recipe? what's that????

Tonight for dinner we had eggplant parmigiana (I was just going to call it "parmesan" but blogger marked that as incorrect spelling and suggested "parmigiana" instead. Fancy). It was dreamy.

I don't have a picture. After a day of playing GM and a dog walk and cooking dinner, I was so starving that the plate was half empty before I considered that I might write a blog about it.

"What's so great about eggplant parm," you may find yourself asking... Well, it is delicious. The eggplant looked glorious at the grocery yesterday and I decided it needed to be served. It's crispy on the outside and creamy in the middle. I am completely infatuated by it, despite 8+ years working almost solely in Italian food which has left me generally turned off by a lot of things involving garlic, basil, tomato sauce or pasta. "Please can we have pizza?" Pete will beg. "I had pizza for lunch... again..." I will sigh.

"Wow Lia, I'm totally sold, give us the recipe!!!"

And that brings me to the real subject of this blog. I feel like the most frustrating thing I do as a cook is pay hardly any attention to what I put into a meal in order to make it turn out well. I didn't get far enough in my culinary education to tell you why things work for me... but most often, they just do. I've never in my life used a 5 ingredient recipe because even if I did, I would open up my spice drawer and throw in some other stuff (that should work out well). You know those blogs that you read with a fabulous recipe and as you scroll through the comments, you find that comment (you know the one I am talking about, there is at least one on EVERY recipe posted online, ever). It reads something like, "This is such a great recipe!!! I just.... (and then they list 17 changes and substitutions and why they made them) and it turned out amaaaazing! This is the best recipe for ______ EVER!)

Those people bug me. Me! Who is admitting to being... less than great at following recipes (except when my career depended on it. I have never altered a company recipe while on the clock, but I did learn to cook in a commercial kitchen that would often just list the ingredients and describe the process and let me go at it.) But if I were to post a comment below a recipe I try it would probably look like this. "Great recipe. I didn't really measure, I made some adjustments, I was out of a couple of ingredients so I switched them.... I can't really remember what I did, but it turned out awesome. Thanks for the inspiration."

We eat great around here. But could I tell you how to do it at your own home? Probably not. Could I make it exactly the same again... eh, probably not. I feel snobby saying that cooking just comes naturally to me. Its funny that even genetically, it is kind of half and half who could cook because of a lot of concentration and science to make things work and who just threw things together. I grew up around both. My dad's mom, cooked with recipes. Everything I can remember from her kitchen was awesome and wonderful (case in point, hot fudge pudding cake, mmm). But looking back at her procedure, there was always a recipe propped up in her recipe book holder. I possess her "Joy of Cooking" now and there are handwritten notes where she adjusted some recipes for high altitude. "Oh grandmom..." I think, "I have never taken such efforts to adjust for altitude, nor have I had a problem. What's the big deal?" (She did live about 1,000 feet higher from sea level than I do... that could be something) I admired her cooking as much as I admired her organized recipes and cookbooks. That I still aspire to. But since I don't really use them, it is hard to be motivated to organize them. And then there is my other grandma. My mom's mom. I've never seen her use a recipe. Ever. I can remember one particular visit to her house and enjoying chicken fingers with honey mustard for lunch, pancakes and waffles in the morning... never a recipe. Never even a break in the flow of the conversation as she mixed and heated and created and served... I gained experience in both. I started in a couple of kitchens in Fort Collins during college where chefs just kind of shouted imprecise instructions at me while doing something completely different. But at home I used recipes to become familiar with the things I wanted to cook. At school I learned about getting nutritional information for recipes, costing recipes... And I moved to places like the Olive Garden and a 5 star 5 diamond hotel where everything was a carefully formulated recipe that was expected to be followed to the letter. I never cooked at the O.G. though. And at that hotel, they referred to measurements but did not provide very many implements with which to measure. And since I didn't carry them in my knife bag (where I was expected to bring any sort of instrument I may need to complete my shift), I kinda... fudged some of those.

