Fried Eggplant

I've been tired lately.  By "tired" I don't mean that I want to sleep; I mean that I just want to sit on the couch all day.  And by "lately" I mean this has been going on for several weeks.  I've been running a lot, so that could be zapping a lot of my energy.  I also might need to start taking a multivitamin.  I took prenatals when I was pregnant, but then I read some studies suggesting that vitamins are a waste of money for most people, so I just figured my diet was probably balanced enough without them.  But nobody really seems to know.  So maybe I'll give them another try and see if I feel any better.

On Wednesday, I made Italian Rice Salad.  Since I'm the only one who gets excited about it, I decided to sweeten the deal with some fried eggplant, right from my garden!  They were very popular with the boys:

Here's how I make them: peel the eggplant, then make about 1/4" slices.  Mix an egg and some milk together in one bowl, and put some Italian bread crumbs (store-bought or make your own as long as they're very fine) in a second bowl.  Put a frying pan over medium heat, and coat the bottom with olive oil (be generous).  Dip the eggplant slices in egg, then crumbs, then lay them in the pan to fry, turning once.  They will soak up a lot of oil, so you have to add oil throughout with an eye for balance between super oily eggplant (it will be good, but vegetables are supposed to be "healthy" right?) and not oily enough (this is definitely the worst result: chewy eggplant and the bread crumbs don't crust).  I learned this from my husband's family, who turns these into eggplant parmesan.  Never knew I liked eggplant before that!

On Thursday, we FINALLY made it to the organic farmers' market in the parking lot of The Moon.  It was definitely small, but everyone was super nice -- the kids tend to have that effect on people.  There were vendors with the expected greens, onions, and summer squash.  There was also a guy with some pineapples, mangoes, and limes.  You could also get eggs and many kinds of meat.  That last category raises some questions for me.  I'm all about local stuff, and I'm much more comfortable eating meat if I can talk to the person who takes care of the animals while they're alive.  On the other hand, I'm not sure whether meat at the farmers' market has to meet the same safety standards as normal stuff.  (And if I could borrow a third hand, many small farmers argue that federal safety standards are actually designed to be unfriendly to small operations.  There was one guy at the market selling eggs that he had to legally label as not for human consumption because the requirements for small egg producers are too onerous.  Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm, featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, has written a lot about the legal challenges faced by small farmers.)  Anyway, I left the market with a bunch of daikon radishes, the most beautiful and delicate head of red leaf lettuce I've ever come across, and some fine-looking limes that I hope we can make into mojitos this weekend.

I had planned to make fish, but I went to New Leaf Market after visiting the farmers and their seafood selection is no good.  After mentally reprimanding myself for stopping at NLM when I knew I needed fish, I spent about ten minutes searching around the store for some alternative.  I finally decided screw it, I would just make some meatloaf.  I bought some local ground beef for $1.50/lb more than I can buy it elsewhere, brought it home, and mixed it up with some Italian bread crumbs, an egg, some tomato sauce, and water.  By the time I got home, it was actually quite late, so I just threw some frozen sweet potato fries in the oven too.  It still needed almost an hour to cook, so I assembled a salad from my beautiful red leaf, a cuke from my garden, a red Bartlett pear from NLM, some leftover mozzarella, and a freezer-burned hamburger bun that I toasted in the oven with a light coating of cooking spray and Italian herbs.

Tonight, my plan was to try tempeh for the first time.  I was going to cook it with broccoli and noodles with a nice sauce.  Then I tasted it.  Now John is coming home with pizza.  Sometimes things just don't go according to plan.