Spicy Grilled Eggplant Recipe with Red Pepper, Parsley, and Mint

This spicy grilled eggplant is a favorite of my brother Rand, who does the fun headers for Kalyn’s Kitchen

 
(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  I’m on the road driving home from Los Angeles, where I’ve been visiting my brother Rand and attending Camp Blogaway.  This Spicy Grilled Eggplant is Rand’s very favorite recipe on Kalyn’s Kitchen, and I’m glad I have my eggplant planted this year so I can make it later in the summer.  Meanwhile, if you have eggplant from the supermarket or Farmer’s Market, I highly recommend this recipe.)

If you saw my last garden update, then you know I’m growing eggplant this year, and my first one was ready to harvest recently. I’ve grilled eggplant before, but I’m certainly not what you’d call an expert at cooking it, so I consulted a couple of cookbooks and settled on a recipe from Williams Sonoma Complete Grilling Cookbook, one of my favorite cookbooks, which I return to every summer for more grilling recipes. I followed their recommendation for salting the eggplant to remove some of the water before grilling. I sliced my eggplant about 1/2 inch thick, but next time I might slice it even thicker.

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Recipe for Spicy Stir-Fried Sugar Snap Peas with Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil, and Sriracha

If you love sugar snap peas like I do, you have to try these Spicy Stir-Fried Sugar Snap Peas.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  I’m crazy about sugar snap peas, and this easy stir-fry is one of my favorite ways to use them in a cooked dish.)

Recently I talked about my profound affection for sugar snap peas, and I decided it might be fun to experiment with them as the starring ingredient in a stir-fried vegetable side dish.  Not that I hadn’t stir-fried sugar snap peas before, but never like this with them sliced diagonally to reveal the tiny peas inside.  I have no idea where I got the idea of slicing the peas for a stir-fry, but I loved the results.  The pods cooked more quickly, and a few tiny peas spilled out, adding visual interest and a lot of sweet pea flavor to the finished dish.
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Grilled Chicken Recipe with Tarragon-Mustard Marinade

Chicken breasts are marinated in a flavorful mustard-tarragon marinade and then grilled.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  Right now the tarragon in my garden is in overdrive, and this favorite grilled chicken from 2007 sounds great for dinner!)

Recently I realized it had been a while since I’ve had a new grilled chicken recipe. It was one of those thoughts that just flitted through my mind, not seeming to lead anywhere, and then a few days later I thought of grilling and tarragon in the same moment and this recipe was born.  If you haven’t tried the distinctive flavor of tarragon, give this a try!
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Recipe for Thai-Inspired Turkey Mini-Meatball Lettuce Wraps

Turkey Mini-Meatball Lettuce Wraps with spicy Thai Flavors!

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.   These little mini-meatballs are served inside lettuce leaves with a spicy Thai-flavored dressing, and I could eat this every day!)

It was pure serendipity that I discovered this recipe for ultra flavorful little turkey meatballs, served inside lettuce leaves with a spicy Thai-style sauce, some diced cucumber, and fresh mint. I didn’t have anything like this in mind when I thawed out a pound of ground turkey; I was actually thinking about using it in the Horseradish Meatloaf, before I changed my mind. So there I was with a pound of turkey that needed to be used, and when I need recipe ideas in a hurry, I often stand in front of my wall of cookbooks and just flip through books, using the index to see what recipes I can find for that ingredient. I found this recipe in The South Beach Diet Taste of Summer Cookbook, but this is a recipe I’d enjoy all year, maybe substituting cilantro for the mint when it’s out of season.
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