It's "Maker Monday!" ... my series of posts where I share something the daughter or I have made (or are working on)
and encourage the maker lifestyle.
As I mentioned this weekend, I've been helping a friend out with some of her gardens these past few days. I love working with plants, and if nothing else, this has been a great opportunity to get some photographs of some awesome flowers and veggies.
And you know I make my version of mandalas, using my original photographs and working them up through the use of a couple programs and techniques. The one for the top of today's post, I made last night using a photograph I took earlier in the day of a gorgeous pink zinnia. It had all these stunning layers of petals, and was quite extraordinary looking. It's always fun to see how these mandala designs turn out.
Here is the original photograph I took:
One of the "perks" of helping out, is that I also get a small stash of whatever has ripened that day. The other day, I brought home a gorgeous eggplant. My main recollection of eating eggplant as a child is not a pleasant one... and I've been reluctant to try it since. My daughter did remind me the other day that I have had eggplant in a couple India cuisine dishes... and loved them... so I thought I should try it again.
Looking in my "old faithful" cookbook (a Fanny Farmer from decades ago)... I read that you should slice the eggplant, salt it, and let it sit for an hour... and then "mop" it off before cooking. So we did that, then the daughter lightly tossed it with some olive oil and seasoned it with coarse salt and ground pepper before putting it on the grill. She also cut up some green tomatoes that had been casualties of heavily branched tomato plants. In my cast iron skillet, I cooked up 3 fresh, sliced onions and some garlic (along with some olive oil), salt & pepper.
All I can say is "wow!" ... it was so good. There is something to say about eating fresh, local and organic... and it is all positive. We combined it all with a healthy chunk of baguette bread we purchased at our local farm market on Friday... and ate our fill. Salty, sweet... almost buttery... and oh so satisfying. It was awesome.
Keep creating folks! ... and I'll see you all tomorrow.
