Eggplant Croquettes

I found this recipe when searching out ways to use up all the eggplants from the garden. Croquette is just a fancy word for patty.

I actually made this recipe two different ways. The first time I made it I fried the patties as the recipe says.

Eggplant Croquettes
4 servings

1 medium eggplant, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Place eggplant in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on medium-high for 3 minutes. Turn eggplant over and microwave another 2 minutes. The eggplant should be tender. If not, cook another 2 minutes. Drain any liquids from the eggplants and mash.

Add cheese, bread crumbs, egg, parsley, onion, garlic, salt and pepper to the eggplant and mix well.

Shape the eggplant mixture into four patties. Heat oil in a large skillet. Drop eggplant one at a time into the skillet. Fry each side of the patties until golden brown, a few minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels.


They got a little more brown that I had planned, but it didn't matter. The fried version was sooooo delicious. The only thing I didn't like was that my entire house smelled like fried food for two days. At first it smelled yummy but after a while it gets old.

Several of the commenters on the recipe over at All Recipes said they had baked the croquettes instead of frying them to make them a little less bad for you. To bake them I mixed them the same way as before and formed them into patties. Then I baked them at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes, flipped and baked them for 10 more minutes.

This time I ate them on a wheat bun with a little bit of light Miracle Whip and some arugula. I also cooked up some broccoli, yellow bell peppers (from the garden), corn (from my CSA), and sun dried tomatoes into a veggie mix to go with it. Very yummy!



I will definitely be making these again. The original recipe says these can be frozen before frying (or baking) and cooked later. On the second time around I froze two of the unbaked patties so we'll see how they turn out later.

I'm Choppin' Broccoli....

Friday's harvest (08/29/08):


That large dark green round blob on the left is a 24.5 pound watermelon! That's 9 pounds bigger than the previous record holder. I haven't cut into it yet so hopefully it is ripe. I can't imagine that it wouldn't be. It's been sitting in the garden for quite a while.

Now the green thing in the back on the right is the first head of BROCCOLI! I'm so excited that I actually got a head of broccoli out of the garden. I ate half of it with dinner last night.


Wheeeeeeeee!

One year ago today:
Pizza Dough - the best pizza dough ever (also makes calzones)
Pizza Sauce - sauce to go with the above dough recipe (extremely easy to make)

Mexican Zucchini Casserole

I made this recipe several weeks ago when I had overflowing zucchini in the fridge. I found it on All Recipes and was intrigued at putting zucchini into a Mexican type dish. The original recipe can be found here. Below is the way I made it, with a few modifications to suit my tastes.

Spicy Mexican Zucchini Casserole
8 servings

2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium to large zucchini, cubed
1 cup chopped onion
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 cup cooked long grain rice
1 can black beans
1-2 tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and onions; cook and stir until tender, about 10 minutes. Season with garlic salt, paprika, oregano and cayenne pepper and continue cooking and stirring until fragrant. Mix in the rice, beans and tomatoes and cook until just heated through. Remove from heat. Mix it one cup of cheese until well blended. Transfer to a 9 x 13 inch baking dish and top with remaining cheese. Cover the dish with a lid or foil.

Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve with tortillas.


I basically used this casserole as a filling for tacos. I'm not sure how it would be to just eat it plain. Actually when I ate this casserole the night I made it, I only thought it was fair. I didn't dislike it enough to throw it out or anything, but there was something about the zucchini mixed in with the rice and beans that just didn't sit well with me. However I liked it better over the next couple of days when I took the leftovers in my lunch. Not sure why. Maybe I was just more used to the idea of zucchini in a Mexican dish.


The recipe was easy and it is a good way to use up an abundance of zucchini from the garden. I think I might make this again next year, especially if we're completely sick of eating all my usual zucchini dishes. I don't know that I would seek out a zucchini so I could make this dish though.

Other zucchini recipes:
Summer Stew
Zucchini Pie
Zucchini Cake
Zucchini with toasted walnuts

One year ago today:
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting - mmmmmm. This is my go-to recipe for buttercream and I use it all the time. I think I actually have some extra in the fridge right now. Maybe I should go get a spoonful...

