Never Give Up

As my job search continues into its 10th month, I'm taking my unending persistence into the kitchen. If you spend a lot of time in that wonderful room, you probably know what it's like to have a recipe fall apart. This is the beauty of making your own works of food art - you get to experiment!

Ray's Tip of the Day:

*Don't experiment while hungry! Have a snack or cook something familiar for B/L/D, then start the kitchen chemistry. I don't know about you, but I'm a crank bot when hungry. Having a full tummy and an optimistic attitude usually go hand in hand. Happy cooking!

Recipe #2

Garlic Eggplant and Tomato Basil Stackers

Prep Time: 15 min

Cooking Time: 15

Serves 4-6

Use as a L/D compliment or multiply for a favorite party dish. Ingredients: 1 Eggplant, cut into 1" thick slices 2 cups finely diced tomato, fresh or canned 6 cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped 2 tbls extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) Slices of crusty bread - french baguettes work great! Fresh Basil Lemon juice 1 tbls vegan butter Preheat oven to 350. In a medium skillet, heat EVOO and saute garlic on medium heat until golden (about 3 minutes). Add tomatoes and a few squirts of lemon juice and allow to simmer for about 8-10 minutes, stirring occassionally. Using a griddle pan or George Forman grill/panini press, lightly grill eggplant slices, flipping each once. Butter both sides of each bread slice and place on a cookie sheet, toast in oven for 5 minutes. Stack ingredients starting with crusty bread, spread tomato blend, add an eggplant slice and top with a small dollop of tomatoes and sprinkle with basil. So bread, tomatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, basil. YUM! Serve with linguine and red sauce or other pasta side dish. Got any non-vegan dairy lovers? Melt mozzarella cheese on their crusty bread prior to stacking and sprinkle parmesan on top with the basil. Great for kids! I like to make a smiley face on top of the kids' stackers with the tomatoes. Sometimes, I even do it for me, too. :)