The End

I'm closing up shop over here at Cookbook Immersion Project. You can keep up with me at my other blog, Mandatory Fun. See you there!

FFwD: Eggplant "Tartine" with Tomatoes, Olives, and Cucumbers

I'm back in business, baby! My family has officially moved to Naples, Italy. We're currently staying at the Navy Lodge, which is actually a lot more comfortable than I expected. Our room is basically a two bedroom apartment with full kitchen, living room, and a washer/dryer. I'm still equipmentally challenged, but I should be able to keep up with the group until we're able to move into our apartment. It's going to take a while. There are all sorts of contract loops to jump through, and the earliest appointment they could give us for the "pre-contract meeting" was September 25th. Oy. If I'm lucky, we'll move in by November. It'll be worth it, though...

View from the kitchen terrace. AHHHHHHH!

Anyway, Eggplant "Tartine" with Tomatoes, Olives, and Cucumber was within my capabilities for this week. Thank goodness the stove here came with a baking sheet, because the one I brought from home is way too big to fit. Woops.

I was disappointed that there was no bread involved in this tartine. I don't really see how this could be considered a tartine, by any definition. Unfortunately, I forgot to peel my eggplant. The skin was extremely tough, so we couldn't eat it, and the eggplant's flesh clung to it for dear life, so this turned out to be harder to eat than it should have been. That may be the reason why I felt like I preferred the tomato/cucumber/caper salad on its own, and that the eggplant didn't contribute. (I couldn't find a normal size jar of olives. Everything was enormous. My fridge is small. The olives didn't make the cut.)

This dish was unremarkable to me. Not bad, but unmemorable. Matt's not a huge eggplant fan to begin with, so he won't be asking for it again. He ate it, but I don't think it overwhelmed him with eggplant love.

Regardless, it feels good to be cooking with the group again, and I'm glad that this was a straightforward recipe that I could handle. Ciao!