You Say Tomato...

...and so do I. I'll start this entry off by saying I almost didn't cook tonight. On our way home from our away game last night we stopped at Arby's and I went for that side of fries with my otherwise somewhat healthy meal (let me mention that it has been a LONG time since I have eaten fast food fries), and I was still feeling those fries today. I don't think I will ever have a random fast food craving again because of the feeling those fries gave me. It probably doesn't help that I haven't eaten all that well the past two days. Time to get back on the wagon!

Long story short, I did in fact cook tonight just for all my foodie followers (the things I do for you all) and I'm glad I did. Tonight was another stuffed vegetable from the "Everyday Contorni" chapter, Stuffed Tomatoes! I've had stuffed mushrooms, stuffed banana peppers (mmmmm), but never a stuffed tomato. But honestly, I don't think you could possibly go wrong with a tomato stuffed with something. Unless that something was tuna.

First things first, I had to cook some couscous. The recipe says to use arborio rice, however, being the poor college student that I am and the difference between couscous and rice being small, I didn't feel bad about the substitution. I cooked the couscous in some salted water which didn't take long, then set it aside.

Next, I had to cut the top off the tomatoes and hollow them out. Easy, right? No, not really. I cut off the tops then dug in with my spoon and found it to be almost as difficult as trying to hollow out a pumpkin. The difference is that a pumpkin is much more sturdy and thick and you can cut a bigger hole in the top. A tomato is smaller and it's easy to go right through its walls. The first one I hollowed out ended up having a small hole in the bottom, and then I got the hang of it on the second one. Too bad I only made two tomatoes.

As the toaster oven heated, I tossed the pulp from the tomatoes with my couscous along with some garlic, basil, parsley, salt and pepper. I also stirred in a bit of Parmesan cheese. After this was all mixed to my liking, I filled each tomato with the mixture, heaping it a bit on top (Giada's rules). I then placed the tops of the tomatoes on top of this, and baked them for about 20 minutes.

I had a good amount of couscous left over so I decided to eat it as my tomatoes cooked. Turns out this was just as good on its own (aside from biting into some raw garlic. Luckily I don't plan on socializing outside of my apartment tonight. And maybe this will ward off any Edward Cullen wannabes. Did I mention there's a creepy cardboard cutout of him in a window on the top floor? I digress). I decided I needed to create a meal out of this mixture at another time when I was feeling more creative.

The picture above puts my tomatoes side-by-side with the picture in Everyday Italian. I don't think Giada covered her tomatoes with the tops when she cooked them because hers are nice and browned on top. She also probably cooked hers in an actual oven, not a toaster oven. But she also has a state-of-the-art fully loaded kitchen in Malibu, and I do not.

Despite all of that, the tomatoes were delicious, and messy. I wasn't sure how to dig into them, so I opted for a fork rather than using my hands like the barbarian I tend to be in the privacy of my own room. The tomatoes were soo juicy and of course, the basil enhanced their flavor. Giada recommends serving these to guests I'm assuming in some sort of party setting, but I think they may be a little messy for such an occasion. I recommend them as a side dish to a meat entree, personally.

Sunday will be my next day to cook when I try out another dessert and complete my third cycle through the book! Holy cow times flies!! Check back then for more updates :)

P.S. Congratulations to the cross-marketing campaign between Dove and Wal-Mart. Your "Real Beauty" campaign has been stuck in my head for the past week (you know, the one to the tune of "Do Your Ears Hang Low?"). Luckily, I refuse to fall for your advertising antics and will NOT be going to Wal-Mart to stock up on Dove beauty supplies. Take that Man!

Make Way for the Queen of Improvisation...

As I type this blog, I am being blinded by the sun while trying to watch football (but of course, not the Bills game because it's nowhere to be found!) on my TV that is poorly positioned in relation to my window. Despite these trivial annoyances, I do have a lot to be grateful for like being able to burn over 250 calories while playing DDR today, or having two available washers on a Sunday in a dorm, or eating a delicious meal inspired by Everyday Italian.

