Today from my garden...

[dreamflower]

Today's harvest: eggplant, more cukes, and a few more green beans.



Yesterday four small beets and some more green beans. I forgot to take their picture.

I made eggplant lasagna for supper: substituting eggplant for the noodles, I peeled and sliced them about 1/4" thick, brushed a little olive oil on both sides and baked them about ten minutes. Then I layered the eggplant with my tomato sauce and the cheese (had to sub cottage cheese for riccotta) mixture, and topped off with grated mozarella. I also roasted the beets in aluminum foil for about 30 minutes, and then grated them onto our salads, topped with raspberry vinaigrette dressing.

I still have two eggplants left, and have accumulated about a half-mess of beans. And I am fairly certain I'll be making pickles next week with all those cukes!

The DH and I went to the matinee today to see Brave and I have to say it was adorable. Merida is easily the best of the "modern" crop of Disney princesses!

ETA Brave spoiler in the comments. There's "spoiler space" though.

Comments

[pandemonium-213.livejournal.com]

The eggplants! Oh, they are beautiful, and I love your recipe! Kind of an egglant Parmesan (say "eggplant Pahm" in Boston). A "half-mess" of beans — love the unit measure. :^D

In a corollary to the "Jack Sprat could eat no fat, and his wife could eat no lean," Mr. Pandemonium will not eat eggplant, and I am not fond of okra. This resulted from the bounty of our garden (my dad set aside a parcel of the big farm garden for us during our first year of almost-matrimony) where I must have grown a dozen eggplant bushes, which produced a LOT of eggplant) and where we had a forest of okra. Okra and eggplant were on the summer menu perpetually. We became saturated with the stuff.

[dreamflower]

The DH loves eggplant; me, not so much-- except for eggplant parmesan; the tomato sauce and cheese make up for it, LOL! That's what gave me the idea for turning them into "lasagna".

I'm a Southern gal, but I have never developed the taste for okra. *ick* The DH planted some okra seed in "his" little garden bed, but the plants have been overwhelmed by the pumpkin seeds he also sowed in the same bed. He overplants dreadfully and then can't bring himself to thin the plants. But he gets a lot of fun out just seeing the plants grow. And I have to say, okra blooms are beautiful!

[pandemonium-213.livejournal.com]

He overplants dreadfully and then can't bring himself to thin the plants.

That is EXACTLY what Mr. P did. Plus he let the pods get too big. He'd make these "Creole" (loosely speaking) concoctions that were chock-full of mucilaginous okra goo. GAAAAAH! I finally did learn to like okra later in life, but only when prepared by my BFF as a very spicy, South Indian style dry curry. Not at all mucilaginous.

Mr. P came up for the weekend bearing offerings of Jersey tomatoes (huge and ripe), a quart of blueberries, and ripe peaches, all of which he got at the orchard just west of Princeton. I do miss that about the Garden State.

[dreamflower]

I wish MY tomatoes would start turning red! *sigh* Of course if they don't I suppose I can always make some fried green tomatoes. Or green tomato pie.

But I really want nice red juicy homegrown ones again.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm... all of those look so yummy and adorably chubby. My dad was frying up some eggplant for his and mom's supper the other night and I filched a slice when he wasn't looking. Couldn't resist.

[shirebound]

I'll have to put "Brave" on my Netflix queue.

Yum, what a healthy and yummy summer you're having.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

It just sounds so lovely to be able to eat countless meals made from garden fresh stuff!

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Oh, the color of those eggplants is gorgeous.

[febobe.livejournal.com]

I agree totally with you about Merida. A Disney princess whom I TOTALLY relate to! :)

*hugs you* Keep the garden and such stories coming. Always nice to hear about! I have a black thumb myself, but I love garden produce and admire anyone who can do that. I have actually never tried eggplant and am thinking of trying one some time this summer. Maybe something with tomato sauce, as that seems to be a good combination for most folks. Any good advice? :)

Hugs,
Febobe :)

[dreamflower]

I think eggplant has to be fixed just right to be good. But having grown them myself definitely lends a certain something to the flavor!

[dreamflower]

We are very annoyed with Netflix. We switched from the DVDs-in-the-mail to instant streaming on our Blu-Ray. It worked wonderfully for a while, but the last couple of weeks we can't get ANYTHING but our Instant Queue. Several calls to Customer Service have failed to fix it.

We are definitely having a yummy summer!

[dreamflower]

Well, maybe not countless but it is very nice to know it's only a few steps to fresh and mostly (except for the seeds or plants) free produce!

[dreamflower]

I love the color of eggplant; it's such a deep rich almost jewel-like color.

[dreamflower]

One thing to keep it healthy, bake it instead of frying. I sliced mine only about a quarter inch thick, brushed with olive oil on both sides and baked for about 10 minutes on each side. Also a coating or a sauce is important as the color (to me at least) is a little off-putting after it cooks.

Brave spoiler:
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I loved that in the end there was no Prince for her. Not one SHE rescued OR one that rescued her! I almost expected the first bear to turn into a handsome prince for her; that would have been so typically Disney. That it didn't was a pleasant surprise!

[frodobaggins252.livejournal.com]

Those veggies look delicious! I hope you're having them as part of your birthday celebration today! **Big Ol' Huggles**