Harvest 8/27/08

Here's what I harvested yesterday:


The peppers are looking better and better. The first few I picked about a week or 10 days ago were not looking so hot. And before that there were several that rotted right on the plant that had to go straight to the compost.

That's the biggest quantity of big boy tomatoes I've picked at one time so far. Tonight I turned them all into diced tomatoes for the freezer. That was an extremely time-consuming and messy process. I'll have to post about that some other time.

The beans are still producing very well. I picked over 100 almost perfect sized beans.

Speaking of beans, so yesterday evening I'm out in the garden picking beans. I'm knee deep in the middle of the bean plants, bending over at the waist to paw through the bean plant leaves when I hear a loud buzzing. At first I think maybe it is a motorcycle on the nearby road (there's a biker bar not too far away from the house). But then I feel something very large and vibrating land on my back.

OMG!

I screamed so loud, threw beans into the air, and began scrambling out of the bean plants flailing my arms about. I didn't see what actually landed on my back, but I'm assuming it was a hornet of some sort because I have seen them flying around the garden before. If my neighbors saw me I'm sure they now think I'm a complete lunatic.

At this point I was ready to pack up and go back in the house. I do not like things that buzz and sting. I'm a huge baby when it comes to bees, wasps, hornets, etc. However I had not picked beans the day before and I already saw tons of perfect sized beans that were ready to be picked and could not wait another day. So I forced myself to go back into the garden and get the beans.

That darn hornet buzzed me at least three more times (but he didn't land on me again thank goodness). My hands were shaking and I was thinking to myself, "I'm sacrificing my life for these beans!" A bit dramatic, yes. Everytime the hornet buzzed me I would jump out of the beans and run out of the garden. Then I would have to wait a few minutes to calm down and coax myself back into the garden. I finally got through the beans and ran back to the house without being stung or bitten, whatever hornets do.

I remembered later that evening that I had read an article in a magazine (probably Real Simple) about how to have a great picnic. One of the tips was to NOT bring a brightly colored blanket to sit on because bees and wasps are attracted to the bright colors. Well yesterday I had a bright purple t-shirt on when I was out in the garden. That was probably like wearing a sign that said "hornets please buzz around me!". Note to self - no more purple shirts in the garden (or any other bright color for that matter). Note to hornets - please do not buzz me anymore! Stay over in the sunflowers where you belong and leave my veggies alone.

One year ago today I posted:
Homemade Granola

Hmm...I haven't made a batch of that in awhile and it sounds really good. Maybe I'll make some this weekend...

CSA: Week 15

Wow 15 weeks of my CSA program are already over. I can't believe how fast the summer has flown by. Not too much longer until it starts to feel like fall outside. That will be nice.

This week in my CSA I received:

1 cucumber
2 banana peppers
1 jalapeno pepper
1 green bell pepper
3 small-ish big tomatoes
a handful of yellow and red cherry tomatoes
a jar of pickles
a dozen eggs

A jar of pickles! Now that's kind of fun. I haven't tried them yet. Hopefully they are delicious. I took a picture of the share items this week but I'm currently using a computer I'm not too familiar with so I'll have to post the picture later.

Update: here's the picture:


I think the CSA people are frustrated with their crops this year. They have mentioned several times that they have had trouble getting veggies to grow. I know they tried eggplant twice and it all died. They also mentioned that their broccoli plants grew beautifully but never produced any broccoli. Honestly though I haven't felt jipped or cheated at all. That's what a CSA is all about. You get a part of what the farm grows. And this is their first year growing on a larger scale. There's bound to be some trial and error. Hang in there guys!


Previous CSA posts:
CSA: Week 14
CSA: Week 13
CSA: Week 12
CSA: Week 11
CSA: Week 10
CSA: Week 9
CSA: Week 8
CSA: Week 7
CSA: Week 6
CSA: Week 5
CSA: Week 4
CSA: Week 3
CSA: Week 2
CSA: Week 1

Garden: Welcome Broccoli

Finally some pictures of the garden. A lot has happened in the past month. I've been picking TONS of vegetables - tomatoes, zucchini, beans, okra, watermelon, eggplant. I have been writing down everything I've picked and I want to go through and add it all up to see just how much the garden has yielded so far.

