I have more tomatoes then I know what to do with and I was craving something comforting this week. I also felt like being artistic, so I came up with this easy recipe for a summer tart. You can really get creative when arranging the tomato and eggplant slices. This recipe is also perfect for lunch or dinner and great for entertaining. I threw in some sprigs of fresh herbs that I have growing in my garden. Feel free to substitute fresh basil for a lighter, more delicate flavor. You could also substitute summer squashes for the eggplant, just cut back on the roasting time.

Fairytale Roasted Eggplant, Tomato and Feta Garden Tart
Serves 6
Ingredients:
1 Pillsburg refrigerated pie crust
1 large eggplant, cut into 1/4 inch slices
3 large beefsteak tomatoes, cut into 1/4 inch slices
3/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese
Extra virgin olive oil
1 egg white
3 sprigs fresh thyme, finely chopped
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Recipe:
Lay the slices of eggplant on a foil-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and brush the slices with the extra virgin olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven. While baking, fit the Pillsbury pie crust to a tart dish and refrigerate. 
When eggplant is ready, take out of oven and let cool slightly. Brush the pie crust with the egg white. Arrange the roasted eggplant slices and tomato slices in circular layers. 
Sprinkle chopped fresh herbs over the tomato and eggplant. Sprinkle the crumbled feta cheese on top. Bake for 30-40 minutes for a crispy shell. 


Let cool completely before removing the tart by inverting it onto a plate.  
Enjoy!

And finally, I have saved my favorite dining experience in Nashville for last. Merchants is by far my favorite restaurant in downtown Nashville.  While it has it’s glitches, each time I have dined there it has been a pleasant experience with the food far exceeding my expectations. And if true love means seeing an imperfect restaurant perfectly, then I love it there.

Merchants was established in 1892. We learned during our first visit to Merchants years ago that it was a former hotel, drug store and ice cream parlor. (And apparently the drug store/ice cream parlor interlapped, as our waiter told us colorful stories about elderly women sprinkling their medications on their ice cream at the marble bar, which is still there today.) Our waiter told us ghost stories about the building and even led us on a tour throughout the upper floors of the restaurant.  Maybe it was the dinner cocktails, but we all undeniably felt a strange energy on one of the top floors and even a gust of cold air. If I was a ghost, I wouldn’t mind being confined to haunting Merchants as long as I had my taste buds still in tact.

This year it was especially packed due to the CMA Fest crowd. We didn’t have a reservation but we were still promptly seated on the second floor of the restaurant.  The first floor is a bit more casual and includes a bar. On the second floor you will find white linen table cloths and napkins with real silverwear ornamenting the tables, a nice and drastic change to the barstools and paper napkins and utensils we’ve been putting to use all week. Our waiter looked exhausted (rightfully so after the dinner rush before the concert) but he still managed to smile and was very polite and helpful. He was such a nice person and really patient with us. I was a little bit disappointed that Merchants was featuring a limited menu because of the CMA fest but I understood the reasoning behind it.

We ordered two appetizers: the fried pickles and fried green tomatoes. The fried green tomatoes at Merchants were, hands down, the best I have ever had in my life. The huge tomatoes were breaded and fried, and not too tough or mushy. They were covered with a black bean, corn, red onion salsa and smothered in a grainy dijon mustard sauce. 

The butter pickles were battered and fried and served with a red pepper aioli dipping sauce. These were enjoyable as well, but I have a hunch that if some fresh herbs (dill perhaps) were used in the batter, it would have kicked them up a bit.

The house salad was standard but solid and excellent. Mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, homemade croutons, parmesean cheese and your choice of dressing.

For dinner, I ordered a real southern staple, something extremely difficult if not impossible to find on the menu of a restaurant in the northeast region: Shrimp and Grits.  This flavors of this dish were phenomenal and if I could have, I would have ordered another one, boxed it up and flown it home first class.  Jumbo pieces of juicy grilled shrimp, smoky andoiulle sausage with sauteed spinach over a mound of cheesy grits and lathered with a light tomato broth, this dish was pure southern perfection.  With each bite, I thought to myself how grateful I was to be alive and feasting on this succulent dish.  I am determined to recreate this in my own home but I am certain it will take a few attempts before I can master the cheesy grits.

