Easy Roasted Eggplant Dip

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put some aluminum foil on a sheet pan and drizzle a nice coating of olive oil over it. Keep the olive oil out – you will need more. Get some eggplant – any kind of eggplant – japanese, italian, purple, white – whatever is available and looks good. Cut it up into uniform 1/2 inch slices (doesn’t have to be perfect, you just want it all roughly the same size so they cook evenly).

Put the eggplant slices in an even layer on the sheet pan – you can double layer but you will want to make sure all sides are covered with olive oil. Sprinkle sea or kosher salt and cracked black pepper over the slices. Optional but very nice: cumin, coriander seed, curry powder, parsley (fresh or dried), oregano, red pepper flakes. The eggplant will have probably soaked up all of the olive soil. If you see any spots that have not soaked up some olive oil, apply some more. Optional, but very nice: squeeze some lemon over the slices. For additional flavor, zest that lemon over the slices as well.

Cook for 30-60 minutes until the skin of the eggplant has turned a nice toasty brown and the flesh falls apart easily when poked at with a fork. Let cool for a few minutes, use a spatula to transfer the eggplant into a mixing bowl or serving dish. Use a fork (or food processor or hand blender if you have) to smash up the eggplant. Use any olive oil left on the sheet pan to aid in the mixture coming together.

Optional but also very nice: greek yogurt to mix in for creaminess, additional lemon juice, dash of red wine vinegar. Serve with crackers, veggies, bread, etc.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Banana oatmeal cookies, make substitutions as you will! This recipe produces something that is more akin to bread than a cookie.

2 1/2 bananas
1/4 stick of butter
a cup or so of oats
a cup and a half of flour
some baking soda
sea salt
some cinnamon
pinch of allspice
some ginger powder (optional, I actually used galanga powder because that is what I have)
(i used splenda for my dear diabetic sister) 1/2 cup of some kind of sweetener, sugar, honey, whatever
2 eggs
dried cherries (cranberries or raisins would be great too)
some pecans (walnuts would work too. I bet cashews would be great)
a couple of dashes of ground flax meal (totally optional)

350 degree oven, 10-15 minutes depending on your oven – you want them to be just slightly browned.
makes a bunch of delicious and nutritious cookies

Peanut butter or chocolate chips would be a delightful addition, but I omitted them for my sister this time. Dipping them in melted chocolate and coconut after they are baked is terrific.

Leaving the batter in the refrigerator for an hour or so would let everything meld together and the oats and flour to thoroughly moisten.

soda bread

Am making this recipe for soda bread, although technically with the addition of raisins, it should be called Spotted Dog or something. I tasted the batter, as is the chef’s privilege and I think it will be good. I really like baking these quick breads. Beer bread is a favorite to make, because it literally takes about 10 seconds of prep time, and it also holds up nicely to the addition of everything from grapes to cheese and scallions.

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