having heart shaped tins in the kitchen. Plus, we both know it's a project you'll start and won't finish"

*** Them are fightin' words!! But we both knew he was right.***

Me: "Excuse me? That's not true! Besides, I've always dreamt of having little hearts in the kitchen!"

***My husband has said many times that I get strange ideas and if he just goes with it, I'll usuall forget about it completely.***

Husb: "Maybe this is one of those things you'll just...forget about.."

Me: "Sorry, but no. This is not one of those things. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and you know that!" 

Husb: "Yeah, I know, but you keep forgetting about it."

Me: "Hey look! They have bright green candy melts!!" 

And just like that, I forgot...that is, until we came back to Michael's a few months later and all they had were the circle containers. No hearts. I'm pretty sure my husband arranged it that way. 

But guess what..I finally did it!

Has it made my life easier? I don't know yet. I'm still deathly afraid they will all fall off, leaving me with red pepper flakes and basis all over my stove top and behind my fridge. I do like that they are all right in front of me, labeled, and I can see what's there! 

Our local grocer allows you to scoop out your own spices, and you can get them in small or huge quantities, which is what I'll probably do in the future in order to fill these bad boys up. Meanwhile, I have a container of the overflow in my pantry. 

And "eventually" I'll put them in alphabetical order. Eventually.

But overall, this was super, super easy! And I have some extra little tins to use for other crafty things I'm not creative enough to think about, or that I've thought about and already forgotten. Just sayin'.

If you'd like to be a copycat (like I am), you can find these in the wedding section at Michaels. :)

Blueberry Gems

Yesterday I posted a recipe for Blueberry Muffins w/ Orange Honey Butter. I'm currently obsessed with those things, and I've been eating them all week, but my husband is currently obsessed with Blueberry Gems. Why? Because he's the Muffin Man, and they are muffins. And because of the buttery-cinnamony-sugarness. 

Don't believe me? See for yourself. See?

I posted a very similar recipe recently, so if it's not blatantly obvious, we are blueberry people in this here household! 

These are not "gems" unless they are made in something that makes them bite sized. You can be creative and even plop a dollop of... uh, not daisy (eww)...batter on a cookie sheet like cookies, but whatever you do, make them bite sized! You're tongue will thank you. Your entire mouth will thank you. You will thank you. 

I used a mini muffin tin. But like I said, use whatever your little heart, er, tastebuds desire. 

Blueberry Gems

Ingredients

• 3 cups white wheat flour
• 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• ⅔ cups Shortening
• 2 Eggs
• 1 cup Milk

  Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350. 

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat sugar and shortening for a couple minutes on medium speed. Add eggs to sugar and shortening mixture, and beat for a about 10 seconds. Add half of flour and beat for a few seconds, then add half of milk, beating for a few seconds. Next, add the rest of the flour and beat, and then the rest of the milk and beat. Everything should be combined. Fill each muffin cup up to the top, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

----
Meanwhile, when you pop them out of the oven, they will look like this:

Just plain ol' blueberry muffins. But not really. It's deceptive, you see. These are whole wheat, and they have less sugar than the regulars. Why? Because first of all - I think they taste better with less sugar, second of all - I never, ever use sugar substitutes, and third of all - we are coating them with more sugar, so it's pointless to add a lot of sugar in the batter.

Now, let's make them more healthy, shall we?

Stuff that makes them "Gems"

2 sticks Butter, melted

1 C Sugar

 3 TSP Cinnamon

Directions: 

Place butter in one bowl, and in another bowl, mix cinnamon and sugar. Dip gems into butter and coat evenly, and then dip in cinnamon sugar mixture, coating evenly. At this point, they look like this:

This one had less cinnamon. 

And this one had a little more. They look prettier with less cinnamon, but taste better with more. 

And really..who cares about appearance, when you have a muffin coated in cinnamon and sugar!

Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins w/ Orange Honey Butter

Oh yes ma'am...er, sir. These things are the bomb diggity. Sorry, I think my Junior High days just caught up with me. 

Blueberry muffins are pretty common in our house. Actually, blueberry everything is pretty common in our house. Actually just blueberries are. We throw them on top of almost everything, and muffins just seem appropriate.

The problem is that one (being me, of course) can easily get tired of the traditional blueberry muffin. "What??" You say. "How can one ever get tired of a blueberry muffin?! Are you crazy or something?" First of all, yes, I am slightly crazy, hence the name of my blog, second of all, trust me, it's possible. 

But it's not worth giving up muffins, for Blarney's sake (sorry, we had Irish food last night). So sometimes I tweak them a little, just to vary things up. And I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite muffin recipes to date. It's sweet, but not too sweet, it's fluffy but rather moist and not dry, and they are bite size, which just makes them that much more tempting. Oh, and they are not overly unhealthy, since they are made with 100% whole wheat flour. 

But that's not all that makes these things stand out above the rest in my eyes. You see, they also have this stuff below. 

 Orange honey butter. It's easy, it's good enough to eat on it's own (not that I'd do that......ever again...), and it's great on muffins! Heck, it's also great on plain toast, french toast, and other things I'm not creative enough to think up right now. 

But let's get started on the muffins. Basically I'm using a classic muffin recipe, except with whole wheat flour and less sugar.  

Blueberry Muffin Recipe

• 3 cups white wheat flour
• 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• ⅔ cups Shortening
• 2 Eggs
• 1 cup Milk

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350. 

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat sugar and shortening for a couple minutes on medium speed. Add eggs to sugar and shortening mixture, and beat for a about 10 seconds. Add half of flour and beat for a few seconds, then add half of milk, beating for a few seconds. Next, add the rest of the flour and beat, and then the rest of the milk and beat. Everything should be combined. Fill each muffin cup up to the top, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

And I should note that I'm pretty anti-Crisco. Here's the ingredients list: "SOYBEAN OIL, FULLY HYDROGENATED PALM OIL, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED PALM AND SOYBEAN OILS, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, TBHQ AND CITRIC ACI" -- yeah, no thanks to the fully hydrogenated stuff, not to meantion partially hudrogenated junk. Enough of the lecture, I use this stuff:

 I'm not just a huge fan of shortening in general, but when it's needed, this stuff works great every time. IF you can't find this stuff, you can use just plain oil. If you're a Crisco lover, that's fine too. I won't tell anybody. :)

-------------------------------

Now on to the stuff that makes these things EVEN BETTER!

(Super easy, don't worry)

Orange Honey Butter Recipe

1 stick Butter, unsalted

1/2 large orange (with skin)

1 TBS honey (plus more to taste)

Let butter soften for about 20 minutes, just enough to where it's not so cold. Slice up the half orange until a couple pieces (doesn't matter how you do it) and leave the rind on. Once butter has sat out for about 20 minutes, toss it into the food processor with the orange and honey. Spin it around in the food processor a few times, or until well blended. At this point, you can add more butter, orange, or honey to your liking. The recipe above is the perfect balance to me (with up to 2 TBS of honey), but you want this to taste how YOU want it to! 

At this point, you can spoon the honey onto some parchment paper, and roll up into a tube. Instructions on how to do that here.

And you could probably even gift this stuff. Who wouldn't like orange honey butter?

Or, you could save it for yourself, and spread some on these muffins! 

..which is what I did!

And I have no regrets. 

 I mean, I'm just not to the type to live with regrets. 

It's orangish. It's creamy. It's sweet, but kinda tangy. It's my breakfast. It's my go-to for a week's worth of super delicious breakfast for me and my husband.

It's........ Blueberry Muffins w/ Orange Honey Butter. I'll be posting another blueberry muffin recipe tomorrow..Blueberry Gems. Sorry, I just felt you should be warned.