Hooray for Eggplants!

I just have to brag on myself in this post. I've discovered the local Farmers' Market, and it makes me happy.

Last week, on Thursday (the Farmers' Market Day), I picked up blueberries, cherry tomatoes, corn on the cob, cantaloupe, and eggplants. The corn was fabulous last night as part of Jet's birthday dinner, the blueberries have been fantabulous with yogurt and wheat germ for breakfast, and the cherry tomatoes are perfect to just pop in my mouth for a snack.

The best by far, though, were the glorious eggplants. I'm rather new to the world of eggplants. Heretofore, I've simply had Knight grill them as he's grilled sausage for dinner.

Tonight, though, we moved to the next level: Eggplant Parmesan, sort of.

First, I arranged my three pie tins right next to the skillet on the stove, a la Rachael Ray. In the first tin, I had flour, salt and pepper. The second tin lovingly contained two beaten eggs, and the third had Panko bread crumbs (my other new favorite food). I had my EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) hot and ready in the skillet.

I tenderly sliced eggplant into 3/4" rounds, then pressed it in the flour, egg, and Panko. Into the EVOO it went, sizzling happily.

Meantime, I sprayed an 8" square baking dish with Pam and opened a couple of cans of Italian-seasoned tomato sauce. I also opened a package of Fiesta Blend Shredded Cheese (this is where the "sort of" comes in -- I didn't actually have any parmesan!) and another package of sliced provolone.

After the eggplant was brown on both sides, I spread a bit of tomato sauce on the bottom of the baking dish, and arranged a layer of eggplant. I poured some tomato sauce on top, and sprinkled with the shredded cheese. Then I placed a few pieces of provolone on top of that.

I lathered, rinsed, and repeated, and put the dish in the oven at 350.

Then I had to figure out what to put with the eggplant. So, I did my standby asparagus (fresh asparagus drizzled with EVOO, sprinkled with garlic and ginger powders and a tiny bit of sugar, also baked at 350, handily enough). Watermelon leftover from the night before would complete the gourmet feast.

I mentioned to Knight as the eggplant was baking that I would be supremely disappointed if it wasn't as tasty as my tongue expected it to be.

Let's just say that I wasn't disappointed. In fact, let's say that it was heaven on a plate. Not even the President eats like this. :)