The Number One question our friends and family ask Mike and I is “So does Sara do all the cooking?” I guess since I write about it, the assumption is that Mike doesn’t participate. What you fail to see is the side-by-side in our kitchen where he chops, sautees, preps, and melts… and then hand models, spreads sauce, and moves things around to aid the picture-taking process. Frankly, I couldn’t do half the things I do without Mike’s help. Then there are the days where he is off from work and he decides to get creative. He likes to take the time he has to prepare a great meal for the two of us.
One day, we had leftover eggplant, mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, and tomatoes. I came home from work to find that Mike had created “Eggplant Parm Tacos.” He lightly breaded and fried the eggplant, then folded them up like tacos and stuffed them with the other items. (I never would have thought of this!)
It was a great take on his last creation, the zucchini and eggplant parm stack.
They tasted excellent and were a fun way to eat something you could never typically pick up.
Though they were so overloaded (in a very good way) that it was mostly a knife and fork meal. (He also made a few flat versions with some dill havarti cheese. YUM!)
The great thing about anything “parm” is that it is SO easy to make. It is actually the first thing I learned how to cook, all on my own, without a recipe. You can basically take a few different items (chicken, veal, pork, eggplant, zucchini…) and dip it into egg and then into breadcrumbs (sometimes I flour it first… depends on my mood and if the breadcrumbs are sticking without it). Then you pan sear it until it’s mostly cooked through. Then you can basically throw it into a casserole pan, layer on the cheese and sauce, and stick it in the oven until it’s melty and warmed through. Easy peasy!
Then you bring in Mike who gets all gourmet on it. I love it.
