Eggplant Stacks

Here's what you do:

Prepare the eggplant by cutting the tip and ends off, then stand it up and with your knife peel the skin off in a zebra fashion, striping it as you go around, leaving some skin on and taking some off. Then slice your eggplant into 3/4 inch rounds. (I sliced mine length wise) Toss with olive oil and bake in a 450F oven until golden and tender.

Ingredients:

Fresh mozzarella

Roasted eggplant slices

Basil pesto (I had pesto frozen that I had previously made or you could use jarred)

Marinara sauce, homemade  (I think it is up to you if you want to make you own.  I simmered tomatoed from last summer with olive oil, sauteed onions and garlic, basil oregano, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper)
Basil leaves

Toasted breadcrumbs and grated romano or parmesan for garnish

1. Spread sauce in a baking dish, add one eggplant slice, spread sauce on top of it along with a piece of fresh mozzarella and a basil leaf, 2. Add another eggplant slice on top and spread with pesto, 3. Add final eggplant slice, more sauce and another piece of fresh mozzarella. 4.Top with more sauce, toasted breadcrumbs and grated cheese. Repeat for as many stacks you'll be making. 5.Bake uncovered at 375F until heated through and cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Again not the best presentation or picture quality but the food was yummy!

Gumbo Gala

Gumbo Gala Raises $33,300 To Support Episcopal Place Residents
33 teams compete for gumbo awards;
1,300 attendees enjoy gumbo, live music and help 148 seniors and disabled adults 
 

Tim and I attended this event for the first time this year!  We had a great time.  It was not too hot and we got to sample alot of gumbo, some better than others :) You paid for an arm band to sample as much as you wanted of the each team's gumbo.  The teams were professional and amateurs all  under the tents. You roamed around to those that you wanted to try. Tim and I must be pretty good at "gumbo tastin" cause we were in agreement that Jubilee Joes was the best. And they won first place! I was very impressed with how many people supported this great causes and look for ward to going back! 

Check out the sign under the blue tent!

This house in Forest Park is for sale.  And our anniversary is around the corner :)

SUMMER SQUASH & ZUCCHINI RECIPE

Another recipe I tried this past weekend using veggies from the famous G-Daddy's Garden.  John David told me this morning "Cece said if she see's one more tomato plant she's gonna scream!"  He said he thought G-Daddy had palnted 100 of them!  That cracked me up!! Anyway,

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, divided
3 summer squash, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces
3 zucchini, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces
salt and ground black pepper to taste
...3 onions, chopped  ( I sauteed half of the onions with garlic)1 pound shredded sharp white Cheddar cheese
1/2 pound shredded Cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk, divided (I used soy milk)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x9-inch baking dish with about 1/2 tablespoon of butter.
Melt remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat, and cook the summer squash and zucchini until the squash pieces begin to brown, 10 to 15 minutes, stirring often.

Sprinkle with salt and black pepper, and spread into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with about 1/3 of the chopped onions.

 

 

Mix together the white Cheddar cheese and yellow Cheddar cheese in a bowl until thoroughly combined, and sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the cheese mixture over the onions. Drizzle with about 1 tablespoon of the sweetened condensed milk. Repeat sprinkling cheese, onions, and condensed milk twice more, then top with remaining cheese mixture.

Bake in the preheated oven until the casserole is golden brown and the onions are tender, about 30 minutes. Enjoy!!

Soccer 2011

This spring I drove to Auburn for one of Spence's last soccer games.  Before I arrived, he told me he was the best player on the team but I wanted to see for myself!  Other than getting distracted a couple times, he played great!  He was insistent on being the one player on his team to kick the ball in bounds EVERY time.  I am not sure the Coach fully appreciated that but it was entertaining!  I enjoyed cheering for him!  He is still young enough that it does not embarass him that you are there and he tells you how glad he is you came to see him!   That stage does not last long!  We (Allison, John David, Spence and I) decided to go to lunch after the game.  I told Spence we were going to celebrate his win ( you know those Stoud boys have never lost a game ;)   ) .   He thought about that for a minute and then told me, "Mimi we do not do that!"  I explained that we were starting a new tradition.  He then wanted to know if I were bringing the entire team! Obviously  the idea of celebrating completely blew his mind! 

After lunch he and I went to Toomers Drugs.  We got his Big T some lemonade (how do you attend Auburn for 4 years and live there for 7 more and never had the lemonade).    Spence was amazed at the selection of Auburn things to choose from!  At one point I believe he had 6 items in his arms.  He chose an Auburn Slinky ( warped within 15minutes) and Auburn binoculars.

We ended our day by going to see the movie "Hop".  They loved it!  After playing ouside for a couple of hours, Spece was asleep within 5 minutes.  Definite sign of a great day!

Even the star has to take a break!

Victory dance

The poor Toomers Oaks not looking very well

The confusing celebratory lunch



The boys came downstairs in this attire for the movie!  Can you say Self chosen outfits?



Ina Gartens Eggplant Gratin with G-Daddy's eggplant

G-Daddy was also very generous with his eggplant.  This year he planted Ichibon Eggplant which he was told, do not get as big but they are suppose to produce more and not be as tough.  This size is perfect for me as I am the only in my house that eats eggplant. I saw Barefoot Contessa make her recipe for Eggplant Gratin and knew I wanted to try it.  Click on the link above for the recipe.  Extremely easy and quick assembly but very yummy!  Enjoy!

Can you see the difference in the size of these eggplants?

My presentation was not the best.  I did not have an appropriately sized dish!

I so could have eaten this in one sitting but I forced myself to save for leftovers.  And they were just as good!

Easter 2011

As I said in an earlier post,  for a few months I was totally unmotivated to blog about anything.  So I am now playing catch up.  I am sure at this point noone is interested in the Easter Bunny or any pictures but since I never wrote a post on our Easter, here we go. For the first time in several year we spent our Easter in Andalusia.  Its always fun to spend time with the boys and they did not disapoint!

Maybe you cannot tell due to the look on one person's face but, as usual, everyone was super excited to see Big T!  Anyone else wanna pile on the couch?

And of course you never know when a bicycle may come through the house!

Workin on that tan ... may take awhile :)

JD practicing his splits and jazz hands

 Always expressing that brotherly love

Umm excuse me Sir, but are your goggles on upside down??

Easter Bunny delivered!

And we finally lost the first tooth!

Cannnot get enough of Tutu

Not sure what happened to everyone's shoes between the church and the house

Can you tell we let the 7yr old take our picture?

And sadly we can't even blame this shot on the 7yr old