food notes

Every summer, I think about how much I love summer food.  Fresh fruit.  Fresh veggies.  Grilled meat.  It doesn't take much to make a fantastic meal in the summertime. 

 

But then, fall arrives, and I remember- I love all food.  I start making soup and bubbling casseroles and drinking hot beverages almost every day.  We've had some especially great meals lately and I wanted to give you a few recipes to try out, if you're on the hunt for something new. 

A few weekends ago, we made portobello burgers with spicy mayo.  I appreciate a good, beefy, burger as much as the next American, but these were really something to write home about.  The mushrooms had a wonderful flavor and the spicy sauce was just right.  We served them with slices of Havarti, spinach, and tomatoes.  I love to have a few really filling and delicious vegetarian meals under my belt. 

This next one is not vegetarian.  I guess it could be, if you left out the pound of meat, but I think the recipe would be the poorer for it.  The recipe calls it eggplant parmesan, but I'd say it's closer to eggplant lasagna.  It is gluten free, which is handy, but you could certainly use regular old wheat flour if you don't mind a bit of gluten.  The eggplant slices are lightly fried before layering up with a meaty sauce and tons of cheese and then baking together to form a perfect marriage of yum.  That is my unbiased opinion, after eating this for four days straight.  We were so sad when it was gone. 

And then these: crash hot potatoes.  Declared during dinner by both Steve and myself to be "better than candy".  They were so easy to make and wonderful to eat that they are on the menu again this week.  I made one batch in a glass Pyrex dish and one in the cast iron skillet.  As you can probably imagine, the skillet won.  But that doesn't mean the Pyrex ones didn't get eaten up just as fast, so don't fret if you don't have a skillet. 

 

Incidentally, we also created a new Starbucks drink last week.  It's called a White Pumpkin- half the usual pumpkin syrup, half white chocolate.  You could go into your nearest Starbucks and ask for a White Pumpkin, but they may need to be coached through exactly what that is.  So help a barista out, and then sit down to enjoy a hot cup of fall goodness.  You're welcome. 

 

Happy eating!