The pole beans have been removed from the garden. They grew too much and formed a big matted mess. Then they got so heavy they collapsed their support system and became a haven for pests. And I never really got any beans from them anyway! Hmpf.

One hill of zucchini plants has completely died and been removed. The other hill had one or two plants hanging on but they started to wilt this weekend so I'm guessing we will pull them out of the ground soon.


The peppers are starting to ripen! Several of them have rotted or had rot spots on them but yesterday I picked the first one that did not have any bad spots. Then one of the pepper plants that I started from seed has started producing peppers. They are tiny purple peppers. I picked one yesterday and I can't wait to try it.


The eggplant has been going crazy. The plants have tons of fruit on them. I've picked at least one eggplant the past three days and now have four of them in the refrigerator. I'm going to be researching eggplant recipes this week.


The okra plants are getting really big and yesterday one had a full open bloom that was really pretty.


Finally the plant I am most excited about is BROCCOLI! If you remember I tried to start broccoli from seed back in March. When I transplanted them to the garden in May they all died. So I direct sowed the seeds into the garden in July for a fall crop. They were growing pretty strong and then were infested with little green caterpillars who chewed the leaves into lace. I wasn't sure if they were going to make it but then just about a week ago I noticed a little broccoli floret in the middle of the plant. And then yesterday it looked like this:


Yipee! I can't wait to pick it. There are four broccoli plants total and they all have a small broccoli head growing in the middle. Here's the plant from farther away.


All in all I'd say the garden has been a big success this year. Even if everything died right now and I didn't harvest one more thing, we've still gotten enough out of it to make it worth all the work. I'm already excited about planting new things next year.

CSA: Week 14

In week 14 I received:

8 ears of corn (sheesh!)
6 tomatoes
1 butternut squash
2 green onions
3 ears dried strawberry corn

I was really surprised that I received so many ears of corn. They said it was the last of the corn though so I'll have to make sure to enjoy it. I was really excited to get a butternut squash. I love winter squash.

So what's strawberry corn you ask? Well it's a teeny tiny ear of red corn. It basically looks like a strawberry. It still has the husk attached and has been dried out. The guy from NV Ranch (the farm that provides my CSA) said that I should leave the ears on the counter for another week to finish drying out. Then I can put them in a paper bag and microwave it and it will POP OFF THE COB. So it's popcorn!!! How fun. I haven't tried it yet but I probably will in the next day or two. I'll be sure to take some pictures and post them on here.

Previous CSA posts:
CSA: Week 13
CSA: Week 12
CSA: Week 11
CSA: Week 10
CSA: Week 9
CSA: Week 8
CSA: Week 7
CSA: Week 6
CSA: Week 5
CSA: Week 4
CSA: Week 3
CSA: Week 2
CSA: Week 1

CSA: Week 13

In week thirteen I received:

3 ears corn
3 tomatoes
1 cucumber
green beans

The corn was great but the tomatoes were fair. They were kind of banged up by the time I got them home but I'm not sure if they were like that before or if they got knocked around too much in my bag on the way home. The green beans were actually not very good at all. Some of them were already wrinkly and shriveled. The ones that were still good were really poofy - by that I mean the pods were mostly air. The beans inside were pretty small. I ate some of them but then put the rest in the compost. I have much better beans growing in my own garden!

Previous CSA posts:
CSA: Week 12
CSA: Week 11
CSA: Week 10
CSA: Week 9
CSA: Week 8
CSA: Week 7
CSA: Week 6
CSA: Week 5
CSA: Week 4
CSA: Week 3
CSA: Week 2
CSA: Week 1

Harvest

Here's what I harvested yesterday:


Quite a haul!