My use of the word "inspired" is not merely a way to diversify my word usage. Today's dish probably came out much differently than what Giada would have intended it to be. It was from the "Everyday Entrees" chapter in the "Everyday Grills and Sautees" section. It's name? Grilled Seafood Salad. I will point out that it is a Seafood salad and that no specific seafood is mentioned in its title, therefore, I feel less guilty in having to change its contents. It went a little something like this:

I started by making the dressing in a different method than I had ever used before. I heated some EVOO (the real thing, NOT the spray) in a pan then added some chopped garlic and herbs. The recipe calls for fresh parsley (which I have plenty of thanks to my mother's bountiful herb garden), marjoram, and thyme. I didn't even have the dried variety of the last two and didn't really see the purpose in spending money on them when all I needed was some fraction of a teaspoon of each. As I was about to proceed minus two herbs, I decided to look at the ingredients of my Italian Seasoning. Alas! It contained both marjoram AND thyme and even some oregano for good measure. Crisis averted.

I sauteed all of this for about 30 seconds just to emulsify all the flavors, then removed it from the heat and let it cool. As it cooled, I plugged in the George Foreman and moved on to the seafood portion.

The seafood called for in this recipe is scallops and squid. My problem was not with trying either of these (I am a big fan of calamari and have been meaning to try scallops anyway), but in finding them without spending an arm and a leg. My good friend Katie was kind enough to give me a lift to Wal-Mart the other night so I could pick up some other things I needed, so I decided to look there for the seafood as well. Unfortunately, neither was anywhere to be found. But as luck would have it, I still had some frozen shrimp back at my room and decided this seafood would do just fine. I once again had to go through the trauma that is peeling shrimp (one of the legs got stuck on my finger and literally made me shudder) and dried them as well.

Once my dressing was room temperature, I whisked in some lemon juice, salt, and pepper. I then dipped each shrimp in the dressing then placed them on the hot grill. Shrimp doesn't take long at all to cook, so from this point on, it became similar to an episode of "Chopped" since I hadn't thought to take any of my other ingredients out from the fridge or prepare them in any way.

First, I had to peel then chop a carrot. The recipe said to cut the carrot into two inch long, thin strips which was difficult to do quickly and without losing a finger. I escaped that task unscathed. Next, I had to chop half a yellow bell pepper in the same manner. This was slightly easier, but still time consuming for safety purposes. Once again, I made it through. I had my half cup of cannelini beans stored in the fridge having used the other half in a previous dish so I dumped the rest of those and the now chopped veggies into the remaining dressing. I tossed them all together to evenly coat them.

At this point, my shrimp were ready to be flipped, and then it was time to start assembling. Giada's salad uses arugula leaves and some radicchio. Well, Wal-Mart also failed to carry either of these produce items. However, I had a bag a Spring Mix salad back at home and was able to substitute this instead (I'm pretty sure there was a bit of radicchio in the mix which was a bonus). I placed some of the salad on my dish then topped it with the veggie and bean mixture. I then placed the hot shrimp on top of this.

As I've mentioned before, the George Foreman grill allows the "fat" of your food drip off the grill and into this little collection tray. Seeing as shrimp really don't have any fat to drip off of them, all that ended up in the drip tray was some excess dressing. I decided not to waste a drop of it and drizzled it on top of the salad.

It's difficult to see all the elements of the salad in the picture above because this was post-tossing to get the dressing throughout it. However, it was amazing and quite filling. It was extremely flavorful and balanced. I was actually very proud that I didn't overdo any of the potentially strong seasonings! My shrimp wasn't over cooked at all and there was plenty of dressing to go around without leaving a pool of it at the bottom of the plate. Personally, I love when there's a hot (temperature-wise) element in salads so this was right up my alley. Another successful recipe!

The next day of cooking will be this coming Thursday when I go for another stuffed vegetable recipe in the "Everyday Contorni" chapter: Stuffed Tomatoes!! I can't wait!

Mmm...Toasty!!

I know I was supposed to make a dish last night, but a spur of the moment girl's night happened and I ended up eating some excellent, authentic Mexican food instead. I had a California burrito with veggies in it. Delicious!!

Moving on to today I finished the "Fresh From the Pantry" section of the "Everyday Pasta, Polenta, and Risotto"chapter with Orecchiette with Toasted Bread Crumbs. As all the recipes in this section are, it was easy and didn't use too many exotic ingredients. It was also worthy of a "yum-o!"

First things first, I cooked the orrecchiette (aka the pasta). This is pretty much a fancy name for shells. However, thanks to Giada's side note, I now know that orrecchiette means "little ears" which makes total sense.

