Reliving childhood

Before I dive in, I had thought that this post would be delayed a day as I had planned on cooking yesterday. Then my mother called and invited me over for ribs. With greens, cornbread, and fresh corn on the cob. How could I resist? And I got to take home leftovers. While there I told her that I better get a job soon because I have toyed with the idea of making mole from scratch. My mother thought that was ridiculous and gave me this item.


I have yet to see this line of Knorr sauces in the U.S. Wish they were here because they're great.


Just like Tang comes in interesting flavors in Mexico.

Now onto the real post since I was suddenly inspired to cook at 9:00 this morning. Don't ask.

Aubergine. I always loved that word as a kid. Almost as much as periwinkle, my favorite color in the 64-pack of Crayolas.

Last week I did a new take, for me, on the trusty eggplant. Now it's back to an old favorite.


Moussaka

I must admit that I usually avoid this recipe because of the prep. In order for it to be fairly firm, it is key to remove the excess water from the eggplant before cooking. Not a lot of fun if you ask me. Everything else seems like a piece of cake.


You layer eggplant (This hasn't been fried yet.)...


With a tomato meat sauce that is seasoned with cinnamon, allspice, and parsley ...


And a bechamel sauce that has parmesan and nutmeg.

Usually I leave it there but I wanted extra cheesiness so in the middle are a couple of layers of grated mozzarella as well. 45 minutes or so of baking.


The finished dish.

And now here's the strange thing about me and food. I don't really like tomatoes. But if you've been keep track, there have been a great number of tomatoes appearing in my cooking as of late. But this dish and the other eggplant dish didn't really taste like tomato. I'll even put tomatoes in salads, but of course, they are the first part of the salad to disappear. Why do I do this to myself? Probably because I know that I could benefit from the vitamins and other nutrients they contain. Other than my fruit juice obsession, one could argue that I do not consume nearly enough fruits and vegetables.

Don't even get me going on my feelings about nuts. Let me just say that someone once told me, "Oh. You just don't believe in eating your own kind." And that's true with a few exceptions.