The scallops, pan seared over corn, lima bean and tomato succotash were also perfection.

The blue corn tacos were pretty as plated, but a little bland. The blue corn tortilla shells were soft and seemed to be homemade but something additional was needed to kick this dish up a notch. It could have been improved upon, but I’d still order them if I were in the mood for tacos.  Spicy beans were served on the side but cheesy grits were available as well.

Merchants also offers an array of creative desserts, like the key lime pie martini below. (Had this during a previous trip to Nashville.)

I will absolutely return to Merchant’s again. The next time I am in Nashville, I will call ahead to make sure that they are featuring the full menu so we can order it up and sample a wider variety of southern specialties! See you next year Merchants!

Enjoy!

On our last night in Nashville, we ventured to the Germantown Cafe, one of the top rated restaurants in Nashville, to see what all the fuss was about and hopefully enjoy some of the local cuisine beyond greasy fried foods smothered in barbecue sauce.  I’m happy to report that we had a very pleasant experience here and I would absolutely return there again. The atmosphere was quaint and cozy, the crowd a mix of all ages from locals to foreign CMA music fest concert goers. Though we didn’t have reservations, we didn’t have to wait for a table. The hostess was kind and happy. She seated us a a table near the glass window which allowed just enough of the setting sunlight to peer in to the restaurant. There was a great view of the Nashville skyline.

I was pretty impressed with our server, who had the patience of an angel when answering all of our detailed questions about the menu and the daily specials.  She was a perfect example of what every server should be: kind, patient, attentive, prompt.  She possessed an all encompasing knowledge of the items on the menu and was not afraid to steer me in the right direction when it came to ordering the restaurant’s specialties. 

We started with the strudel and the fried green tomatoes.  The tomatoes, served hot, were deep fried in a crisp and greasy (but not too greasy) coating and topped with miniature goat cheese rounds, accompanied by a spicy red bell pepper aioli sauce. We devoured these within seconds.

The Germantown Cafe Strudel was served with a tropical salsa. Studel, German for “whirlpool” or “eddy” is a type of pastry composed of thin layers of dough spread with a filling and rolled and baked until crisp and golden brown.  The dough tastes just like the Greek phyllo dough, commonly known as a puff pastry shell.  (These sheets can be found in the frozen aisle of your local grocery store.) Strudel is commonly filled with fruit but it can come in all different varieties and be savory as well.  The Germantown Cafe Strudel was a savory, spicy blend of chicken, cream cheese and peppers. It was very different and that is why I loved it! 

The most jaw dropping part of our dining experience at the Germantown Cafe may have been the bread basket, which was really a little bundle of heaven. Imagine biting into soft and buttery round roll right out of the oven – sounds like a pretty ordinary indulgence. Now imgaine that the bread is deep fried, making the outside crust crisp, flaky and a bit oily with a soft warm center. Bread is absolutely my weakness in this life and I have sampled many different kinds but I’ve never had anything like this before. And there was a silver lining. Indulging in a deep fried roll made it easier for me to limit myself to one.
The caesar salad was equally as delicious, with its crisp romaine lshaved parmegiano regiano cheese and deep friend herbed croutons. Add a piece of grilled shrimp, this could have been dinner.

The Germantown Cafe offered a generous portion of a crab cakes, placing three decent size lightly pan fried cakes consisting mainly of jumbo lump crabmeat on a dish with an abundant serving of french fries and green beans. The crab cakes were served with a mustard-tartar sauce, a nice and creative accompaniment to this classic dish, without being over the top. 

The plum pork was tender and delicious. Thinly sliced pork medallions grilled and served in a savory but sweet plum sauce over mashed potatoes and served with green beans.

I decided to take a chance on the fresh catch of the day, the Grouper. Served over creamy polenta and accompanied by a heaping portion of lima beans drizzled with a light chunky tomato sauce, this dish was a much welcomed change from the greasy southern barbecue we loved but overdosed on. The Grouper was delicate but firm, easily flaked with a fork and oozing with its own juices. A light cream sauce with parsley adorned the grouper, enhancing its own flavor.

The only negative part of the dining experience was that we were too stuffed to try the desserts, which sounded sinfully delicate and delicious – but it’s all the more reason to return again next year!

Enjoy! 🙂