Giveaway Winner and Eggplant Lasagna

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Hey Ma-

So, we've got friends who are going through a very sad loss of a family member right now. Obviously this calls for the delivery of a warm and hearty dinner. Our friends have dietary restrictions, though, and so our initial thought of lasagna had to be modified. What we ended up concocting was so fantastic that I have to share it with you here. Substituting eggplant for pasta we made the heartiest, yummiest dish.

The only problem we encountered along the way was that the dish turned very liquidy after baking in spite of our having browned the eggplant in a skillet. We learned from a friend that, to avoid this, we could have sprinkled the slices with salt and left them in a strainer for about 30 minutes which would have pulled a lot of the liquid out. We're not sure if the liquidiness was such an issue, based on how much everyone who ate the meal enjoyed it, but we're thinking that next time we'll give this trick a try to see how the results compare.

Despite it's stewy quality, we're sticking to Eggplant Lasagna as our name for this dinner.

XXOO
-R

Eggplant Lasagna
feeds 4-6

ingredients
1 large eggplant, sliced top to bottom in roughly 1/2-inch slices
1 jar pasta sauce (we used puttanesca and highly recommend you do the same)
2/3 lb. mozzarella cheese, sliced into roughly 1/4-inch thick pieces
12 oz. ricotta
freshly shaved parmesan (I'm going to have to say "to taste" because I have no idea how much we used. We were definitely generous, though)
3-4 links italian fennel sausage (or not! go veggie for a Meatless Monday meal)
handful medium brown mushrooms, sliced
5 c. raw spinach (de-stemmed)
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
1 bunch of basil (de-stemmed)

method
Prepare eggplant, either by browning it or by trying the salt-and-drain method (and maybe browning afterwards?). Saute sausage, mushrooms, onion and spinach. Starting with a layer of sauce in a large loaf pan, build upwards in this order: sauce, eggplant, basil leaves, veggies and sausage, cheese. Repeat until loaf pan is full and bake at 375 until bubbly and brown. Enjoy!

A Little Break...

Hey Ma-

I am so totally going to make Pop-pop's candy this year. I loved eating it growing up, ducking out into the cold to grab a piece after dinner (or after breakfast...or after lunch...) from the garage steps where you stashed it for cool and safe keeping. It is beyond delicious and I love the idea of bringing Pop-pop into our kitchen here, surrounding M with the smells that once surrounded him. Cooking really rejects linear temporality in some ways, doesn't it?

But anyway...

What I have to share with you today is something you will never make. It was pretty yummy, though, and so I have to share it. Plus, it's a welcome break from the general heaviness of holiday eating. This steak in teriyaki broth with vegetables dish manages to be both hearty and light at once and left John and me feeling full but not too much so. Plus, this is the first time EVER that I cooked a steak right which, in its own right, merits a mention here on the blog.

Click here for the recipe. It's super easy and I ate leftovers for days, including eating just the broth as a vegetable soup once the steak was gone.

I think, actually, the dish might be good with chicken. Why not, right?

Also, now I have this bounty of oyster sauce that I have NO idea what to do with. Have you ever used it? Any suggestions?

Alright. We're off to dinner with friends now.

XXOO
-R