Monday miscellany

in which our plucky heroine cooks and cleans and fixes things...

but the real treat for today, that I've been saving for a workday, was listening to the new episode of "Cast On". Brenda Dayne returns to podcasting. She was the very first podcast I listened to, and I didn't realise that I was spoiled until I tried to find another favorite when she moved on... She has a lovely voice, a niche topic, and intersperses her presentation with bits of music, interviews and commentary in a way that is a sort of delightfully rich fruitcake of an interlude (assuming one loves good fruitcake as much as I do). And... at the end of the month... she is going to start a second podcast inspired by A Pattern Language, and how she is applying those concepts to her own home. I can't wait. I have loved the work of Christopher Alexander for years...

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The window screen handles I ordered from Ebay arrived this weekend, and today I was able to repair one screen from the kitchen window... peel away the spline, attach the handles, re-insert the spline, and then scrub the screen thoroughly in the bathtub with the scrub brush. The screen is now clipped to the clothesline to dry overnight, and I can replace it in the window tomorrow. Now I have a half dozen spare screen handles, which is good, since they will eventually come in handy.

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 220:

the lights continually shift from orange to purple, and flash in different sequences and patterns, while the giant eyeballs watch over the street...

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Five flavor eggplant freezes well; it was a treat to have on hand while I was recovering from periodontal surgery this spring, as it was of suitable consistency, but intensely flavorful. Indeed, it is a treat to have on hand at all, and I cooked up the rest of the eight pounds today, had another easy dinner, and the rest is in ziplocs in the freezer for future meals.

"5 Flavor Eggplant"
(savory, salty, sweet, sour, spicy)

about 2# long skinny eggplant 

1 tablespoon salt 

1½ tablespoon tamari 

1 tablespoon vinegar 

1 tablespoon sugar 

1 teaspoon cornstarch 

2 tablespoon oil 

+ hotness as desired

put the salt in a big bowl, add several cups of water, and then clean and cut up eggplants, tossing the bits into the bowl of salt water - I cut them first the long ways into quarters or sixths, then cut the long pieces into chunks. I try for about ¾" cubes more or less by volume, because big pieces take a long time to cook through, and undercooked eggplant is nasty.

when all the eggplant is in the bowl of salty water, it sits there for a half hour... I occasionally stir it or push the chunks around to make sure they all get drenched... you want to have enough water that they are all floating.

Meanwhile, combine the tamari, the vinegar, the sugar, and the cornstarch. Drain and dry the eggplant bits. (my current innovation is to use my salad spinner after pouring off as much of the water as I can)

In a big frying pan, heat up the oil, then fry the eggplant until it is FULLY COOKED and slightly browned. (Trust me, you want it cooked till it is SOFT, not al dente) Pour the sauce mixture over the eggplant (give the sauce mixture a good stirring up just before you pour it), and cook til thick, which will take only a few moments, because cornstarch...

At this point, I usually add some awesome sauce (spicy chili jam) but you could add a dash of tabasco, or sriacha, or whatever you prefer. The original recipe called for adding jalapeno peppers at the beginning, but that was WAY TOO HOT for me. YMMV, and the spicy aspect is entirely optional for that matter.

Truly, this recipe is almost faster to cook than to read, most of the effort is in cutting up the eggplants, and in waiting while they soak in the salty water. I had always in the past done the sprinkle the eggplant with salt, let it drain, rinse it off thing, which is a whole lot of faffing about. I had never heard of soaking them in lightly salted water, but it works really well!!

 

Tonight's dinner was some of the eggplant, along with some rice and some heated up Trader Joe's frozen teriyaki chicken pieces (sans sauce, the eggplant is flavorful enough without adding anything else)

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	6 jars dilly beans	wheelie bin scrubbed	yard waste bin
2	3 jars vanilla port pears	east window repaired	old window trim
3	Xanthy	replace screen handles	yard waste bin
4	3 japanese books	washed two screens	recycle bin
5	Xanthy hat	moar apple pruning	yard waste bin
6	Xanthy flower skirt	reattached phone cable	recycle bin
7	6 jars St Clements marmalade	repair kitchen shade pull	x
8	6+ jars Awesome Sauce	taller salad table barrier	x
9	8 jars tomato sauce	kitchen window screen	x
10	Xanthy beaded bag	x	x
11	5 flavor eggplant cooked	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - somewhere, a farm grew the eggplants, and last Saturday a woman chose to pick them and bring them to the elementary school and serendipity brought me to where they could be found, and now I have good food