Talk to me
May. 3rd, 2006 10:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resonantGod, it's good to be home. (In less than a month I have to go visit the family on the other coast, but for the moment I'm going to pretend I get to stay home for a bit.) My own bed, my own food, my own cat. Bliss.
Trip went well. Wedding went well. Brown dress was predictably awful on me, but I was standing between my brother's beautiful bride and my cute 7-year-old kidlet with a flower basket, so nobody was looking at me anyway.
So I missed the "ask me anything" meme and I know that's sooo last week, but I want fannish people to talk to me. So ask me something if you want. (Even if it's "Remind me again why I might have friended you? because I can't remember who you are.") Be anonymous if you like; I've got anon comments screened, but if yours isn't an ad for something, I'll unscreen it as soon as I get it.
Or tell me something. I wanna see you! I wanna relate to you!
Trip went well. Wedding went well. Brown dress was predictably awful on me, but I was standing between my brother's beautiful bride and my cute 7-year-old kidlet with a flower basket, so nobody was looking at me anyway.
So I missed the "ask me anything" meme and I know that's sooo last week, but I want fannish people to talk to me. So ask me something if you want. (Even if it's "Remind me again why I might have friended you? because I can't remember who you are.") Be anonymous if you like; I've got anon comments screened, but if yours isn't an ad for something, I'll unscreen it as soon as I get it.
Or tell me something. I wanna see you! I wanna relate to you!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 5/4/06 02:37 am (UTC)as a child, i used to hover at my momma's elbow when she was cooking eggplant, begging for scraps, while she scolded "wait for dinner! you'll spoil your appetite!" and give me scraps anyway.
my momma (deceased this Christmas) and my spouse (still cheerfully extant) both make the best eggplant. In fact, they would only eat *each other's* eggplant, because anyone else's was inferior. (in her final illness, the spouse cooked my momma a lovely eggplant parm, & it was one of the last things she ate with any real pleasure or appetite).
The spouse, like my mom, is incredibly picky about the eggplant, even unto choosing an appropriate one in the grocery store. It must be not too large and not too small. (too large apparently will be too woody & tough) And there are apparently "male" and "female" eggplants (I have no idea how you tell, but I will ask the spouse if you are curious)--one (have no idea which one it is) has much smaller seeds and tastes much sweeter than the other.
I do know you soak the darned things in very salty water after you slice them, to draw out the bitterness. (you can change the water to unsalted after a time)
sliced very thin--crosswise, not lengthwise--breaded with a little egg and crackermeal (not flour) with Romano cheese grated into the crackermeal. Fried in very hot oil very quickly in a deep fryer, drained well. Lightly salted. mmmmm. heaven.
once cooled, the breaded, fried slices can be frozen and kept waiting for whenever the mood takes you to make eggplant parm or other eggplant dishes. reheat in the oven to retain crispiness.
now you have my infodump about eggplant....
/relurks
eggplants and asparagus
Date: 5/11/06 02:20 am (UTC)As always, the subject of food draws me out of hiding. I adore eggplant and grow them in my garden. The asian varieties, which I grow, are generally less bitter. The way to tell the sex of an eggplant is by looking at the blossom end. A small, round blossom scar indicates a male plant which will be sweeter and less seedy, a larger, oval mark indicates a female.
An extremely simple and yummy way to fix them is to first mince a couple cloves of garlic and mix that into a cup or so of plain youghurt. If you can do that a few hours or a day ahead, all the better. Then all you need to do is slice your (female) eggplant into very very thin rounds and fry them in olive oil until nicely browned. Then serve with rice and the garlic yoghurt. Exceedingly yummy and no soaking required.
And the best way to eat asparagus is to go out to your asparagus patch early on a late spring morning, find a thin, tender young stalk, lie down on your tummy in the dewy grass and munch your way down to the ground.
And somehow this seems to be full of entirely unintentional double entendres.
All the best to you and yours,
SB
Re: eggplants and asparagus
Date: 5/11/06 06:51 pm (UTC)I love asparagus any way. Recently I saw a recipe for grilled asparagus that actually made it practical: you lay the asparagus out in a line and then pierce them all with a couple of skewers. (It looked like a raft when they were done, or a fence.) That way they don't fall through the cracks and you don't have to fussily turn them over one by one. Mmm. Just bought a new gas grill. Will need to try this soon.