Your entire family will love this. It’s delicious, healthy and easy to make.
Mrs. Glade’s Grilled Eggplant Soup
- 1 large eggplant
- 1 med sweet onion chopped
- 8 sliced cloves garlic
- olive oil
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 large peeled and chopped tomatoes with some of the seeds removed
- 2 tbs. basil pesto (homemade or store bought)
- salt and pepper
Remove skin from eggplant. slice into 1/2 inch thick pieces. brush both sides with olive oil. Grill eggplant on both sides until nicely browned, but not burned. In a heavy duty saucepan saute onions in 2 tbs of olive oil on med heat. When onions start to brown, add sliced garlic to the pan. Lower the heat to med low. stir garlic and onions until grlic starts to brown slightly. Don’t burn it, or the garlic will be bitter. Add chicken stock, chopped tomatoes, grilled eggplant (chopped), salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes until tomatoes are well cooked. Add pesto. (I always have homemade pesto in my fridge). Puree soup with an immersion blender until thick and smooth. 4 hearty servings. Serve with crusty bread. YUM!
My Grandma Nellie pounded into my brain that if a recipe is too rich – savory or sweet – I should never consider cooking or baking it.This has always stuck with me, or rather haunted me in a way. I picture a 2 inch version of Granny standing on my shoulder with her hands on her hips while I’m reading recipes. “Don’t you dare bake that!”
My favorite TV chef by far is Ina Garten. She sometimes uses more cream and mayo than I’d ever consider using, but her basic cooking philosophy is marvelous. I’d love to have her over for dinner for great conversation and to show her that I am just as good a cook as she. Both she and her husband seem like interesting people. Some years ago Ina had a recipe for Pecan Squares, which must be the ultimate tasting food, because they are so rich, sweet and fattening. I have that cookbook and recently saw a repeat of that old episode. So I decided to please my late Grandma by trying to figure out just how many calories are indeed in that recipe. Here’s what I came up with:
These are approximate for the entire recipe (20 servings)….
- Butter (9 sticks!!!) = 7,290 Calories = 520 grams saturated fat
- Honey = 1030 Calories
- Brown Sugar = 2,485 Calories
- White Sugar = 258 Calories
- Eggs = 240 Calories = 4.5 grams saturated fat
- Pecans = 6,575 Calories = 66 grams saturated fat
- Cream = 210 Calories = 15 grams saturated fat
- Flour = 1,800 Calories
- Total Calories = 19,880
The recipe suggests these are cut into 20 bars, so that is about 1,000 calories for each bar and over 30 grams of saturated fat. (1 Pecan bar is equal to the calories of 5 Hershey Chocolate Bars.) Each Pecan Square has 3.6 Tbsp of butter alone. I don’t want to figure out the cholesterol. It would be too upsetting.
What if you cannot resist and you eat 2 of these? Do we want our kids to get used to tasting and loving foods as rich as these? Do you want to consume that many calories and grams of fat and not even get full eating it? Do you want to know how many hours of running it would take to burn all that off? I say no to all the above.
Okay my curiosity got me, and I looked it up. A 120 lb. woman would have to run for 2 hours and 15 minutes at 5mph to burn off one Pecan Bar!!! OMG!!!!
There’s nothing wrong with occasional indulgence, but my Grandma Nellie was right. Sometimes too much is just too much.
Sorry Ina. I still love your show.
Planning a picnic or BBQ? Here is one of my family’s favorite recipes I created . . .
Mrs. Glade’s Warm Apple Cider Vinegar Potato Salad
http://free-clipart.net/
This is like eating mashed potato salad with a zing. Yum! It tastes the bet warm or hot, but is also good refrigerated. Your family will love it.
