Friday night antics: Eggplant Parmesan and Snickerdoodles

I find it funny, that in a blog about food recipes that my mom had, the first two I choose to post are not hers. Oh, she's made eggplant parm (I swear, I still salivate when I think of her fried eggplant and the last time she made it for me was probably 18 years ago) and I'm sure she's made snickerdoodles, but to be fair I look at food journals, foodnetwork.com, and the like, and get emails about recipes of the day pretty much daily. So I saw these two recipes (on eatingwell.com and smittenkitchen.com, respectively) quite awhile ago and thought, hell, I'll give that a shot.

Then of course life stepped in and gave me a concussion during my riding lesson and then things got crazy. I spend a highly questionable amount of time in the gym. My apartment looks like a bomb went off inside it. So cooking and baking anything other than the basics was out of the picture. Until Friday. I decided Friday would be a perfect day to make that eggplant parm I'd been craving but never had time for, and I offered to make birthday cookies for someone at the gym (yes. I bake for people at the gym. Don't hate me. We work out like it's going out of style anyway.) So I made them together.

OH.
MY.
GOD.

This was the most incredible dish and dessert I had made in a very long time. I'm pretty sure that the sauce did it for me with the eggplant-I could certainly have made my own, but I bought it at Dave's Fresh Pasta in Somerville. I dipped the eggplant in egg whites and bread crumbs and then baked them instead of frying. And then I put it all together with some fresh mozzarella and parmesan. What the hell? This was so easy. I should have done this ages ago. I suppose I needed some instant gratification meals for awhile. No more.



Eggplant Parmesan
from www.eatingwell.com

Ingredients
2 eggplants, (about 2 pounds total)
3 egg whites
3 tablespoons water
1 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, (1 ounce), divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup slivered fresh basil leaves
2 1/2 cups tomato sauce

Preparation
1.Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat two baking sheets and an 8-by-11 1/2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.**Please do this. I didn't and lost a few slices because they stuck to the dish.
2.Cut eggplants crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Whisk egg whites and water in a shallow dish until frothy. Combine breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, salt and pepper in another shallow dish (I forgot to put in the parmesan and the salt and pepper. It was great anyway. But I'll do it next time). Dip the eggplant slices into the egg-white mixture, then coat with the breadcrumb mixture. (Discard any leftover breadcrumbs and egg white.) Arrange the eggplant slices in a single layer on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, turn the eggplant slices over, and bake until crisp and golden, about 15 minutes longer.
3.Stir basil into tomato sauce. Spread about 1/2 cup of the sauce in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Arrange half of the eggplant slices over the sauce, overlapping slightly. Spoon 1 cup of the remaining sauce over the eggplant and sprinkle with half of the mozzarella cheese. Add a layer of the remaining eggplant slices and top with the remaining sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan. Bake, uncovered, until the sauce bubbles and the top is golden, 15 to 20 minutes.


Okay. So that was done. On to the snickerdoodles. I admit, I'd never tried snickerdoodles before. I loved these cookies. That's all that needs to be said. They were incredible. I saw them on www.smittenkitchen.com and was totally inspired. It helped that that was the birthday cookie requested at the gym on Saturday. They were so much better straight from the oven, but perfectly acceptable the next day as well. They were perfectly round and just the quintessential cookie next to the chocolate chip ones I made and love (more on that in a future post).



I dare anyone to tell me that these don't look like donut holes. They look so good but you'll never get me to eat raw dough (I just don't like it, I don't have something against salmonella or whatever)



So. Good. Make these today. and thank me (and smittenkitchen) later.

Snickerdoodles (courtesy of www.smittenkitchen.com)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 stick or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 400°, with one rack in top third and one rack in bottom third of oven. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.

Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs, and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients, and beat to combine. Chill dough for about an hour.

Once dough has chilled, in a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon. Use a small ice-cream scoop* to form balls of the dough, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after five minutes. Transfer the sheets to a wire rack to cool about five minutes before transferring the cookies to the rack.

*I totally rolled these with my hands. I didn't have a small enough scoop. I made them roughly walnut sized.

First post

I figured I'd start something new (or maybe not so new, as the case may be).

Food blogs are certainly nothing new. Neither is writing about food, in terms of writing books, reviews, etc. But I cook and bake all the time, and my friends seem incredulous sometimes that I take so much time to create things, or that I cook and bake (most of the time) from scratch. I get it: we're at a point in our lives where we don't necessarily have time to do such things. But I grew up around food. I grew up appreciating the fantastic taste of a homemade piece of chocolate silk pie, or a good chicken marsala, or even a tasty piece of fried eggplant. I will eat just about anything, and I'll try most stuff at least once. That being said, I feel like getting creative in the kitchen is a must for me. At the very least, I have to get in the kitchen!

My mom was a caterer. She ran her own business when I was a kid-she called it Duck Soup, hence the name of this blog. The only background I have on that name was that her nickname was Duck, long before I was around, hence Duck Soup. But I don't actually know the origins of that name. Hm. I came across old invoices with the company name stamped on it once, though-it made me laugh. She had recipes, recipe books...more recipes and more kitchen equipment than I'd ever seen in a home kitchen (and to this day I've never been in a home kitchen that had two stovetops and two ovens, as well as two full size refrigerators and one full size freezer in it, plus a bunch of kitchen equipment. Some days I'd kill to have two stoves.) When I was a kid I got to be the "taste tester" and tried almost everything she made. Her lemon squares were one of my favorite desserts. I salivated when she made her chicken soup. And no lie, her chocolate silk pie (fat pie) is one of the best things I have ever had. We played with live lobsters in the kitchen, there was often flour all over the counters, and there was always plenty of food around.

When she passed away nearly ten years ago, my siblings divided her belongings equally. My sister got the furniture, my brother got her car and some other things. I got her kitchen. Including my most favorite appliance, her Kitchenaid stand-up mixer that's likely as old as I am. So after I graduated and moved into my own place, I started cooking. I made fat pie. I made chicken soup. I made lemon chicken. I made twice-baked potatoes and fried eggplant. I loved it all.

Just a few months ago, I was going through a drawer in the kitchen and found a box that had her handwritten recipes in it. I thought to myself how neat it would be to try at least one of those a week and see how it went. So here I am, blogging about it. I'll try new stuff, blog about it, and see where it goes. Some of them might be hers, some might be ones I've found while hunting about. But I'm hoping I'll expand my repertoire that way and also be able to share some of her gifts with you all.

Break out the forks, kids. It'll be a fun ride.