First Harvest? Quick, get in the kitchen! No time for questions - move! move! move!

I do love New Mexico, but I prefer the greener, crisper, and moderately hilly areas of the world which are, unfortunately, not where I live currently.*  I am fan of the cooler climates, in no small part because using the oven in the summer is absolutely 

Although, dressing like that for a day in the kitchen seems like a great day to me.  Just sayin'...

Anyway, here it is early August, and I put on my broiler just to make sure the melted cheese on my garden-harvest-inspired Keto Eggplant Parmesan was just right.  And look at that bad boy. 

Nailed it.

Very few ingredients in this one.  

• Eggplant (from my garden)
• Grape Tomatoes (also from my garden)
• Mozzarella Cheese (not from my garden)
• Schrodinger's Garlic (which simultaneously may or may not be from my garden)**
• Oils/Butters on hand. (I chose a mixture of grape seed and coconut oils)
• Salt (I opted for pink Himalayan sea salt

Cook the chopped, unpeeled eggplant in a cast iron pan with your oils and garlic. About 30-40 minutes on medium heat stirring occasionally, adding more oil and garlic as needed.

Salt the eggplant (pinch from the salt cellar and drizzle over - I never measure it but maybe 1/2 tsp?) Add the chopped tomatoes, reduce the heat by a third, and cook down the chopped, unpeeled grape tomatoes.

Heat up the broiler

Cut up a ball of fresh mozzarella into a couple dozen chunks, and place them around the top of the cast iron pan.  Move the pan to under the broiler for about 12 minutes.

BRING ON THE YUM!

  One of the new fun toys I picked up for my kitchen witchery is an Ulu

"The Legendary Knife of the Arctic!"***

It was so fun to use, I think I got drunk with ease-of-chopping power and neglected to take pictures of the eggplant.  Thankfully, I came to my senses at some point before I finished my devil-may-care chop-a-thon.

Not everything is a candidate for the Ulu. I would stick to produce and nuts.

According to Wikipedia, An ulu (Inuktitut syllabics: ᐅᓗ, plural: uluit, English: "woman's knife"^[1]) is an all-purpose knife traditionally used by Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut women. It is utilized in applications as diverse as skinning and cleaning animals, cutting a child's hair, cutting food, as a weapon and, if necessary, trimming blocks of snow and ice used to build an igloo.


And I probably would reach for it if I had to skin an animal... but that'd be a topic for another time, eh?

(Or the rattlesnake recipe from the AFOIAF cookbook that I will make one day, I swear I will.)


* Some of those areas DO exist in New Mexico. Albuquerque is just not one of them
** It's really just garlic.  Minced, for the record.
*** You should totally hear that in Steve Martin's voice. I do.