Happy Valentine's Day to All. And the winner is...

Siri!

I'm so so happy too because I happen to love Siri's Blog - Siriously Delicious.

Check it out when you have a chance and thank you everyone for entering. I'm sure there'll be another one soon!

xoxo,

The Meat and Potatoes Foodie

Spicy and Sweet Eggplant Stir Fry

This is so easy and simple, it's become a go to at our house. To make it a meal, I first fry up a couple of cubed chicken breasts in the pan, remove and set them to the side while I cook the veggies, then add the chicken back in to warm through just before serving. You could do the same with tofu. Just serve it over some rice and you're done.

Don't forget to enter the $55 CSN giveaway on this post!

Spicy and Sweet Eggplant Stir Fry
* Adapted from Epicurious
* You can add or subsitute mushrooms for the eggplant if you like.

Ingredients:
2 Japanese eggplants, tops trimmed, halved lengthwise, then cut diagonally into 1/2-inch thick slices
1 red bell pepper, cored and seeded, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
2 smashed and peeled garlic cloves
pinch kosher salt
2 tablespoons mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon finely grated peeled ginger (use a Microplane)
1/8 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice powder, or coriander
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-3 tablespoons finely chopped chives, plus extra

Directions:
Add the oil to a wok or large rimmed nonstick pan and let heat through over medium heat.

Add the eggplant, bell pepper, and garlic. Season with a pinch of kosher salt and cook, stirring often, for about 15-18 minutes or until the eggplant has begun to lose its shape and cook through and the bell pepper has started to brown and caramelize a little at the edges.

Meanwhile, stir together the mirin, soy sauce, ginger, and five spice powder. When the vegetables are thoroughly cooked, add the mirin mixture and green onions to the pan and stir for about a minute, until the sauce becomes a glaze and eggplant is browned and tender.

Serve over rice with additional fresh chives.

$55 CSN Giveaway!

As promised our friends at CSN whose wonderful sites sell everything from modern office furniture to cooking gadgets to dinnerware (I so wish I hadn't seen those Thomas Paul plates...) are hooking us up! One of you lovelies will win a $55 gift certificate to spend however you wish.

All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment on what your favorite kitchen gadget is and 'follow' me if you don't already. Next Monday I'll randomly draw a name and post the winner back here on my site.

Start your engines - and good luck!

Meet Miss June Carter!

Apologies for the radio silence - as you can see I've had my hands full. More recipes to come soon as well as a big, fat giveaway from our good buddies at CSN!

And the winner is...

Debra! Congratulations! You will receive an email from CNS with a link to your certificate (assuming the email attached to your name is correct.) If not let me know.

FYI, names were drawn from a cowboy hat. Thanks everyone for playing!

Southern Living's Cream Cheese Lasagna

Paula Deen can keep her butter queen title - I'll be the queen of cream cheese. And this is the recipe that made it so. After all we have a long history together.

Years ago I went to summer horse riding camp with my childhood bff and some other friends. It was the stuff of girlhood dreams - riding all morning and swimming all afternoon. By dinnertime, we were no longer skinny little pre teens - we were ravenous zombies. I look back at the things we ate during camp and wish I could go back in time and bottle that metabolic mojo. But I digress...

One of the highlights of camp was when our riding teacher (who will go unnamed even though I'm pretty damn sure she's never heard of this blog) made us cream cheese lasagna for dinner. I remember eating so much of it I had to go and lie down until my stomach stopped ballooning, like a pregnant woman who'd just hijacked a funnel cake booth at the county fair. I mean I was in pain.

Well, the pain finally subsided and all us girls could do is talk about that lasagna. We praised our teacher for the rest of the week for it. Don't get me wrong - we loved everything we put in our mouths at that camp from Watermelon to candy bars to hamburgers - but not a meal went by after that dinner without us mentioning the lasagna and its excellence. What was the secret, we asked? Some exotic herb? A special cut of ground beef? What?? But our teacher refused to answer us and just tucked her chin in with a stoic look that said 'I'd love to tell you, but I can't...'

