Caramelized Onion, Potato, and Eggplant Rustici with a Pasta Frolla Dough

When we got our CSA box on Sunday and I started planning meals for the week I realized that I had WAY to many vegetables for the few days we were actually going to be home for dinner.  In an effort to use them up as tastily as possible I grouped them "logically" and took to the internet to find some new recipes for each combination.  Turns out if you google "ingredients eggplant potato onions" about halfway down the first page you find this tasty little recipe for Caramelized Onion, Potato, and Eggplant Rustici with a Pasta Frolla Dough.

Here's my advice to you... Stop whatever you're doing and go make this recipe. Now.  Do it.  Go on.  

First off, the Pasta Frolla dough is sort of like a pie crust.  So you can use it for savory or sweet rustic type things.  It's amazing.  Here's my slightly modified version...

Pasta Frolla

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 freshly grated lemons, zest of or 1 oranges (optional)
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 large eggs, beaten lightly
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1.In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and zest.
2.Cut in the butter, until it resembles coarse meal.
3.Add the egg and the vanilla and toss the mixture until incorporated.
4.Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead very lightly, forming into a disk.
5.Chill, wrapped in plastic at least 1 hour or overnight.
6.Let the dough stand at room temperature until softened, but still firm enough to roll out.

As for the filling, if you click through the link at the top to the original recipe you'll find the filling.  I basically did the lazy version noted below. 

Savory Eggplant, Potato, and Onion Filling

Ingredients

2 medium eggplants (diced)

3 medium potatoes (diced)

1 sweet onion (sliced)

butter

olive oil

salt and pepper 

I basically just sliced and diced these up.  Sauteed the eggplants in one pan on the stovetop with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Cooked and crisped up the diced potatoes in another pan on the stovetop with a combo of olive oil, butter, salt, and pepper.  And caramelized the onions in the oven at 400 degrees.  

Once the separate parts of the filling were ready.  I took the dough out of the fridge and left it on the counter for five minutes.  Separated it into four balls, rolled them out to about 1/4 inch.  Put a spoonful of eggplant, followed by a spoonful of potatoes, topped with caramelized onions on each.  Scrunched up the sides into little rustici, and popped them in the oven at about 325 degrees for 30 minutes.  

Best. Dinner. Ever. 

Ginger Peanut Slaw

A fresh summer slaw adventure...

1 head Asian cabbage, chopped in slaw-style strips
2T veganaise
4T diced candied ginger
2T ginger marmalade
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts

Tailor the amounts above to your taste, mix it all up in a bowl, and eat it on a sunny deck.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

The perfect, slightly sweet, chocolate cookie snack. Slightly modified from a recipe I found at Smitten Kitchen.  I think I'll use a few to make some mini ice cream sandwiches!  Or maybe dip one side in chocolate laced with mint!!!  Even better, maybe I could use that creme de menth filling from Mom's mint brownie recipe to make little chocolate mint sandwiches and THEN dip one side in dark chocolate. Mmmmmm.  Oh man, that sounds absolutely indulgent.  I wonder if Joel's office would be open to my experimenting?   

 

Anyhow, the original recipe called them Brownie Roll-Out Cookies, but they aren't really that brownie'esque if you ask me.  They're more like a chocolate sugar cookie, although they're not very sweet. 

 

I love that the recipe can be halved very easily, as I did.  I would guess a half batch made maybe 30 small (2 inch?) rounds, of which the two of us ate about half in one sitting (as we watched the Caps collapse finally reach an end).  At least we had tasty chocolate bedtime cookies to console us.  Hmmm, maybe that's what I should call them "Chocolate Bedtime Cookies," I like it!  (Hang on while I amend my subject line, there, done.  And Chocolate Bedtime Cookies are born...)

 

Ingrediants:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened

1 to 1.5 cups brown sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (even better, use unsweetened dark cocoa powder, Mmmm)

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

 

Combine flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside.

 

Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa until smooth. Gradually add flour mixture and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. (It does disappear once baked, though, so don't overly fret if they go into the oven looking white.) Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
* According to my mother's recipe, they're called chocolate sugar cookies but I do not feel that it does them justice.

Peach & almond oatmeal crumble

I made the easiest, tastiest desert last night. It golden brown was a peach and almond crumble using oatmeal instead of flour.

