A Week Off

Before I fall asleep in my coffee, I've decided to take a week off blogging and get some things done here at home.

Don't worry, though - there's plenty here to read; three years' worth, actually! Check the recipe archives and if you don't see everything there that you want (I'm a little behind in the listings) you can use the handy dandy SEARCH option. I also have product and book reviews you can peruse. Don't forget my other great blog at Disney's Family.com - Short Order Mom.

When I get back I'll have some great reviews including, Eco-Friendly Families by Helen Coronato , The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking by Beverly Lynn Bennett and Ray Sammartano and a review of Freshhology's home delivered meals. Of course, I'll be back with delicious recipes and fabulous photos for things I'm cooking up.

Stay tuned, I'll return next Monday, October 27.

Sunday Breakfast - Royal Foodie Joust Entry

This month's RFJ ingredients seemed to throw several of us for a loop. They are: acorn squash, sage and orange. My first attempt at a submission was truly horrid. I made a dessert acorn squash stuffed ravioli with an orange/sage relish. I actually gagged at first bite. Something about the flavors put together that way just didn't work, but I refused to give up.

This morning I made an excellent breakfast of acorn squash pancakes and chicken sausage with a maple-orange glaze. It was truly delicious!

Acorn Squash Pancakes
Printable Recipe

2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon each powdered ginger and cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed or pureed acorn squash
2 eggs
1/2 to 1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine squash, eggs, and vanilla and blend well. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Add flour mixture to squash mixture alternately with milk until a loose batter forms. Drop by 1/4 cup onto a hot griddle and cook until bubbles form on the top and the edges are dry. Flip over and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Chicken Sausage with Maple-Orange Glaze
Printable Recipe

1 pound ground chicken
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine all and blend well. Form into small balls or patties and fry until golden. Add the juice of one orange, 1/2 teaspoon orange zest and 1/3 cup maple syrup. Simmer for several minutes and make sure all sausages are coated well.

Easy Eggplant Parmigiana

I love eggplant in any form - especially parmigiana. I don't like the time it can take to make it, though - all that breading and frying, especially with all the people I have to feed each day (remember, it's 8 during the week and 9 on weekends), that can get really tedious. I also don't like the extra calories added with breading and frying, so I came up with this simpler method - much like the one I used for the Eggplant Mozzarella I posted at Short Order Mom. This one still uses breadcrumbs, but no egg and no oil.

The "secret" - eggplant diced small instead of sliced.

Sauté the diced eggplant in a small amount of olive oil until softened.

Layered into a 9x13 pan that has been sprayed with oil.

Topped with breadcrumbs.

A layer of marinara.

Shredded Parmesan and Romano cheeses.

Sliced mozzarella on top of it all.

30 minutes in the oven and the result is perfection!

Easy Eggplant Parmigiana
Makes 1 9x13 pan

Printable Recipe

8 cups diced eggplant
1 Tablespoon salt
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cups marinara
2 cups breadcrumbs
1 cup shredded Parmesan and Romano cheeses
1/2 pound sliced mozzarella cheese
Place eggplant in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Allow to stand for 15 minutes so excess water can drip off of the eggplant. Squeeze between paper towels and sauté with olive oil until tender - about 10 minutes. Spray a 9x13 pan with oil and spread eggplant evenly over the bottom. Top with breadcrumbs, marinara, Parmesan and Romano cheeses and mozzarella. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes, or until the top is brown and bubbly.

The Spice Depot

If you haven't come across The Spice Depot products yet, please allow me to introduce you. The Spice Depot offers three main products; The World's Best Grinders, Organic Dried Herbs and Signature Spice Blends. All of their products are always all natural and in many cases, organic as well. There's nothing added, no fillers, no preservatives, no nothing; just real herbs and spices.

I've tried (so far) two of The World's Best Grinders - Garlic Pepper and Spicy Chicken. Both were excellent; the Garlic Pepper paired perfectly with beef, and the Spicy Chicken was fantastic on both grilled and roasted chicken. I love the built-in grinder in the top of each jar - it was easy to use, never clogged and delivered super-fresh seasoning exactly where I wanted it.