Once the pasta was added to the boiling water, I began making the "dressing" of bread crumbs. This type of recipe is one that was probably used in order to use leftover stale bread (this is not my inference, it's totally from the side notes). I always think of bread crumbs as more of a coating for meat, so I found this use for it really interesting. I sprayed some EVOO into a heated pan, then added the bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. This only needs to toast for about two minutes and it's very easy to tell when it's ready. You definitely don't want to let this cook too long otherwise it WILL burn.

I drained the pasta (but not completely) and tossed it into the pan with the bread crumbs. Some of the pasta water stayed in the little ears which I think helped since the bread crumbs stuck to the pasta a lot easier. I also tossed in some finely chopped prosciutto.

Prosciutto is another new thing for me. I'm definitely not a fan of ham (though I could probably eat my weight in bacon or ribs) and I know that prosciutto is a type of ham. For years, people have told me that it doesn't taste like ham and that it's just salty. Me being me, I didn't believe them and refused to try it because I KNEW it tasted like ham. Well, I was wrong again. I tried a little piece of it before adding it in with everything else and alas, it really just tasted salty. You win again world.

After tossing all this together, I transferred the food to a bowl and added some chopped fresh parsley and Parmesan cheese, then dug in. It was really good, though I think next time I need to go a little easy on the salt. Between the bread crumbs, prosciutto, cheese, and actual salt, it was a bit much, but not enough to ruin the dish. I also needed some other wet element in it since the bread crumbs make it very dry (this may not have been the case had I used the amount of oil called for in the recipe rather than spray oil). With a few tweaks, I could probably make this dish even better, but for today, it was just fine :)

I'm off now to make some more pumpkin cookies to bring over to a friend's house tonight. I'm going to try putting a glaze on them this time instead of using cream cheese frosting since it dries much quicker. Wish me luck and check back tomorrow (so soon!) for my next dish: Grilled Seafood Salad!

Checca yoself...

...before you make another terrible pun. I may have another new love, and it's name is Checca Sauce. Not only is this "no-cook" sauce incredibly easy and quick to make, it's also incredibly delicious. Giada says that there is no point to making Checca sauce if tomatoes are not at the peak of their ripeness, but I did it anyway and it was still great.

The amount of time it took to make this sauce is basically the amount of time it took to make the pasta. As I brought the pasta water to a boil, I started the sauce by putting some cherry tomatoes, scallions, garlic, Parmesan cheese, basil, and oil into my chopper. I have to say, the best thing about my chopper is that I don't actually have to chop anything before adding it in there. It saves my hands from smelling like garlic for days on end. Anyhow, you pulse all of this together until the tomatoes are coarsely chopped, NOT pureed. No problem there. I pulsed it until it looked about the consistency of tabbouleh. If you don't know what that consistency is, then you probably haven't had tabbouleh and are therefore missing out on another delicious food.

Next, I transferred the sauce to a bowl and mixed in some salt, pepper, and mozzarella cheese. The recipe said to use some fresh mozzarella cut into cubes, but the shredded part-skim mozzarella I used seemed to work just fine.

Once the pasta was cooked to al dente, I tossed the sauce with it and I was ready to go! This whole "no-cook" sauce thing is great. Less mess, less time, but without cutting back on any flavor. Tomatoes and basil are always a winning combination and were the stars of the sauce. It was very fresh tasting. One thing I've noticed from all these recipes I've made is the spicy element of garlic. Especially raw garlic. I think the spice of the garlic in this sauce enhanced the flavors and kept them from being bland (since it's not really peak tomato season anymore).

As i was eating this, I realized this sauce would also be great as bruschetta. Some crispy Italian bread would've been perfect for soaking up the tomato juice that was left over once my pasta was gone but alas, I didn't have any. Anyway if you're looking for a very quick meal solution, I highly recommend this recipe!!

The next cooking day will be Friday when I take on another pasta dish: Orecchiette with Toasted Bread Crumbs!!

Side Note: I absolutely love that the sun is shining right now, but it's picking the most terrible spot in the sky to be at the moment. It's just at the top of my window shining directly on me and into my eyes (which are extremely light-sensitive). It's also in just the right place where I can't really avoid it unless I hover over my computer which is far from comfortable. Oh well, I'll take it shining in my eyes in the middle of the day over a dark cloudy or snowy October!

P.S. Happy Birthday Doug!