I used an 8x8 pan, which the original recipe had said to grease but I forgot and it still came out fine. Preheat the oven to 350.

Ingredients:
-- Approximately 3-4 cups of sliced peaches, with or without skin or even canned, however you prefer, essentially enough to cover the bottom of the pan and layer maybe an inch deep (you could really use just about any fruit I suppose)
-- if you used fresh peaches squeeze 1/2 a lemon over them
-- 2-4 Tbsp agave syrup, or sugar (optional, depends on how sweet your peaches are)
-- 1 T flour (or other starch to thicken, like tapioca star
Ch)
-- 1 tsp cinnamon
-- 1/4 tsp cardamom (optional)
-- 2 T finely chopped crystallized ginger (*optional)

Combine peaches, flour, cinnamon, and whatever optional ingredients you want in a bowl. Spread in bottom of 8x8 pan.

To make the crumble topping, combine the following in another bowl.

1.5 cups oats (I used quick oats)
3/4 - 1 c slivered almonds
1/3 c melted butter (or coconut oil)
1/4 - 1/3 c brown or blond sugar (or agave syrup, maple syrup, or light honey)
1/2 tsp salt

Plop the oatmeal crumble topping on top of the fruit somewhat evenly.

Preheat oven to 350 (325 if using all agave or honey in the crumble topping. Bake for about 40 minutes - or until the top browns a bit and fruit bubbles out of the corners of the pan.

Enjoy as is, or with fresh whipped cream, vanilla ice-cream, or yogurt.

Leftovers can be stored covered in the fridge, and re-heated - or eaten right out of the pan.

Brown sugar whole wheat shortbread, Mmmm

You can't tell from this photo, but these were surprisingly tasty
little morsels. This was the first time I ever tried my hand at
shortbread and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Then again,
with all that butter and brown sugar how could it be bad?

Anyhow, Joel was supposed to bring in treats for his weekly staff
meeting today and I was out of eggs, flour, and sugar. A quick online
search for the ingrediants I did have on hand (namely brown sugar and
whole wheat pastry flour) turned up a few recipes for shortbread, so I
gave it a whirl...

Brown Sugar Whole Wheat Shortbread

1 cup light brown sugar (the recipe called for dark brown)
1 cup regular salted butter, softened (I think next time I would use 3/4 cup)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

1) Cream brown sugar, butter, and vanilla together until light and fluffy

2) Add in flour in two parts. Mix on low until very well combined.
(It's not like regular cookies where you barely mix the dough, you
really want to make sure the butter is worked into the flour, or,
supposedly, your bars will be super-crumbly.)

3) Scrape the mixture into a buttered cookie sheet (mixture will be
crumbly, but not dry.) Press evenly into pan. Lightly score bars where
you would like to cut them, and then prick all over with a fork.

4) Bake for about 25 (to 30 minutes?), until top is puffy and firm.
Cool pan on a rack for several hours (or overnight), then cut.

Breakfast cookies... for dinner!

In an effort to avoid sitting around stressing about my defense, I
whipped up some banana bread walnut chocolate chip cookies from a new
breakfast blog I found. I modified the original recipe, using only
brown sugar (rather than half white). They were kind of part oatmeal
cookie, part banana bread, part chocolate chip cookie, all
deliciousness.

http://xobreakfast.com/post/3226640679/banana-bread-walnut-chocolate-chip#

Banana Bread Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from Martha Stewart via XO Breakfast)
Makes 2 or 3 dozen?

1 c. all-purpose or spelt flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. rolled oats
1 tsp. coarse salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 c. (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp.
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1.5 tsp. vanilla
1-2 ripe bananas
8 oz. (1 c.) chocolate chunks or chips
1/2 c. ground walnuts

Preheat oven to 375ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix the flours, oats, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl. In a
larger bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until light and
fluffy. Stir in the egg and vanilla, then mash in the banana.

Add the flour in three parts, folding the chocolate and walnuts in
with the last third. Scoop cookies onto the parchment paper (I used a
1/4 c. measure for big puffy cookies). Bake until light golden brown,
about 12-13 minutes. Cool on rack.

Joel thought they were a little soft at 12 minutes, so I think next
time I would do 13.

Anyone else want peppers & eggs

Mmmm, peppers and eggs. It just brings me back to childhood. Only I always seem to have to do my peppers separate from my eggs, otherwise they get all funny. How did they always seem to get it just right growing up?