"What is that purple thing in the refrigerator? You aren't going to make me eat that are you?"

Well dear, it's an Eggplant, and it's actually a kind of berry, and no, I bought it so it could rot in there.

That was my grown husband, not my son.

I bought an eggplant last week because they were there, and I love fried eggplant and zucchini and polenta. The guys won't touch the stuff, and I wouldn't share it if they did. Unfortunately, the zombies at the store had never even heard of polenta, never mind knew where it might be, so me and my eggplant went home to stare at eachother until I could figure out how to do it in.

"Hubba Ghanouj"- this experiment turned out WAAAYY better than the Chikin Pancakes ;)

1 whole regular eggplant, unpeeled

5 cloves garlic (NO LESS)

1 cup chopped fresh spinach

1/4 cup of olive oil

pepper

salt

coat the bottom of your casserole with a generous amount of olive oil, chopped garlic, half the chopped spinach, salt and pepper. Slice the eggplant lengthwise and layer in the dish. Baste the topside of the slices liberally with remaining olive oil, more garlic, salt and pepper, and toss the rest of the spinach on top.

Bake in 450 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Let the whole lot cool down enough to handle it, dump it ALL into a large bowl (or your blender or your food processor), and murder it to death. You want to blend all of the ingredients into a puree.

Add 1 cup of plain yogurt or sour cream.

Cover and refrigerate. The longer it waits, the better the tastes will blend.

you can eat it with flatbread, or tortilla chips, and its ALL good for you!

Food on the brain

There are some particular foods and dishes I've been thinking about since we've moved in here... mostly things I can't cook for lack of appliances, staple ingredients, or tools...

First on that list is probably eggs. Not only am I not supposed to eat eggs (the bloody cholesterol thing), but there is nothing NASTIER than microwaved eggs. No cooktop = no eggs.

Next is grilled cheese. The boys love grilled cheese. I've been making do by toasting the bread first then adding the cheese and sticking it in the nuker, but it's just not the same.

Then there's bread. I would love to whip up a batch of bread, but I can't find my bread pans, and I don't have any flour or yeast anyway.

Ah, and yogurt! Mom got me a yogurt maker! I need the cooktop to scald the milk to make the yogurt! I want homemade yogurt!

Lastly, one of my favorite make-for-me dishes is fried polenta with eggplant, zuccini and cheese... it's sooo good. That is probably going to be one of the first things I make when we get the cooktop put together!

Nothing can do more for one's appreciation for food than being stuck without a way to make it.