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!

Community Gratitude and Stuffed Eggplant/Squash

I'm here to share some gratitude for our community, and a delicious (also super-nutritious) recipe.

I love the wildness of clouds and pinkish sky--even if you can barely see the eagle I was trying to capture in the photograph above!

I'm grateful for the community of this town too. Over the weekend, we attended the 28th Annual presentation of the Nutcracker Ballet. The music is recorded, so there isn't the extra complication of an orchestra (and the flexibility of a sound system enabled some truly startling choices of soundtrack--not sure what Tchaikovsky would have thought). But the choreography required to arrange all those wonderful kids (and some adults) in intricate detail for each dance, and have some coherent storyline overall too, blew my mind. The result? Just spectacular, success for sure. And I'm a fairly tough critic when it comes to musical performances, and am not even taking into account the fact that this is a tiny town. Imagine? Some kids have performed in it ten years in a row, working their way up from mice to princesses.

This is the only picture I took of the event, that really shows how community it was. As soon as the show was over, about 70% of the audience streamed onto the stage, with many bouquets and flowers in tow. Audience and performers melded together to say "community."

We've had a few gatherings of our own little community lately, and I wanted to share something I did with some of that Full Circle Farms bounty.

This stuffed eggplant/squash featured some of the beautiful cremini mushrooms that came in the CSA box. It was well enjoyed both in a small gathering and a larger one. As well as the earthy texture of mushrooms and eggplant, it features the crunch of carrots and water chestnuts, and the nutritious goodness of amaranth and urid beans.

Darn winter coloring--this was much prettier than it looks in the photo!
This recipe is really very easy, but it involves several stages of preparation. These can be done in advance, not necessarily all in one go.
 You need:

1/2 cup amaranth, soaked a few hours or overnight
1/2 cup urd (urid) beans, soaked a few hours or overnight (You could use mung or adzuki beans too, which are a similar size--I love the flavor and texture of urd beans but they're not always easy to find. Try an Asian market.)

1 medium eggplant
1 medium acorn squash

1 teaspoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 small can water chestnuts, chopped
1/2 cup cremini mushrooms, chopped
1 cup broccoli, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2-1 cup water or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon hot sauce (optional)
salt to taste

Drain the soaked beans and amaranth. Boil the beans on the stove in plenty of water for about 20 minutes, then add the amaranth and cook them together. Cook, adding water as necessary, until the beans are soft and the amaranth's sprouts are unfurled, and they are crunchy but tender. This can be done ahead of time.

At least 30 minutes before you want to assemble the whole thing, slice the eggplant in half down the middle and carefully scoop out the flesh. Chop the flesh roughly and salt both the chopped flesh and the hollowed insides. Leave for 30 minutes to let the acrid juices ooze out, then rinse thoroughly.

Heat the oil and turmeric in a large, heavy-bottomed pan and add the onion, eggplant, carrot and water chestnuts. Add the paprika and saute, stirring occasionally until the onions are becoming translucent.
Add the mushrooms, broccoli, tomato paste, garlic and black pepper, and incorporate.

Add water or broth gradually if the pan seems too dry. At this point, you can add the amaranth and beans, and stir all together, adding more liquid if necessary. Taste, and adjust--add some salt, some
hot sauce, maybe some lemon--whatever it needs.

You can use this pan of veggie deliciousness for other applications too, and can definitely make ahead.
The only other "advance preparation" is precooking the squash. I tried both ways, baking the stuffed veggies with the squash raw and precooked, and precooked is better. Give it 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

And now, you can scoop generous dollops of the stuffing into the waiting eggplant and squash cavities, and bake the whole thing for 20 minutes at 400. Cover with foil for the first 10 minutes.

These weren't out of place at the tamale party I brought them to!

Nor was this pumpkin parfait, with a macadamia-vanilla cream and pumpkin seed-date 'crumbs'...

 ...which was so good first time round, I had to make a second batch!

I'm loathe to post the recipe, since there have been so darn many pumpkin recipes all over the blog world lately, but I may just end up doing so, since readerships over- and underlap...

Interestingly, although I loved making both of these, I wasn't as interested in eating them. That's partly because of my current goals and preoccupations, of which more soon, and partly, I think I genuinely get more of a kick out of other people enjoying the food I prepare.
Here's Roxy giving me a good licking.

 Do you enjoy preparing food more than eating it?