Eggplant? Who likes Eggplant?

At my work we have a weekly all-staff lunch meeting, which we refer to as "Friday Lunch".  It's a chance for guests to come visit and meet people who are working on projects of interest, and for staff to share a little bit about their week.  The lunches are catered, and there's a rotation of maybe 6 or so restaurants that we tend to get food from across a range of cuisines.  There are always vegetarian and vegan options, but some are certainly more exciting than others. (Who wants a block of fried tofu?  ...anyone?)

Among the more exciting vegan dishes is one that I never would have thought I would like: Eggplant rollatini.  You see, I'm not an eggplant fan.  It can often have an unpleasant texture, and in and of itself is middling in the flavor department.  But this dish, which consists of a spinach and sun-dried tomato filling rolled in thin slices of eggplant and then covered in tomato sauce and baked, is divine.  So, when I saw that I had eggplant in my CSA this week, I endeavored to recreate the rollatini.  Unfortunately all the recipes I could find for a dish thusly named looked like this: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/eggplant-rollatini/  or this: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/eggplant-rollatini-118235.aspx. And even the vegan version attempts to recreate the cheesiness: http://www.food.com/recipe/vegan-eggplant-rollatini-501164.

So I forged out on my own, attempting to recreate the version of rollatini I know and love.  I used my work at home Wednesday to oven roast tomatoes from my CSA for the filling, a technique that I love to use, given my unfortunate aversion to raw tomatoes. Other than that step (which you could do ahead or even substitute store bought sun-dried tomatoes) the recipe comes together pretty quickly.

And the best part - Kevin, who also is not an eggplant fan, gave it a big thumbs up.

Adding the filling and rolling them up

The finished product

Eggplant Rollatini

2 large eggplants, sliced thinly, into 16-20 slices (It would be REALLY hard to do this without a mandolin)

For the filling:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 a yellow onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic minced

4 or 5 large tomatoes, oven roasted, or 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes

3 or 4 cups chopped kale and/or spinach (I used a mix)

2-3 Tbsp crumbled feta (Optional)

1 jar of your preferred tomato sauce (I used TJs brand marinara mixed with leftover rollatini filling)

Preheat oven to 375F.  Lightly coat the inside of a 9x13 baking dish with olive oil.  

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Add the onion and sauté until translucent and beginning to brown.  Add garlic and sauté another minute.  Add the greens and tomatoes and sauté until softened.

Take each eggplant slice, add 1-2 Tbsp of filling and a small sprinkling of feta and roll the eggplant around the filling.  Repeat with remaining eggplant slices until the dish is full.  Then pour tomato sauce over the top of the rollatini.  Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 30 minutes.  Uncover, sprinkle with feta (if desired) and bake another 5-10 minutes.

Out of town

Oh hello there!  I promise I didn't forget about you all.  It's been a busy few weeks.  I spent just over 2 weeks in Idaho, family reunion-ing for 6 days in the Tetons, working at my parents' house for a week and attending a lovely wedding of a dear friend in Sun Valley (luckily before the fires got too bad).

Then I was back home for about 36 hours before heading to New Orleans for a conference. This left approximately zero time for cooking and/or blogging about it.

I'm going to post a bunch of pictures with captions to get caught up and then I will start posting more regularly again (I promise!)

The cabin in Alta, WY! Ready for some quality Nothwehr time!

\

Happy 60th Anniversary Grandma and Grandpa!

The whole clan (minus Kevin, Erin/Josh and Lisa/Mark)

Kevin was at the reunion for about 14 hours.
He's very good at supervising dinner prep

Families that bike together look like nerds together.

 Am I right?

Nothwehrs, by blood or marriage.  Preparing to hike up Devil's Staircase

Wind cave!

Home sweet home!

Working hard or...

Dad thought my job did not seem strenuous enough
so he gave me some real work

Old retired dudes do what they want!

Cooking with my mom

Outdoor dining

In Sun Valley, before the fire made its way over the mountains

Ranch wedding!

These crazy kids got hitched!
And then the next morning we drove 800 miles back to SF

Jazz in New Orleans

My 4th ever baseball game: NOLA Zephyrs vs. Iowa Cubs

My dear friend Kate taught me how to keep score!

A second line parade!

I made it home safe and sound (and sleepy!) and now I never want to leave my house or dine out again (New Orleans makes my pants not fit).  

Stay tuned because I have something exciting planned for the eggplant in my first CSA box in 4 weeks!

