Root Veggie Stew with Herbed Whole Wheat Dumplings

Root vegetables are great. They’re filling, available in the cold winter months, nutritious and inexpensive. But boy, will I be happy to see tender spring vegetables again soon! We’ve eaten sooo many turnips in the past couple of months and have burned through our frozen reserve of green beans and tomatoes. I am finding myself dreaming of tomatoes and garlic scapes as the weather gets warmer and I can’t wait to have the first cookout of spring! The 60 degree weather outside is certainly playing into my spring fever, leaving me anxious and distracted as I am stuck in an office all day, wishing I was hiking or planting …

Anywho, root vegetables are where its at for the winter, and they really are delicious! This root veggie stew is kicked up a bit by the addition of whole wheat herbed dumplings. I’ve listed the specific root vegetables and greens that I used, but you can use a comparable amount of any combination of root vegetables and any dark, leafy greens.

Root Veggie Stew with Herbed Whole Wheat Dumplings

Stew Ingredients:

Stew Ingredients

• 2 T. olive oil
• 1 onion (Jett’s Produce)
• 2 cloves garlic (Apple Ridge Farm)
• 3 rutabagas (Pure Sprouts All-Local Bin)
• 1 bunch small white turnips (with greens, if they are on there)(Pure Sprouts All-Local Bin)
• 4 medium carrots (Jett’s Produce)
• 1 sweet potato (Jett’s Produce)
• 4 sage leaves (frozen from my garden)
• pinch herbes de provence or poultry seasoning (Quartz Hill Farm)
• 2 c. broth or stock (homemade)
• 2 c. water

Dumpling Ingredients:

Dumpling Ingredients

• 1 1/4 c. whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 c. white flour
• 3 sage leaves (frozen from my garden)
• 1 tsp. dried rosemary (my garden)
• pinch herbes de provence (Quartz Hill Farm)
• 1 T. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 egg (Pure Sprouts All-Local Bin)
• 1/2 c. milk (Keepsake Farm)

Directions:

1. Peel rutabagas and sweet potato. Chop all root veggies into 1″ cubes.
2. Chop onion and mince garlic. Heat olive oil in dutch oven or large pot and add onion and garlic. Sauté until onion is just tender.
3. Add root vegetables. Cook and stir for 5 minutes.
   

   Sautéeing Veggies

4. Chop or crumble sage (depending on fresh or dried) and add sage and herbes de provence to vegetables, cooking until just fragrant, about 3 minutes.
5. Add broth and water. Bring to a boil.
   

   Simmering

6. Chop greens and add to broth & veggies.
7. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10-15 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, prepare dumpling dough. First, whisk flours, baking powder and salt in medium bowl.
9. Chop herbs and add to flour mixture, stirring well.
10. Lightly beat egg. Add egg and milk to dry mixture and stir until stiff dough is formed.
11. After 15 minutes of simmering, remove lid and drop dumpling dough on to stew by heaping tablespoonful.
12. Replace lid and allow to cook, undisturbed, for about 10 minutes, or until veggies are tender and dumplings are puffy.

Root Veggie Stew with Dumplings

February Giveaway: Zingerman’s Home-Cheesemaking Kit

Reblogged from Savory Simple:

• 

It’s time for my February giveaway! I’m so excited to be partnering with Zingerman’s to give away a Home Cheese-Making Kit. Make your own delicious cheese at home in less than one hour.  Every box comes with rennet and citric acid—enough for 30 batches of cheese—as well as instructions on how to make your own mozzarella or ricotta from scratch. All you need to provide is milk and salt. Zingerman’s is one of my favorite gourmet shops. I’ve never had the pleasure of visiting their Ann Arbor store in …

Another awesome foodie giveaway over at Savory Simple … It would be so cool to make some homemade cheese!

Sunchoke? Jerusalem Article? Huh?

