Unique Times

cooking up some fun 
spice up your life with stay open
keeps you on your toes

So I cooked up some fun with all of those eggplants most of which were from my friend/clients garden, not mine, so I only get credit for 1/4 of the growing but all of the cooking.  

I actually love cooking when I have time which is almost never and my son accuses me of being the slowest cooker around but hey, if I had a Sous chef it would be half the time so I just glare and “say role up your sleeves”.  To be fair, he does the dishes every night and between the 3 of us manage to get a healthy meal on the table but it’s pretty basic. 

These eggplants were humming Moussaka to me which is a family favorite since my children love to claim they are 50 % Greek when they are literally an 8th and my husband only a 1/4.  As for me, I’m zilch but I do love the culture and our amazing family that lives in Athens. Maybe I’ll share the pictures of all of us visiting someday. Just talking about it makes me yearn to visit again see them all. Their amazing hospitality and rot gut homemade wine is tucked away as some of my best memories.  

 I looked at all of the recipes I have and went online as well  and settled on the one sitting on my counter in a cookbook my daughter “Narnical” had made me.  Not because it is a family recipe passed down through the ages but because it was one I stumbled on when low fat was a big and turns out is was the easiest and best mind you.

It was such a labor of love and she assembled all of the recipes I made regularly for our family.  I am so grateful because I would have never known where to find the recipe otherwise.  It is the gift that keeps on giving. 

Being that it’s close to the holidays I thought some of you might jump on the train with this idea and gift one of your family members might like and you can find the information of where to order here in the cover below. It was one of the most touching gifts I’ve received and when I opened it and read her inscription, it brought tears to my eyes. 

 I enjoy being mindful when cooking which is why it takes long because I savor the process, the smells, the tastes, the chopping etc. Otherwise in my haste, I burn just about everything. Inevitably burn the boiled beets once a week and the pan gets that chalked black at the bottom of it and I have to take the pan outside so I don’t smoke us out.  The good news with that they taste amazing “smoked”. 

Eggplant is actually easy but time consuming and like lasagne, it takes a few steps in the assembly.  I’ll try to break this down as easy pizzy as I can with pictures and steps.  

It takes a few steps to cut them, salt them to let them sweat and get the bitterness out. Of course you could do that in 10 or 15 minutes but since I’m busy, I cut them the night before, salt them and leave covered in paper towels until the next morning.

If you’re a vegetarian,  double the bulgar and or add  some other grain you like and substitute for turkey or lamb.  

I made this the high fat version because I believe in whole foods which is where we get satiated and there are less additives. I opted for whole yogurt and cheese strictly for the health benefit. In my generation we grew up with low fat everything which was the key to a healthy heart and weight loss until we found out that the real culprit was the sugars raising triglycerides and arterioloscleroses. This article from Chicago Medicine gives you the skinny and sums it up which I find particularly great https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/gastrointestinal-articles/which-are-healthier-low-fat-or-full-fat-foods

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UPDATE ON THE BLIND DATE:

Speaking of results and last weeks blind date set up;  Keith said “There is a lot of daughter trust in mom to go on a blind date set up by the latter. Well done”.  Do visit Keith as he always has such great perspective on life and politics which I glean lot’s of insight. I would comment back, maybe a bit too trusting?!

If you remember correctly, they were going to go out for dinner on Friday.

Thursday came, no call, no text no worries. 

Friday no text no call…..NO FRI-YAY FUNDAY HERE.

WTF I wondered if perhaps things weren’t very clear but as seen on a text all was clear. The fact that there was no word no call no text was pretty bizarre to me to me because I really thought I knew him so this is what’s been driving me a lil cra cra.  The blind date was actually here at our house with the 4 of us so maybe my cooking wasn’t so great after all… hmmmm but they did have a great date the next day alone without the parentals.

We had met in person with my husband and son before and he gifted us some of our coffee and he and I had countless conversations and texts in (I thought we were friends). I have his hunting license and all his pertinent information.  Plus, I helped get his coffee in two of our local markets which was big time.   We talked about having him teach some classes at my business because he’s a triathlete etc.

So I’m on the investigative path and so far I’ve come up with zippo of people that I know who most likely would have heard of him since they are in the biking world but so far no one knows of him. It’s a little odd when you think you know someone and  then they just go MIA. He said he supposed to be in a survivor movie to see who survives so we’re just wondering could he have been dropped off in the middle of the desert and picked up that night?  I will defer to our friend Anna at Blessed with a Star on the forehead who has lots of experience to get her expertise if you haven’t read her read her or know her do she’s always entertaining and we’ve become quite good friends.  We’re not as nice as she is when she gave the one guy the benefit of the doubt and called every local hospital to see if he was ok.  

I do have a warrant out for his arrest though hahahaha.   🤣

I went into the stores where I got his coffee and am still waiting to hear back from my friend who owns the market on her take. I’m wondering if he was eaten by a mountain lion while trying to catch a coyote in which case I would forgive him.

I apologized profusely to my daughter for thinking that I actually knew this guy and putting her through this at all and she was unscathed and said “it’s so odd but I certainly wasn’t gonna call him and it’s better to know now and move on”. Now this sounds like Anna and a girl that knows something about some men that I don’t know.

plucked like a chicken 
a deer in the headlights
This girl is smarter than you know
lips promise 
lingering  treasures 
but none that deliver 
arrows straight to the heart
blood flows 
but no love lost
this girl is smarter than you know

I think I’ll put my matchmaking on hold at the moment being at the one couple I fixed up last 13 years and split up this past year and now this. But don’t worry my eyes are always open and I’ve got my air gun in my pocket this time for safe keeping so I’m smarter this time next year. 

On a fun note, my book arrived from Gabriella and I think I might have something for her poetry contest but I do need a lesson in metaphor’s and deciphering but I’m going to try my luck. The good news is I’m learning a new form of poetry. The bad is that I’m not sure I can match hers. 🤣❣️ You can to and have 2 more days to enter so there’s so good news here. Visit her at Short Prose for the deets on entering.

Have a great weekend and be like the animal and remember to use your instincts like they do and sometimes you just have to run and never look back.

Blessings of Love Always

💖

Cindy