Turns out the secret ingredient was my friend's mother - she was the person who made the lasagna. All our teacher had done was heat it up! Years afterwards my sister gave me the Southern Living Cookbook and low and behold - there was the recipe. And it's as good now as it was when I was 12.

No fancy Bechamel sauce, no hours spent simmering tomatoes, no worries at all. Just pure comforting deliciousness.

The point of the story is this. Cream cheese is good. Lying is bad. There's nothing wrong with heating up other people's food as long as you don't pretend it's yours. In fact, some of the best hostesses on earth don't cook a God-D%*n*ed thing themselves. But at least they own up to it.

PS - Don't forget to enter the giveaway if you haven't already!

Southern Living's Cream Cheese Lasagna, with slight adaptations marked as *

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 small chopped onion, or about 1/2 cup
salt and pepper, for seasoning
1 pound ground beef
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more for additional heat (not in Sl's version)
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
* 1/4 cup low sodium beef broth (SL says to use bouillon cubes and water)
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, that's sat at room temp for at least 30 minutes (I use reduced fat)
1 cup cottage cheese (I use 2%/lowfat)
1/4 cup sour cream (I swear by Daisy brand either regular or reduced fat)
2 eggs, beaten
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt (not in SL's version)
* hefty grating fresh nutmeg (not in SL's version)
* 1 tablespoon minced flat leaf parsley (SL uses dried)
* 1 tablespoon minced basil (not in SL's version)
* zest of 1 lemon (not in SL's version)
* 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (SL's has 2 but I adjusted due to my above additions)
6 Lasagna noodles, cooked in boiling salted water until al dente and drained and tossed with a splash of olive oil as they cool (use extra in case some break and add a splash of oil to the water to keep them from sticking to one another)
1 (4 oz) package pepperoni or salami slices
2 cups (8 oz) shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Bell Pepper rings for garnish, optional (red and green would be pretty during holiday time!)

Instructions:
Heat the oil in a large nonstick rimmed skillet over medium heat. Add in the onion, season with a nice pinch of salt and pepper and cook for 4 minutes or until beginning to lose their rigid shape and soften a little. Add in the ground beef, breaking up into smaller bits with a wooden spoon. Season with garlic powder and red pepper flakes and cook until brown (about 8-10 minutes) stirring often. Turn off heat and stir in tomato sauce, paste, and broth until the mixture is blended and consistent.

Let sit while you blend the cream cheese mixture in a separate (large) bowl. Add the softened cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream to the bowl and whip with a whisk or fork until well blended. Stir in the eggs until well mixed then add in the salt, nutmeg, parsley, basil, lemon zest, and Italian seasoning. You are now ready to assemble your lasagna.

Spray a large (12x8x2 inch) glass or ceramic baking dish with nonstick spray. Ladle enough of the meat mixture into the bottom so that it coats it well (but isn't swimming) then add a layer of the lasagna noodles (should only take 3 laying side by side - no need to overlap. Spoon over 1/2 the cheese mixture, spreading carefully but evenly to make a solid layer, then 1/2 the pepperoni, then 1/2 the mozzarella. Repeat again with the rest of the meat mixture, lasagna noodles, cheese mixture, pepperoni, mozzarella and finally the shredded Parmesan.

Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and let brown slightly, cooking another 5-10 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving, topping with bell pepper rings for garnish if desired.

Happy Friday the 13th and My Very First Giveaway!

The lovely people at CNS Stores who have over 200 online stores including cookware.com and allmodern.com are giving me a $60 gift certificate to give to one of my dear readers! The winner can apply it to anything their heart desires from a sexy new All Clad pan or Halloween decorations (okay, that's what I want...) to dining room sets or a new couch.

And since it's my first giveaway, I'm going to keep it simple. All you have to do is leave me a comment saying you want to be entered and follow me if you don't already. That's it. The winner will be picked by random draw and announced next Friday, so you have until Thursday, August 19th to leave me a comment.

I wish you the best of luck. In the meantime, you can do a little browsing here in case you're the lucky winner.

Have a great weekend!