mozzarella – The Kitchen Illiterate

Greek Frittata

Frittatas are like the easier version of quiche. Just as much eggy goodness, no need to roll out pie dough. They make for a simple, quick dinner, and are perfect paired with a light green salad. You might be more familiar with the frittata’s role at the brunch table: I assure you, it plays well at any meal. What makes this such a stellar workhorse? You can do anything with a frittata. You can throw in whatever bits and pieces you have floating around in your refrigerator and chances are it will be delicious. Versatility is the name of the game.
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Sneaky Eggplant

All across the interwebs, my fellow food bloggers are talking about the onset of fall with that sense of reprieve and reverence that I remember well. This summer, people across the country were hit with record heat waves, and the cooler weather is being welcomed with open arms. Just this last weekend, we were in New York and were greeted with cool breezes and crisp morning dew. Then we got back to Oakland and landed at 8:30 pm in 78 degree weather. The summer we were kind of denied has suddenly appeared. It’s no 112 degree July, but wowza, it’s warm. And we are still being deluged with summer fruits and vegetables: eggplant, tomatoes, melons, peppers, and cucumbers.
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Cheesy Turkey Manicotti

Lately I’ve had quite a thing for meals I can portion out and freeze in little individual servings. This Turkey Manicotti is exactly that. I thought it was just as delicious defrosted and carried to work in a little plastic container as it was when I first made it. In fact, I thought maybe it was even better. Maybe the flavors had more time to develop and become one, though I’m not entirely sure that can actually happen in a freezer. Either way, this is an excellent meal to make on a weekend and freeze for those evenings when you just don’t want to cook or those mornings when you can’t find anything else in the cupboard to bring for lunch.
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Focaccia Mediterranea

One of my favorite things about my new life in Walla Walla is that I have plenty of time for elaborate cooking projects. I have long, lazy Saturdays and Sundays with no one to see and not very much to do, and I spend most of that time in the kitchen (or on the couch learning to crochet and watching Buffy). On weekend evenings I like to pick a recipe from one of the many cooking magazines that are taking over my house, something that looks elaborate and involves many steps, and spend a good two or three hours in the kitchen, kneading dough and roasting things and assembling and baking and then, happily, eating.

This particular piece of deliciousness, from La Cucina Italiana, took about three hours, although most of that time was spent watching a movie while I waited for dough to rise. And it was well worth the wait. The dough is easy and rolls out smoothly (though it could do with a teensy bit more flavor, which could be achieved by letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight, I suspect). Roasting peppers in my oven was an adventure, and the end product was excellent: yeasty and warm and full of flavor. Anytime you combine bread, vegetables, and cheese, I suspect it’s impossible to end up with something bad.
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End-of-Summer Baked Penne

This baked penne really felt like my last hurrah to summer: chock full of summer’s produce, corn, zucchini, tomatoes, but baked in the oven, which heats up my little house quite nicely when it’s suddenly dropped to 50 degrees outside. I realize October might seem pretty far past summer, but it’s really only a few weeks since the official season change, and people do seem to be pulling the last tomatoes off their vines right about now. Not me, though. Mine gave up the ghost ages ago. So I think this is an excellent early fall dinner, to use up the last of the over-abundant zucchini and get you ready for casseroles and slow cookers and braises galore as the days cool off.

I originally saw this recipe on the Williams-Sonoma site, but I have to say their proportions seemed a little crazy. Eight zucchini? Really?! My skillet is just not that big. Of course, their recipe is meant to feed eight people, and I really only wanted to feed one, with a few days of leftovers. Some recipe rearranging skills were definitely in order.
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Johnny Machete? Johnny Marzetti? Just call it delicious.

If you’ve been around here long enough you’ve heard me mention Gilmore Girls, many times. It’s one of the only television shows I’ve ever become addicted to (for longer than a week), and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve watched the entire seven-season series through not once, but twice. And yes, I own them all on DVD. I don’t really know what it is about those fast-talking, witty ladies, but I cannot get enough, and I’ve gotten more than one person (like, pretty much everyone I’ve ever lived with) hooked as well, so I know it’s not just me.

What, in the name of all that is good and holy, does this have to do with food? Well, other than the fact that those Girls eat a lot of it, there is one particular episode (in Season 3) in which a strange casserole is mentioned: Johnny Machete. Nothing is said except that it contains cream of mushroom soup, and come on now, every casserole worth its weight contains cream of mushroom soup. It’s not called casserole glue for nothin’.
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Eggplant Parm? Oh hell yeah!

Eggplant Parm

Thank god things finally cooled off a little in this hellhole we call Boston. I wasn’t about to turn the oven on this week, and I had an eggplant in the fridge, patiently waiting to be put to good use. And I was deadset on making eggplant parmesan. “Why,” you might ask, “in the heated hot humidity of August, does a girl want to make eggplant parm?” Well I have no good answer to that question, but it got in my head and I couldn’t shake it out. And finally, today, with nary a trace of damp stickiness in the air, today was my day. Or the eggplant’s day, rather.

I gotta tell you, people, this was glorious. I never made eggplant parmesan before and I rocked its pants off. I wish I wasn’t the only person around these parts who eats eggplant, but hey, more for me. The tomato sauce was light and just the right amount of tang and sweet, the eggplant didn’t mush up at all, the seasonings were just right and the copious gloopy beautiful mounds of melted cheese…oh, that is bliss, my friends. Heavenly cheesy bliss.

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