So back to tonight. I thought the tomato sauce was amazing. I made it from scratch. But that was... a month or so ago for a night of spaghetti and meatballs. (the leftover has been in the freezer since) I remember that I pureed it because I used like... every vegetable that was about to be trash in my fridge. I think there were tomatoes, onions, maybe some mushrooms, some squash of some kind.... I added canned tomatoes (or maybe tomato paste, I remember having some leftover about that time), broth? and some spices... maybe some basil from our garden? I don't know. I wish I could clone it. Or at least make it again.

Pete mentioned that this version of eggplant was particularly good. Well, it was a good one from the produce section. But I also didn't have enough breadcrumbs to use them solely. I added nutritional yeast and hemp seeds to supplement. I only used a dip in egg whites to help the coating stick, not the traditional flour, egg, breadcrumb procedure I usually follow simply out of laziness.

But then, by the time we ate, I was starving and I think he was too. Maybe that is all it was.

Its hard to be sure. I wish I could give someone the recipe so they could try it out and let me know how it is really.

But alas! The recipe does not exist. Like so many others that have been delightfully invented and carried out in my home, it is just a figment of a full belly and many a conversation until I make the next "best eggplant parmesan ever."

September so far in pictures

Its been busy busy busy around here!!!! I'm happy to report that its a productive kind of busy, but unfortunately, blog posts have been in the BACK of my mind.

So to get back into the swing of things, I figured I would just start with a little picture update:

our wine that we made in May has now "aged" and is being enjoyed. its turned out great!

We got to go to a "princess party" for our favorite 5 year old. I made a Repunzel cake, which turned out even better than I would have hoped!

the boys embraced the princess, "repunzel" theme.

Or maybe Tavis just likes the feeling of having hair again. (They both may kill me for posting these. At least you have photos of the suspects)

Princess Reece had quite the birthday...

And then it was just another week of work before it was time to celebrate my birthday.

And celebrate we did.

To start: A double birthday / congrats on finishing externship party with my friend Tanya.

She did all the decorating, food providing, hostessing, and inviting. 

She even made us these fun glasses to use for our cocktails for the evening

The boys mostly just played video games

The dogs wanted to be involved in the fun!

All I had to do was provide a cake

It was not as fancy as Reece's, haha.

Our friend Katie, decided we needed to have candles for every year of BOTH of our lives.

So 52 it was!

We didn't set off any smoke detectors.

Mostly, we just hung out and drank fun cocktails.

For that reason, Saturday was kind of a day of recovery...

But Sunday was Funday!!!

I woke up pretty early to Pete jumping out of bed, insisting I sleep in while he take care of some things.

And magically during that time, the house got cleaned!

We had lunch and relaxed before going to our friends.

They have kids and a baby and puppies so its always a riot. 

We helped give the puppies a bath

Reece helped dry

and cuddle

Here is my favorite:

Her name is Lola and I think she is pretty much the second most awesome dog ever (sorry, you can't overtake Ursa's awesomeness in 5 short weeks, little)

I'm in love.

So now we are house hunting for a place we can bring little miss home to.

Oh! and I got presents!

Because of Pete and I's love of board games, he found me a completely customizable monopoly board! Its awesome. I feel a ton of pressure to make it amazing though, so I am having trouble coming up with a theme. I'm thinking of going history of town nerd style on it. The more I learn about our fair home town, the more impressed I am.

He also got me this little beauty to protect my poor, abused coolpix. 

Last but not least for the birthday weekend was dinner with the parents. 

My parents and Pete's mom made it out to our favorite sushi place and we got to celebrate with all of them. 

And... yes, there was another cake.

Some boston creme deliciousness.

And a few more much appreciated gifts.

Oh and the Broncos won. I'm not a huge football kind of girl, but I can get behind that.

And now, here we are at the 10th of September having already had quite the month!

I think it will continue to be good. 

P.S. I am happy to report that despite half my post being about how much cake has been involved in TEN days, I am not yet... like huge from it. But I am going through this thinking that maybe, just maybe, some gym time would be a good idea.

Hope everyone else is having a great month too!