Eggplant Makes Me Happy 9-2-13

Yes, eggplant makes me happy.  Especially when it's delivered to my door minutes after it has been picked.  Phyllis is my favorite farmer and she brought me eggplant this morning before I was even out of my jammies.  (If the truth be told, I'm still in my jammies and plan to be so until I dress for my potluck dinner.)

Eggplant brings back memories of my grandfather.  He grew eggplant (which is why I learned how to make eggplant parmesan at an early age) and corn.  I remember walking through the corn stalks that were much taller than I was.  In fact, I thought of that as I froze corn this morning.

I was going home yesterday and I saw the farmer with his pickup truck methodically putting the corn on the farm wagon on the corner (next to the silos that are no longer there, but my daughters remember those silos as "the tuna fish cans").  I asked, "How much for six?"  He replied, "$2.50, but I don't think I have any quarters," as I pulled out three dollars.  I told him that was o.k., because he works so hard to grow the corn, I didn't mind overpaying by $0.50.  He went back to the truck and I assumed he was leaving.  As I turned to go, he quietly extended his hand and handed me $0.50.  That's dignity.


You can hardly tell, but here's the frozen corn.  I put them in small freezer bags, then the small bags into a gallon sized freezer bag.

But back to Phyllis: I had already made spaghetti sauce using the tomatoes from Phyllis' garden.  She went to Scotland and asked me to pick her tomatoes.  No problem!  The sauce came out yummy and she will get to eat it tonight.

So the main point of this exercise is to come out with eggplant parmesan for the potluck I'm going to tonight. As always, Phyllis was generous with the eggplant.  Here's the result.

Of course, I had to have some eggplant for lunch.  It's yummy!  :)

So ... on Thursday I decided it's time to immortalize our "new" hanging baskets in the center of Town.  I only say "new" because they have been up since the very beginning of summer, spring even!

The white bay window in the center of the picture is Judie's Restaurant which is fairly well known in the area and NYC.  She's famous for her giant popovers.  In fact, you can get a turkey dinner in one!  It's very tasty and just like Thanksgiving in a popover.  If she puts it on the side, there is usually apple butter to go with it.

Here's my favorite (with the long tendrils) of the hanging baskets.

The basket above is one bank away from the Library.  Of course, I couldn't neglect the pots of flowers.

The above pots are scattered about the down town area.

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So while I have been uploading the above photos, my new oven has been happily baking away.  I was watching The Pioneer Woman (honest) on TV and she was using puff pastry.  I had some in the freezer so I now have two individual and one large chicken pot pies.  Those of you who know me well know that I LOVE pies, so I have 'open faced' blueberry and lemon curd "pies."  I just put the puff pastry on the bottom. It didn't puff so much, but it's o.k. for home consumption.  It's really the fruit and the taste of summer that I wanted.  The chicken pot pie uses up chicken that I had roasted and I will bring it to work for lunch.

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Ah, work.  It is lovely to have today off. (Particularly since they frown on wearing pajamas to work.)  Last Friday, we had a semi-going away party for Chris Demarest, our first Artist in Residence.  We all know that he's still going to be around for a week or so, but it gave us all a chance to let our hair down and eat cake.
                                                           
I was kind of surprised at the depth of emotions that we all experienced and there really wasn't a dry eye in the house.  And it wasn't just that Chris was leaving, but I don't think any of us had realized how attached he had become to us.  And vice versa.  I said in all honesty, "I'll miss your saying good morning to me every day."  And it's true.  He has become not only 'one of the family,' but he told us (in the Office) about the little dramas that we missed.  Right near him, Amy had put up a table of free outdated magazines.  For some reason, that table gathers more unusual people and more unusual conversations than anything.

So it will be different tomorrow.  Chris may still be there, but we know that soon he will be gone to the Holyoke Soldiers' Home.  And while that is not very far away, we won't be seeing him every day.  And we won't be able to see his new painting and the progress.  We won't see a little kid do a classic double take and say, 'Wow, that's good!'

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I watched most of "Julia and Julie" last night, making it the third time.  I loved the movie, mostly for the view of Julia Child.  I always thought her recipes were too much work.  Now I know they are not only too much work, but I could feel my arteries clog as I watched the cooking.  At one point, she said (Julia, I think), 'We'll start with some butter in the pan,' and she plopped in a half stick! Oh my!  But I really loved the love story in the movie.  Her husband, Paul, must have really been something.  I suspect that Julia could be a bit of a handful if she wanted.  (Perhaps he could too, but it didn't show in the movie.)

From what I could glean, Julie Powell is not someone I would like to know.  Her blog probably is/was a lot more entertaining than mine, but -- wow -- can you spell self centered?  It's kind of the way I felt about "Eat, Love, Pray."  I just wanted to tell her, "Snap out of it and look around you: You have it SO much better than so many others."
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So, anyway, I was thinking about blogging (hence, here you go) and how mine is "private."  I haven't advertised it a lot locally.  And there is a reason.  There are some people (and some of them I see regularly) who like to score points.  They are always much better at everything than I am, they know more than I do, they cook better than I do, blah, blah, blah.  One, in fact, just the other day tried to insist that I worked for a certain place where I had never worked.  Obviously, she knew better than I about where I have worked ... ?

My point is this: I don't need criticism. If, for some unknown reason, you wish to share this -- feel free -- as long as they don't live in Amherst, MA!  As of now, I know all of you and it's a conversation between me and you.  :)

I'm off to get dressed.  How about you?