And on the very last day of Christmas, Regina finally linked with Heidi and her great blogging idea by sharing a recipe that she made 5 times for those 12 days. Also, while you are at Heidi’s, follow her. She’s great. 

And for the record, my kids are way past Christmas interest and back to Halloween. When I responded “no, sorry,” to their “Can we go trick or treating again?” they doubled down with, “But what if we ask for candy AND sing Silent Night?”

Confession: While I may not be the actual worst cook in the world of moms, I am certain that I burn the most things. While kids are sometimes the culprit, almost catching the house on fire is really more often a result of distractibility, forgetfulness, and a general state of scatterbrain. My (sorta) point is that it is not often that a dish I intend to bring to a party comes out of the oven in an edible condition, and due to my sub par cooking skills, it is even less likely that someone asks “could I have this recipe?” Unless of course, I make my tedious, yet mostly Regina proof, Eggplant Parm. Everybody is happy, until Josie helps and dumps the entire container of sea salt on it. Then, it tastes like the ocean.

The discovery and evolution of this delicious dish is a result of dumb luck.

Ingredients Serves 4-6

2 Eggplants

A roll of paper towels

Sea Salt (a bunch)

3 Hours

Olive Oil

2 Eggs

1-2 C (approx) Breadcrumbs seasoned to your liking

1 C Flour

Buffalo Mozzeralla

Fresh Parmesan

Fresh Basil

Delicious Sauce (I mix and match or make my own until I like the way it tastes)

Photography courtesy of my 4-year-old. I think the facial anxiety suffices the need to explain the dialogue of my interior thoughts. 

Steps

1) Peel the skin of the Eggplant and begin slicing long ways. Salt each side. Line a cookie sheet with paper towels and lay the salted eggplant. Cover up with more paper towels. This is not an attempt to hide anything, but rather, they will absorb the incredible amount of water inside of the purple plant. Stack a plate or something with a bit of weight on top. Come back in three hours, prepared to get messy. (The first time I made this, unaware of kitchen duties that didn’t involve scrambling eggs, and not yet blessed with children, I left to go take a nap, and came back to discover the eggplant had released a lot of water.) 

2) Underneath the plate you will find soaking wet paper towels and a much less bitter-tasting eggplant (naps have several benefits). In three separate mixing bowls, put flour, breadcrumbs, and beaten eggs. Prepare each piece of eggplant to be friend by covering first in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. (Most of you wont make a mess in this stage but I do.)

3) When all the eggplant is breaded up, place an uber generous amount of delicious Olive Oil in a big pan and heat. Fry each eggplant until golden brown on both sides.

4) Just like a lasagna! In a casserole dish add a layer of sauce, then eggplant, spoon more sauce, add a slice of mozzarella on each piece, sprinkle parmesan, sprinkle basil. Repeat until there are no more ingredients.

5) Put in the oven for no longer than 40 minutes.

6) Pour some Cabernet or Merlot and get at it.

Questions?

May the dead of winter be as tasty as it is bitter cold and boring 🙂