A Whole New Hummus

Good evening! It's time for another installment of me versus the cookbook, hooray! We're back to square (actually chapter) one with some "Everyday Antipasti." This recipe was the last one in the "Fresh from the Pantry" section of this chapter. This also marks my third time going through the book! Very exciting!

All the "Fresh from the Pantry" recipes have been pretty easy, and this one is no exception. Tonight's recipe was White Bean Dip with Pita Chips. I didn't see the point in buying pita bread for this little recipe when I still had 1/4 of a baguette in my freezer from the crostini recipe, therefore I used that instead. I sliced the bread extremely thin to make them more chip-like, sprayed each piece with some EVOO, and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and dried oregano. I then placed them on the mini baking sheet and into the toaster oven at 400 degrees.

I recently discovered that lining the mini toaster oven baking sheet with aluminum foil saves me time in clean up. I felt bad because every time I was done using it, one of my roommates needed it and they would end up cleaning my mess. Rather than have them go through that trouble just to dirty it up again, I figured it would be much easier on them (and me!) to use this method. I must say, it's been great :)

As the bread crisped up, I put half a can of cannellini beans, a small clove of garlic, lemon juice, fresh parsley, and salt and pepper into my little chopper (holy run-on sentences Batman!). Once this was coarsely chopped I added two teaspoons of olive oil, then continued to mix it till it was nice and smooth. As much as I love this little chopper, I absolutely hate the sound it makes. If you've ever seen the movie Dumb and Dumber, you'll know what the most annoying sound in the world is. Well this is that sound combined with nails on a chalkboard. At a high amplitude. It's so terrible. Needless to say, I persevered, lost some of my hearing, and got my dip to the proper consistency.

The bread chips came out exactly as i wanted them to. They weren't burned at all, just a nice brown color and EXTREMELY crunchy (my father can attest to this. I was crunching in his ear on the phone). In Giada's notes in her book, she says this dip is the Italian version of hummus. That's what I was expecting when I made it, but there are some subtle differences between the two. This dip is lighter and almost fluffier than hummus. This may be due to my decreasing the amount of oil needed. But I think I prefer the fluffier texture. It was very smooth in texture and the parsley with the raw garlic gave it some spice. I would recommend this for your next party. Maybe I'll even make it for my next family party!

My Dove chocolates have been giving me the same message lately (I eat one chocolate every night. If I didn't, I would go on a crazy chocolate spree). This recurring message is "Patience is a virtue." I do agree with this, but the fact that I keep getting this one makes me wonder, is there something I should be waiting for? Is all this work with cooking going to take me somewhere? Or maybe my bag of chocolates just didn't get mixed up enough. The world may never know.

My next day to cook is Sunday when I take on a new sauce: Checca Sauce! Check back then to see if it's a success, or if I go hungry for the night (ha, me? Hungry? Never!)!

P.S. Happy Birthday Madison!!

Goin' to the Country, Gonna Eat A Lot of Peaches...

And we're back!!! Thank goodness, I was going crazy without my biweekly dosage of Giada's wonderful recipes. Tonight, I made Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cheese which was my second dessert out of Everyday Italian. Thanks to our well-stocked and...I guess furnished?...kitchen, it went off without a hitch.

There is no supplementary picture to accompany this recipe in the cookbook, so ever since seeing it in there, I had a specific idea of what I thought it was supposed to look like. I've mentioned before that I sometimes look the recipes up on foodnetwork.com in order to see how long it takes to make the recipe, and that is what I did today. The recipe on there did come with a picture, and it was completely different from my idea. I had this picture of peaches topped with the cheese just open on a plate. The real recipe puts the peaches in glasses of wine. Needless to say, I decided these would be peaches with my own spin and stuck to my original idea.

To start, you mix some sugar with some lemon juice and set it aside. You're also supposed to add brandy to the mixture, but seeing as I live on a dry campus and am not legally able to consume alcohol myself, this just wasn't going to happen. I didn't think it would really take anything away from the recipe anyway.

Next, I had to fire up the grill! Mr. Foreman's innovation came in handy once again and this time, I even remembered to position to drip tray beneath the slanted grill (of course, this time time there were maybe two drops in the entire tray by the time I was finished). As the grill heated, I had to pit and quarter my peach. Sounds easy, right? Oh no, of course not. I cut the peach all the way around to the pit and then desperately tried to rip the two halves apart. After much effort and my hands being thoroughly covered in juice, I decided to cut it in half again to finish the quarters. It was just as difficult to pull apart. I then decided to try to maneuver the knife against the pit and sort of pry each piece off of it. This was actually successful, though bits of peach were still left on the pit. I'm sure Giada doesn't do it perfectly either. Or maybe she does. It really doesn't matter, these are peaches done my way.

