Eggplant Pie

I love eggplants, so I am welcome for any interesting eggplant recipes. Today, I found this Mediterranean Eggplant Pie recipe by google search. However, I did not have a few ingredients handy and did not feel like going to the store. Thus, I adopted this recipe to make my own version of the Eggplant pie dish.

Below is my version of the dish. I will try the original dish in the near future, though. It does sound good to me.

Ingredients:

4 Chinese eggplants, cut into 1/4" thick slices. Salt and Freshly ground pepper to taste. (I did not have time to do this step, which contributed the excessive liquid I mentioned later.)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 large onions, sliced
1 10-ounce package fresh spinach, cleaned and trimmed of stems. (I just used a bunch, no weight info.)
1 medium tomatoes, peeled and sliced.
1 can diced tomatoes, 14.5 oz (no need if you use 2 fresh tomatoes)
4 sweet Italian sausages
1 unbaked pastry crust for 10"" pie (I made my own, mix 1.5 cup flour, 6 Tbsp butter, pinch of salt and 2 small eggs, fridge about 30 minutes.)
Black or Golden caviar for serving with the baked pie (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly butter a 2 3/4 qt. deep baking dish (such as a Ducth oven or a souffle' dish) that is 8 to 9 inches in diameter.

2. Season the eggplant with salt and pepper. Set aside.

3. In a large skillet heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 10 minutes until they are softened, but not browned. Set aside.

4. Place the washed spinach in a pot. Cover and cook over high heat for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the spinach is wilted. Squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the spinach.

5. Cook sweet Italian oven medium heat till almost done. Break them into small pieces.

6. Arrange about half the eggplant in the bottom of the prepared dish. Top with layers of half the onions, spinach, fresh tomatoes, and sweet Italian sausage. Repeat the layers with the remaining ingredients, ending with the remaining eggplant slices and canned diced tomatoes.

7. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until it is large enough to over the top of the casserole. Place it on top, form a decorative raised edge.

8. Bake for 50 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.


It turned out almost perfect, just a little bit too much liquid retained in the dutch oven in the end. This was likely caused by the juice in the diced tomatoes and eggplants. When I make it next time, I will use fresh tomatoes instead. Hope the liquid situation will be improved. Anyhow, we ate a lot of it at dinner today. Yum!

Blueberry-oatmeal-apple sauce Muffins

I was craving for muffins, so was Hubby. Homemade muffins are definitely healthier than those you get from the grocery stores. The latter is just too sweet, greasy and texturally refined to my taste. Since I have been following a few food blogs, I got a lot inspirations on how to make healthy muffins without the taste being compromised. This blueberry-oatmeal-apple sauce muffin recipe sounds really awesome to me. I got to try it out. The muffin tasted equally awesome to its name, moist, not heavy, perfect sweetness and a bit chewy. It was just perfect. We ate half of the batch after it was done, so I ended up making a 2nd batch the same night. And I will make it again and again.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (I used all purpose flour)
1 1/4 cups oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 tbsp low fat yogurt
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper cases or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

3. In a large bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

4. In a medium bowl, lightly beat eggs, combine applesauce, milk, sugar and oil.

5. Make a well in dry ingredients and add applesauce mixture. Stir until just moist. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.

6. Bake for 16-18 minutes.

Fried Rice

Many people like the fried rice dish from Chinese restaurants. Since it looks like a simple dish to make at home, many Westerners have tried it at home. I had no doubt that everybody could make this dish with no problem until one day a friend asked me how the fried rice dish was made in China. I never really cooked when I was in China, so I did not know how it was actually made, but I ate too many times in China and in Germany and in the States. From the look, I figured out how it is probably cooked, though. I guess many people also figured this out by eating and looking at it. Upon friend's requests, I had to tell my very unprofessional way on how to make this dish.

It is EASY!

1. Cook rice in a rice cooker or simply in a pot following directions. Set side the rice. Rice from the previous day is even better to make the fried rice dish.

2. In a saute pan, stir fry 2 eggs and set aside. If you use sausages, fry them in whole and set aside, too.

3. Use the same pan, without washing, fry the rice till grains are well separated. Set aside.

4. Add some oil to the pan, stir fry veggies that you like till they are cooked.

5. Cut the sausages into small pieces and stir into the veggies. Cook for a minute or two.

6. Add the rice and mix well, cook for a minute.

7. Add the eggs and stir gently.

8. Done!

Do We Love Fruits?

One day, after cleaning the kitchen, I glanced at the fruit plate on the island. I just realized how much fruit we eat every week. These fruits are just part of the weekly consumption. We still keep fruit baskets for bananas and two refrigerator drawers for apples in the basement.

The city we live in has a slogan: "strive for 5". This is propagated by the giant supermarket, Wegmans, calling for people to eat at least 5 portions of fruits or veggies daily. This slogan is infiltrated into every bit of the store. Apparently, our family do pretty well.


By looking at these tropical colors, I get a mood life every day. Don't you agree with me after looking at these pictures?