Yogurt Topped Moussaka

I started making this dish long before I ever went to Greece and it is honestly one of my favorite recipes. Moussaka is claimed by the Greeks as their dish, but the Turks were the ones who adopted it and spread it throughout the Islamic world.

This moussaka is made with the ground meat of your choice (I used turkey) and a yogurt and egg topping which replaces the white sauce of the more traditional moussaka recipe.

I did try moussaka while I was in Santorini and the version I had there was a little thicker and sweeter than this one. I think it may have been sweeter because cinnamon was the spice used instead of the nutmeg as in my dish.

This recipe is executed in stages so make sure you read through the entire recipe before tackling it.

Ingredients:

2 eggplants sliced thin

olive oil for sauteing

*1 1/2 lb ground meat

3 large onions sliced thin

3 large garlic cloves chopped

3 T Italian parsley chopped

1 28 oz can of whole tomatoes

1 6 oz can tomato paste

2 eggs

2 c. plain yogurt

1/2 c Parmesan cheese

2 T lemon juice

pinch of nutmeg

S & P to taste

Place sliced eggplant in to a colander and sprinkle with salt, set aside and prepare the meat.

In a large skillet heat 2 T. of olive oil and saute the ground meat until cooked through. Remove the meat and add a little more olive oil and the onions to the pan and saute for 3-4 minutes, then go ahead and add the garlic and the parsley and cook for one more minute. Add the meat back to the pan along with the tomatoes and the paste. Blend everything together and let simmer while you begin to prepare the eggplant.

In another skillet add olive to cover the bottom of the pan and heat. Once oil begins to heat add the sliced eggplant. Be careful that the oil is not too hot or it will spatter when you add the cooler eggplant. Cook eggplant until it begins to brown...you will be doing this in several batches adding more olive oil as you go along. Let eggplant drain on paper towel.

OR 

you can use this lower calorie option to prepare the eggplant...

Place eggplant on jelly roll sheet coated with olive oil flavored cooking spray.  Spry eggplant as well and then place in broiler. Keep a close eye on the eggplant and watch for it to turn a golden brown, and then flip the slices to broil the other side. Remove from pan and let cool.

Once the eggplant is drained, layer the bottom of an 8 x 13 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray, with 1/3 of the eggplant. On top of that add 1/2 of the meat mixture, then add another 1/3 of the eggplant, top with the other half of the meat mixture, and then top off with the last third of the eggplant.

In bowl, whisk together the eggs and add yogurt, whisk again. Then add the Parmesan  lemon juice, nutmeg and salt and pepper and whisk until blended. Top off the eggplant with the yogurt mixture and then sprinkle a little more Parmesan cheese on top.

Place in oven set at 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes. the dish will be bubbling upon removal from the oven. Let set for ten minutes and then cut and serve. 

*You can also make this into a vegetarian dish by omitting the meat and adding layers of sauteed mushrooms or zucchini,  spinach and possibly slices of Gruyere cheese.

Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend!!!

XO

If you would like to view pictures from our Excursion to Athens, Santorini and Naxos Greece in 2002, just click on the image below

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Sharing this recipe over at these super blog parties...

StoneGable

No Minimalist Here

Being Featured over at the Beautiful Blog Stone Gable

You know it is always a thrill for me anytime one of my projects, recipes, or craft ideas is featured at anyone of the fabulous blogs I link them to. But today my little Cakes in a Jar received the nod over at one of my absolute favorite blogs to follow StoneGable.

To check out some of the other wonderful features Yvonne selected just follow the link here.

To see my full featured recipe just click on the image below.

In addition to the party going on over  at Yvonne's right now, StoneGable is also offering a fabulous giveaway. You see Yvonne has teamed up with the folks from At Home as a consultant so now there is  StoneGable At Home. Wohooo!!!

So what is the giveaway???

A 16 piece set of  Blanca dinnerware 

A set of 4 CINOISERIE place mats

And matching CINOISERIE napkins

So hurry up and run on over to StoneGable to enter Yvonne's wonderful giveaway! Just click here to follow the link.

Good luck to all who enter!

Also don't forget to hop on over to my foodie blog TheBigGiantFoodBasket and check out some of my new (and old) recipes.

Hope you all are enjoying a lovely spring day!

XO

Grace's Father Daughter Dance 2013

Earlier this evening Mr. Rosemary Lane took our little princess to the annual Girl Scout father daughter dance.  Grace was so excited about her big date that as soon she came home from school she ran upstairs to put on her new dress, shoes, and white tights. I laughed to myself and then informed her that the dance was still 4 hours away! 

I had fun helping Grace get ready for her special night. I blew out her hair out and styled it, and then applied the tiniest bit of mascara and eye shadow to her already beautiful face. When Chris came home he was in shock at how grown up she looked.

He ran up the stairs and donned his suit from the closet.

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We did the traditional photos coming down the stairs, in front of the fireplace, and getting in the car.

They had a wonderful time!

