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.

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.

While I love the smell of baking bread, and I love knowing that I can whip up fresh bread from the contents of my (theoretical) pantry, I don’t really subscribe to the homemade bread snobbery that sometimes afflicts the culinarily inclined. Bread from the bakery and from farmer’s markets are often ridiculously cheap! While certainly, flour and eggs and salt, etc. add up to mere pennies, the addition of other ingredients and flavors (especially if you are trying to go the all fresh route) can be not only expensive, but time consuming, in preparation and in shopping. Since I don’t have really great, well-stocked supermarkets near me, that requires a lengthy subway trip to get certain ingredients. It is at that point that I say, it is completely well worth it to just buy bread.

There is a bakery a couple of blocks from me that often has really great bread. You have to get there while it is still morning, or there will be very little left, and it will be stale. But they also have a chocolate cake that is fabulous, and the cookies are also excellent – and relatively cheap. I am all for making things at home, but I hate being made to feel guilty for buying things that I could very well make myself. Most of the time, when I eat out at restaurants, I will feel really guilty about ordering something that I could definitely prepare for myself at home for at least half the cost. But then, I have to remember that food should be fun and nourishing. Screw the guilt. At the end of the day, who cares?

Except, these days, everyone is parroting phrases like, “sustainability” and “locavores” and carbon footprints. And I just read The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals recently, which, while being a good read, also scared me. Because, corn! It’s way evil.