When we received sunchokes (or Jerusalem artichokes, as they are also known) in an all-local bin from Pure Sprouts, I wasn’t quite sure what to with them. I had never heard of them before, and I can’t say they looked like anything particularly special. They looked a bit like ginger root, with a slightly pink hue. To learn a little more about it, I pulled out my go-to veggie guide From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce. (If you ever plan on cooking a vegetable, buy this book. It tells you the background, how to grow, storage, cooking tips, flavor profile, and recipes for pretty much anything)

This is a tidbit of what I learned:

• A Jerusalem Artichoke has nothing to do with Jerusalem or artichokes.
• It is the root tuber of a wild sunflower and is native to North America.
• Harvest begins in late fall and lasts through light frost.
• The flavor is very adaptable and is mild, sweet and nutlike.
• They are great sources of iron and niacin and actually lower blood sugar, so they are recommended for diabetics.
• Sunchokes can be eaten raw or cooked, peeled or not.
• You can sauté, stir fry, steam, simmer, bake or boil them. (Mash them for a change from mashed potatoes!)
• Store them in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. For long term storage, bury them in sand in a cold but not freezing environment.

After reading up on the sunchoke, I decided to turn my stock of them into a soup, combined with carrots and rutabagas. To “hearty up” the soup for Kevin, I made some smoked turkey croquettes to serve in the soup. It was a great addition, but this soup is fantastic on its own, too!

P.S. This soup is very inexpensive to make!

Sunchoke Soup with Smoked Turkey Croquettes

Sunchoke, Carrot & Rutabaga Soup (with optional Smoked Turkey Croquettes)

Soup Ingredients:

Soup Ingredients

• 1 onion (Jett’s Natural Produce)
• drizzle olive oil
• 2 tsp thyme (my garden)
• 1 beer (someone had left this Amstel at our house—It worked well in this soup!)
• 2 medium rutabagas (Pure Sprouts)
• 7 sunchokes/Jerusalem artichokes (mine were each about 3 inches long by 1.5-2 inches thick) (Pure Sprouts)
• 7 small-medium carrots (Pure Sprouts)
• 2 c. stock or broth (we used homemade smoked turkey stock)
• Smoked Turkey Croquettes, optional (recipe follows)

Soup Directions:

1. Slice onion and cook in a drizzle of olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat until starting to soften.
2. Add thyme and cook until fragrant.
3. Reduce heat to medium-low and add 1/3 of the beer. Cook and stir until beer is almost gone. Continue adding beer a third at a time, cooking and stirring, until onions are caramelized.
4. Peel and dice rutabagas, sunchokes and carrots, and add them to the pot.
5. Add another drizzle of olive oil and sauté for a few minutes, until edges of root vegetables are just starting to turn golden.
   

   Veggies Sautéeing

6. Add stock or broth and bring to a boil.
   

   Simmering

7. Simmer 20-30 minutes, or until vegetables are soft and falling apart.
8. Use an immersion blender, or work in batches in a regular blender, to purée the soup.
9. If adding smoked turkey croquettes (recipe follows), place a few in center of bowl. Ladle soup around croquettes.

Smoked Turkey Croquettes

Croquette Ingredients:

Croquette Ingredients

• 4 oz. smoked turkey or ham
• 1 small onion (Jett’s Produce)
• 1 large cooked, peeled sweet potato (Jett’s Produce)
• 1 T. dried thyme (my garden)
• 1.5 c. pretzels (Snyders)

Croquette Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. Mince onion in food processor.
3. Add smoked turkey and pulse until finely ground.
   

   Chopped Turkey & Onion

4. Add sweet potato and thyme and process until smooth.
5. Form turkey and potato mixture into slightly flattened patties about 2 inches wide by about 1 inch thick.
   

   Unbreaded Croquettes

6. Crush pretzels into medium crumbs and spread on a plate.
7. Press croquettes into pretzel crumbs.
8. Place on greased cookie sheet.
9. Bake for 15 minutes, flipping halfway through.
10. Serve with sunchoke soup!

Sunchoke Soup with Smoked Turkey Croquettes

Weekend Hodgepodge

Camping. Ah, sleeping outside, waking to the birds chirping and the sun beaming through the tent flaps, cooking over a camp fire … Or not!

Each winter, my co-leaders and I take our high school Girl Scout troop on a winter “camping” trip where they have no responsibilities with younger girls, no strict agenda, and indoor sleeping quarters. Basically, it’s a sleepover in the woods (with no hot water and latrines instead of toilets!), and it’s a ton of fun for the girls and the leaders.

Friday evening, I headed up to Camp Mountain House to have a non-camping weekend with the gals!

