Friday, September 01, 2006

Once a year I really, really crave eggplant.

Eggplant 'Parmesan'. The eggplant was thinly sliced, salted and drained in a colander for 45 minutes. I used the flour - soymilk - breadcrumbs dip method, and lightly fried the pieces in olive oil. They were then baked with organic tomato sauce and Follow Your Heart Mozzerella, and garnished with fresh basil after baking. I couldn't resist the FYH purchase - on sale for $3.59 at New Seasons, it's been a long, long time since I used prepackaged faux cheese.

Next time I'll bake the eggplant, but I hadn't tried it fried and wanted to be 'authentic' and have it as tasty as possible hoping Thomas would try it (he's not quite keen on eggplant).
Okay, I crave eggplant a few times a year, but it's not something I ever have in the house. I am so glad and satisfied that I took the time to make this last night. Actually, on the rare occasion I go to Veganopolis, I always get the dry roasted eggplant sandwich.
This week's csa share: Sungold cherry tomtatoes, cucumbers, carrots, walla walla sweet onions, lettuce, pattypan squash, eggplant (2), yukon gold potatoes, chives (ew,ha!), 4 ears of corn and the bulk addition of 2 lbs. of basil.Two adorable colored bell peppers from the downtown farmer's market. I have to remind myself to eat them, I just keep looking at them and smiling..Cornmeal baked tofu, spicy sesame kale, raw carrots and dill roasted potatoes for dinner. I felt wholesome!Roasted golden beets - I used olive oil, sweet paprika, seat salt and cayenne - it worked so well together~Another hodgepodge of dill (and garlic too this time) roasted vegetables - sweet onions, golden beets, potatoes, carrots and wax beans.
I baked another batch, this time double, of the chickpea cutlet recipe I tested for the new PPK
book. I love the texture of the baked method and Thomas prefers the fried (so we fried a couple more too). We're planning on making an even bigger batch this weekend. Anticipation, people!

1.
Jody from Vegchic is awesomely generous and creative. She sent me these soaps and it's taken me a while to find the photo I took since it was right before my move and -
2. These soaps are fantastic - one is Rosemary Herb (right, Jody?) and the other is -swoon- Mojito! The Rosemary bar is currently in my shower.

I've been playing around with designs and am open to suggestions from people who actually know what they're doing. Update on the blogger photo woes - I was able to upload photos 1, and occasionally 2 at a time last night on my home computer, but not all of them. Some had to hang out on photobucket till I arrived early at work this morning. In other news - more progress has been made on actually settling *into* the new apartment. I'll try to remember to take a photo of the mural that's on our bedroom wall. I'm also daydreaming of what I'm making for my birthday in 6 days!

19 comments:

Elizabeth said...

You know, I really like the new color (kinda goes with eggplant, doesn't it?) but it's hard to read black print on it. The green from the previous post was fine.

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Thank you for the input! How's this now?

I am so confused about food processors. I'm going to check out the Willams Sonoma site next, and probably gaze for an hour in frustration at everything I want. : )

Just call me Orangie said...

I love the new color of your site! I have a friend who is, like the world's most amazing graphic's designer, and she re-doing my blog for me, so it'll be up soon *yay*.

Also the food all looks amazing. Especially the beets (I love beets! Though I've only had the red ones, do they taste different then the golden ones?)

Stephanie of Summerloco

erica said...

The spicy kale sounds really good, I'd love the recipe.

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Stepahnie - Golden beets taste sweet and are amazing. I don't want to say like a sweet potato, but yes, in that way.

Erica - It wasn't an exciting dish, but it was simple and tasty -
I sauteed a ton of crushed garlic in olive and sesame oil (little bit of both) and added the kale, crushed red pepper flakes to taste (lots this time) and a tiny bit of braggs, and did the sautee/steam thing.

Shananigans said...

I like the new color too. Have you made any progress in your quest for a food processor? I also want one but can’t spend much money at the moment. I love eggplant parm but rarely make it because of all the oil. I really like my eggplant fried, I can’t help it. I’m going to be trying a new Indian eggplant dish with the cute little Indian eggplants I got at the market today. It sounds very healthy, I hope it’s tasty as well.

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

spicy sesame kale is really calling my name! actually, jess, it all is. can't wait to see what you eat in celebration of your birthday. how's the processor quest going?

Michelle said...

I never know what to do with my FYH cheese, I should totally do eggplant parm because we have 3 eggplant plants growing in the garden and tons of cute little eggplants. Thanks for the idea!

I'm linking your site on my brand new blog

-Michelle (from the ppk)

KleoPatra said...

Happy early b'day, Jess.

I have been using one of Jody's Hope Soaps for a few weeks and LOVE it!

BOLD COLOUR JESS. LOVE IT!!

Nice to read your comments on the eggplant; people are sometimes cruel to the plump guy...

Love the chickpea situation, too. That looks so good!!!

Elizabeth said...

Looks great! I responded to your comment on my cooking blog, btw.

funwithyourfood said...

hey there!
i just tagged you :)
Teddy

primaryconsumer said...

Yum, it all looks amazing.

Anonymous said...

Wow! All of this food looks great. I'm like you - I don't really cook too much with eggplant. I don't know why, it's not that I don't like it. Hmmm...

So what did you decide with the food processor? Did my comment about the crazy arm attachment make any sense?

The new color is really fun and the green text is pretty easy to read.

Paula said...

I have a chunk of FYH mozz leftover and i really want to use it on something! its my fav. i almost wanna eat it plain, but i probably should not do that.

your eggplant looks awesome.

Kate said...

I love eggplant. I jsut grilled some yesterday. You mentioned you had a csa share, how many months of the year does your last? Do you find it saves you money? Just wondering for future.

Carrie™ said...

I really like the purple.
I'm with Thomas. Not much of an eggplant fan. Everything else is mouth-watering as usual. And your new kitchen looks great. Glad you seem to be settled in and back to cooking!

Valerie said...

I just discovered your blog, and it is fantastic. I crave eggplant all of the time and your's looks yummy. I've never had beets before, other than the kind you get in a can. I actually bought some golden beets at the store the other day and I think I am going to have to roast them for lunch.

Vanessa said...

Mmmm, looks delish! Maybe I’m a nutter, but I crave eggplant all the time. The chickpea cutlets look great too, thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I really like breaded eggplant and also do the salting and draining/rinsing to remove the bitterness. Your pictures look great!