We are family (I got all my sista(s) with me)

To all my loyal readers who were waiting with bated breath, I did not (quite) suffer death by juice cleanse, I just didn't cover day 3 because it was a bit anti-climatic. And then I went to Iowa for Lisa's marriage reception.  It was 4 lovely (if a bit more humid than I'm accustomed to) days in the country:

The farm view from the porch of our cabin.  What a life!

If you ever find yourself in Clarinda, Iowa without a place to stay,
Iowa Country Cabins are AMAZING!

Picking ditch flowers for the reception bouquets!

visiting family:

Ma, Pa (before the unfortunate cigars and whiskey incident),
Lisa, Mark, Kevin and I

giving shoulder rides:

Little cousin Kinlee did not want her toes to get
nibbled by bulldog "pubbies"

and dancing.  So much dancing:

This is my "Look!  A baby!" face

Sista dancing!

I'm off to the Tetons next week for my Nothwehr grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary, so more family time for me!

In my couple of days at home I wanted to cook as much as possible, so today I made cookies, tried a new zucchini recipe for dinner: http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1014910/Zucchini-Tian-With-Curried-Bread-Crumbs.html

and am making roasted tomato sauce for tomorrow night, inspired by a delicious supper at my dad's cousin Mary Anne's house (she also took the reception photos).

Juice Cleanse, Day 2

It's day 2 of my cleanse and day 3 of dog sitting.  I could get used to this:

Not so much the juice:

Juice 1: Dynamo (Cucumber, Celery, Spinach, Kale, Parsley, Dandelion Greens, Lemon)

I decided that dandelion greens in and of themselves are not my enemy.  It's when they're paired with burdock root that they become overwhelmingly bitter.  So as opposed to yesterday's juice number 1, today's seemed pretty neutral.  

Juice 2: Refresh (Ionized Water, Lemon, Chlorophyl)

Chlorophyl? More like bore-a-phyl! (6th grade me has been waiting all day for that one).  Actually, aside from the bizarre color from the chlorophyl, this was one of the more "normal" juices.  As in it was basically lemonade.  Darn good lemonade. Without any turmeric.  In fact, I set a record so far, finishing it in 30 minutes!

Juice 3: Clear (Cucumber, Celery, Spinach, Parsley, Burdock Root, Lemon)

By the time I got to juice number 3 I was thinking today would be easy.  Most green juices seem essentially the same - not too exciting, not terrible, just with slightly differing levels of bitter or sweet.  This one was middle of the road.

Juice 4: Soothe (Cucumber, Celery, Spinach, Parsley, Lemon, Apple, Ginger)

Oh wow. So so much ginger. Scratch what I said before about green juice.  This one was downright overwhelming.  I was able to finish most of it, but it was really intense.

Juice 5: Ensalada (Cucumber, Celery, Spinach, Kale, Parsley, Carrot, Yam, Lettuce)

Yams again?? Seriously?  Although I think the carrot might be worse.  I like carrots in general, but not in preparations that are overly sweet.  And juicing seems to concentrate the sweetness.  I drank as much as I could, but may have to pawn the rest off on my friend Kate who's house sitting with me while Kevin's out of town.

Juice 6: Glow (Cucumber, Celery, Spinach, Parsley, Lemon, Algae)

Another fairly inoffensive green juice. Just having trouble drinking anything more.  Since I skipped most of juice number 5, and the green cleanse was fairly low in calories, I decided to go off script and have some avocado with lemon juice, just to get something else in my stomach.

All things considered, I made it through day 2 ok, and on to day 3, which will look a lot like day 1.

Juice Cleanse, Day 1

For day 1, I did the Purify Cleanse, which was a mix of fruit and veggie juices, and a relatively safe place to start.

The instructions for the cleanse tell you to drink your 6 juices 2 hours apart.  I imagine the idea is that you sit down, drink your juice all at once and then do other things until your 2 hours have passed and it's time for another.  For me, I could only manage a few sips at a time, so it would take me more than an hour to get through a full bottle of juice.

I think the main lesson that I learned today was that it's really difficult for me to drink 16 ounces of anything.  Also, whatever green juice I had before was for sissies. Which brings us to...

Juice 1: Clean (Celery, Cucumber, Kale, Spinach, Parsley, Lemon, Dandelion Greens, Burdock Root)

This juice was proof that you don't really know how green a juice can be until you have one with dandelion greens.  Not my favorite way to start the day.

Really bitter, almost coffee-like flavor.  I sat out on the front porch in the morning sun and sipped on this one from about 8-9:30am, at which point, it was nearly time to start drinking...

Juice 2: Boost (Ionized water, Lemon, Turmeric)

Wow... they weren't kidding about the turmeric.  I always thought turmeric was more of a color than a flavor, but after 16 ounces, I realized just how incorrect that assumption was. It's a fairly strong, pungent flavor that I wasn't expecting. Even though these first two juices were a bit difficult to get through, I had high hopes for...