Bridal Shower 2

Bridal shower round two. Actually this is round four for 2008, but only the second round of bridal shower cupcake pictures I am posting. The first bridal shower of the year was for SIL2 (I'm going to number them according to age from now on) who got married in Vegas in February. That was such a fun trip. I did make cupcakes for that shower but did not take any pictures.

Bridal shower number two was in April for my good friend Kelly. I was not the hostess so I did not make any cupcakes for that one. Bridal shower number three was for my BFF Beth in St. Louis and was hosted by all the bridesmaids, including me. I did make some very pretty cupcakes for that shower which was really fun.

Now SIL3 is getting married in less than a month and MIL, SIL2 and I hosted a bridal shower for her this past weekend. I made cupcakes of course as I am pretty much expected to do these days. I made the standard white and chocolate cupcakes. I thought about making something different or more fancy but I just couldn't get it together in time.

SIL3 is doing orange, brown and a tealy-bluey color for her wedding. She bought some orange sprinkles to use on the cupcakes for the shower. At first I wasn't too sure about them. They seemed really bright. However after I got them all set up with some orange roses on the brown stand, I thought they turned out pretty nice.






The wedding is going to be really pretty and also pretty fun too! I'm looking forward to it.

CSA: Week 12

Wow I can't believe how the last week got away from me. The garden is keeping me very, very busy. I've also been shopping for a deep freezer because our freezer in the kitchen is almost full. We can't decide what size to get though so that is holding us up. We need to get one soon because not much more will fit in the kitchen freezer and I know there is a lot more produce coming out of the garden. We still have the rest of August, all of September and a good chunk of October before the first frost - eeep!

Here's a quick update on what I received in my CSA share last Tuesday:

3 ears corn
2 cucumbers
2 tomatoes
a sack full of small red, orange and yellow cherry tomatoes
dozen eggs

I think that's it. I like all these things so I have no complaints!

Previous CSA posts:
CSA: Week 11
CSA: Week 10
CSA: Week 9
CSA: Week 8
CSA: Week 7
CSA: Week 6
CSA: Week 5
CSA: Week 4
CSA: Week 3
CSA: Week 2
CSA: Week 1

The Truthful Watermelon

About a week ago I posted about how I picked a watermelon a little bit too early. Well also about a week ago I decided to go ahead and pick another one despite my fears of getting another unripe melon. I took my clippers out to the garden and picked out the biggest melon in the patch. I knocked on it to see if it sounded hollow (although I swear the last melon had sounded hollow too). It did. I tried to determine the weight of the melon by picking it up. The seed pack for this variety said that the melons should be about eight pounds. I considered getting an eight pound dumbell from the house and taking it out to the garden so I could compare the weight. I then decided I was too lazy to walk all the way back to the house to get said dumbbell.

Finally I just decided to go for it and snipped the melon from its vine. This is the year of learning in the garden and I'm going to have to learn how to pick ripe melons somehow. I carried the melon back to the house. It felt heavy and it was really warm from the sun.

Once back in the house I determined that this melon was 13 pounds! Sheesh. Way more than the eight pounds I was supposed to get. Now I don't actually have a food scale to actually weigh the watermelon. I determined its weight by weighing myself holding the watermelon and then weighing myself without the watermelon and then applying the difference to the weight of the watermelon. This is also how I came to know that I have a 22 pound cat. The watermelon didn't scratch my arms in the process though thank goodness.


This melon is quite a bit bigger than the last one.

I washed the dirt off the melon in the kitchen sink and then rubbed it dry. I set it on the cutting board and got out my knife. The moment of truth. I said a prayer and started slicing it in half. This is what I found:


It was ripe! Awwww yeah! I was ecstatic! I grew this melon in my own backyard! Can you even believe that? It's crazy! I cut the whole thing up and took it over to a family barbeque. It was delicious and there was a ton of it to go around. Then I ate the leftovers in my lunch all last week. MMMMMM.


Here is the watermelon with my 22 pound cat, aka Cheddar:


Cheddar is way bigger than the melon. Cheddar is like an orange melon with legs. He is humongous.

I can't believe I grew a watermelon and I could actually eat it. I'm so excited by this. I hope many more grow before the season is over!