Easter Dinner

Taren made lamb and Ann and Buzz brought scalloped potatoes and greens. Greens turned out to be asparagus with sesame oil and broccoli with almonds. I brought the following

Mac and Two Cheeses with Caramelized Onions

My favorite mac and cheese recipe (probably the goat cheese). I doubled the recipe. I substituted onions for the shallots($$) and added oven dried tomatoes before baking in the oven. It turned out a bit dry, I would add more cheese sauce or less pasta next time.

The Oven-Dried Tomato recipe I got from Jack Bishop's book, The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook. It is probably the recipe I use most often from this book. They may be time consuming, and one needs to plan ahead, but they are super delicious and packed with flavor! I never use sun-dried tomatoes anymore! The recipe and intro are as follows:

Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Makes 1 1/2 cups

Oven-dried tomatoes are quite different from sun-dried ones. Sun-dried tomatoes, even those packed in olive oil, tend to be a bit leathery and have a strong, sometimes harsh flavor. Oven-drying removes much but not all of the moisture, so the tomato halves become very wrinkled but still have some juice in them. The tomatoes can be marinated in olive oil, herbs and/or hot red pepper flakes. If packed in olive oil and refrigerated, they will last about a week.

10 medium plum tomatoes (about 2 lbs)

1/2 tsp of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. Set a large cross-woven wire rack over a large baking sheet. trim a thin slice from the stem end of each tomato to remove the core. Slice the tomatoes in half lengthwise. Place them cut side up on the rack and sprinkle with salt.

2. Place the baking sheet in the oven. Oven-dry the tomatoes until they are wrinkled and greatly reduced in size, 6 to 7 hours. Do not dry them completely; some moisture should remain.

3. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and cool the tomatoes completely. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate. (Dried tomatoes can be refrigerated for several days. Bring the tomatoes to room temperature before using.)

I used 3 lbs of tomatoes and then quartered them once dried and cooled for the mac and cheese. I also use them in my dijon alfredo pasta and any other recipe i might use sun-dried tomatoes.

Eggplant Salad with Basil Dressing
This turned out delicious! I layered some roasted peppers with the eggplant when I plated. This added nice color contrast and sweet flavor. Next time I might take a reviewer's advice and add some crumbled goat cheese on top and serve with a crusty bread for a main course.

Here is the recipe with all my modifications:

Ingredients:

• 
  
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 garlic clove, chopped and mashed to a paste with 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves, washed well and spun dry
• 2 large eggplants (about 1 1/2 pounds each), cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• 3 bell peppers (i used one red, one yellow, and one orange), cut in half through core, cored and seeded (can substitute jarred roasted peppers)
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

Preparation:

Preheat broiler.

In a blender, blend oil, lemon juice, mustard, garlic paste, and half of basil until smooth.

Arrange bell pepper halves on cookie sheet and place under broiler until skin is charred, about 15 minutes. Place in covered bowl or paper bag and allow to steam and cool. Peel skin from peppers and cut into strips.

Arrange eggplant slices in a single layer on cookie sheets. Reserve 1/4 cup dressing. Brush eggplant slices with remaining dressing on both sides. Broil about 4 inches from heat until golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Turn slices and broil until golden, 5 to 7 minutes more. Transfer eggplant slices to a plate to cool and broil remaining eggplant slices in same manner.

Arrange eggplant, bell pepper strips, and remaining basil on a platter. Drizzle salad with reserved dressing and sprinkle with pine nuts.

Orange Molasses Sweet Potatoes

For these I used only 2 lbs of sweet potatoes but made the normal amount of orange molasses sauce. They turned out pretty mushy but when i reheated in Taren's oven at 350 for about 30 minutes, they got nice and chewy and caramelized.

Chocolate Strawberry Tart with Walnut Crust
This turned out very rich and delicious! It definitely didn't need 2 pints of strawberries to top tart with! Only about a cup or 2. I would use more jam next time and would like to add a peanut butter layer.

and I made Strawberry Jam from scratch.

Alex brought Deviled Eggs

The recipe is from my mom, who I think got it from my aunt. Per my request, Alex doubled the mustard and used the low end of the horseradish. I am not a huge horseradish fan but these are ok with the extra mustard.

Eggplant Crisps with Skordalia and Oven-Dried Tomatoes and Balsamic Roasted Squash

Eggplant Crisps with Skordalia and Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Trying to clean out the fridge, I stumbled on this recipe. all I needed to complete it was eggplant and some herbs. It was a very time consuming recipe (allow almost 3 hours!), but very delicious. Timing is everything...

First, preheat oven and prep garlic, tomatoes, and eggplant. The garlic can roast during the first hour with the tomatoes. since i don't know my oven well yet, I would turn the temp down next time, as it seems to be running very high. My tomatoes were roasted after an hour, not really oven-dried. Soak the eggplant in just enough milk (NOT 4 cups) for the first hour while the tomatoes and garlic roast. Then prep and boil the potatoes, almonds, mix together sans roasted garlic, and set aside. Once garlic is roasted and cooled, it can be mixed in. Then prep the eggplant breading ingredients. check on tomatoes and garlic (should be about an hour, remove garlic if done), and start breading eggplant. While breaded eggplant is resting, prep the other dish you are serving. Alex started frying the eggplant while I did this (he also breaded it, it is useful to have a sous chef!) Take tomatoes out when they are done and start stacking. before serving. I would let it rest in a 200 degree oven to bring everything to temperature.

It was suggested to double the roasted garlic, which I did, but it was waay too garlicky! I couldn't get the taste out even the next morning! A lot of people say this isn't a true skordalia, but it resembles what I have tried at Mykonos, and the soft texture compliments the crunchy eggplant very well. This whole dish has a lot of flavor! We can't wait to eat leftovers! (tonight possibly?) Also I used only 2% milk (what I had on hand) for soaking the eggplant and subbed for the cream in the potatoes. Others have suggested omitting the butter and cream and subbing with olive oil, but since I had milk, that is what I used. Our eggplant did not yield 18 slices, more like 12. There is exactly enough left for us to have one more stack each.

Also we decided to make balsamic roasted squash. I bought 1 large zucchini, 3 small yellow squash, sliced and quartered. Then I diced half a sweet onion. Threw all in a roasting pan with a splash balsamic, olive oil, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper (ended up needing more balsamic at the end, will put in more next time!) and roasted in oven at 350 for about 20 minutes. SO good!

Served with garlic bread, that baked next to squash while it was roasting. If I had two ovens, I could have heated the eggplant through, but we just ate it at room temperature. definitely was an amazing dinner!