Juice 3: Support (Apple, Cucumber, Fennel, Ginger, Lemon, Mint)

Whew! Finally a really delicious juice!  The mint/ginger combo was a little bit strong, but all in all it was great.  But unfortunately between the liquid diet and the doggie waking me up every 15 minutes from 1-4am I was almost too sleepy for...

Juice 4: Young Love (Blueberries, Raspberries, Pineapple, Kale, Chia Seeds)

Another great juice. Almost like a smoothie! Although I'm beginning to worry that I only like juices with fruit in them.  And with two really tasty juices in a row, I wonder if this trend could continue throughout the rest of the day.  But then, I met this guy...

Juice 5: Beam (Carrot, Dandelion Greens, Yam, Burdock Root)

I had never before contemplated how juice might be extracted from a yam.  And contemplating yam juice is only slightly more appetizing than drinking it.  Especially after a long day of juice drinking. Which made me glad that the last "juice" was something completely different...

Juice 6: Nourish (Ionized Water, Cashews, Ginger, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Nutmeg)

This was sort of like horchata, and very comforting at the end of the day.

Tune in tomorrow to hear about the the Super Green Cleanse, where I meet my foe dandelion greens again.

Summer Cleaning

I haven't posted here in a little while, partially because I've been busy, but also partially because I've been eating a lot of junk, and I didn't really want you all to know.  And don't think the two are unrelated.  For example, last week we went camping (otherwise known as eating junk food around a fire pit) in Sonoma County.  A sampling of the food we brought:

Because what's camping without overly processed sticks of "meat"?

Or S'mores (why yes, those marshmallows do have gelatin in them)

I also made zucchini muffins... again

And lest you think I didn't at least nod to healthful eating, I made quinoa
salad with corn, cucumber, snap peas and basil

So after 4 days of camp food, dining out, and wine tasting, as well as an increasing pattern of carb over-consumption, I did what any self-indulgent self-respecting Californian would do: Juice Cleanse!!  

I'm house/dog sitting for my boss who lives up in Marin County this week so I chose Urban Remedy from the plethora of bay area juice companies, because it's only a couple miles from her house.  I picked up my juice after work yesterday, and the cleanse started this morning.  I'm doing a 3-day cleanse, which includes 6 16oz juices a day (that's 288oz total for those who are counting). 

Woah, that's a lot of juice!

I thought it would be fun to blog my experience, so I'm planning on posting each day with the details of that day's juices and any witty banter I can muster.  I may even tally how many times I have to pee.  Enjoy!

You can go your own way

This is an exciting food-related post for me because it's the first time I've really come up with a concept for a dish without relying on someone else's recipe.  I'm generally not the most creative cook, and it makes me nervous to stray too far from printed instructions - recipes that I'm fairly sure will produce at least adequate results.

But I wanted to venture outside my comfort zone, and I was inspired by my CSA box (zucchini again!!!!) as well as some food blog posts I've seen about "pasta" made from thinly sliced zucchini.  I added some sweet corn, roasted tomatoes and fresh herbs and ended up with a lovely dish.  Roasting the tomatoes and making the corn broth took a bit of time, but this work could easily be done ahead.

Zucchini "Pasta" with Sweet Corn Broth and Slow Roasted Tomatoes

For the roasted tomatoes:
Cherry, grape or other small tomatoes, sliced in half
Olive oil
Fresh herbs (I used thyme and rosemary)

Heat the oven to 225. Spread the herbs and tomatoes on a baking sheet, cut side up, and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 2-3 hours or until the tomatoes are mostly dried. (It depends on how large the tomatoes are).

For the Broth:
2 (or more) corn cobs, kernels cut off and reserved
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 tsp salt
2 sprigs thyme
2-3 cups water

Add the garlic, salt and herbs to the water and bring to a boil.  Break the corn cobs in half and add to the water. Simmer for about an hour.  Remove the garlic and thyme. Scrape the corn cobs with the dull edge of a large knife to make sure that all the corn flavor has made its way into the broth.

For the "Pasta":
2 medium zucchini, sliced into thin strips with a vegetable peeler or mandolin
1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic minced
Chopped thyme to garnish

Add the oil to a large pan over medium heat, along with the chopped garlic. Sauté for a minute and add 1.5 cups reserved corn kernels and 3/4 cup broth. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add zucchini and some additional broth and sauté for 4-5 minutes. Add the roasted tomatoes and stir to incorporate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and chopped thyme and serve.