After the peach ordeal I sprayed the grill with some EVOO spray (whoever thought to make this spray is a fat-free genius. I save so much by spraying food and cooking surfaces lightly with this rather than tossing it or covering it in oil). I then placed each peach quarter on the grill. Since it is slanted to "grill" the fat off of food (yes, it is the "lean, mean, fat grillin' machine"), the peaches slid right to the edge of the grill. This didn't bother me since they were secure and not falling off. The peaches are supposed to be cooked for about five minutes or until they're heated through and just brown. Well, mine weren't getting quite warm enough for me, so I decided that they needed to be in the center of the grill where most of the heat probably was. This took some skill with my tongs in order to place the peach quarters just right so they wouldn't slid down to the bottom. I was able to do this, but then was scared to even breathe for fear of the slightest change in atmosphere making them fall.

I unplugged the grill when the peaches were just brown and nice and warm, then transferred them to a small plate. The recipe tells you to put them in the bowl with the sugar and lemon juice mixture, but I drizzled that on top of the peaches instead. I should also mention that I did use some of the wine necessary for the recipe, cooking wine that is. I put it in the sugar lemon mixture just to get the full taste of the recipe, but not enough to get drunk off my peaches. I then let the peaches sit and absorb the mixture.

While this was happening, I combined the mascarpone cheese with some vanilla extract. I've seen this cheese used numerous times on Food Network, but had never tried it and had no idea what it was supposed to taste like. Well, it is an extremely mild cheese that has the slightest hint of that tell tale cheese taste. It takes on the flavor of whatever you add to it and gives it that nice, creamy texture. The vanilla cheese that I created was money.

I then dolloped some of the cheese onto each peach quarter and sprinkled some cinnamon on top (my own personal touch, not Giada's). I absolutely LOVE any type of grilled or roasted fruit so the peaches were great. The cheese was really good with it and was the perfect accent since the natural flavors of the grilled peaches still stood out. I'm guessing that this would be even better if I had used a REAL grill, but not only is one not available to me, but it was far too cold out today to be grilling (unless you were tailgating at a Bills game like my family probably was without me today. It's fine. I'm over it).

So I have officially gone through each chapter of the cookbook TWICE now and feel I'm really starting to improve my cooking! I'm picking up tips and tricks each time I try a new recipe and have made some delicious creations. I had Shrimp Scampi while out to dinner the other night (since I am an official shrimp eater now) and I think mine was actually better! I thought moments like that only happened when I tried things while out that my mom made better. I start back at Chapter One again on Thursday with some White Bean Dip with Pita Chips. Delish!

P.S. Happy One Year Anniversary Steph & Doug!

Delicioso!!

OK. So I didn't cook a Giada dish tonight (see previous entry), but I did cook and I was going through blog withdrawal, and so here we are! My intention was to make the Hungry Girl Crazy Good Coconut Chicken Taco. I didn't have any coconut, so I knew that wasn't going to be part of it (the recipe said to use coconut syrup anyway, but who has that?). It also wanted me to use pineapple salsa which I also didn't have. Instead, I took my excellent sweet corn salsa from the cider mill and mixed it with a cup of pineapple. Same thing right?

Bottom line, I ended up completely reinventing the recipe, but kept it to a simple five WW points (woohoo!). I started by cooking a clove of chopped garlic with half a chopped onion in my pan on the new double burner (let's hear it for the double burner, it truly is fabulous). I then added half a chopped red pepper. I seasoned all of this with some salt and some chili powder (heat is definitely necessary in Mexican cooking).

To the veggies I added a chopped chicken tender that was also seasoned with some salt and chili powder. For future reference, I might add more chili powder to the raw meat or maybe treat it more like a rub, or even make it into a marinade. Thankfully the other flavors of the dish were able to flavor the chicken enough. As all of this was cooking, I mixed some chopped pineapple with two tablespoons of the corn salsa and let them sit. Just as the chicken was done cooking, I threw in the pineapple salsa and turned off the heat. I wanted the flavors to emulsify but not actually cook the salsa (plus, I LOVE fruit that's been roasted or grilled in some way so this was a plus).

