Monday, August 25, 2008

Magical Item Protagonist Doesn't Know What To Do With?

Well, I thought I had a hit here, but alas, D. is not a big fan of either eggplant or tomato, so the combination of both, even if it was a paprikash, was just too much. I really liked it, and it would have been even better had I remembered the liquid smoke (dur). Doesn't it look gorgeous?
This recipe was from Susan at Fat Free Vegan- Eggplant Paprikash.

So, I must embarrassedly confess that I made a huge mistake and the part that kills me is that I kinda knew at the time, but I didn't listen to myself trying to warn myself. Does that ever happen to you? There I was, loading ingredients into the blender for the sauce and when I came to the tahini I thought to myself, "Wow, Susan, you're really going for the gusto, there! Oh well, I guess the other ingredients are pretty low fat/cal." and added the 1/2 C tahini. Then I'm blending away and scraping away and thinking to myself, gee, I should add some water or something to make this blend a little better, but no, I'll stick to the recipe. Maybe it's supposed to be this thick...
I decided to leave the sauce seperately to add as desired and I'm not sure when I realized that the recipe read 1/2 T instead of 1/2 C, but it was somewhere before actually serving it! But really, when I mixed it all up on my plate and ate it, it was WONDERFUL! In fact, it turned the paprikash into a sort of paprikashy-baba ghanoushy deal. And, as you'll see, I did redeem the rest of the sauce later...

Here is a shot of some pitas on the grill- it worked wonderfully! Note; do not try to grill the pita on the rack that's right over the flame. The best part? The house did not get all stinkin' hot! No bending over and into a 500 degree oven! The pitas were so easy to place on the racks! I am inspired to try* more grilled bread recipes.
*scroll down the the video section.
And, I made the tahini/tofu 'sour cream' from Susan's Paprikash into baba ghanoush! I took my 2 pingtung eggplant and sliced them longways into 3rds, then broiled those for 6-8m after oiling my baking sheet and the eggplant slices well with olive oil. Then I dumped the 'sour cream' into the food processor along with a large clove garlic, chopped, the eggplant scraped out of it's skin, some salt and onion granules and 1 t of cumin and some liquid smoke. It was good, but I think I'll skip the liquid smoke next time.

Well, I finished the Bean Trees, can't say I was a huge fan, although I wanted to be. The love story in this was weak and unbelieveable. There, I said it.

Started "Whiteout" which is fun/funny to read. I mean, it's pretty fluffy and the things he adds to the plot as means to the end are pretty patent. Can't think of a good example, but you'd be reading along and come across some item or incident and think, "I'll be seeing THAT again, won't I?". Like, bam, it was just planted there. Why was I not more gripped by a story about !flesh eating viruses! I don't know...

Started "Eragon", had high hopes but I'm getting some "Sword of Shannara" flashbacks... we'll see. Feisty, innocent (read; unknowing), male protagonist, check! Small village flanked by evil forest and encroaching baddies, check! Magical item protagonist doesn't know what to do with, check!

Worked some more on the baby lacey blanket. Tightened up some decreases by making them approprieately left leaning or right leaning decreases. Did not rip back the whole blanket to start over with the new change, aren't you proud?!? Must knit a few repeats of this to see if it gives the effect I want.