The Weblog
Weekly Reminder to Order; Eggplant Experiment
Good afternoon to The Wednesday Market community. We hope you are having a good weekend!
The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your orders by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. See the website for all of this week’s offerings. Here is the link: http://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
Do you like to cook? What kind of a cook are you? I am a “by the recipe” kind of a cook. The way I see things, my life is just too busy to spend time working on something that might or might not work out correctly. By using a recipe, I hedge my bets that my project will be successful.
Once in a while, though, I experiment. Such was the case on Friday night when we did not have plans to go anywhere. Having been given a big bag of Japanese eggplant, I decided to figure out something to do with them. They were long and skinny. How would I make eggplant Parmesan out of these?
I started by slicing the eggplant into thin round slices, so that they looked like large coins. I put them on a parchment lined baking sheet, brushed them with olive oil and sprinkled them with salt and freshly ground pepper. Into the oven at 400 degrees they went. At this point, I left the project with my capable sous chef and better half, Joe, so that I could run down to Freshway for some Parmesan cheese. By the time I returned, the eggplant was successfully roasted, and Joe had put them into a pan on the stove and poured a jar of tomato basil spaghetti sauce over the top; the sauce and eggplant were simmering gently. Joe had also made a big pot of angel hair pasta. The kitchen smelled heavenly with the aroma of garlic and basil wafting through the air! I sliced a big loaf of Italian bread and toasted it in the oven. I pulled a jar of artichoke bruschetta from the pantry, and we headed to the table.
Dinner was served: roasted eggplant and tomato basil sauce over angel hair pasta topped with grated Parmesan cheese and artichoke bruschetta on the side. It was delicious! Even our boys, Stephen, 10, and Charlie, 5, gave the meal two “thumbs up.” The moral of the story: It is fun to experiment once in a while. You just might discover something really good!
We hope that you will be inspired by the bounty of The Wednesday Market farmers and try something new, too.
See you on Wednesday!
Thanks,
Beverly