We stayed in Pine Cabin, a cozy one-room building decorated with preserved leaves and mounted snake skins.

Friday night was full of giggling, a group trip to the grocery store and a chili pepper pinata. We crashed around midnight in order to get up for a full day on Saturday.

This particular weekend trip was exceptionally posh as the girls decided to earn their “Dinner Party” badge. It was the most sophistication my mess kit has ever seen!

Saturday morning began with some creativity as the girls fulfilled a badge requirement by experimenting with different garnishes and shapes for some fluffy pancakes. This little chick accompanied a menagerie of other pancake figures.

I turned my pancake into a breakfast taco of sorts with granola, yogurt and berries.

 

After breakfast, some of the girls helped one of the adults on the trip with some Bigfoot "evidence" for a mock-umentary she is making. It was pretty hilarious.

What should have been a pretty simple lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup became a little more exciting when a misunderstanding led to the addition of sweetened coffee creamer in the tomato soup. Luckily, a bit of improv (lemon juice, basil, salt, pepper, etc) salvaged the soup, leading to rave camper reviews!

After an afternoon spent playing hide & seek in the woods, the girls began preparing the menu they planned for their dinner party. I was really impressed with the choices they made- The recipes were fairly healthy, included lots of veggies and fresh foods and really showcased different cultures!

They started with this punch, the classic concoction of Hawaiian Punch, ginger ale & sherbet.

Appetizer, Group 1: Spinach Salad with Mandarin Oranges, Candied Pecans & Honey Poppyseed Dressing

Appetizer, Group 2: Lentil Soup

Appetizer, Group 3: Filipino Lumpias filled with fresh vegetables

Entree, Group 1: Farfalle with Lemon, Walnuts & Basil

 

Entree, Group 2: Indian Rajma (red kidney bean curry) with Cucumber Raita over Basmati Rice

Entree, Group 3: Beef Stroganoff over Egg Noodles

Somehow, I missed taking a picture of the first group’s dessert: Fresh Fruit with Chocolate Fondue

Dessert, Group 2: Kheer (Indian rice pudding with cardamom & almonds)

Dessert, Group 3: Apple Cobbler

After setting up one heck of a dish washing line, we collapsed in food comas for one more night in the cabin. Clearly, we really roughed it this weekend!

Throughout the weekend, I used spare time to put together this rag rug from some discarded t-shirts. It's currently matching our 1960s aqua & black bathroom!

Unable to settle in at home after a weekend in the woods, Kevin and I headed down route 309 to Trader Joes with a gift card in hand. We treated ourselves to a few organic goodies (like steamed pork buns!) and headed home to make some tasty homemade mac & cheese for dinner.

Finally, home for the evening, we settled in and hung out with Tober (who loved the Trade Joes bags!) in the kitchen. What a fun and food filled weekend!

Are These Smart Meters Really Such a Smart Idea?

I don’t know much about the new smart meters that are being installed throughout town, but I have to say, it seems like a situation where the end user loses.

It is ridiculous to me that when your car leaves the space, any extra time on the meter disappears! When I worked at the Boyd, we used to argue over who could act as the “meter fairy” and surprise people outside with extra time or fill their expired meter to help them avoid a ticket while they enjoyed a movie. With these meters, you can’t even pay it forward or carry out a random act of kindness by leaving time on the meter for the next person to use the spot! I definitely say a loud BOO to that. Plus, as Wink’s article points out- Isn’t this kind of unethical? If I put a quarter in a meter, I expect there to be that amount of time on the meter, regardless of whether my car is there or not.

[I once heard that the city's budget depends partially on parking tickets. Anyone know if this is truly the case?]

Read more about the smart meters here at Wink Magazine:

BPA part III.

Feta & Butternut Pasta

Butternut squash. Mmm. This creamy, orange squash is well-documented as one of my favorite bits of produce. I eat it all fall and winter long. Elsewhere on this blog, you can find Butternut Squash Dip, Butternut Mushroom & Ricotta Tart, Butternut Spinach Quiche, Butternut Apple Soup, and Whole Wheat Butternut Ravioli. Look at that diversity! You can do anything with this squash. In an effort to try out even another flavor profile, I tossed up this easy pasta dish with tangy Keepsake Farm feta and sweet butternut.

