eggplants!

eggplants are everywhere at the farmers' market!.....now is the season!.....you can buy
3 for $1.00 right now!  (and in the grocery store they are selling them for $1.99/lb.---
don't know where they even come from!)

since i absolutely adore eggplants, and especially eggplant parmesan, i am frying up
discs of eggplant now to freeze and then enjoy whenever i get the urge for some
wonderful, cheesey, gooey eggplant parmesan this winter!

i always peel the eggplant.....that's just my personal liking.....into rounds, not lengthwise (another
personal likeness)...with so many eggplants, i just load up the peeled sliced discs on a paper
towel lined baking sheet.  then i dip each slice of eggplant into beaten egg and then lightly
coat with italian breadcrumbs.  these i layer on parchment lined baking sheets.  at this point,
if you don't have the time, just saran the baking sheets and get back to them later in the day
to fry them.

i usually don't salt and weight down the eggplant.  i don't find eggplant bitter and love the seeds!

so i don't have a mess in my kitchen with splattered oil, i usually fry up the eggplant in a large
pot filled with about 3 inches of vegetable oil.  once the oil is hot, i put as many slices of eggplant
as will fit and let them cook to a golden brown and then flip each one of the slices over.  (they tend
to really cook up fast)  i lay the cooked slices out on paper towel to drain the excess oil.

this is where i have to control myself ~ hot, crisp eggplant out of the pot is my downfall and i can
easily sample way too many slices!

i layer the cooked, cooled eggplant slices in freezer bags between sheets of parchment and freeze
the bags.

when i am in the mood for eggplant parmesan, i just take out as many slices as i want and then
proceed with the sauce and mozzarella and i am good to go! (with very little fuss or work!)

genetically altered foods

i am back in riverdale!....katie kelly is now two years old and is so very smart and active!
she will be in a little pre-nursery next door at riverdale presbyterian for three mornings
a week....i will still be driving up early monday mornings and returning to harrisburg
on thursday afternoons........

i am becoming quite concerned regarding our food supply.  it's one thing to stop eating all
the processed foods and return to well prepared, seasonal foods, but if our basic flour has been
altered, our chicken breasts enhanced to be so large, food dyes in even our salad dressings......
all of which, we, in good faith, purchase at the food stores.....where is our control and what
can we do?

i was chatting with my daughter, tina (who has been doing extensive research on this subject!),
and she informed me that nutrition is not being taught in the schools.  children of today
are not being taught why the calcium is necessary for them and what it does to their bodies.
apparently home economics is long-gone!.....there is minor course study in health class but
nothing to be significant.

i applaud jamie oliver in his quest to get all school cafeterias to serve our children nutritious,
freshly made, seasonal foods rather than frozen "bake-off's".

but we need to go further......just because it is cheaper and/or more convenient for the major
food companies to have a flour, that is so enhanced as to cause health problems for the public
down the road.....how can that be a good thing?

with food costs rising constantly, we must take action and make the foods we purchase what we want and as healthy for us as can be.....

i was just going to put some paul newman's lite italian dressing on my salad and read the label.....the ingredients are water, red wine vinegar, olive oil, vegetable oil, extra virgin olive oil, salt, onion, spices, distilled vinegar, garlic, lemon juice concentrate, xanthan gum, natural flavor and termeric for color.

i can easily live with all these ingredients.....i like that termeric is there for the color!....indeed this is
natural and i can live with the xanthan gum as well!

i then checked the cupboard and there was another italian dressing - fat free by garden goodness.....
the ingredients were:  water, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, salt, dried garlic, vegetable oil,
garlic, xanthan gum, dried onion, modified food starch, dried red bell peppers, spice, potassium
sorbate, calcium disodium edta as preservatives, vitamin e acetate, yellow #5 and yellow #6......

gee, which dressing would you choose?

it seems we should all be reading the labels ( i know, it takes a lot of time!) so we are very
informed as to what we are buying and ingesting.....perhaps if we are more aware, we can
make better choices and make changes if necessary.