Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Stacks

I've been wanting to try an eggplant stack recipe for a while now. I've been bookmarking various recipes, but it took until now for me to finally try one. I am a huge eggplant fan, so this dish was right u my alley. I made this recipe as a vegetaran friendly main course, each person having 2 stacks. The feedback was mostly great and really helpful.

The skin on globe eggplants tends to be tough, which I did not think about when making these the first time. Peeling the skin either before roasting or after roasting would remove this tougher texture from the eggplant stacks. You could also use skinny Japanese eggplants and smaller tomatoes and make mini stacks as a bite sized appetizer. Or you could layer the ingredients in a pyrex dish and make a casserole/gratin with the same delicious flavor.

The roasted tomatoes are delicious and tasted great even on their own. I roasted the end bits of the tomatoes so I could try them before making the stacks. Pure garlicky goodness. I had never roasted tomatoes before, but I am kind of hooked now.

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Betty Bossi's Salat Zorba (Greek Salad)

This Betty Bossi's salad is one that my family ate often when I was a kid. The page in my mom's cookbook is proof of that, with splatter marks and a slight tear in the page (keep in mind that this book is older than me). The Betty Bossi recipe doesn't use lettuce in this salad and suggests that you can use a twig of fresh tarragon instead of the oregano. I've grown up with the oregano variation since oregano grows year round in my mom's herb garden.

This salad is simple, but delicious. If you need to prepare it ahead of time, make the dressing and store it in an individual container so the salad does not get soggy. This salad make a great main course for night your want a light dinner. Serve with some olive bread or dinner rolls and your meal is complete.

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Luby's Macaroni and Cheese

When my sister got married, one of her friends collected recipes form friends and family and made her a cookbook. One of the recipes sent in was for Luby's mac and cheese, which is quite possibly my brother-in-law's favorite comfort food. Luby's, from what I gather, is a Texas classic, famous for their mac and cheese. My sister has made this recipe countless times, and each time it's great. It has that traditional macaroni and cheese taste you'd expect from a rich dish like this. Be prepared to share this with your friends once they've had a taste (and if they love mac and cheese).

My sister last made this dish for a friend who had requested a batch, so what you see above this the no-so-elegant to-go packaging. I've been visiting her for 2 weeks, and we've made all sorts of delicious meals and snacks together. Unfortunately, this was the one we made that wasn't for us. We did stuff our faces with other delicious recipes that I will be posting here shortly.

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Fresh Corn Salad

With summer produce beginning to pop up in the grocery store, it's time to start enjoying corn again. This is something I do every time I visit my family since my little mountain town doesn't have the greatest corn selection. What my grocery store sells during the summer looks like the corn sold in America during the winter (which is not appetizing in any way). I was browsing through some Ina Garten recipes and found this extremely easy, yet tasty corn salad. The ingredient are simple, especially if you grow basil during the summer.

This makes a great side dish to any barbecue. It looks and tastes impressive, but once you make this, you'll realize that it requires minimal effort. If you're out of red onions, I imagine green onions would be a good substitue, but the salad would not be as colorful. You can also make the recipe with just 2 tablespoons each of the vinegar and oil if it looks like you have enough with that amount.

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Caramel-Glazed Cardamom Palmiers

I was recently looking for a new cookie recipe that I could make for my dad. He prefers drier non-chocolatey cookies that go well with tea or coffee. After looking through tons of recipes, I found this one and though it sounded manageable (and it had a couple good reviews). I've never attempted a similar cookie before, so I was a little bit pessimistic, especially when I first started kneading the dough and was convinced the seemingly dry, crumbly mass would never form a dough.

These cookies aren't necessarily difficult to make, but they take time. The result is delicious! Within less than 24 hours, 3 of us had finished the batch. I also saved the scraps of dough that I trimmed away to form the rectangle. I used those to make mini palmiers, which were adorable, bite sized snacks (even more addictive thanks to their size). Though I haven't tried it yet, I imagine this dough would freeze well.

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