Feta & Butternut Pasta

Ingredients:

Ingredients

• 6 T. olive oil
• 1 onion (Jett’s Produce)
• 6 T. fresh basil (I froze leaves in ice cube trays this summer)
• 2 c. roasted butternut squash (Jett’s Produce)
• 3 T. creamy garlic dressing (Apple Ridge Farm)
• 4 servings cooked pasta (Kevin’s recipe here)
• 1/4 c. feta cheese (Keepsake Farm)

Directions:

1. Heat 2 T. olive oil in large skillet or dutch oven.
2. Chop onion and add to oil, cooking until softened.
3. Chop basil and add to onion. Cook until fragrant.
4. Add creamy garlic dressing and stir.
5. Cube roasted butternut squash and toss with onions and basil.
6. Add pasta to pan and toss. Cook over low heat until pasta is hot.
7. Drizzle remaining olive oil over pasta and toss with crumbled feta.

Feta & Butternut Pasta

Chocolate-Cherry Sourdough French Toast

In the spirit of this day we have established to celebrate love and warm fuzzy feelings, I figured I would jump on the wagon and post an appropriately indulgent breakfast recipe.  Kevin and I don’t buy gifts or spend lavishly to show our affection for each other, but we do share some good food (and, I did make him a super sappy video slideshow late last night!). The chocolate cherry sourdough bread adds a little extra level of aphrodisiac to this standard breakfast fare that makes it perfect for a romantic morning (with a mimosa, perhaps? or some Bailey’s in your coffee?).

This bread is from Apple Ridge Farm. For months, I’ve arrived at their farmer’s market stand just after they sold out of the chocolate-cherry sourdough they occasionally bake. I kept hearing about how great these loaves were and seeing chatter about it on Facebook, but my less-than-punctual self was always just a few minutes late to market. So, I was thrilled when they decided to bake one last batch of this unusual flavor for the season. I picked up a loaf and started munching on it before I even left the parking lot (I think bread-loaf munching is a trait I inherited from my father). It was delicious! Not too sweet, chewy, tangy and crusty. All I could think of was how great it would be as French toast. So, even though I am not a huge breakfast maker, I mixed up an eggy custard and transformed some of this loaf into a yummy morning treat.

French toast is one of the easiest breakfast sweets to make. I normally add 1/2 tsp of vanilla, but I didn’t want to mask the dark chocolate and dried cherries in the bread, so I left it out of this recipe. It’s a pretty standard recipe, so use whatever bread you’d like, but if you can get your hands on chocolate-cherry, run, do not walk, to the nearest loaf and buy it to make this meal!

Chocolate-Cherry Sourdough French Toast

Ingredients:

Ingredients

• 4-6 slices crusty bread (chocolate cherry sourdough from Apple Ridge Farm)
• 2 eggs (Valley View Farms)
• 3/4 c. whole milk (Keepsake Farm)
• 1.5 T. honey (Rush Apiaries)
• cinnamon, to taste
• 3 T. butter

Directions:

1. Mix eggs and milk in medium bowl.
2. Microwave honey for about 10-20 seconds, or until runny, and whisk into egg mixture.
3. Add cinnamon and whisk well.
   

   Cinnamon Custard (if you have extra left over, it tastes good scrambled up in a pan!)

4. Melt butter on griddle or skillet.
5. Dip bread in egg mixture, making sure to coat both sides.
6. Cook bread on butter in skillet for 2-3 minutes per side.
7. Serve with additional butter or syrup, if desired.

Chocolate Cherry Sourdough French Toast

Weekend Hodgepodge

Ah, a weekend without a single cookie booth sale! Don’t get me wrong, I love everything I do with Girl Scouts, but it felt great to not have any chunk of time this weekend dedicated to standing at a table in the cold. Instead, my weekend revolved around food, graphic design and recreation. A light coating of snow from Friday night into Saturday morning decorated the landscape without making hazards on the road, so I was able to enjoy the winter scenery, too!

Friday night began with a thick burger, topped with raw milk Swiss, mushrooms and BBQ sauce, paired with homemade pasta & a spicy-sweet sauce and served with a tall beer. Good start to a weekend!

