Sunday Funday Eggplant Parm

This meal is perfect for Football Sunday Funday! You can assemble ahead of time then lay around all day watching football and about 30 minutes before you want to eat just pop it in the oven!



2 medium eggplants
Tomato sauce
4 cups mozzarella
slices of prosciutto
Grated Parmesan
Italian seasoning
breadcrumbs
2 beat eggs
flour

Slice eggplant and lay out on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and wait about a half hour till you sweat out some of the eggplants moisture. Dust each eggplant slice with flour, dip in egg and coat with breadcrumbs. Lay on oiled baking sheet and bake at about 450 for 15 minutes turning halfway through. Spread some tomato sauce on bottom of baking dish and place eggplant in a layer on top. Top eggplant with more sauce, prosciutto, mozzarella cheese, Italian seasoning and some Parmesan. Put down another layer of eggplant, more sauce and finish with cheese, Italian seasoning & more Parmesan, Bake in 350 degree oven for about a 1/2 hour till cheese is all melty, serve topped with some basil & enjoy!

7 Years!

Happy Anniversary to Alex & I - we've been together 15 years this past June and married for 7 years today! What a crazy ride it's been from high school in NJ to college in WV, where we picked up 2 dogs along the way. Then it was back to NJ where we bought our first house, got married and had 2 beautiful amazing kids together. Now life finds us in here in GA, missing family like crazy but so lucky in love we can get through anything together - happily! We have had some crazy times in the past 15 years but I wouldn't change a thing - we love each other eternally, have a very strong and very happy marriage, we are partners, best friends & lovers! LOVE YOU ALEX - can't wait to see what the next years bring us!

This year we decided to just hang home - AJ was just getting over her walking pneumonia & Dylan was starting to cough a little himself so we decided it was best to lay low, have some delicious home cooked food, drink some champagne & do what we do best - enjoy each others company! We started off around 5 with some champagne & puff pastry stuffed with brie, sauteed onions and cranberries. Then we fed the kids, got them baths and put them to bed early!! From there we moved on to clams in butter, garlic & white wine, crusty bread for dipping in the clam broth and grilled rib eyes! For dessert I attempted my very first tiramisu and it turned out super - it wasn't hard to make and tasted SO SO good! We laid around on the couch, had a fire, watch some football and other tv and just had a really great anniversary! We are truly blessed!

recipe here - http://matralemadness.blogspot.com/search?q=brie+in+puff+pastry


For clams all you do is soak them in water for a few hours, changing the water each 1/2 hour or so to remove the sand. Then you heat up a few TBS butter and a few cloves of garlic, add about a cup of white wine and reduce a little, add the clams and cover. Cook till clams open and discard any that don't!




Tiramisu (will post amazing recipe)-

Mystery Reader

Each Friday at AJ's school they have a mystery reader come in and read books to the class. The kids come down to the library and are so excited to see who the reader is that day! Check out who the mystery reader was today...




AJ was SO super excited to have her dad there to read 3 stories to the kids in her class. He gave each kid a special treat - halloween stickers, a halloween pencil and a hershey bar and they though he was the coolest! Dylan and I were happy to sit and listen too!

Colleen's Pumpkin Rolls

So now that it's fall I am craving soups, stews, slow cooked roasts, chili & fall like desserts. This awesome roll that my friend Colleen makes popped into my head and of course I wasn't going to be happy till I made it, so I sent her a email and she sent me the recipe. Make this soon - it's SO good and Alex and I finished off a 1/2 of one of the two I made last night in one sitting and the rest are safely in the freezer till I run off the one I ate last night! My only tip is to use plenty of powdered sugar on your dish towel - I didn't use enough and mine stuck to it a little!

ENJOY-

Get a jelly roll pan (or large cookie sheet) and line with wax paper or parchment paper. Grease the paper.

Mix together -
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
¾ cup flour

Pour all ingredients onto cookie sheet and spread out evenly. It will be very thin.
Sprinkle with chopped slivered almonds (Optional).
Bake at 350 for 6 - 9 minutes. This varies with the type of pan.
Meanwhile, dust a kitchen towel with powdered sugar. When the cake is done flip it onto the towel and remove the paper. From the wide side of the cake, roll with the towel and let stand approx. 45 minutes.

FILLING -
3 tsp butter
(1) 8 oz package cream cheese
¾ cup powered sugar
¾ tsp vanilla

Blend all with a mixer.
Unwrap the cake and spread with filling.
Roll cake back up and cut in half to make two jelly rolls. Refrigerate or freeze.
Best if sliced while frozen. Defrosts very fast.

Playhouse

Last Christmas (yes almost a year ago - YIKES) Uncle Eddie & Uncle Mark gave AJ & Dylan this huge box that contained a huge put-it-together cardboard clubhouse. Well I put it away for a rainy day and was dreading it ever since - it looked big, complicated and I just never felt like setting it all up. BOY WAS I WRONG - it was easy to set up and the kids are having SO much fun in it! I couldn't have saved it for a better time though, we have been on sick lock down in the house due to AJ's pneumonia and we are all starting to go a little sir crazy so it was SO nice to be able to break this out and breakup our boredom now that she's getting better! Thanks to Uncle Eddie & Uncle Mark for a really cool & fun gift!

Walking Pneumonia

After over a week of a nasty cough and now a fever for AJ we went back to the doctor to for some answers. On Thursday we were sent home with a inhaler tube thing and a nebulizer treatment but had to go back the next day to see if the wheeze the doctor was hearing was gone - well it wasn't so we were sent for a chest x-ray that came back inconclusive. They did see some fluid on the lungs so they say she was in the early stages of walking pneumonia - GREAT! She was put on a z-pack and a home nebulizer every four hours and tylenol and motrin as needed for her fever. Poor AJ wad miserable and has no appetite for days - she even dropped 2 lbs and the fever lasted through Sunday. Finally Sunday evening we started to see some signs of improvement - the antibiotics were working - YAY! Monday we went back to the doc for a checkup and she agreed she was doing a ton better and that as long as her fever was gone for 24 hours (which would mean she was not contagious) we could go back to school on Tuesday - YAY! Tuesday came and she was still fever free and off to school she went! Like all moms, I HATE seeing my babies sick or in any kind of pain and seeing her like this really took it's toll and I couldn't be happier she is feeling more like her old self and starting to eat again! We still have to keep up the nebulizer every four hours during the day but she's been a trooper and handles it like a old pro!

October = Fire!

Tonight AJ is slowly starting to feel a little better and she was able to come and hang out with us in the living room for a bit and enjoy our first fire! Us Matrale's from NJ love the cooler, crisp fall weather and are happy to finally get some in GA! It was nice to see the two kids being so nice and cute with each other, it's probably because they have been separated for days because of AJ's pneumonia and I really think they missed each other!

It's the first day of October, we had a nice big Mountaineer WIN & AJ's starting to feel a little better! Thinking it's going to be a good month!