Italian Aspirations

These eggplant rolls are tasty, easy to make, and cheap! The only ingredients you need are the following:

-eggplant
-ricotta cheese
-mozzarella cheese
-parmesan cheese (if wanted, for sprinkling on the top)
- fresh basil
- tomatoes
- red pepper flakes
-olive oil
- oregano
- salt
-pepper
-garlic
- other spices (sometimes I like to add fennel or thyme)

Cut the eggplant into slices. I find that the best thickness for each slice is 1 cm or so. Roast the slices in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until they are tender and pliable (you need to roll up the ricotta/mozarella filling in there).

Make the ricotta/mozzarella filling. This filling using fresh basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. You can use goat cheese instead of mozzarella for a stronger tasting roll. I like to add a bit of fennel and thyme.

To make the sauce, you use some garlic, red pepper, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I like to use the fresh red hot peppers from our garden in addition to the red pepper flakes. Simmer the sauce for a while so that it takes on the spicy flavor.

Finally, wrap each eggplant slice around the filling to create an eggplant roll. Line up the rolls in a pan and cover all of them with the spicy tomato sauce. Place the pan in the oven, covered with foil, and bake at 350 for 15 minutes or so, until hot.

Bon appetit!

Tempeh Over Rice

This is Yumi here, reporting for the first time from sunny Los Angeles with a (semi)-vegetarian slant. Howdy.

When Chef Eileen asked me to write for her communal food blog as an occasional guest contributor, I was super-excited! I got so excited I decided to whip out my digital camera and take photos of the dinner I prepared that night--tempeh and stir-fry vegetables over jasmine rice.

This is hardly a difficult recipe. I threw together peas, carrots, onions, scallions, ginger, garlic, a splash of soy sauce and who knows what else in a big fat saucepan. Nothing like the rush of improvisation that comes from the ticking time bomb that is your non-perishable vegetables.


Burn, baby, burn

The hardest part of this easy-peazy recipe was unwrapping the plastic wrapping on the Trader Joe's tempeh. Seriously, that shit is wrapped tighter than the dainty soles of a Chinese empress. Our kitchen scissors and the tempeh packaging went into an epic scuffle (below), and the kitchen scissors finally won.



Rock, tempeh, scissor...

For those of you who don't know, tempeh is Indonesian fermented soy cakes and has a distinctive nutty flavor. People love it or hate it, and I fortunately fall into the former category.



I just tossed the tempeh straight onto an oiled pan and added maybe a splash or two of soy sauce. Next time I do tempeh stir-fry, I plan on marinating those suckers overnight. I did a BBQ marinade tempeh baked in the oven earlier this week, and those were mighty tasty.



Toss the tempeh and the veggies over the rice. Add a scoop of plain yogurt and a sprinkle of shredded nori for kicks. Accompany with red wine, and you are all good to go.



This is why I think I need to food blog more. I take the time to look at the meal I prepared for myself. I clear away the table so I can focus on the food. After documenting the whole process, I don't want to mindlessly nom-nom away at it. I want to really make the effort to taste everything.

Coming soon to a communal food blog near you: pumpkin ravioli? Soba noodles? Mashed potatos? Stay tuned to find out!