Nostalgic Eggplant Dip, Eye of the Storm and a DIY Ergonomic Lifesaver

Greetings from the eye of the storm! The wind's been wuthering fit to shake the cabin all day, and I've been working up a storm, of necessity.

So far today, I've written a critical essay for my MFA packet, recorded a lecture for my class (here's the recording software on one computer and my script on the other)...

our cabin, the recording studio!

...written another lecture, done some translating, done a bunch of editing, worked on my creative essay for my MFA packet, read, shopped, made meals, and done some pre-prep for a special food item for a few days from now. Whew!

I think I "earned" getting to write a blog post!
So, I want to share what I did with that eggplant I mentioned, and also to share an unlikely bit of exercise equipment that may save my life in this current deskwork crunch.

When I got an eggplant in my Full Circle Farm box, of course I wanted to make something like I made with my grandmother! But I didn't want to roast the eggplant over the gas like we did, just too hard to clean up here. So, I pierced it in several places and baked it as hot as my little oven can do (450) for an hour or so, until the skin was completely blackened.

I scraped all the innards out into a two-cup glass bowl (that has a handy lid for taking along). Ahem, sorry about the photo!

You can see how it's still full of its own juices and with that wonderful eggplant texture.

Because I didn't char the skin, I added a couple drops of liquid smoke.
Then, the juice of half a lemon,
two cloves of garlic,
a sprinkle of cinnamon and clove powder, of salt, and of cayenne pepper,
two tablespoons of tahini.
At my grandmother's, I "blended" it with a knife, a fork, and a grater. This time, I was very grateful to use my hand-held blender, to make it smooth and creamy right in the bowl. Garnished with a little smoked paprika.

Made me think of my grandmother and also appreciate what I have here. If I'd want to "extend" this, I'd have added a cup or two of cooked chickpeas and made eggplant hummus. With one medium eggplant, this didn't make a huge amount of dip. But honestly, it's so good, so tangy, fresh and "immediate"-tasting, I wouldn't have wanted to extend it!

Speaking of extensions, I need all the help I can get remembering to extend all the muscles that get contracted when I'm hunched over notebook or computer screen. Normally, I'm terrible at getting up and stretching, although a physical therapist told me a couple years ago that I really need to do so every twenty minutes of this kind of work. I'm proud of myself that today I finally pulled out this "stretch helper," which I haven't used for months!

The physical therapist had me lay along a foam roll, to extend my back and shoulders and do core-strengthening exercises. She urged me to get one of my own and do it at home. Being the frugal, resourceful folks we are, rather than buy a foam roller, we repurposed this cardboard roll that had held Bituthene (nasty stinky sticky construction insulation)(thankfully the cardboard isn't stinky). I was skeptical that it would hold my weight, so we stuffed an old piece of French drain down it too, but it sure does hold me with or without.

With my neck and shoulders starting to twinge and tingle in bad old ways, lying on this thing felt so right! As busy as I've been, I've felt motivated to lie on it five or six times already today.
Spending thirty minutes or so per day on the rebounder (in two or three sessions) is also a lifesaver, and I'm off to do that next, and then, some poetry before bed, so I can take the ideas to my dreams!
Do you have any ergonomic lifesavers?
Have a great week!