Fall just brings out the "nesting" instinct in me. Suddenly I have a renewed interest in cooking and want to explore recipes, cookbooks and just even browse pictures of food. Well, it could also be that I'm making fresh efforts to eat healthier and preparing our own food is a key part of it. I found a nice recipe this week and tweaked it just a little bit with good results.
Rather than hijack a hard earned recipe, I found a link online to the recipe and to the book that I'm enjoying this week. You can see Diana Henry's Turkish Baked Eggplant with Chile, Feta and Mint recipe from her book Pure, Simple Cooking. The picture above is from my own results, so I must say it came out very nicely.
Changes I made to the recipe included cooking three eggplants instead of four, and skipping the chile part. I am a hesitant woman with mint, but I have to be honest in that it worked very well for this dish and I may need to revise my thoughts on it. All in all I'm trying to be a bit more "herby" so I gave it a whirl.
It is indeed a hearty dish, and one half of the eggplant was enough for a person's main course. I served it with a little bit of Israeli couscous just prepared with olive oil and broth and a simple green salad. As it is nice sized portions we had dinner and two lunch meals from one recipe. As I found hearty eggplants on sale for only 99 cents a pound it turned out to be quite economical, and thrifty fresh food is a winner in my book. (Note, as I shop at a local store with a variety of world produce I am able to get fresh domestic feta for $2.99 a pound, and a small individual container of fresh Greek yogurt vs. buying a big tub.)
I picked her book up on a whim from the "hot"shelf at our Library and I've found several recipes that I can work with. It is one of the few cookbooks I've actually seem where they do hold with "simple" and stick to it. Henry did inspire me this week to do a lime and sea salt chicken quarters recipe and get a few more herbs for my kitchen. Her cooking seems to focus on fresh ingredients and stick to healthy food choices which is a winner. I think her book is a keeper for me! (um, maybe a renew?!?)
I'm also trying a different approach to dinner this week. I'm trying to cook a little bit for the next day after our supper and clean-up. I've found that if I have something prepared for the next day than I'm less likely to walk in starving after work and eat crappy food, cave to take-out or buy things that are processed. I need to restart my efforts to cook more and find time to get my tush back on the treadmill. (Note to the Huz: I'm officially asking for a used treadmill for Christmas - and I'm sure we can find a freebie on CraigList or the like.)
Anything good going on in your kitchen with the fall harvest? Thoughts on how you are keeping it fresh in your life?
To return to the subject of the book, it is a must read for anyone in the Parkinson's realm. I think it is an excellent read for the rest of us that would like to see for a moment how precious our time is, and how we all have the right to speak on topics of which prompt our passion. Fox describes feeling as if in order to find his life's work, he had to quit his "day" job of acting. His evolution is quite an asset for the rest of us as his quest for research funding may also aid people with spinal chord injuries, diabetes, and more

We had a client give my husband a gift of Cubs tickets.......so thank you to the thoughtful freebie! Lio seems to breathe for baseball, and dreams of playing for a professional baseball team when he isn't fighting fires as a firefighter. Luke is more partial to football, but thoroughly enjoys baseball games when there are nibbles involved. 