- 3 lbs. of red potatoes (quartered) I prefer organic
- 1/2 large sweet onion chopped fine
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup real mayonnaise
- 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 clove crushed garlic
- 1/2 Tsp salt
- 1/4 Tsp pepper
Boil potatoes until very soft and starting to fall apart. Drain in colander. Chop onions and set aside. In large boil whisk all the other ingredients. put hot potatoes along with onions into sauce and mix well. Serve hot or warm. If you like dill, you can chop some fresh and put it into the sauce. Serve with extra salt and pepper.
Since I received the mega lemon yesterday, I have been drinking a lot of water with fresh lemon juice and honey. I also used part of it today to make these incredible Lemon Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Muffins.
Lemon Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Muffins
- 2 Cups flour
- 1 tbsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 Stick Salted Butter (no margarine, yuck!!!)
- 2 Large Eggs
- 3/4 Cup Buttermilk
- 1/4 Cup Fresh Lemon Juice
- Grated Rind of 2 Lemons
- 1 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
- 3/4 C of Choc Chips (Ghirardelli i best!)
Preheat oven to 350. If you have a convection setting, use it. If not, no worries. In one bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, beat eggs, buttermilk, lemon juice, rind, vanilla. Add drop of melted butter to temper the mixture and not scramble the eggs. Then add rest of butter. Blend in the dry ingredients just until mixed Do not over-mix. Fold in chocolate chips. Put into 12 baking cups in muffin pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on your oven. test after 20 with knife in center muffin. This recipe doubles well also.
Yummy!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups organic heavy cream
- 2 cups organic half & half (half cream/half milk)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 whole vanilla bean (quite expensive, but worth it!)
- 2 Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Bars
In a bowl mix with a whisk the cream, half and half and sugar until sugar dissolves. Add extract and stir. On a cutting board, split that vanilla bean long ways down the middle. Scrape out all the tiny seeds and put into the bowl. Whisk well into mixture. Pour into ice cream machine and turn on. (Make sure the bowl that goes into the ice cream maker is completely frozen, or you will not have good results. I keep my bowl stored in the freezer at all times so it is ready when I need it.)
Meanwhile cut choc bars into small chunks. I cut each square segment of the bars into 4 pieces so there are many small pieces. You don’t want huge frozen chunks in the ice cream, because it hurts your teeth to bit into it.
When ice cream is quite firm but not yet finished, add chocolate chunks to it. When ice cream maker is done (according to your machine’s instructions) pop it into the freezer in an airtight container. It will firm up much more there after a few hours. Consume the ice cream within a few days for optimum freshness.
Trust me, it will disappear quickly, because it is so GOOD!
I cannot wait for Friday! We are having a house full of people to celebrate the holiday and my Mom’s 70th birthday. If you are expecting a crowd, here is a great recipe for you to make with your kids:
Oreo Cookie Ice Cream Cake
- 1/2 gallon of your favorite flavor of ice cream (mint choc chip tastes great with this recipe)
- 1 package Oreo cookies (not Double Stuff)
- 1 container 8 oz Cool Whip
- 2 jars 14.5 oz. Dove DARK Choc Ice Cream Topping/Sauce
This cake is messy to make, but worth it! Your guests will be begging for the recipe. Grind up the cookies in the food processor or blender in batches until they turn into fine crumbs. Prepare for a nice pile of chocolate crumbs to fly and fall everywhere. (Try not to devour the cookies as you prepare the cake, please!) Pour 3/4 of the cookie crumbs into the glass 13X 9 inch dish. Mix 1/2 of 1 jar of ice cream topping into the crumbs to moisten them and press into pan. Spread ice cream over the crust. (You may want to soften it a bit first by leaving it out on the counter.) You may or may not need to use the entire 1/2 gallon of ice cream. Leave a little room on the top for the topping. After you have spread the ice cream out evenly, spread the carton of cool whip on top, followed by 1 jar of the choc sauce on top. Finally sprinkle the rest of the cookie crumbs on top. I like to put red, white and blue sprinkles on top and stick little toothpick flags in the cake for decoration.
