On my lazy and uneventful weekends, sometimes I get the urge to try something new. I go to the market, see a vegetable or fruit I’ve never cooked with before, and follow my gut until what I think in my head is a proper idea. Today, you get Stuffed Baby Eggplant… And let me tell you, my gut hasn’t been wrong yet!

Ingredients:

• 2 Baby Eggplants
• 14 or so Cherry Tomatoes
• 3 Tablespoons of Red Wine
• Half of a Lime
• Pink Salt & Course Ground Pepper
• 1/2 of a Red Onion, Diced. 
• 3/4 of a Pound of Uncooked, Peeled, and Deveined Shrimp
• 1/4 to a 1/2 a Stick of Butter
• Heavy Cream

First you want to cut your eggplants long ways, and hollow them out. Take the innards aside and cube them into bite sized morsels. Dice your onion, and also your cherry tomatoes. Caramelize your onion on medium heat in butter, salt, and pepper in a large skillet first. Turn the heat to high, and add your cherry tomatoes. You want to roast them, so they have a little burnt on the edges. After about 7 to 10 minutes, you want to add the eggplant innards and lime juice. Take the heat down to medium, and saute for another 5 minutes or so. You may need to add a little more butter to prevent everything from burning too much!

Remove from the skillet and set aside in a bowl. Use the same skillet, brush with a little oil, and place your eggplant shells facedown on medium heat for about 10 minutes. The shells should be semisoft to the touch. Preheat the oven to 350 while these are cooking.

Take your shrimp and dice them into small niblets. Combine with your warm eggplant and cherry tomato concoction, stuff the shells, drizzle a little heavy cream over the top, and bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes.

Because the shrimp cook so quickly, there’s no reason to precook. Also, if you’re not a fan of this combination you could definitely substitute the shrimp with chicken or beef. I would definitely precook those, however. Or to make this vegetarian, you could completely cut the meat out all together! Maybe sprinkle a little sharp cheese on top for kick!

I served these with whole wheat penne and a quick little white sauce I made, they’re definitely not filling by themselves. You could probably eat all four! With that, any questions? I’m excited but then totally not excited for Thanksgiving… At least I don’t have to cook, but Christmas is at my house this year… So that is going to be a testament to my cookery faith! Haha, Later Food Lovers!

This autumn, I was a little late on the pumpkin train. I’m sure most of you have pumpkin seeds, guts, and latte flavored things spewing from your nose and ears… But alas, here’s some more! A recipe for Pumpkin Cupcakes with Tangy Cream Cheese Frosting, from a real pumpkin… Not a crappy can!

It is so incredibly easy to make pies, cupcakes, and anything else out of REAL pumpkins.  Canned pumpkin is just not as flavorful, and you don’t have the satisfaction of saying it’s genuinely homemade (not to mention all the gross preservatives and aluminum deposits). Above you can see! I took two sugar pumpkins (the small ones), cut them in half, scooped out the innards, and placed them soft side down on a baking tray covered with foil. Bake at 375 degrees for an hour and you have soft moist delicious pumpkin! It’ll stay fresh in your fridge for five days, or just store it in your freezer! This is enough for several recipes and pies. 

Pumpkin Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1.5 Cups of Cake Flour
• 1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
• 2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Ginger
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Cloves
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
• 1/2 Cup of Unsalted Butter (if you use salted, don’t use the 1/2 tsp of salt!)
• 1 Cup of Sugar
• 1/4 Cup of Dark Brown Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
• 3/4 Cup of Pumpkin Pureed (you’ll have to run the baked pumpkin through a food processor to smooth it out)

Ingredient for Tangy Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 4 Ounces of Cream Cheese
• 1/2 Cup of Butter
• 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
• 1 Tablespoon of Fresh Lemon Juice
• 2/3 Cup of Confectioners Sugar

Cream together your butter, sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice. Then slowly add your sugar until light and fluffy. Taste it, if you want it a little sweeter you can always add more sugar :P I always use a ziplock bag to pipe the icing onto my cupcakes, just cut a little corner out of the bottom and you’ve got a piping tip. 

I hope you guys enjoy it, I know I did. I think I’ve eaten 7 out of the 14 this recipe made… Pack those pounds on for winter! Haha. Later Foodies.

This is a delicious way to spice up any of your old boring steamed vegetables, it may take a little while longer… But I can promise you it’s worth it! Caramelized Asparagus, or you can substitute with just about any other vegetable; carrots, green beans, snow peas, zucchini,  squash, or even just plain onions!

Ingredients:

• a bushel of asparagus spears, fresh.
• 1 to 3 cups of water, depending on the hardness of the vegetable.
• 1/2 a small yellow onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/4 stick of butter
• dash of sea salt
• dash of pepper
• 1/3 of a cup of balsamic vinegar

Start by removing the hard ends of the asparagus spears and throwing them away. Put the asparagus into a large skillet with a cup of water, the onion, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and garlic. Cover and cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes. After, remove the lid and test the tenderness of the asparagus. I like mine on the softer side, so if they are still hard continue to cook uncovered. As the liquid evaporates, if they are still too hard… Add more water, a little at a time. Continue to watch, once they have achieved their desired tenderness, stop adding water and cook down the liquid.

In the last 5 minutes, after most of the water is gone, continue to caramelize on high heat. They’re going to start to char a bit, but that’s okay! Just continue to stir, when there is a good smokey smell and flavor, remove from heat and add the butter. Stir a little more, and voila! All in all, for asparagus it usually takes about 45 minutes. For something softer like snow peas, it’ll probably only take 20 to 25 minutes and you wont need nearly as much water. Any questions? Feel free to ask! This is a very free form recipe, so just keep tasting them until it feels right. You can’t go wrong with this side dish!

Later food lovers!

Just another pretty delicious quick breakfast shot. Eggs over easy, avocado, bacon, tomato, whole wheat toast, and a wonderful glass of orange juice. YUM!

I’ll post a more substantial recipe in the next day or two, until then!

Simple and delicious guacamole is one of the easiest things to make, and when you have a pretty little mortar & pestle like I do… Well, it’s just that much better!

Ingredients:

• 2 Ripe Avocados, soft to the touch.
• 1 Small Ripe Tomato
• 1/2 Small Red Onion
• 1 Fresh Lime
• Sea Salt & Course Pepper to taste.
• 1 Jalapeno Pepper, optional.
• Cilantro, optional.

The first five ingredients are a must! You just can’t substitute them. Traditional guacamole also has cilantro and jalapeno in it, to give it that authentic flavor. Personally, I despise cilantro. I think it tastes like dish soap, so I leave it out completely. Jalapenos however, I love. So depending on how spicy you want your guac, depends on how much you put in. I never usually put in more then half a jalapeno, but I am also a wimp when it comes to spicy. 

So combine everything in your mortar- after of course dicing up the onion, tomato, and jalapeno. Now you can smash it to hell with your pestle, it should come out looking something like this!

Everything in this recipe is to taste, so have a tortilla chip on stand by! If you think it needs more lime, hell… Squeeze in some more! If you think it doesn’t have enough tomato flavor? Toss in half another one. Sky’s the limit people. But with this core foundation, you can’t go wrong. And it’s so much better and healthier then store bought. 

Trick of the trade, save the pit and plop it right in the middle of your guac. The avocado is actually tricked into thinking it’s still in it’s original form and won’t brown as quickly! 

Later Food Lovers, hope you all had a Happy Halloween!