Good Eats

Today, with the help of a good friend and accomplice, I got a gallon of eggplant pickles prepared for preservation and a four quarts of yellow squash fermenting.

The eggplant is so simple and should be ready to start eating in the next couple/few weeks. We just cut the eggplant in 1/4-inch slices, put a few sprigs of fresh spearmint in the bottom of the jar and began layering a couple of inches eggplant with some garlic and rough-chopped jalapeno peppers and a tablespoon of sea salt. There was no measuring, really, except for the salt. We layered until the jar was filled, topped it with three more sprigs of mint, filled the jar with living apple cider vinegar, used a small jar to push the vegetables below the liquid and capped it. It's already smelling amazing.

I've never tried this method before, but when I saw this video I knew I had to try it. There's no heat processing, and the eggplant should remain safe and good for … years, it seems. I'll see. Though I have a feeling they won't last that long - meaning they'll be eaten! I'll keep you posted.

Then, along with a garden frittata for supper, I roasted these baby eggplants that I got from Dineberg's Farm. I minced some (well, a lot) of garlic, salted it and blended in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, a splash of one of my herbal-infused vinegars, some freshly crushed dried oregano, celery seed, cayenne powder and let that sit while I prepared the eggplants. I gave each eggplant two slits from stem to blossom end, creating four sections still attached to the stem, and stuffed-n-drizzled the garlic mixture into the center of the four quarters. They were arranged in a dutch oven, covered and placed on my grill, set to a moderate heat (about 350F) for 10 minutes. Then I turned them, replaced the lid, and let them roast another 5 minutes or so.

These were so freakin' good. The Boy ate a few and … I ate the rest. Yep. All of them. They were that good.

Yep. That's what I made today. Good eats.

Peace.