Cooking It up

So my day wasn't too eventful. Did not accomplish anything around the house except dishes and starting a load of laundry. I have yet to put up the 80,000 clean baskets. I did an hour workout at the gym, no fun... I'm beginning to get bored. After my 7 hours at work, I came home made a simple chicken alfredo with carrots, peas, and broccoli. Tomorrow morning I'm going to go up to the furniture store and finally pick out my new tables. Also to complain about my dining set now. AYE AYE AYE. I swear I will never buy anything else from there. Its all junk.


I also planned my dinner menu for tomorrow. The guy is coming over for dinner. Normally he does the cooking.

Polenta: makes 6 side-dish servings

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
• 4 tsp Salt
• 1 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal
• 3 T unsalted butter, (cut into pieces)
• 1 tsp plus 1/2 cup Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup Marinara

Instructions

• Bring water to boil. add 2 tsp salt, then gradually whisk in cornmeal. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring often. Mixture will thicken and become tender. About 15 minutes
• Coat an 11*7 baking dish with 1 tsp olive oil. Transfer hot polenta to baking dish, spread evenly to 3/4 inch thick. Cover and refrigerate until cold and firm. About 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Cut polenta into 2*1 inch pieces. In a large heavy skillet, heat the remaining 1/2 cup of oil over a medium-high flame. Working in batches, fry the polenta pieces until golden brown on all sides, about 3 minutes per side. Using tongs, transfew the polenta pieces of paper and drain. Place the polenta pieces on a baking sheet and keept warm in the oven while cooking the remaining batches.
• Transfer the polenta pieces to serving platter. Sprinkle with parm cheese and salt. Serve with marinara.

It honestly isn't a lot of work and its truly delicious. I don't need to make that much so I will half the recipe. I am going to premake the main course and pop it in the oven right before I serve the antipasti.

Eggplant Parmigiana makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 12oz eggplant, (small)
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 T water
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 T cooking oil
• 1/3 cup grated Parm cheese
• 1 cup meatless spaghetti sauce
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzerella cheese

Instructions

• Wash and peel eggplant, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch slices. Combine egg adn water, dip eggplant slices into egg mixture, then into flour turning to coat both sides. In a large skillet cook eggplant half at a time, in hot oil for 4-6 minutes (golden brown). Drain onto paper towels.
• Place eggplant in a single layer in an ungreased 2 quart rectangular baking dish. Sprinkle with Parm cheese, top with spaghetti sauce and mozz cheese. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
  

This can be stored for up to 2 days after-wards. So I will make the whole amount, and store the rest for leftovers. I am excited to make all this. As a side dish I think I'll just make 2 sweet potatoes and top them with goat cheese and hazelnuts. It's pretty decadent, so its kind of like a dessert as well.

The reason I chose these specific dishes is because I already have all the ingredients except two. Technically I could make marinara, but I just have so much other stuff to do that I would rather just buy it, and heat it up.