Their comprehensive website takes you through spice notes, recipes (you can also submit one of your own) and even wine pairings by ethnicity! There is a sustainability statement and they support The Zajac Ranch for Children.



Best of all, you can purchase these herb and spice blends across the United States and Canada at your local Wal-Mart stores and many other vendors. Check out the full list HERE.

Foodbuzz Publisher Community Launches

I recently wrote about Foodbuzz and how much I love this community of foodies. Today is the official launch of Foodbuzz. Check out this press release for more info:


LAUNCH OF GLOBAL FOODBUZZ BLOGGER COMMUNITY
LEVERAGES REAL-PEOPLE, REAL-TIME POWER OF FOOD PUBLISHING

San Francisco – October 13, 2008: Foodbuzz, Inc., officially inaugurates its food blogger community with more than 1,000 blog partners, a global food blogging event and an online platform that captures the real-people, real-time power of food publishing in every corner of the world. At launch, the Foodbuzz community ranks as one of the top-10 Internet destinations for food and dining (Quantcast), with bloggers based in 45 countries and 863 cities serving up daily food content.

“Food bloggers are at the forefront of reality publishing and the dramatic growth of new media has redefined how food enthusiasts access tasty content,” said Doug Collister, Executive Vice President of Foodbuzz, Inc. “Food bloggers are the new breed of local food experts and at any minute of the day, Foodbuzz is there to help capture the immediacy of their hands-on experiences, be it a memorable restaurant meal, a trip to the farmers market, or a special home-cooked meal.”

Foodbuzz is the only online community with content created exclusively by food bloggers and rated by foodies. The site offers more than 20,000 pieces of new food and dining content weekly, including recipes, photos, blog posts, videos and restaurant reviews. Members decide the “tastiness” of each piece of content by voting and “buzz” the most popular posts to the top of the daily menu of submissions. Foodbuzz currently logs over 13 million monthly page views and over three million monthly unique visitors.

“Our goal is to be the number-one online source of quality food and dining content by promoting the talent, enthusiasm and knowledge of food bloggers around the globe,” said Ben Dehan, founder and CEO of Foodbuzz, Inc.

The Foodbuzz blogger community is growing at a rate of 40 percent per month driven by strong growth in existing partner blogs and the addition of over 100 new blogs per month. “The Foodbuzz.com Web site is like the stock of a great soup. The Web site provides the base or backbone for bloggers to interact as a community, contribute content, and have that content buzzed by their peers,” said Mr. Dehan.

Global Blogging Event Demonstrating the talent and scope of the Foodbuzz community, 24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs offered online food enthusiasts an international, virtual street festival of food and diversity. The new feature showcased blog posts from 24 Foodbuzz partner bloggers chronicling events occurring around the globe during a 24 hour period and included:

Mid-Autumn Festival Banquet (New York, NY)
The "Found on Foodbuzz" 24-Item Tasting Menu (San Francisco, CA)
Aussie BBQ Bonanza – Celebrating Diversity (Sydney, Australia)
The Four Corners of Carolina BBQ Road Trip (Charleston, SC)
Criminal Tastes – An Illegal Supper (Crested Butte, CO)
From Matambre to Empanadas: An Argentine Dinner (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
A Sweet Trompe l’oeil (Seattle, WA)

“24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs” captures the quality and unique local perspective of our food bloggers and shared it with the world,” said Ryan Stern, Director of the Foodbuzz Publisher Community. “It illustrates exactly what the future of food publishing is all about – real food, experienced by real people, shared real-time.”

About Foodbuzz, Inc.

Based in San Francisco, Foodbuzz, Inc., launched its beta Web site, foodbuzz.com, in 2007. In less than a year, Fooduzz.com and its community of over 1,000 exclusive partner food blogs have grown into an extended online property that reaches more than three million users.