This is an amazing weeknight dinner. It pulls together in no time, and it tastes fabulous. You can fiddle with it and make it differently every time you make it. Change the meat, change the herbs, add a little lemon juice, even change the vegetables. My ideal weeknight recipe.

I like the pork version because I love pork tenderloin almost any way you cook it. But if you would rather have chicken, veal, flank steak, halibut, it works. With the flour for dredging, I’ve used brown rice flour, whole wheat pastry flour, and oat flour.

I don’t particularly like eggplant. I don’t hate it, but it has be right for me to want to eat it. This recipe is the first recipe I’ve ever made for eggplant that I want to make over and over. My friend Jackie and I came up with this recipe over a year ago, and we make it at least once a month. The eggplant is peeled, so it isn’t bitter. I like the baby eggplant better than the big one. I also like the skinny Japanese eggplants or the zebra striped ones. The Japanese eggplants are what is in the picture.

Again, with the eggplant, you can vary it any of a number of ways. Add a little white wine or chicken broth, use shallots instead of garlic, change the herbs. I’ve used basil, savory, garlic chives, sage, even mint. The panko helps to hold it together and gives it a little crunch. If you can’t find panko, try regular bread crumbs.

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From Chadzilla

Apparently, people liked this idea. So here is the next installment. The blog: Chadzilla

This time, I chose a blog that is not quite so well-known. I don’t know exactly how I found this website, although it had something to do with the South Beach Food and Wine Festival. He is, I’m pretty sure, a chef at the Key Biscayne Ritz-Carlton. He’s local, for me, but I don’t know him. He doesn’t talk about himself much on his blog. It is a chef blog, as opposed to a food blog. He experiments with sous-vide and emulsions and gels. If you’re looking for a recipe for banana-eel ice cream, it’s there. But this recipe for chocolate crackers with sea salt is simplicity itself. And really, really good. I will definitely be making this again!

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My mother says this is her last meal. If she could pick anything at all, she’d pick lobster salad, lettuce, tomato, and bacon on toast. It’s hard to disagree with her. This was really, really good. And easy. I got home at 8 o’clock last night, and had dinner on the table at 8:30. I did, I admit, make the lobster salad ahead of time. It’s a great leftover from grilled lobster tail. Just steam an extra one.

I got the idea for the herb-caper mayonnaise from Wine Bar Food: Mediterranean Flavors to Crave with Wines to Match by Cathy and Tony Mantuano. If you don’t own this book, it has to be because you don’t know about it. I swear, I may never eat a real dinner again after reading it.

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Gourmet magazine

This is a new feature that I intend to update regularly, with links to the recipes I tried out from other bloggers and how it went.

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Okay, I know I just posted scones 2 weeks ago. What can I say? I ran out and had to make more.

These are a little bit of a creative take on Cindy Mushet’s recipe for Candied Ginger Scones in The Art and Soul of Baking. I loved the idea of these, because they have no butter in them, and the cream is whipped. The original recipe was not whole wheat, so I substituted 1/2 of the flour with whole wheat pastry flour.

I wanted to go back to my original idea for this blog – the eleven best foods you’re not eating. So, blueberries it was. And lemon peel is supposed to help prevent cancer. Besides, what isn’t a little better with some Meyer lemon in it?

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Here are my awardees for the Kreativ Blogging Award:

Carolyn Carreno @ What’s Eating Carolynn.  Despite her assertions that only her mother reads her blog, I think she has a few more readers than that. She is friends with Alice Waters and Kenny Shopsin and Nancy Silverton. Plus The Foodinista. Her stories about the culinary world are fascinating, as was her birthday party post.

Annie @ Hip Organic Mama. Annie is amazingly versed in organic foods, green cleaning, how to buy local, and mostly how to live with principle when there isn’t any around you.

Brooke @ Food Woolf. Brooke is an excellent writer with a lot of insight into the food industry. 

Sara @ Ms. Adventures in Italy. Her new feature – when I have time.com – is  a great idea, and she solicited the ideas of her followers before setting it up.

Madalina @ Duh-licious.  Cupcakes are her passion, but there are other gems on this website. Cookies, cakes, pasta sauce. 

Katrina @ She’s in the Kitchen. This is a new one for me. Her pictures are beautiful!

Kim @ The Nourishing Gourmet.  Great tips for eating real food on a budget. Also  new one for me, and I plan on getting to know this one much better.

 The Local Beet. How could I not? It’s a subject near and dear to my heart!

Carole @ The Rejuvenation Lounge.  When life gets to be a little too much, and you’ve been eating too much junk, turn to the rejuvenation lounge. Carole has loads of ideas for how to make you feel better.

Rowena @ Rubber Slippers in Italy. I love her stories about her new puppies. The pictures are great. Her recipes are also excellent.

So, that’s it! Enjoy your awards! Please pay it forward.

– Added on 3/8/09 –

The way the award works is that whoever wins the award passes it on to 10 bloggers of their choosing! This thing may go round the world.

Thanks to Sophie of Sophie’s Foodie Files for my first blogging award! This is such an honor. And what a pretty award!

So, now I need to pass it on! Expect a list of awardees in the next couples of days. I’m going to at least partially steal Lou Ann’s idea from Oyster Food & Culture. She was a previous recipient, and went looking for new blogs to award. I would have awarded her myself, but someone already did!

I love the pay it forward idea of this!

This is going to sound like the most decadent meal. And it is!  But I swear to you, the entire meal was less than $30 for 2. Including wine!

The original recipe this was based on is a pain in the butt to make. I beg my father to make it for any huge celebration. When I passed my boards, he gave in. But most of the time, I cannot talk him into it. Or, he’ll only make it for me, and everyone else gets steamed lobsters.

But I hit on a much, much easier way to do it. It starts with frozen lobster tail – instead of the live lobster from the original. The last time I priced these at a well-known supermarket, they were still around $40 for 2. But Fresh Market occasionally has them on sale. I got them last week for 2 for $15!! Now, I grew up in Rhode Island, and spent most of my life in New England. I get it. Lobster is supposed to be a certain way. Did I mention 2 for $15? Make sure to steam an extra one for this lobster club sandwich!

The other important element is compound butter. My personal favorite is Meyer lemon. Feel free to fiddle with the butter. Herbs, spices, wine, whatever sounds good. I like just the lemon because it does not overwhelm the lobster taste.

Serve this with a fennel salad and crusty rolls. For wine, I chose a Prosecco. It’s light and not too dry, making it a great choice with the sweet lobster meat.

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