Saturday morning began with a trip to Keepsake farm for some milk. Farmer John's mom was working in the shop and was kind enough to show me the back of the new facility! I got to see the new milking parlor, which accommodates up to six cows at a time- Smaller than the previous parlor, but very nice for the cows! I also got to meet Bambi, here, who was enjoying the shelter of the new barn. In the new barn, the cows are not confined to stalls and can come and go to the pasture as they please.

From the main store at the new Keepsake Farm location, you can peek through a large window into the cheese making room.

On the way home, as the snow from the morning was just ending, I saw an extra haze of white in the sky. It turns out, a huge flock of snow geese was coming in for a landing! I never saw snow geese this closely before, so I pulled over to have a look as they gathered in the field.

Another quick errand for Saturday morning was a stop for potatoes at Padula's on the way back from the dairy. I love this place. In a small, dark cellar, mounds of red, white, yellow, and purple potatoes are watched over by an elderly couple who has been working the fields for quite some time. You absolutely cannot beat the prices for these tasty tubers- just a couple dollars for 10 lbs of potatoes!

 

Kevin and I sat down to enjoy some quiche and tomato soup from Jumbars for lunch, and Tober decided to join us and pretend he was human enough to use a pint glass.

After an afternoon spent meeting with other foodies and designers, working diligently on designing the logo for the Bethlehem Food Co-Op, I hurried home to put our fresh milk to use in our first ever batch of homemade ice cream! We used our Kitchenaid to concoct this blueberry-ginger snap ice cream. Look for the recipe soon!

For dinner, I whipped up this PA Dutch/eastern European inspired casserole of kielbasa, red cabbage, pierogies and Swiss cheese. Really simple, inexpensive and tasty! This recipe will be posted soon too.

Kevin and I settled into a Saturday night of board games, playing chess, Boggle, and Scrabble ... until Tober decided our game was over.

 

Sunday was freezing cold, so I was exeptionally happy to not have a booth sale! We had Jumbars breakfast, then I spent the rest of the morning preparing awards to distribute at an upcoming Brownie Girl Scout ceremony. At noon, I headed off to Hello Burrito with a friend & colleague to go over what I'd be teaching when I sub for Intro to Design this week. This black bean & salsa soup with a brown rice & black bean wrap was great for fighting the chill outside.

After lunch, I picked up Kevin, and we headed off to Moravian College for a V-Day performance of the Vagina Monologues. I was happily surprised to see the number of men in attendance! The cast did a great job reading the monologues.

Finally, we capped off the weekend with some Anthony Bourdain, Franklin Hill wine and a pot of hearty potato soup with carrots & rosemary. It was the perfect meal for the cold night.

Globe Trottin’ in the Valley (with Girls in Cages?)

Last night, Kevin and I got to experience the infamous Harlem Globetrotters thanks to Laini from Laini’s Little Pocket Guide! Chance timing and a random bit of knowledge (the Globetrotter’s theme song is called “Sweet Georgia Brown”) won us tickets to see these comic athletes at Lehigh’s Stabler Arena. I really had no clue what to expect, other than their theme song and tricks involving basketballs, but I have always wanted to see the theatrical display of athleticism. It seemed to me like one of those experiences you should just try to have sometime in your life.

We got to the stadium just before the "game" started, and, as last minute spectators shuffled to their seats and vendors yelled for people to buy cotton candy and snowcones, we watched the athletes warm up.

The performance included exhibits of a wide variety of talents, from slapstick comedy to exemplary athleticism to acrobatics to choreography to acting. I was in awe of the number of skills these men displayed. At one point, I even leaned over and asked Kevin, “If one of these guys had to get another job, would they be athletes, actors or comedians?”

Like minor league sports games, this event included lots of family-friendly activities throughout. This race reminded me of the sleeping bag relay race I have my Girl Scouts do. It was sponsored by Howard Johnson hotels, though, which apparently now goes by HoJo. HoJo?! Really?! I am pretty sure the announcer even said to "Go to bed with HoJo." Um…

The game also included a penalty box, where unruly players were sent, usually after pants-ing a ref or throwing water on someone in the crowd. Spectators were encouraged to enthusiastically count down the seconds until these players were allowed back in the game. Circles on the floor marked special “4 point zones” where team members could make challenging shots. And, of course, a dramatic slam dunk or long shot always accompanied the sound of the buzzer at the end of a quarter.

