Home made Pico de Gallo

Pico de Gallo!

Pico de Gallo, that yummy stuff that you get at the Mexican restaurants on the side, or on your nachos, and at Taco Bell when you order your food "Fresco" style. I love it, however, I don't love heat so my version does not contain any type of heat. You are more than welcome to add your favorite heat source however! My version of Pico contains Roma tomatoes, bell pepper, half an onion, fresh chopped cilantro, juice from a fresh squeezed lime and some fresh chopped garlic. Be careful not to overpower with onion. Just chop up your ingredients and mix together. Let all the flavors marinate a couple hours if possible to get the best flavor.

Enjoy!

Jamie

Eggplant Parmigiana

One of my all time favorite dishes from one of my all time favorite restaurants, The Olive Garden, is Eggplant Parmigiana. The closest OG is an hour away from me in Springfield, Il. Needless to say, I don't get there very often :( I decided if I can't go to the eggplant, I will bring the eggplant to me!

This was my first attempt making this dish and I must say I was quite pleased with it...watch out Olive Garden! lol I thought at first it was going to be complicated to make, but it actually turned out quite easy. 

First, I sliced my eggplant into to about 1/4 inch slices and then soaked in salt water for about 20 minutes. After their salt bath, I rinsed off the eggplant. While the eggplant were soaking, I prepped my coating for it. For the coating I used plain breadcrumbs which I spiced up with some garlic salt and italian seasoning, and an egg/milk wash. I double coated each one to ensure the eggplant would be nice and crunchy. I tossed the double coated eggplant in the the oven and cooked until nice and crispy. I then added some pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese to each one and back in the oven they went until the sauce was bubbly and the cheese was melty. I served the eggplant with a side of pasta and sauce, just like the Olive Garden!

You can use your favorite kind of spaghetti sauce. If you are really feeling energetic, you could even make your own sauce. I would suggest if you make your own sauce though to start that much earlier in the day or your eggplant will get soggy waiting for all those Romas to simmer!

Suggested sides: Garlic bread and/or Salad!

Bon Appetite!

Jamie :)

Blueberry turnovers

Blueberry Turnovers

1 Roll of refrigerated crossiants

1 can of bluberry pie filling (sub any flavor of filling)

1 C Powdered sugar

2 TB Milk

Pull apart croissants as you would if you were making croissants. Add pie filling and fold over croissant. Bake according to package until golden brown and then glaze.

Glaze:

Mix powdered sugar and milk. Add more milk if you want a thinner glaze.

Mini Blueberry Hand Pies

Mini Blueberry Pies

For Christmas I made a couple of pies for dessert. Being short on time, and frankly just too darn lazy to make the real thing, I used the lovely pre-made pie crusts found in the refrigerated items at the grocery store. I'm not sure how it happened, but I ended up with 1 crust left. As it turns out, I also grabbed a blueberry pie filling instead of cherry for my pie. So, I had one crust and one can of blueberry pie filling to work with. Not much you can do with that! 

Using a glass (of course most people would probably use a round cookie cutter) I cut out as many round mini crusts as I could. When I ran out of room to cut more circles, I rolled up the dough and flattened it out again and cut more circles.

Once my circles were all cut out, I added some of the blueberry pie filling to one side of the pie. If you add too much, it will make it difficult to fold over and close up your pie, so you will just need to figure out how to adjust your filling accordingly. Fold the crust over and press the edges closed. You can also use an egg wash to help it adhere a little better if you want. I was again being lazy, so i did not. Bake at 350 until the crust is golden brown.

Once the pies were done I topped each one with a simple powdered sugar glaze. Voila! Pie was born!