Monica tries to cook...

The quantity of CSA produce can get very overwhelming sometimes. Things sit in my fridge, and I feel guilty every time I open it. I'm never sure if I'll be able to use ALL of it. That being said, cooking can extend the life of things, and roasting can concentrate the flavor of veggies past their prime. I had three fat eggplants sitting in my fridge when this recipe for Roasted Eggplant Soup was posted. It seemed very simple: just roast eggplant, tomatoes and onion together, then transfer it to a large pot and turn it into a soup.

This was a successful endeavor. I was honestly a bit skeptical about eggplant soup, but I was also sick of the Moroccan couscous thing, and they were good enough eggplants that it would be wrong to dispose of them. The recipe notes made me even more skeptical: the soup was described as not "exactly right" and "has a lot of potential" particularly in reference to the spices. This scared me, because I am not confident in adding spices to things without any direction. (How am I to know how much is too much?)

Fortunately, the results were pleasantly surprising. I thought it was a very nice soup and I was not disappointed with the flavors. Ken described it this way: "it tastes like if you put eggplant parm in the blender." (My mom thought that sounded gross, and I agree, but I think it tastes more like if you put eggplant parm with not really any cheese and definitely no bread crumbs in the blender.)

I ate this topped with feta and croutons (made from day-old olive oil and rosemary bread). Ken used shaved Parmesan. Both were good. I can't say I'd make this again, but it's a good use for eggplant and tomatoes that are on the way out. As the original recipe notes suggest, I might try to leave it a bit chunkier if I do make it again - but the immersion blender is just so fun to play with...

I like to make granola bars to take as snacks when I'm out, but I don't have a perfect recipe yet. In the meantime I got distracted by a recipe for loose granola.

You can substitute some things here to suit your tastes. I personally LOVE the pecans, while Ken prefers the almonds - you could use different nuts instead. Use more or less sunflower seeds or sesame seeds. You can use another liquid sweetener other than maple syrup - the original recipe uses brown rice syrup, which I didn't have. I thought about trying agave nectar, but I thought maple syrup would contribute more to the flavor. And next time I might substitute some rolled grains for a bit of the oats.

Granola
Adapted from Orangette's adaptation of a recipe from Nigella Lawson.

Dry ingredients:
5 cups rolled oats
1 cup raw almonds
2 cups raw pecan halves
1 cup hulled raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. salt

Wet ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/3 cup maple syrup
¼ cup honey

Rack in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat it to 300 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl, and the wet ingredients together in another. Then, mix the two together very thoroughly and spread it evenly on two rimmed baking sheets. Bake it for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown (I went for about 45 minutes). When you take it out, if you DON'T want clumps, go ahead and mix it right away. If you DO want clumps, just let it sit. It should crisp up as it cools, but a lot of mine remained soft.

If you want to add dried fruit, you can mix some in after it cools. This can be stored at room temperature if you're going to eat it soon. Otherwise, to preserve the nuts, you can keep it in the refrigerator.

It was very, very delicious! In the future, I might like it to be crunchier or clumpier. I might try to spread it out more on three baking sheets instead of two next time. I ate it with yogurt, as a cereal with milk, combined with Total with almonds cereal, and plain. I thought it would make a great apple crisp topping, too.

It makes me so happy to hear that my friends are obsessed with food like me! I find that one food blog we often have in common is Smitten Kitchen. My friend Hilary mentioned to me how great the Mushroom Bourguignon recipe was, and when I looked it up, my mouth started watering pretty much instantly. It looked amazing. With the weather getting colder, it's time for some comfort food!

Fortunately, it was exactly what I thought it would be. I did have to boil the crap out of it at the end to get it to thicken enough - and I think I threw in a little extra flour too - but in the end, it was just unbelievably delicious. I used local mushrooms from the Rutgers Gardens market, which were on the pricey side, plus they took forever to clean and slice, so I may go the route of convenience packaging next time. I used frozen pearl onions (as recommended) to make that part easier as well - they worked out perfectly fine. I thought they tasted good!

We ate these over egg noodles - haven't had those in years! - and again, it was amazing. It actually tastes exactly how the picture looks. It's also filed under "freezer friendly" on the Smitten Kitchen website, so that just makes it all the more attractive to me! I will definitely be making this again, and hopefully saving some for later too.