The Globetrotter's classic mascot, "Globie," fired up the crowd from the sidelines.

This large, inflated character, "Big G," amused the crowd with self-deprecating antics. It was pretty amazing to see what this person could do from within a huge inflatable suit!

So, all parts of the Globetrotters performance provided a fun, lighthearted, family-friendly atmosphere. And then, there was the halftime show. I doubt the Globetrotters themselves had anything to do with selecting this dance group or approving their routine, but whoever did approve it, in my opinion, dropped the ball (no pun intended!). I couldn’t catch the name of the dance school over the half-time chatter and echo of the sound system, but it was a local group, and I think the announcer said they are performing at the 2012 Olympics! I hope this isn’t what they are performing to represent the US.

As the group of dance students (children, looking like they ranged from older elementary school to high school) gathered, I first noticed their outfits—dark, kind of goth, pretty suggestive, although several girls had leggings underneath. I didn’t think much of it—I don’t get bent out of shape over costumes. Then, I noticed two large black boxes. I then realized they were huge dog crates and wondered what they might be using them for—perhaps an animal component to the show?

I wish there had been an animal in the half time show. Instead, three young girls crawled into each cage and shut the door.

THERE ARE LITTLE GIRLS IN THIS CAGE! And parents were okay with this?!

The rest of the group went on to do some sort of choreographed routine to a medley of songs, including “Roman’s Revenge” by Nicki Minaj, featuring Eminem. I am not sure if the part of the song they played included these particular lyrics, but to get a taste for the message of the song, here is a segment:

I’m a bad b*tch, I’m a c*nt
and I’ll kick that h*e, punt
forced trauma, blunt
you play the back, b*tch, I’m in the front

I don’t even know exactly what sort of choreographed routine the rest of the group did because I couldn’t get over that there were little girls in suggestive clothing in dog cages on the court. This went against every Girl Scout leading fiber of my being.

Finally, after several other girls laid themselves over the tops of the cages, the girls inside were released. But, upon their release from the cages, they dramatically crawled towards a dancing solo male.

Where the person stood up in the middle of this picture, there is a single man dancing. The girls are crawling, dog-like, towards him.

Perhaps I am wrong in my interpretation of this routine. I hope I am wrong. I hope that the dance instructor is instilling confidence and self-worth in these girls, rather than submission and low self-esteem. But, if the instructor is instilling those things in them, it’s certainly not coming across in their performance.

So, Globetrotters= Fun, unique, laid back and enjoyable (We really had a great time. Thanks, Laini!!!)

Halftime show and whoever booked it= Discouraging and disturbing

Ricotta, Eggplant & Mushroom Paninis

Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables. It is flavorful, rich and versatile, providing an excellent base for all sorts of main dishes. The large purplish black veggie isn’t available in winter, though, so I had been missing it. So, when I found a container of grilled eggplant buried in our freezer from the summer, I was sooo excited to use it! A taste of summer in these dreary months was a welcome treat. Combined with some crusty bread, creamy ricotta, earthy mushrooms and zesty microgreens, these paninis are a great way to enjoy a variety of flavors and textures.

Ricotta, Eggplant & Mushroom Paninis

Ingredients:
No ingredient amounts here! It’s a sandwich, you can figure out what proportions you’d like!

Ingredients

• crusty wheat bread (14 Acre Farm)
• olive oil (we used Tuscan Herb from Seasons)
• ricotta cheese (Keepsake Farm)
• grilled, sliced eggplant (Heritage Farms CSA)
• cremini mushrooms (Pure Sprouts, Mother Earth Mushrooms)
• microgreens (or fresh basil) (Pure Sprouts, OH Produce)
• mozzerella cheese, optional (Kevin loves his cheese, so he snuck that in!)

Directions:

1. Cut wheat bread into thick slices, and brush or spray outside of slices with olive oil. (I got to use our new oil mister here!)
2. Spread ricotta cheese on inside of bread.
3. Slice mushrooms.
4. Layer eggplant and mushroom slices over ricotta.
5. Top with microgreens or basil.
6. Add mozzerella, if using.
7. Grill sandwich on panini press for 3-4 minutes, or cook in skillet for about 3 minutes per side.
8. Serve hot!

Ricotta, Eggplant & Mushroom Panini