I’m always profusely badgering politely asking my friends and family to put together posts to go up on the blog.  Green Dog Dad always SWEARS he is putting something together – but he never does…

FINALLY (yes, friends and family – I’m giving you a very exaggerated FINALLY!!!!) – ONE of my friends took me up on the offer! 

Kate’s sense of humor is up there with Mama Pea’s – so if you take the time to read one guest post today – make it this one – not just for Kate’s jokes – but for the INSANE Eggplant Parm recipe! 

Hello GDW Readers –

First things first …this is me (Kate, on left) & sister (Kristin, on right)

If you read GDW regularly, you might recognize this “Kristin” – since she graduated High School with Allison, has been her friend for over a decade, was in her wedding, and is now her boss… I figured she should be included… I was bored in Cleveland (flew in from Charlotte) and asked my Grandparents (visiting from NY) to teach me their ways in the kitchen…this resulted in me not understanding what they were saying and forcing my mom to take reference photos…which then turned into her suggesting I become a blogger, so I figured a guest post for Allison would be enough to make her proud.

To my Grandmother’s dismay, Kristin & I are vegetarians (“the pits”)…so I requested we make her famous Eggplant Parmesan. We started at 7:30am, with my Grandpa’s famous marinara (said: MAH-RI-AH-NAH-RA) – to HIS dismay, I couldn’t stop giggling like a 12-year old every time he said it.

We made a ton (for my sister to freeze) – so when I asked him to pare down the recipe he said “Katie, the mahrianahra is all about your own flavors, add what you want, smell it, taste it, tweak it, and EAT it.” So I sort of guessed on measurements here. Don’t forget, Grandma says it’ll keep in the fridge for about 2 weeks, or you can freeze it in individual servings.

Marinara Sauce (will make enough for 1-2 eggplant)

• Heat olive oil (2-3 glugs) over medium high heat in saucepan
• Add ¼ onion, finely chopped
• Once the onions are translucent, add about 3 cloves of garlic (Kath says I have a “weak palette” so I use about 5 cloves)
• Add 1 28-ounce can of Tomato Puree (or chopped/crushed, etc.)
• Add lots of dried Oregano (I’d guess a tsp), and then a little less of Basil, and Black Pepper (strictly instructed to not use salt).
• Bring to a simmer…you can let it sit on low-medium heat for hours; it will only taste better with time!

Eggplant Prep

• Peel and Slice (thinly) the Eggplant (we used 3 to make about 20 pieces of eggplant parmesan…)
• Drain Eggplant:
• Put a colander inside of a bowl.
• Put down one layer eggplant and salt (liberally)
• Continue layering/salting
• Weigh down the eggplant – we used a bowl with some rice as the weight

Drain for at least an hour (we made the sauce, and prepped the filling during this hour)

You’ll have a bowlful of icky, bitter juice to toss (that I tried for “fun” …don’t do it) Next you’ll need to rinse the eggplant, and then place on a towel, and cover with another towel and press lightly. Let it sit for a few minutes.Onto the good part…the cheesy filling. 

Eggplant Filling

• 1 lb Freshly Grated Mozzarella (Grandma says fat free is not good in this recipe)
• 1 cup Bread Crumbs
• 1 cup Grated Parmesan
• 3 eggs

Mix together in a large bowl – I used a wooden spoon but Grandma got mad and stuck her hands in to finish it…so hands might be the best option if you don’t want Grandma Rita to show up on your doorstep! Eggplant Patties (FINALLY…the best part!)

• Heat olive oil in a heavy skillet, over medium-high heat. You will need to continuously add oil because it is soaked up by the eggplant very quickly
• Take some filling and create a patty out of it, put it between two eggplant slices

Add a bunch of the eggplant “sandwiches” to the skillet, and heat until lightly browned, then flip and cook other side. Transfer to a glass baking dish that has some sauce on the bottom so they don’t stick. If you’ll be freezing them, you can put them into foil tins as we did…each one is about 2-3 servings worth.Once you’ve transferred to baking dish, cover with more sauce, and bake at 400*F for about 40 minutes.After baking you can cool, then freeze, or you can add thinly sliced fresh mozzarella (Grandpa says “mOOt-sAH-relle) and bake until bubbly and cheese is melted and serve. If you freeze – you can reheat by covering with foil, and baking at 350 until sauce is bubbling…uncover, and add mozzarella.Here’s how Grandma serves it up:Yummy!!! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa I can now go back to Charlotte and make an Italian feast. 