As I let it cool a bit, I put my tortilla onto a plate and sprinkled some Gorgonzola cheese in the middle. I then put the hot mixture on top of that and attempted to roll up the burrito. No such luck. The filling was far too big for the tortilla. I suppose this is something I will need to work on in the future, though it really didn't take away from the dish at all. Anything that fell out of the burrito I scooped up with my fork :)

The dish came out VERY well. The pineapple, corn salsa, and cooked onions were all sweet in flavor and it was balanced out by the chili powder. The sharpness of the Gorgonzola also helped to cut the sweetness. I'm glad I added the salsa to the pan at the end because it actually helped to deglaze it and pick up all the flavor from the bottom of the pan. It ended up making a nice chili powder sauce. Not too shabby for throwing it all together without much of a plan!

It's days like today that I wish I was on the show Chopped on Food Network. I think it would be so cool to be given this random set of ingredients and try to make an edible dish out of them. Granted, I wouldn't want to work as fast as they have to or feel that crazy pressure, but I would love to have these random things in front of me and somehow make them work. Yes, I am a food nerd to the max. This, I will admit.

It's about halfway through the week and I'm trying to survive without my Everyday Italian!! I plan to start again this coming Sunday (possibly Saturday if I'm feeling adventurous) so please check back then for another dessert!!

P.S. Obviously I did not include a picture of my meal tonight, but check out the pretty view outside my window! Don't you love fall?

So Sorry to Disappoint...

...but I will not be cooking from good old Giada's cookbook this week :( My lack of car here at school forbids me to go grocery shopping at my leisure and the campus convenient store doesn't sell peaches, or cannelini beans, and most certainly not mascarpone cheese (they don't even have cream cheese). I am going to attempt to guilt a friend into taking me before Friday, but if that fails then we will have to wait till next week since my parents will be here on Friday for my field hockey game. Believe me, I am much more disappointed than you are!! Until next time, baci (according to Google translator, that means "kisses" in Italian. I apologize if it doesn't and actually means something offending).

Insert Clever Title Here

Good evening faithful foodies! Please forgive my lack of creativity, but I just couldn't think good word play around "Eggplant Rollatini" that wasn't the epitome of cheese ball. Moving on, tonight we plunge into more "Everyday Contorni" with the second recipe in the "Stuffed Vegetables" section; Eggplant Rollatini!! I'm a HUGE eggplant fan, so I was pretty stoked for tonight. More often than not, I will opt for eggplant Parmesan over chicken Parmesan. It's not even for healthy reasons (because a breaded and fried piece of eggplant is pretty much on par with a breaded and fried piece of chicken), I just LOVE eggplant.

Bottom line: I was excited. I began to gather all my necessities once I got back from field hockey practice. As I was packing my little kitchen travel bag, I realized just how much was involved in this recipe. I figured it would be worth it in the end so I continued up to the kitchen with a ten pound bag on my shoulder. On my way up, I couldn't help but think I had forgotten something. It's a familiar feeling for me, and I don't know why I didn't pay more attention to it, because more often than not I get this feeling because I have forgotten something (I once left my field hockey jersey at home when it was needed at a tournament across the country. I will never live it down).

I made it to the kitchen, started unpacking (the other girl in the kitchen probably thought I had packed to spend the night in the kitchen), and realized that I had indeed forgotten something. My cutting board. After approximately two minutes of standing and staring at everything, I decided against venturing back downstairs and instead took on the role of the Great Improviser.

My first order of business was to slice the eggplant. You need to slice it lengthwise, then make 1/2 inch thick slices. In place of my cutting board, I turned my baking dish upside-down and cut the eggplant on top. After cutting it lengthwise, I saw how difficult it would be to make slices of the eggplant with the open half facing one side without losing some fingers in the process. Instead, I put the half cut side down, and cut horizontally. I won't lie, my first cut was pretty jagged, but I really did get better as I went on. I made six slices and discarded the "heels" of the eggplant. I then put salt on each side of the slices and set them aside for 15 minutes (according to Giada, this helps take some of the moisture out of the eggplant. I wish I had known this sooner).

