What We Did With the Eggplant

I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seat, wondering what amazing concoction we devised for our fresh tiny purple eggplants from the North Carolinian farmers' market. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but we just chopped it and cooked it up in its own juices with garden green bell peppers and tomatoes. Then we added pasta sauce, heated up, and tossed with pasta. It seems like the better the vegetables get, the less we feel like doing much to them. Also, the only flavorings we currently own are Dead Sea salt (a wedding gift) and a some extra virgin olive oil. This will limit a cook.

I unpacked all my cookbooks and found to my shock that I own about forty. I have become accustomed to using only about 3, and now I find myself overwhelmed with riches. In fact, many of these cookbooks are ones I don't remember owning! I have so many choices that I am currently choosing none of them.

Another factor in limiting one's appetite for cooking is creative energy. I think most people have only so much. George is investing all his creative energy is learning to make and finish furniture, so he never feels like cooking. I am juggling everything involved in starting a new program of studies at a new school in a new state, and my brain feels tired when I get home. I don't have the same desire to leaf through cookbooks and come up with a shopping list and a week of menus. Plus, my kitchen is still a stranger to me, and it's filled with empty moving boxes.

We invited neighbors over for Sunday brunch this weekend, so we are going to have to force ourselves to get back into the swing of things. As a Jew, when I hear the words "Sunday brunch" I immediately envision lox and bagels, cream cheese, munster cheese, red onions, and fat slices of tomato with a side of smoked white fish. Of course for a vegetarian that won't do, and in any case I don't know where to find the authentic New York type of bagel around here. Suggestions for Sunday brunch? Anyone? Just click on "comments" below and Comment.