Another VERY Interesting farm box blog

To my 4 followers, I do not intend for my blog to become "what I cooked out of my farm box." it's just what's happening now. Got a butt load of tomatoes. I've been wanting to make salsa since I never have. And, because of the extremely complex nature of the task, I thought it would be quite an accomplishment if I mastered it. I mean, the precision cutting and exact measurement of the ingredients- it takes quite a lady to pull that off. As I unloaded my box and packed my fridge, I found 5 beets from the last box. They were a little soft, but I figured I'd roast em up. Got that going and started looking for recipes. Where were we without the Internet? Found lots of recipes. I found a roasted salsa recipe that told how to roast tomatoes and peppers in a skillet. I've done over an open flame, but it was too much work and my hAnd/arm got too hot. With this,you line an iron skillet with foil and put the tomato and peppers on that. It was a lot more work that broiling them with all the flipping, but it best waiting on the beets (which took over an hour. Geez beets, I was tired. Had been up since 3:30a!) the roasting worked great. Oh there was also garlic in there, too. Food processed that up. It was yummy, but pretty dang spicy. Thankfully, I only made Bout a cup and a half. Still had lots of tomatoes and a couple of Peppers along with the overload of onions- so i made some pico. It was friggin' good. The beets turned out great, too. I am surprised I like them. They are weird but good, like my friends.Now I gotta cook a bunch if squash. Please stay tuned for another exciting edition of "what the heck am I gonna cook with this?"

Eggplant Fries

The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box of the week has once again forced me to learn to cook something new. This week, eggplant. I cooked eggplant once and something went horribly wrong. It tasted like cat butt. At least, what I think cat butt would be like. That was about 12 years ago. Upon the arrival of the eggplants last Friday, I knew I had to give it another shot. I had already contributed to the compost pile with the parsley and mint that arrived and wanted to use what I paid for. What do humans do with fresh parsley, other than garnish? These eggplants scared me, right down to my core. Since last year, I have grown more brave. After the chard chips and bok choy meals I made, I felt ready to take on the eggplant. My neighbor mentioned eggplant fries last year and that's what I went for. The prep was easy. I overcooked them somewhat. The thinner sliced ones sind of disintegrated on the inside, but the breading stayed intact. They could have used some more seasoning. They were very yummy, none the less. Here's the recipe, which I will probably modify on the next batch!

3/4 cups seasoned breadcrumbs
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 Medium eggplant
1 egg, slightly beaten

Heat over to 425
Mix breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, cheese, and garlic powder on  shallow plate. Beat egg in a shallow bowl. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray. Peel the eggplant. Slice into thick french fry like pieces. Did in egg and then in breadcrumb mixture. Cook for 30 minutes. Check at that time for crispiness. Cook longer as needed. Serve with marinara. Ketchup works well, too!

Hope you enjoy! Don't be scared.