I should probably mention that I made this recipe completely out of recipe order. Rather than bore you with how it should have been carried out, I'll just tell you how it all played out. As the eggplant sat, I mixed the ricotta cheese with the egg. The recipe calls for two eggs, but I wasn't making six servings so I used only one egg. I beat the two together, and realized I probably shouldn't have used the entire egg. Giada didn't indicate what color the mixture should be at this point, so I didn't have anything to compare mine to. I added a little more ricotta, but it didn't make much difference, so I made the executive decision that it WAS supposed to be that yellow.

I next added some mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese and "gently" stirred it in as recommended. I was then supposed to add in the toasted pine nuts. Well, I hadn't yet toasted the pine nuts. I quickly threw some in my pan and cranked up the heat. Luckily, they toast up and turn golden brown relatively quickly (and as Rachael Ray says, your nose will know when they're done). Then, I had to play the waiting game and wait for them to cool off. Had I just thrown them into the cheese mixture, I'm pretty sure the egg part would've cooked or the cheese would have curdled or caused some other minor disaster.

As I waited, I added some fresh basil to the cheese mixture. I was feeling kind of lazy so rather than chopping it on my absence of cutting board (the eggplant was currently in the baking dish so that was a no-go), I just tore it apart. Giada cautions not to over-mix the mixture, but I'm pretty sure I did. I don't know if it would have tasted any different if I had mixed it any less. Finally, my pine nuts cooled enough and I tossed them in and continued to over-mix.

After the 15 minutes had expired, I rinsed each piece of eggplant and patted it dry (I should mention here that I hadn't brought anything to dry these with, so I settled with my terry cloth oven mitt). The recipe says that you're supposed to grill the eggplant slices for about four minutes on each side. Well, I didn't feel like schlepping the Foreman grill all the way up the stairs, and I really try to keep my cooking in one room if at all possible (side note: this will be more possible now that we have a double burner in our room! Woohoo!). Instead, I decided to cook the eggplant in the frying pan with some EVOO spray. It cooked up just as well and became tender enough to roll up.

Next, I let one batch of eggplant cool (I had to cook three slices at a time seeing as my pan isn't all that big), and put the other in the pan. Once it was cooled, I put about one tablespoon of the cheese mixture on the smaller end of the slice, then rolled it up and put it seam side down in the baking dish. Of course, me being the slightly impatient cook that I can be, I didn't let all the pieces cool enough and burned myself a little when rolling the slices. You live and you learn.

After all the slices had been cooled (well, let's be honest, not completely cooled) and placed in the baking dish, I covered them with the remainder of my marinara sauce from last week (yes, I did freeze it for the week. I've had too many run-ins with improperly preserved food to take any chances. It only took eating bad chili once and eating Ponderosa and puking all the way back home on a bus to learn this). I then baked the rollatinis for 15 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

I made some friends in the kitchen today and saw that college students DO cook more than mac and cheese and ramen. These girls were cooking pasta with chicken and pesto. YUM. It looked really good. Between the three of us, we made the kitchen smell pretty awesome.

While my dinner was baking, I re-packed my bag. Luckily, most of the food I had brought up was the last of its container so I ended up packing up less than I had brought up. Once it was ready, I took the eggplant rollatini out of the oven, and carried it downstairs. My oven mitt was feeling pretty worthless at this point because that dish was HOT. However, rather than running back to my room, which I was given considerate thought, I walked briskly back and practically threw the dish onto the counter upon my return.

You have to trust me, the picture above doesn't really do the dish justice. It just kind of looks like a plate of marinara sauce. I tried to get a close up of my beautiful rolls of eggplant, but my room unfortunately does not have adequate light as a photo studio should, and it simply wasn't feasible.

This dish, was AWESOME! It was like eggplant Parmesan, but without the breading or frying. The cheese mixture was prefect and not too egg tasting. It started seeping out the sides and crisped a little at the edges (so delicious!). Between pan-searing the eggplant and baking it in the oven, it was so tender that I could cut it with just my fork and the sauce and cheese flavors really enhanced the natural eggplant flavor. De-lish!

For dessert, I decided to finally break into my low-fat vanilla frozen yogurt :) Rather than topping it with chocolate syrup, or caramel, or whipped cream, I opted for a teaspoon of Nutella and a dash of cinnamon. I mixed it up, and it was like an entirely different flavor. I HIGHLY recommend it!

The complete meal was absolutely fantastic! I can't wait to make this one again. My next day of cooking with Giada will be this coming Monday. I will be doing my second dessert, Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cheese! Check back soon!