A few of you have requested that I TELL you the actually story behind Harvey’s name – and ONE OF YOU ACTUALLY GUESSED IT!

I should start with how Lando got her name!

When Mike agreed we could get a dog – he said I could pick it out, if he could name it.  DONE!

When I came home with an 10 week old puggle – Mike’s options were:

1. Sleepover
2. Dirtbike
3. Oatmeal
4. Grapes
5. Lando
6. Bandaid

You can see why I chose Lando (albeit a boy’s name, for our girl dog).  It was the lesser of all evils!

When we learned we might actually get to adopt Harvey – the conversation started all over again!  Every name we came up with didn’t really have a ring to it.  The entire car ride down to get her, we couldn’t think of anything.

Once we saw her, we thought, “if we have 1 GIRL DOG with a BOY’S NAME, our 2nd GIRL DOG ought to have a BOY’S NAME”.

Then, we wandered on to the discussion – what if we named her after another Billy Dee Williams character??? (Billy Dee played Lando Calrissian in Stars Wars). 

Lucky for me, my husband loves Comic/Superhero movies – and remembered that Billy Dee also played Harvey Dent, in Batman in the 80’s.  When he suggested it – I was sold!

Long story short that’s how Harvey, became Harvey! Major major MAJOR kudos to Miss Ty for piecing that all together!  She was the only one who figured it out!

(and yes – Mike and I are different – but we both firmly believe NO ONE should take life too seriously!  We think our dogs deserve fun/unique names!)

Warning – super crazy dog lady post ahead!

I love my girls!  They are just so cute! I was worried about Harvey being scared/sad (I actually started crying when we first drove away with her – I figured the poor baby had to be so confused and sad!  I knew her foster home had taken amazing care of her, but she had to be thinking “Oh no!  Why am I being taken away from my Mommy again!”) – but she warmed right up to both of us! 

Her and Lando had a great time romping around – and if anyone was having a hard time getting adjusted – it was my little Princess Lando!  So Mike and I split up the lovin’ – and he made sure to pay extra special attention to Harvey – and I (like usual) – made sure to pay extra special attention to Lando!

Here’s Lando’s dialogue yesterday (a la crazy dog mommy Allison)

“Mommy – is that other dog still behind me?”   She is, isn’t she.  I can’t look – Can you please make her go away so I can be so stupid spoiled all by myself?   Squirrel!?!?! Ugh – I saw here – she’s still there. What’s that? Treat?!?!?! She likes the same things as me…     I guess she isn’t terrible…I think I love my new sister…  Oh – what’s that?  Are you screaming “This is a food blog for Christ sake – enough about your dogs!”  Yeah, yeah – I know – I know!

Since we wanted to make sure the pups felt comfortable and got acclimated to everything easily yesterday – Mike and I made sure we had NO plans whatever – and didn’t even get out of our pajamas all day.    (Okay – maybe the pajama thing had nothing to do with the dogs – we just used it as an excuse!)

Thank god for Applebee’s Carside-To-Go!   We got an appetizer sampler that I only stole a few bites of – because I was super excited to try one of Applebee’s “Under 550 Calories” dishes – the Spicy Shrimp Diavolo!

This was: spicy tomato-basil Diavolo sauce with chili-seasoned shrimp tossed with diced vegetables. Served over a warm bed of whole wheat penne pasta and topped with shredded Parmesan.

So. Freaking. Delicious!  If I would have tried this blindly – I never would have guessed it came from Applebee’s! 

For dinner – I decided it was time to finally try the parsnips that I had sitting in the fridge for 2 weeks now…I decided I hated them, prepared them wrong, or they were too “old” and had gone bad.  They had a really stringy texture that I did not like – and had a really weird taste.   I wouldn’t rule them out yet – but my first experience with them was not a good one!

Instead – I made some Velveeta Skim Milk Mac, and roasted some broccoli to throw in there too! Now that’s a good dinner!

I promise after today I’ll stop talking about the dogs so much!   I’ll go back to talking about the dogs “a normal amount” tomorrow!