Stuffed Eggplant & Pepper

The other day i walked over to my Nanny and PopPop's house to visit them and while i was there, my Nanny was cooking some stuffed eggplant, and i am not gonna lie it smelled and looked really good. She had an extra, large eggplant and told me i should make it this week. This is a staple in my nanny's house, i learned how to make it from her and now i am passing it down to you....Your Welcome ;)

Stuffed Eggplant & Pepper

• 1 Large Eggplant
• Red Pepper
• Tomato sauce
• 1 pound of Ground Meat
• Fresh Mozzorella
• Parsley
• Breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• Basil

Cut the tip off the eggplant and then cut the eggplant down the middle, so you have two eggplant boats.  Then very carefully scoop out the meat or pulp of the eggplant using a small knife and a spoon.  This part takes a little practice.Take the pepper and cut the top off and scoop out the seeds and clean it really good. Once all of the eggplant pulp is scooped out, cut into chunks and saute it with a little bit of olive oil in a pan for about 5 minutes, or just until it gets soft.  Then in another bowl, put your ground meat, egg, breadcrumbs, grated cheese parley, salt and pepper. Then cut up small chunks fresh mozzarella, and add that to the meat, then add the eggplant pulp and mix well. Put the eggplant and peppers in a baking pan, make sure the baking pan is coated with a little olive oil.  Grab the meat with your hand and stuff the eggplant and peppers. Then take your tomato sauce and pour over the eggplant and peppers, make sure there is enough sauce on the bottom of the pan just to cover.  Garnish with fresh basil and parsley.  Bake uncovered for an hour. When you take it out of the oven let it cool for 15 minutes.

What are some of the staples at your Grandparents house?

Cooking for my Hubby and Sister-In-Love

So tonight i decided to be a good wife and sister and make shrimp with whole wheat linguine and broccoli. On Wednesdays my sister-in-law sister-in-love, Heather, comes over and does her homework while i work and cook dinner.  And because her and my husband love shrimp i decided i would treat them.  By the way did i tell you that i don't eat Shrimp, actually this might blow your mind, but i don't eat any seafood,  I have to tell you for someone that doesn't eat seafood, i kick ass at making this.  And i know this sounds weird but i actually eat this dish, i just avoid the shrimp.  If you put enough garlic on something it doesn't taste so bad.

Whole Wheat Linguine with Shrimp and Broccoli

• Whole Wheat Linguine
•  Shrimp
•  Broccoli
•  2 bouillon cubes
•  Lemon
•  Parsley
•  Garlic
•  Red pepper flakes
•  Olive Oil
•  Salt and pepper

So start by bringing a big pot of water to boil for your pasta.  Then clean and remove the tails of your shrimp then dry your shrimp. Bring another deep saute pan on medium heat and add your shrimp with a good amount of olive oil.  Cook your shrimp until it turns pink (don't overcook your shrimp) at least that's what the people who eat shrimp tell me. At this point your water should be ready for your pasta and your broccoli. Salt your water before adding your pasta, very important!  Then add your 8 cloves of garlic to the pan. Take a big cup of the hot boiling water from the pasta and add 2 bouillon cubes to it and let it dissolve.  When your garlic is brown and your shrimp is pink add the cup of bouillon to the pan with a pinch of red pepper flakes.  The drain your pasta but reserve some of the pasta water and add the pasta and broccoli to the shrimp and garlic. Combine all of the pasta with the shrimp and garlic, if it's too thick and some pasta water.  If it's not thick enough add a teaspoon of butter.  Chop some parsley and garnish on top with some lemon.

By the way my sister-in-love Heather said that this was her second favorite dish that i ever made her :)

I don't know if any of you know about this new website called Pinterest. It is definitely one of my favorite things, and when you check it out you will see why.  Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste.


Ciao

Love these girls...The Cooking Cousins

There is a cooking channel i like to watch on You Tube, it's called The Cooking Cousins. Their names are Kristie an Sydney and they live in Toronto,Canada. The make a lot of yummy food, so i thought i would try out one of their recipes. So because we were snowed in a couple weeks ago and couldn't go anywhere for 3 days i cooked a lot, alright, i cooked way too much for those 3 days. One i the things i tried was the Prosciutto, Mozzarella, and Spinach pinwheel. Well my fellow foodies, me and my husband loved it so much we finished the whole thing is 5 minutes and wanted more. The best thing about it is, it's so darn easy to make, and it tastes amazing!

This is what it looked like just before i put it in the oven.

Here is a picture of it all done.

Here is the link to the You Tube channel and the pinwheel recipe

Pinwheel Recipe

If you know of any other fun cooking You Tube channels, let me know, i love getting ideas for different things to make.

My Easter weekend in review

Me and Dave started this beautiful weekend out at the beach in Belmar, NJ. We met his family there and enjoyed the smell of the ocean. Then after that we went to two malls. The first mall was Monmouth Mall, i love that mall, that's the mall i went to as a kid. Then after that we visited my mom, she's a nurse so she works Easter, but we had fun visiting her. Then after that we went to Woodbridge Mall, because i cannot find sunglasses i like, so i thought we would look there, and while we were there we ate Dinner at Five Guys. If you haven't tried the food there yet, you don't know what your missing. We had cheeseburgers, fries, and free peanuts. Mmmm, just thinking about it is making me hungry. Oh and while we were at my Mom's she reminded me of the Easter Bunny cake she used to make every year when i grew up. So she thought it would be a neat tradition to pass it down to me, and now every year i'm gonna make an Easter Bunny cake. This was my first time making it, but i think it came out pretty good, Dave decorated it. I hope one day when we are lucky enough to have children they can remember Mom making an Easter Bunny cake for them too...thanks Mom! Easter came and me and Dave went to my sister's in PA for an afternoon of hiking in the park, and barbecue, not your typical Easter dinner. While my sister and my bother-in-law cooked, my brother, husband and niece and nephew dyed Easter eggs. Me and my sister prepared the food before the walk, we had salmon, tuna, and chicken kabobs with mushrooms peppers and onions. It was delicious. And for dessert we all enjoyed the Eater Bunny Cake. The bunny didn't survive, lol. After the cake, just in case we didn't have enough sugar, we decided to roast marshmallows. My dad stopped by just in time for dessert. All and all it was a fantastic Easter.
Yesterday we decided to take it easy and relax, after laundry and food shopping, that's all i wanted to do. But little did i know our night was not gonna go as we thought it was. Dave got a call that his friend Tim was in the hospital, he was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. We immediately went to the hospital and stayed with him for a couple hours. By the time we left he already looked like he was feeling a lot better.
We got home around 9:00 and Dave got a text from an old neighbor that he was in the area and wanted to stop in and see us. It was so good to see him again, we haven't seen him in years.


Eleven years ago today me and my husband started dating....Happy Anniversary baby...i love you more today than yesterday.


I hope you all had a great weekend!
If you want the recipe for the Easter Bunny cake, (it's really easy) just email me and i'll send it to you. Or maybe if i have time i'll do another post this week with the recipe.


So do you have any Easter traditions?

What are your favorite recipe websites?

Hey guys, i know i haven't blogged in a while...i have been pretty busy. I promise to start putting more stuff up soon, you can hold me to that.
Anyway i love looking through recipes on the Internet, and i have a couple favorites like:

Jersey Girl Cooks
Proud Italian cook
My Italian Grandmother

What are some of your favorites food blogs?

Have a great Easter weekend!!