Moving

Okay, so a few moving tips, because I know summer is a popular moving time.
1.) Pack the can opener WITH the canned goods.  I'm serious.  It sounds so simple, but it's so key.
2.) Shut down the kitchen 1+ week before you move.  Last Sunday, I made pasta salad and a pasta casserole and we lived off that for the week.
3.) Just order takeout.  I think last time, we didn't do this.  This time, we ate takeout for three days straight and it was a major stress reducer.
4.) Use the crockpot once you move.  It means you only have to clean one thing, and you don't have to put anything away, since you don't know where anything goes yet.  Win-win.

That being said, here is my original recipe for pre-moving/clean out the fridge eggplant pasta:
Ingredients:

• 1 half eaten box of pasta (any shape, I used mini bows)
• 1 half-full jar of pesto 
• 1 eggplant
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 onion
• Garlic
• 1 can diced tomatoes

Procedure:

1. Put eggplant, squash, garlic, onion in crockpot with some olive oil on high for 2 hours. 
2. Add half box of pasta, dry.
3. Add diced tomatoes with juice.  Add half a can of water.  
4. Cook for another 2 hours or until pasta is tender.
5. Add pesto.  
6. Stir. 
7. Eat.  Or put in tupperwares.  Good with goat cheese.  Or feta.  

Are you moving? What are some moving meals that you make?

Pasta Salad with Arugula

This is from my Mac & Cheese cookbook - Macaroni and Cheese by Marlena Spieler, for my friend Susan, who I told I would post this for, because she has a CSA share and a lot of arugula.  But you should try it too, because it is amazing.  (And amazingly easy - the best kind of amazing.)
Ingredients:
1 large unwaxed lemon
12 ounces orecchiette (I used those piccolini bow-ties the last time and I think shells before that. Any pasta is okay, but I'd go for something flat if possible.)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
8-10 ounces Bulgarian, Israeli, or Greek feta cheese (I use President from Costco.)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cups loosely packed arugula leaves (washed)

Process:
1.) Zest the lemon, put in a small bowl.  Squeeze lemon juice into the bowl. Mind the seeds.
2.) Cook the pasta until al dente, drain.
3.) Put pasta in a large bowl (I love a stainless steel mixing bowl for pasta salad since it transfers heat so much better in the fridge.)
4.) Add lemon juice and olive oil to the pasta, set for up to two hours to cool.
5.) Before serving, toss with feta, salt, and pepper.  Serve w/ arugula at room temperature.

This is great for bar review lunches and dinners, btw.  Anything I can eat cold is fantastic.

What kind of cookbook would you write?

While studying my mind often drifts to what I would have done with
my life if I hadn't wanted to be Ms. Barefoot, J.D.

Today I thought about what cookbook I would write.

I think it would be called "variations on a theme". It would have several types of mac&cheese, varieties of pizza, different flavors to mix with a salmon breadcrust, herb and spice mixtures for foccacia, and all the weird stuffings my family has eaten over the past ten years.

Because it occurs to me that I regularly cook about 5 things, but anything can taste different with different cheeses.

What's your cookbook?

Gone Quiet

Apologies to all for the recent lapse and total failure of recipes.  I'm studying for the bar.
Studying for the bar is an arduous thing at best, but when you have a night bar review course, it also means that your eating habits go to hell.
I'm in week three now, and I still haven't figured out a great system for eating.  It seems that the best thing to do is eat a high-protein second breakfast after Bar Review Mandated Exercise, then hold off on lunch until about 2 or 3 pm, when I eat lunch.  Then, I just have some high protein snacks and eat them through bar review and come home to dinner.  Or come home to bed because I am no longer hungry.  It's not the best plan.

But what I wanted to write about is not my lousy eating habits during the bar.  It is how to freeze casseroles, then thaw and reheat them.

Last summer, when I went to Michigan, I made and froze a few lasagnas.  I read a great tip once that you can make mini-lasagnas in aluminum loaf pans.  Just follow the lasagna directions on the package, but put 3 noodles and the filling in each pan, then top with cheese.  Cover with foil and put in the refridgerator until cool, then freeze.

It turns out they freeze for up to a year, because we just ate the last one tonight.  To thaw, just put in the fridge the night before or the morning of.  Bake at 375 for awhile (Mr. Barefoot's very specific instructions) until warm and delicious.  

Any other suggestions for casseroles (vegetarian) that freeze and reheat well?