Here's my happy couple through the years.

My they grow up quickly don't they?

Goodnight Gracie!

XO

I've Got a Secret and am Letting You in on IT!

I'm sure not many of you know that I have a food blog here on the blogger platform which I had begun a little over 2 years ago. The blog's title...

To be honest it has been sitting on the back burner for awhile now since I have been completely immersed in 21 Rosemary Lane. But in the last month or two I'd given serious thought to re-exploring the idea of a blog focused on just food and food related topics. So with all of my new skills which I have honed during the past almost two years of blogging here at 21 Rosemary Lane, I decided to take on the task of breathing new life into my otherwise stale old food blog. 

As a result of this decision I have to tell you that I have been one busy gal revamping the blog. I've been working on giving it a new look and feel along with recreating and re-shooting many of the recipes I had previously posted. The recipes themselves haven't changed much but boy oh boy has the photography!

Let give you a little peek at a few of the recipes on the blog and on what I have been doing with regard to the food's imagery. (Some of these recipes have appeared here at Rosemary Lane, and others are completely new!!!)

Lighting was something my photography was seriously lacking when I first started The Big Giant Food Basket. I pretty much shot everything on the kitchen island with little regard to time of day, proximity to a light source, and under the awful yellow glow of indoor tungsten lighting. Look at the below photo of my Pomegranate and Banana Tossed with Lime and Brown Sugar. 

You can see that the photo was under lit and the bananas themselves look somewhat blurry. There is no intensity in the picture since all the fruit is lackluster in appearance...overall not very appealing in my opinion.

Now look at the re-shoot taken from about the same distance...

Over the course of the last 12 months or so I have learned the value of using natural light in my food photography. In the new picture you can see that there is a light source coming in from the right which illuminates the mint leaf and provides the pomegranate seeds a variety of tones. The fruit is now bright, clear and far more vibrant...not all yellowy looking like in the previous pic. This photo was shot on my back patio where I shoot most of my pictures. From time to time I will use Michael's room for food photo shoots since the room gets several hours of the very bright afternoon light, and his furniture has a clean white surface.

I also learned a little bit about photo composition, and have since incorporated it into my images to make my food shots more interesting. For example look below at the original photo of my Creamy Carrot Ginger Soup. 

(source: yawning and stretching)

In 2011 I was pretty much a point and shoot kind of gal...but once I learned about photo composition I was able to create more of a story with my pictures.

Here I chose to off center my subject so the entire bowl of soup is not visible. A few carrots and some contrasting chopped parsley were scattered next to the bowls as part of the background. Two of the bowls were stacked together so you see a repeating pattern, this helps to create a more interesting image. And if you look at the surface the bowls are sitting on, you will notice it has two textures...that of the wood and of a rush place mat. The solid orange color of the soup has been broken up with a contrasting swirl of sour cream which draws the eye to the soup. Also this picture was taken from about a 45 degree angle, the angle of which you might view the bowl of soup while sitting at a table. 

Here's another example of my Chicken Margarita I shot earlier this week. Below is the before photo...

Not bad looking but again it has a yellow cast along with the good old point and shoot technique. This photo makes the food seem a bit bland in appearance, which is a total shame since this dish is nothing less than scrumptiously unique in flavor.

The new picture utilizes natural lighting and a white backdrop. This photo was taken in Michael's room against his closet doors. Using Picmonkey's editing site, I was able to blur the line created by where the dresser top meets the doors. This gives you the viewer the sense of a seamless white background which affords the colors of the pasta to pop out of the picture. I also wanted a vertical image so the vibrancy of the pasta was balanced by a tall bold colored margarita glass placed behind the plate of food. The glass has just enough bright color to draw the eye to the image, but it doesn't define the picture or take away from the plated food. Mr. Rosemary Lane was a bit bedazzled by the photo since he had questioned me on how I was planning to make a plate of pasta look interesting. You'd think he'd know me by now!

Also, as you've probably already noticed, I've added verbiage and watermarking to my pictures as well, again all done using the Picmonkey editing site. So here is another photo of pasta...this time it is my Sausage and Pasta Toss.

I re-shot the picture outdoors, off set the subject, placed a few tomatoes and basil on the table along side of the bowl, took the photo from directly above, and then got totally creative with the post shoot process of editing, watermarking and titling of the photo.

Recreating over 100 dishes is something that will undoubtedly take me a good bit of time to do, but in a few cases I was able to embellish a recipe's existing photograph.

For example here is my "Delicious" German Pancake.

and here is my German pancake embellished.

The Big Giant Food Basket will encompass all of my recipes but I will continue to feature many of them right here at 21 Rosemary Lane. I plan to officially relaunch The Big Giant Food Basket sometime before the end of April...I may even do a giveaway. So if you'd like, grab a cup of Joe and hop on over to take a sneak peek...I would love to see you there!

Click here to check out and follow The BGFB

Wishing you a super sparkly day!!!

(LOL)

XO