Eggplant, Kombucha and Chocolate

Coming home to the Jerz has been an absolute whirlwind.  My mom and I always have a ton of fun together, and have had a busy few days of doing a lot of running around.

First, last night we tried an interesting dinner.  She had seen Alton Brown make noodles out of eggplant, and we felt like we just had to give it a try.  First we sliced 4 eggplants really thin, and layed them on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet.  We then sprinkled them with salt and let them sit for about an hour to get all of the moisture out. 

Next, we cut all of the eggplant into thin matchstick strips

We tossed thse in a wok with a little EVOO, 2 big cans of diced tomatoes, garlic, S & P, shrimp and mozzarella.  We also added bread crumbs to help thicked the sauce, and make it more like an eggplant parmesan.  It was really interesting, and quite a change from regular pasta!  Even though I keep a kosher home, my parents do not, and I enjoy shrimp every once in a while.  If you try this, make sure you cook the eggplant long enough so it’s not tough, but not so long that it gets overly soft.  We ended up turning the leftovers (minus the shrimp) into a soup in my mom’s Vitamix (I want one SO BAD) for my grandmother to have on her last few days in NJ.  We also made soup with sweet potato and black bean burrito filling which is beyond amazing!  I never thought to make soup out of leftovers, such a good idea!

Today, we got a lot done.  It’s so weird not working, and being in my home town.  We ran a lot of errands, and came home to do some Dave Farmar yoga.  Since my mom doesn’t do yoga much, she got a little bored, since it was so long.  She decided to play around, and ended up putting peanut butter on my feet and belly for the dogs to lick off.  Strange, huh?

So-Crates (my parents dog, named after Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure) was a gentleman and took small bites.  Rufio took a giant lick of peanut butter and had it stuck to the roof of his mouth.  Don’t they both look so handsome?  You can’t really see So-Crates well, but they were both groomed today!

I also tried my first kombucha today.  While I knew it was fermented, I had no idea it would explode when I opened it!

At first, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about this.

But then I happily drank up!  I was really surprised to like this.  I tried the mango flavor, which was actually quite refreshing!  I think this could be a fun splurge once in a while.

Tonight, I don’t think I get to watch Glee, because my dad is watching the Yankees/Twins game, and I want to hang out with the ‘rents.  Bummer.  Instead, my mom and I are experimenting with some ideas for the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest.  I won’t tell ya what we’re making, but I will show you some of what we are using.

Can’t wait to start sampling!

A LITTLE ADVICE PLEASE?!

I’ve been really enjoying blogging, and the community, and people I have “met.”  I don’t ever see myself being a 3x a day blogger, or blogging all of my meals, but I want to continue just doing what I do, which is blogging whatever my heart desires! 

I think it’s time to get my own domain name and go self hosted.  So I need help!  Where did you get your domain name?  I don’t want to spend a fortune!  What website did you use to purchase your domain, and was it easy to switch from WordPress?  How do you get new readers?  Will a domain name help?

Any advice you guys can give me would be amazing!  I figure I have a lot of time on my hands now, and this is a project I would love to tackle!