Eggplant Parmesian

What I made:

2 T. olive oil
1 t. minced garlic
1 pinch red chile flakes
3 c. eggplant, purged and cut into strips
2 small tomatoes, diced (or 3/4 c. canned crushed tomatoes, drained)
6 T. plain yogurt, nonfat
1 T. fresh basil, chiffonaded
1 T. fresh spicy basil
4 T. freshly grated parmesan

And the Alton Brown recipe upon which it is based. Prep takes much longer than the 2 minute cooking time, but since I did other things at the same time I don't know how long it took. As a rather healthy recipe we're pleased with this version. With a few minor changes this could also be a really fast ratatouille.

the joy of coloured eggs

Colouring eggs is fun. Especially in the middle of May. We were a bit disappointed in the lack of vibrancy in the dry colours and the fact that the voilet eggs came out blue, but they were still pretty.

Even the egg shells were interesting to play with...

at least for the OCD among us.

chicken fried steak sandwich

What to do with leftover chicken fried steak and gravy? Make a sandwich, obviously. It was awesome.

it's blue!

mexican pulled pork salad

I was going through older photos and thought I'd throw these up on the blog. This is a salad that I made a couple times with some of the leftover pulled pork that was also used in the burritos.

It was light and flavourful and a nice change of pace.

iHelp™ housekeeping assistance

What's that? You're trying to change the bedding? Well good luck with that. You'll have to wash this later...

...like sometime tomorrow.

Lupita's Mexican Restaurant

We made another random restaurant selection on the way home, and I'm pleased to say that it paid off. Lupita's Mexian Restaurant is in a little strip of stores between Fairfield proper and Blackrock. Banik had fajitas and a margarita, and I had enchiladas- one chicken, one veggie. Everything was good, and it's nice to finally have a mexican restaurant up here.

what passes for a renaissance faire in CT

This faire is apparently replacing the Southern CT Renaissance Faire, which we attended two years ago. Recalling that experience this faire isn't much different except that the site was much more swampy than the last one we visited. Sadly there isn't much of a renaissance atmosphere what with all the skimpy costumes, glittery horns, faerie wings, brightly dyed hair, and elf ears. I'm not even going to talk about the more traumatizing vissages of the day. We stayed maybe 4 hours, and honestly I'm not convinced it was worth the $30 of admission. It was... disappointing.

On a brighter note, it really makes me look forward to visiting the MD Renaissance Festival this year. You don't really appreciate a good thing until you see something the alternatives.

Connecticut Free Shakespeare

I have finally gotten to see this play (for those who don't know, there's a bit of a history of absurd things coming between me and Skakespeare). =D

It was quite good, often hilarious, and punctuated by a peacock who insisted he stand on top of the stage set the entire time. It was presented by CT Free Shakespeare, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone in the area this weekend or next. Many thanks go to our summer intern for telling me about this and then somehow arranging a sunny day in all this rain.

The only problem is the subsequent "I miss doing theatre" response...

visiting home, part 2

Banik's parents gave us a blanket while we were down there, and when we got home we put it on the back of the couch and returned to unpacking. While we were busy the blanket was immediately claimed by our resident bedding monsters, and they've been sleeping there a large portion of the time ever since.

visiting home, part 1

This weekend went home to visit family in WV. It was hectic, but we had fun. One of the awesome things about where Banik grew up is that some of the wildlife has gotten used to having a few humans around (in an "oh it's just you" way rather than a "pet me" sort of way).

The first evening we got there Banik was tossing pieces of apple to a deer off the back deck, but I didn't get pictures of that. The next day I took some videos of one of the hummingbird feeders from about 12 inches away from the feeder. You wouldn't think those little birds could make so much noise.