RECIPE BLOG

"If you have enough butter anything is good." -Julia Child

I don't know exactly what I did, but I lost two food blogs on this site!  I've tried every combination of https I can imagine or that I have ever used and those blogs are still lost to me.  This blog is the only one I can find here on blogspot and inasmuch as I have another blog on wordpress on which to post other subjects, I am converting this blog to a Recipe Blog as of this minute.

I'm hosting a dinner party tomorrow evening for 8 friends and one of the dishes I'll cook is a very satisfying baked eggplant.  It requires a bit of prep work, but it all comes together in the oven in the dish in which it is served.  Enjoy!

EGGPLANT PARMIGIANO (Serves 6-8)
4 large eggplants
salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons basil
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cups grated Parmigiano Reggiano, divided

Peel eggplant and slice 1/2 thick.  Place slices on paper towels and salt on both sides.  Allow to stand until brown liquid appears, then wash slices and pat dry.  Preheat broiler.  Brush or spray large baking sheet with olive oil.  Cover with a single layer of eggplant slices.  Brush or spray slices lightly with olive oil and broil 7" from heat until golden brown, about 5-6 minutes.  Turn slices and broil and additional 5-6 minutes.  Continue until all slices are broiled.  Set aside. 

Saute onions in 2 tablespoons olive oil until soft.  Add crushed tomatoes, sugar, garlic, basil and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Simmer 10 minutes until reduced and very thick.  Prepare bechamel sauce by melting butter in a small saucepan.  Whisk in flour all at once and cook 1-2 minutes stirring frequently.  Add milk, whisking constantly.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, whisking constantly for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and season with  pepper, nutmeg and 1/2 cup Parmigiana Reggiano.  Set aside. 

Grease bottom and sides of a large baking dish.  Layer in broiled eggplant slices.  Spread bechamel sauce thinly over eggplant, then tomato sauce.  Sprinkle with shredded cheese.  Repeat layers until all ingredients are used.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and bake 30 minutes then broil top until lightly browned.  Remove from oven and let set 10-15 minutes before serving.  Cut into squares to serve. 


This may be made ahead and refrigerated.  If  refrigerated bake for 45 minutes instead of 30.

TIME

"Surpassingly lovely, precious days.  What is there to say except    here they are.  Sifting through my fingers like sand." - Joyce Carol Oates

I have not posted here for over a year.  To say I've been busy would be an understatement.

At the end of 2011 I volunteered to take on a full time volunteer position as Volunteer Chairman of my support group.  We had been losing a thousand dollars a month for the three previous years and were down to the choice of either closing our business office or trying to operate it with all volunteers.  Because I believed that not only was it possible to run it with volunteers, but that it would be a better office with more to offer our membership.  When one feels this way there is only one thing for a woman like me to do and that was to accept the chairmanship and prove that what I believed could be done.  So, I accepted the chairmanship and agreed to do it for one year.  While It was not easy, we did it and it has been a roaring success and for the past year we have operated with a one thousand dollar profit each month.  The profit is wonderful, but the revitilization and participant enthusiasm is the real benefit.

In addition to the profit we have changed the face and direction of our office.  It is now a place folks want to visit and the volunteers are innovative and empowered.  It has been, for me, a wonderful experience and while I now am a Trustee of the organization and a member of the current volunteer committee, I have turned the chairmanship over to a woman who is competent to chair the committee and is doing a great job with the volunteers.  

Now I have time to do other projects and one of the things I want to do is to come here more often and write my thoughts and to to your blogs and read yours.