2 friends across town

what i will miss at summer's end 

dawn

the sweetest corn cut off the cob and cooked with vidalia onion and bacon
crape myrtles with their plume-like blooms
our last bag of coffee from cafe ladro's- seattle's best cup o' joe and our personal favorite

What I'm Cooking This Week

Tracy

A Week In Recovery. . . Life After the Beach Buffets

So since H, the kids and I spent last Thursday through yesterday helping our nearest beach town rid itself of all its fried clams, various chowders, and crablegs (or, melted butter with a small side of crabmeat), it's definitely de-tox time.

To take the sting out of leaving all the seafood behind, I took advantage of the bright, shiny, overpriced grocery store's sale on "E-Z peel" shrimp today. I also hauled home a huge organic eggplant (inspired by Dawn's Japanese beauties from two weeks ago), some part-skim ricotta, romaine hearts and more spinach! (I'm craving more wilted spinach salad ---a 12-step program may be in order here).

Here's what I've got loosely planned for this week:

Monday: Eggplant parmesan stacks (recipe follows), whole wheat blend spaghetti, salad

Tuesday: Steamed shrimp with cocktail sauce, baked potatoes, wilted spinach salad with hot bacon dressing (from last week's post)

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner- - -scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, fruit salad

Thursday: Meeting H at the park after work and day camp- - probably Subway and ice cream afterwards.

Friday: Beef tips with mushroom gravy in the crockpot, brown rice, broccoli

Here's my take on eggplant parmesan; it's adapted from an eggplant rolatini recipe from Food Network.

One large eggplant, sliced into about eight 1/4-inch rounds

Three eggs

1 tbsp water

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 cup grated parmesan, divided in half

1 cup shredded mozzerella cheese

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 cup Italian-seasoned bread crumbs

1/4 cup canola oil

1 jar marinara sauce- I like Classico tomato/basil

Preheat oven to 425. Mix two of the eggs with the water in a shallow bowl. Place the bread crumbs in a seperate shallow bowl. Set aside. Spread the oil in the bottom of a large cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. 

Dredge each eggplant round first in the egg mixture and then in the bread crumbs. Place on the cookie sheet one at a time, then bake for about 15 minutes, then turn over each slice and bake a few minutes more, watching closely to make sure they don't get too brown. Remove pan from oven and reduce the oven temp to 375.

In a medium bowl, mix ricotta with one egg, garlic powder, oregano, and 1/2 the parmesan. Scoop 2- 3 heaping tbsps of the cheese mixture on four of the rounds, and then top with the remaining four---you should have four "sandwiches." Spoon about 1/4 cup sauce on each stack, then top each with mozzerella and the remaining parmesan. Bake about 20 minutes more, or until filling is set and mozzerella's melted and bubbly.