Eggplant Parmesan and Summer Peach Pie.

I realized that it's been awhile since I've talked about food---which is one of my favorite subjects :)

We stopped by Diebold Orchards over the weekend and I picked up.....of all things.....an eggplant. Yep. Never cooked one before, never seen one "in the raw" before, but I'm always up for a challenge.

I looked up a couple recipes for eggplant parmesan online, and just took a couple aspects of each recipe and made it my own. I also made a peach pie--oh my gosh sooooo good! Here are both the recipes. Enjoy!

EGGPLANT PARMESAN

INGREDIENTS:
1 large eggplant, sliced in circles
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup  parmesan cheese
8 oz ricotta cheese
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 egg
a few sprinkles of oregano
a few sprinkles of basil
salt
extra virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
1. Cover the eggplant slices in salt, and place in a colander to drain for 30 minutes. This is called "de-gorging." It takes the bitterness out of the eggplant.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Rinse all the salt from the eggplant. Put some olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and fry the eggplant for a few minutes on each side until brown. You might have to add more olive oil, because the eggplant is really porous and will absorb the oil quickly. Once you have fried all the slices, transfer to a plate with a paper towel to blot.

3. Mix the mozz cheese, parm cheese, ricotta cheese, the oregano, basil, and 1 egg all together in a mixing bowl. Spread some of the spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish, enough to cover the entire dish.

4. Place the eggplant circles on top of the spaghetti sauce in the dish. Using a spoon, spread the cheese mixture on top of each eggplant slice.

5. Top with a bit more spaghetti sauce and parm cheese. Bake for 45 minutes in the 350 degree oven. Allow to sit for a few minutes after removing from the oven b/c if you try to serve it straight away it will be all gooey and messy. Enjoy, friends!

And now....onto my favorite dish of the weekend.....

SUMMER PEACH PIE

INGREDIENTS:
2 rolled pie crusts, thawed.
12-15 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
nutmeg and cinnamon
1 cup of sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine the peaches and the sugar, mixing together with your hands to evenly coat each peach. Thrown in a few dashes of nutmeg and cinnamon.

3. Spread one of the pie crusts into the bottom of a round pie dish. Curl the edges a bit to make it pretty :) Pour the peach and sugar mixture into the crust.

4. Take the 2nd pie crust and slice it into 1 inch thick strips. You can either weave the strips like lattice onto the top of the pie, or just lay them however you want. I actually cut little star shapes with a cookie cutter and laid them on top of my pie :) It adds a little charm! Top with a few dashes of cinnamon.

5. Bake pie in the 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Turn heat up to 400 degrees and bake for 10 minutes more. Enjoy with vanilla ice cream!

What's been cookin' in your kitchen good lookin'?