Meet Eggy

Everyone, say Hi to Eggy.

Eggy, say Hi to everyone.

 

eggplant

Y’all wouldn’t believe the trouble that little bugger up there is giving me.

Nathan and I had such success with The 17 Day Diet (he 40 pounds, me 30 pounds) that we decided to re-visit the first 2 cycles after the New Year.  Oh yes, that’s now ;-)

I know I keep promising to share recipes with y’all – and honestly, I will.

Right now, however, I’m asking for y’all’s help.

That little purple veggie up there is driving me crazy – I just can’t think of what I want to do with it.

It can’t be fried or breaded – needs to be made baked or grilled or sauteed – no cheese – minimal fat -

Tomatoes, onions, garlic, chilies, peppers and the like are all okayall welcome actually.

So, I’d love for y’all to share your ideas, thoughts, tips, tricks etc…

Share them in the comments, e-mail, me whatever… if I make it and love it, you and your idea will be featured on here!!

I’ve already gotten some great ideas on Twitter:

Anna @TheMedicoreMom Suggested: In a Casserole with Shrimp

@Tarable said that her husband Grilled it with Curry Powder

The Lovely @LoveFeast shared her family’s favorite way to serve eggplant

Cassie suggested the super unhealthy, but oh my holy heavenly deliciousness of frying it and smothering it with tomatoes and cheese

Help me, my friends!  Quick and delicious, healthy and favorites! Help me to figure out how to add Eggy up there to our repertoire, before he gets eyes and ears and a smile placed upon him by my ever so creative kids and becomes a family pet instead.

 

Game Day Grilling Tips

Today we’re going to be doing one of my favorite things

lit bbq pit

Having friends over and serving food.

Not that I *need* an excuse to host a party, but when Bush’s Beans asked if I’d like to partner with them to host a Game Day barbecue, pair a couple of my own recipes with a couple of their recipes, share them with y’all and talk about some of my favorite Game Day grilling tips — well I’m sure y’all can imagine just how quickly I said yes.

Today, I’m going to be serving grilled onion garlic Burgers and jalapeno bacon wrapped Brats alongside Bush’s Beans Homestyle Baked Beans and Onion Baked Beans.  There will be more food (obviously) but the food isn’t actually the point of today’s post.

Today’s post is about 3 of my favorite

Game Day Grilling Tips.

 

Tip #1 Clean Grill, Good Food
grill grates

You must keep those grill grates clean!!  If you cook on a dirty grill, the leftover bits of food can cause flare-ups which causes burnt food which causes unhappy chefs and guests – not a good thing!

  • A quick and chemical free way to clean your grill – halve an onion and rub it over your warm grill.  This cleans off all the residue and food leftover from cooking, smells wonderful and is a completely natural and biodegradable way to clean your grill.

Tip #2: Leave the food alone:

  • For every time you have the urge to walk over and flip that burger sizzling on your grill – turn around and walk away.  The less you mess with the food on the grill, the juicier it will be.  Plus, if you flip a burger before it’s ready, it’ll stick to your grill.  Do not mess with the food, most food only needs to be flipped once. Once you’re ready to flip that burger, lift it up (if it comes up cleanly you know it’s ready) and place it down on a previously unoccupied space on the grill – because it was unoccupied, this part of the grill will be hot.

Tip #3: Let Cooked Meat Rest:

  • Want the juiciest cut of meat?  Once your meat has cooked and you’ve removed it from the grill, let it rest.  Once the meat has left the heat of the grill and is on the serving platter, tent some foil over it and allow it to rest so those delicious juices can reabsorb into the meat.  This means do NOT cut into the meat immediately, you’ll lose all those juices and flavor!!

Rachel’s Bonus Tip(s)

  • Have fun.  Prep as much of your food ahead of time as  you can, so that you aren’t spending your whole day in the kitchen getting everything ready. Get your family involved the day before in slicing and storing the veggies for dipping, or the burger toppings; write out your to do list so you know what you need to do and how much time you’ll need to do it.
  • Once the guests arrive, let people help when they offer and make sure that you enjoy the food and the friends who’ve come over to celebrate and cheer on your favorite teams.  Be in the moment, the dishes can wait.  Leave the food out so people can nibble and remark once again what an amazing chef and host(ess) you are.

Thanks, Bush’s Beans for including me in this Game Day Grilling Opportunity!  I am receiving some product and compensation for my time and participation in this program.  The opinions, ideas, recipes shared are 100% mine unless otherwise stated.

 

Stay tuned! Next week I’ll share the recipes that we’ll be enjoying today and I have a pretty fantastic Game Day Grilling Kit to give away, courtesy of Bush’s Beans!!!!

Kitchen Blunders

 @sthrnfairytale It actuall ..._1304608462533

 

This tweet came through my stream yesterday from Hollee (one of my favorite people), after I had put on Facebook that I had spent hours baking my favorite Homemade Granola that I’ve made a kajillion times only to have the recipe go awry somehow.

I tasted the granola, that I was going to gift to the Teachers at Princess’ school for Teacher Appreciation week, and it was awful — it had a sort of plastic-y taste.

Frustrated and disappointed were just the tip of the emotional ice-burg.

Her tweet got me thinking though, do y’all really think that everything I make always comes out perfectly and deliciously?

That thought sent me (and still does) into gales of much needed laughter.

Oh y’all — I am so far from the perfect cook — I’ll get so excited about a new recipe and spend time creating it and cooking it only to taste it and think– “Well, damn.  That’s about 10 shades of wrong”

There are nights where Nathan gets all excited about a new dish that I’m making because of the smells or the way I’ve been hyping it up only to end up with a Supreme pizza from Pizza Hut instead.

Hollee got me thinking — would y’all like me to share these blunders and then possibly, if I figure out what I did wrong, how I fixed it?

Would y’all be willing to share YOUR kitchen damns?

I’d love to hear about them and we’ll probably all be better and more confident for seeing that others aren’t all June Cleaver-Martha-Betty Crocker all the time, too.

So — Get Ready — Get Set —-

Go — Share your Kitchen Damns in the comments, please.

Who knows what solutions we might find amidst the commiseration and the laughter.

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