Monday, September 20, 2010

The Farmer's Market and My New Eggplant Spaghetti and Garlic Bread Recipes

The Farmer's Market is definitely becoming one of the high points of my week! This last week Maggie was in one of her happy-go-lucky Maggie moods, so I asked Paul to watch her (she slept in her bassinet while he studied) and walked with Sadie downtown to the Farmer's Market. Sadie was quite a site to behold. She'd chosen her own "accessories" and was wearing her giant pink Disney Princess snow boots and her bright orange and lime green Wonder Pet gardening gloves. She was the epitome of being "two."

We picked out our veggies and put them in our canvas bag (I was happy with myself for finally remembering to bring it). I let Sadie pick one vegetable to buy and she picked a long skinny hot red pepper (she's taking after Mommy already!). Next we went to another booth and bought strawberries and tomatoes. As we stood in line to pay Sadie tried to jump up and down under the strawberries with her tongue out to see if she could taste them.

Then we sat out on the grass and listened to the music and ate the tomatoes and strawberries! Sadie was pretty thrilled (and she was on her absolute best behavior).

My favorite Farmers Market find were these eggplants. They were labeled as "fairy eggplants" and they were just so cute!


Tonight I was planning on following a recipe for an eggplant pasta. I really was. Unfortunately I apparently have a very strong aversion to actually following a recipe for more than five minutes. Once I realized I was short one item on the list of ingredients I used it as an excuse to completely give up on the recipe and go off on my own. Here's what I came up with:


First I sliced and salted the eggplant and let them drain, so that it wouldn't be bitter. Then I rinsed off the salt and sliced and diced the eggplant and put it in a large frying pan with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper to cook. While it cooked I sliced onions, and then added crushed garlic to the eggplant. I sliced up mushrooms next and added the mushrooms and onions, along with copious amounts of oregano, garlic powder, basil, "italian seasoning" and powdered onion (I do tend to get carried away with spices). In the meantime I'd grilled two red peppers (not the hot one Sadie picked) and let them cool. I diced them up and added them and then added two tomatoes I'd chopped. Everything was smelling delicious and garlicky by that point so I poured in three quarters of a jar of tomato sauce to give the recipe a saucy texture and now we have a new vegetarian eggplant spaghetti sauce.

We ate it on rigatoni and even Sadie loved it!

I served it with the garlic bread recipe that I've been perfecting this past month. I think I finally have a recipe I love. Here it is:

I cut a loaf of Walmart French Bread into thick slices. Then I take a nice and use it to scoop up a gob of crushed garlic (about the amount that would fit on a knife tip... I know... I know... my measurements leave something to be desired!) and deposit that amount on each slice. Then I sprinkle a thin layer of garlic salt over each piece of bread, followed by a sprinkle of oregano and basil. After that I sprinkle on a tiny bit of parmesan. Then I take a generous amount of margarine and spread it over the top of the ingredients on the bread, being careful to mix everything well.

I bake the bread at 350 degrees for ten minutes, or until it's just starting to look crispy. We served it tonight with the leftover spaghetti sauce from the jar and it was great!

2 comments:

  1. Very inspiring! I will have to try making something similar, it looks so easy.

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  2. Farmers Markets seem to be popping up all over town around here. I have yet to visit one, but it sounds like a great way to spend a quiet Saturday morning with my daughter. I like that you let Sadie pick one vegetable of her own liking-a great treat and learning experience! **I also commented on your Rosary post below.

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